London | A Shoreditch-Inspired 24-Hour Layover
With one night and one day to get my share of London in, I based myself in Shoreditch, gathered recommendations from friends and set out to cram the best of a summer evening in London into a day.
On the way back from trips I often seek out itineraries that offer a long layover in a cool city. In this case I found myself with an extra day in the ever entertaining London. I’d been to London a few times before for work and had a chance to spend time in Soho and Central London and do most of the typical tourist attractions. So, on this trip, I opted to stay in the lesser traveled Shoreditch, a neighborhood in East London that has risen over the past few years to gain a hipster reputation.
My friend and I found a great AirBNB on one of more hipster streets, Brick Lane, as our jumping off point for exploring the area. On Saturday morning we stepped out to find a flea market was running right outside our apartment. We grabbed a great artisan coffee – it is a hipster neighborhood after all – and explored the flea market’s arts materials, food items and vintage clothing. Around each corner was a new intriguing shop, like Libreria and Labour and Wait, each of which had their own vibe. Down the street were brilliant graffiti murals, many of which took on political messages with striking colors, particular for London which isn’t a particularly colorful city. What was somewhat of a distraction were the many, many (I mean MANY) tour groups being lead to the street art, sometimes 30+ at a time, which made it difficult to feel like you were checking out a neighborhood. While the flea market was cool I would probably go back to Shoreditch and check out the shops and art on a day other than Saturday.
For brunch we stopped in at Andina to have their Peruvian breakfast. Known for pork, we didn’t hold back and ordered a breakfast tamale with pork and egg, and corn pancakes with berries. Fantastic brunch spot and we didn’t have to wait - I would eat there again in a heartbeat!
From Shoreditch we walked through town over to Bankside to continue our art-dominated day at the Tate Modern. We wandered through the free floors to see hundreds of pieces of art and half a dozen exhibits. It's an amazing amass of art. My particular favorite was an oversized Tower of Babel by Cildo Meireles built of radios each broadcasting in different languages that was a part of the Media Networks collection.
We wandered along the bridge and back over to Shoreditch to have dinner and get out for drinks. Major tip to anyone new to London – things close super early! If you make the mistake of making dinner reservations at 9pm by the time you get out of dinner many of the bars will be shutting down or only open for another hour or two. Though it may feel funny to have dinner at 7 or 8 in Europe that’s the best time to get dinner in London if you want to go out after. In our case we opted for dinner at Lyle’s which offers a daily set menu inspired by traditional British fare. We enjoyed nettles (something most people would never dream of having at a fine restaurant), cucumber with a taramasalata-style dip, a simple piece of fish and a beautiful piece of tender beef.
After we dinner we checked out the night scene based on recommendations from a few friends. We started at the Hoxton which was definitely a scene! It took some time to get a drink from the bar. The crowd was diverse and loud. When this bar started to quiet down we moved over to Nightjar, a late-night jazz club off City Road. A queue had formed so we had to wait a bit to get in but it was worth it. As a speakeasy-inspired spot it was underground with low ceilings and moody vibe. The jazz was great and the cocktails were inventive, to say the least. Several are served with things on fire or singed, and all have inventive names and ingredients.
It was a long day but certainly worthwhile to see the variety of Shoreditch and beyond. Consider making Shoreditch a base on your next stay in London.
