Notting Hill Arts Club

A scruffy chic basement establishment that has for the last decade shown that West London can be just as cool in its music as East, as regularly rammed grime, hip-hop and dubstep night YoYo has shown.  Try out new monthly clubnight for emerging artists New Shapes to discover who’s about to be big to gain bragging rights that you saw them before they were cool.

AAA

A place that revels in rock, indie, folk and blues, while also providing a restaurant and cocktail bar, AAA is the whole package for a night out.  Open every day, with live performances almost every evening, this really is a hub for music lovers, giving you everything from bands, club nights, comedy gigs to karaoke, AAA is a venue that really deserves to be checked out.

The Troubadour

A legendary venue established in 1954 that has hosted everyone from Elton John to Morrissey to Adele, upstairs provides all-day breakfasts and pie and mash, while downstairs in the cellar bands and poets still perform, so definitely worth going along to, you might just see a future star.

Although not many people realise it, there are other ways home after a night out that don’t involve public transport or a cab.  Here are two ways to get home in a different way.

Limobike

 This service provides a very quick and easy way to navigate your way through London – by a passenger motorbike.  Book them just like a taxi, and a professionally qualified driver will turn up, and you can hop onto their bike, which also comes with storage space for bags, and they will whisk you across the city without getting stuck in traffic.

Scooterman

 This will end that perennial argument about who’s not going to drink on an evening so that you can drive home.  Instead, after driving to your nightspot, you simply book a driver who turns up on a folding scooter at the end of the evening. The scooter goes in the boot of your car, and then you’re driven home in your own car.  This provides a simple and safe way to enjoy yourself on a night out while avoiding the price of two cab journeys.

For the seasoned London explorer, or those who want to go off the beaten track, a world of apps has sprung up that cater to those looking for the less known features of an area.

Kooky London

Provides you with a treasure trove of interesting facts all over London.  In Kensington and Chelsea use it to find the famous ‘skinny house’ in South Kensington built to fit around the underground tracks of the nearby station, the location of London’s last tile kiln, or where Hugh Grant’s bookshop is located in the film of ‘Notting Hill.’

Secret London

This functions in a similar way to the previously featured website Great Little Place, but in mobile app form.  It crowd sources ‘secrets’ from it’s users to provide local recommendations of restaurants, activities, bars, museums, outdoor activities and interesting ‘oddities’. A great app for beginners, and once you become an old hand you can add your own discoveries.

Hidden London

Like Kooky London this concentrates on the unusual facts about an area, but provides more information for each location, including opening hours and ticket prices for attractions.  Use it to explore Thomas Carlyle’s house on Cheyne Row or the beautiful Arab Hall of Frederic, Lord Leighton which displays his priceless collection of Islamic tiles in Holland Park.

Transport for London are launching a draft action plan looking to encourage travelling by foot in the city while ensuring that pedestrians are safe. They are looking to increase the number of crossings with Pedestrian Countdown, to create a London Pedestrian Design Guidance to create a ‘safe and comfortable’ walking environment, and to lobby Central Government for changes in legislation to increase pedestrian safety.

You can read the draft report here: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/streets/pedestrian-safety-plan/consultation/intro/view

TfL also need your help.  They’re looking for your views as part of a public consultation.  You can help out by completing this short online survey here: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/streets/pedestrian-safety-plan/consultation/intro/view

 

Zagat

Zagat’s printed guides have long been known as great sources of information for restaurants in the US, and now they’ve expanded to London you can access all of that expertise via their free app.  By providing your location it will give you a list of local restaurants, each rated for food, décor, service and average cost.  It also has a newsfeed with weekly food and restaurant news and themed reviews such as the most inventive Bloody Mary in London or the best food van in the city.

Urbanspoon

The go to app these days for restaurants, it also uses the iPhone’s GPS to work out restaurants local to you, but then also has a wide variety of general options to choose from, divided into type of cuisine, pricing, meal served or special picks from top chefs or Urbanspoon reviewers, or you can shake your phone and it gives a random restaurant in the area.  Each eatery is given a percentage based on user and critic reviews.  It provides photos, the address and phone number and sometimes even the menu.  It really is comprehensive.

Foodspotting

For those who are a bit more visual in their choices, Foodspotting provides a sort of Instagram feed of meals.  User submitted pictures of food in your local area are presented to you to like or dislike.  You thus concentrate on dishes over restaurants, and if you have one particularly good meal in a certain restaurant you can snap it and post it as a recommendation to others. A nicely quirky way to look for a good meal.

How late can you leave it before you dash off to catch that all important last tube home? Here’s a handy list of the last tubes from the Kensington and Chelsea stations on Fridays and Saturday nights.

Ladbroke Grove

To Whitechapel: 00;36

To Hammersmith: 00:55

Latimer Road

To Whitechapel: 00:34

To Hammersmith: 00:51

High Street Kensington

Circle clockwise: 00:29

Circle anti-clockwise: 00:11

District to Edgware: 00:03

District to Wimbledon: 00:50

Earl’s Court

District to Ealing: 00:56

District to Upminster: 01:10

Piccadilly to Arnos Grove: 00:23

Piccadilly to Heathrow: 00:43

Gloucester Road

Circle clockwise: 00:22

Circle anti-clockwise: 00:13

District to Wimbledon: 00:46

District to Upminster: 00:29

Piccadilly to Cockfosters: 00:25

Piccadilly to Rayners Lane: 00:41

South Kensington

Circle clockwise: 00:24

Circle anti-clockwise: 00:15

District to Wimbledon: 00:44

District to Upminster: 00:31

Piccadilly to Cockfosters: 00:26

Piccadilly to Rayners Lane: 00:40

Sloane Square

Circle Clockwise: 00:22

Circle anti-clockwise: 00:17

District to Richmond: 00:42

District to Upminster: 23:55

 Calling itself the ‘friendliest pub in Notting Hill, it’s been around since the 1830s, a charming old fashioned décor of low wooden beams and a collection of speciality beers and ciders on tap.

The Garden Bar

 Laying claim to the largest pub garden in central London, in which there is a large outside screen for films and sporting events, and in the summer they’re legendary for their barbecues.

The Anglesea Arms

 Apparently a haunt of both Charles Dickens and DH Lawrence back in the day, this place is great for people watching, with a regularly updated seasonal menu and a great house ale.

Drayton Arms

Winner of Best Pub at the 2013 Kensington and Chelsea Best Bar None awards, showing it to be a high quality, safe and enjoyable social centre in the borough, you can enjoy four different cask ales, a DJ on Saturday night, and a fringe Theatre upstairs if you’re feeling like you need some culture with your pint.

 

Kensington-chelsea.com

Run by Kensington and Chelsea resident Anna Zgorelec, this site began way back in 1998 and is a comprehensive guide to the area, from hotels to spas, shopping, cinemas and general sightseeing, Anna covers it all, and it’s regularly updated with the latest events, it really is a treasure trove of information.

Kensingtondoll.com

Run by an American opera singer in London and chronicling her explorations of the nightlife and culture in West London, best place to see where the exciting cocktail bars and parties are happening in the borough. Warning: if you get envious of other people’s lives easily then this place will be torture.

Kingsroadrocks.com

 This lifestyle blog is run by another lifelong Chelsea girl, Mina Zaher who also writes for the Huffington Post. It provides you with a list of things to do in London every weekend to inspire you for a new night out, and her restaruant reviews are always lavishly illustrated with pictures that will make you starving regardless of the time of day you read them.

While the message about drink-driving has been widely accepted, many people don’t realise that when you get in your car the next morning you might still be over the legal blood alcohol limit.

Your body can work through one unit of alcohol an hour, so if you’re drinking heavily until the early hours and then up quite early the next morning, you could still be over the limit.

Simply going to sleep doesn’t remove the alcohol any faster. And a cup of coffee or a cold shower won’t speed up the process either.

To avoid this it’s recommended toopt for lower strength drinks, alternate alcoholic with non-alcoholic drinks and stop drinking well before the end of the evening to allow your body to recover. And if you don’t do any of these, ensure you only use public transport the next morning. Don’t risk your safety, or that of those around you.

Whisky Mist and the Cadogan Arms are quite well known, but how about some of the places off the beaten track. Here are a few interesting places to try for an interesting night out.

Evans and Peel Detective Agency – one of many speakeasy themed cocktail bars, and one of the best in London. Pre-booking is advised, you’ll be asked about your ‘case’ as you get in, but once into this very dark bar things become less pantomime.
Evansandpeel.com

Kensington Wine Rooms – cosy and smart casual, great for small groups, pioneers in self-service wine dispensers with different size glasses. Tapas food in the bar or modern bistro in the restaurant.
Greatwinesbytheglass.com/kensington

The Rum Kitchen – West Indies inspired beach shack restaurant and cocktail bar, cheap with a great atmosphere, with over 100 varieties of rum available. Great for Friday nights, with a dancefloor downstairs once you’ve had enough cocktails.
Therumkitchen.com

The Clarendon – wood-panelled pub with great range of ales and a wonderful beer garden out behind filled with twinkling lights in the evening, go early before it gets busy.
Theclarendonlondon.com

Recommendations from greatlittleplace.com