After fiiiiiiiinally getting my York day trip post done yesterday seven months ago (hey, until I get paid for this writing, I have no impetus to do it in a timely manner 🙂 ), I have to keep the momentum up and get my last post of the trip done! I may be two ten months removed from this trip now, but I haven’t totally forgotten the details yet. 🙂

After a full day in York, I was happy to be back in London for the end of my trip and I was equally happy to have a couple of fun things planned for it. Would you believe one of those things was another Hidden London tour? When I was planning the trip originally, I knew I was going to book one tour (that ended up being Aldwych), but I was delighted to discover that another tour I’d never been on was set to start the day before my flight home, so I decided to book a tour of Baker Street. What’s unique about this station? Although it’s not one that I find myself using that often, Baker Street’s claim to fame is that it was the very first station in the new Metropolitan Underground Railway and opened to the public in January 1863. Pretty cool, eh?? Because we know the Underground as a massive, well-connected network today, it’s hard to think if it having such humble beginnings, but everything has to start somewhere! It’s wild to think that this station took shape over 160 years ago, before cars were even a thing, but when London was, even then, getting more and more congested. And think of the technology available at that time as compared to what we have now. Can you imagine digging and building an underground tunnel and then operating a train in that tunnel that long ago?! It took three years and there were some injuries along the way, but I’m glad they ultimately finished work so people like me could come visit it in the space year of 2024.

As Hidden London tours go (as you know, I’ve done a few of them), I found this one to be pretty middle-of-the-road. The guides, Richard and Marilyn, were friendly enough and were certainly well-informed, but they weren’t quite as energetic as some of the other guides I’ve had, though I was happy to see that our health and safety helper (she’s the one who always followed behind and did headcounts to make sure no one got lost) also worked on my Aldwych tour a few days earlier, though of course hers is the only name I can’t remember! She did recognize me (or at least pretended to), so that was nice. 🙂 And, randomly, a family of three from Minnesota was also on the tour, so I had fun talking to them a bit. As you’ll see in the photos below, there are some interesting things to see on this tour, but there are also some grimy pathways to walk through that are less exciting, so come prepared to learn and also to avoid puddles (not surprising when you’re underground, I suppose). You won’t see any familiar filming locations like you will at Aldwych, but you will get a good history lesson and see the interesting, behind-the-curtain stuff that all these Hidden Underground tours offer, so I still recommend it! Take a look through the photos and see if they grab your attention.

Outside and inside Liverpool Street Station, where I caught a train towards Baker Street.

Of course, being a few minutes early, I was able to take a couple of photos of the station entrance and a close-up of the station sign. I do love an Underground sign!

Richard gave us the low-down before heading into the station and then, unsurprisingly, led us into the station.

Richard and Marilyn traded back and forth at our first couple of stops as we learned more about the history of the station (left) and about an original waiting room space (right).

Don’t mind me – just taking photos of what used to be an arched doorway (left) and a staircase (right). It’s always kind of fascinating to me to see bits of history like this. Yes, these are both just brick walls today, but it’s cool to think about how many people passed through that doorway and climbed up and down those stairs.

Another walk to our next stop, where we learned more history of the station and the Metropolitan Line.

Looking up an old elevator shaft and, as we moved on, getting a peek at some original tilework.

This was really cool! From this vantage point, we could see down to one of the platforms. It was neat to be there while folks were waiting there and then as a train went by.

The last part of the tour took us outside for a bit. The photo on the left is kind of cool as we actually saw it from the inside as well – that’s actually the roof above a passenger escalator. Wish I’d gotten a picture of it from the inside!

And that put a bow on my latest Hidden London tour! One interesting thing that we talked about and kind of saw (there isn’t actually much of it to see) is the old shooting range, which is just back inside from the outside photos above. We could just get a glimpse of it through a door, so I didn’t try to get a photo. Still neat to know it was there though!

With my tour done, I made good on a tentative lunch plan I’d made with my friend Chris, who I know through my local friend Matt as they do a podcast together. As it was a working day for him, we didn’t have oodles of time, so he suggested we meet in Borough Market because it would give us lots of food options. This is a big, very popular market and landmark in London, but I’d only been through here once or twice before, mostly because it’s overpriced and can be pretty busy. And on this particular day, it was SLAMMED! We were there over the lunch hour on a weekday though, so I assume a lot of folks were out on their lunch breaks, just as we were (it was also right after Easter though, so more folks than normal may have been out and about).

I met Chris there and totally deferred to him on where to go, as he’s vegetarian, so I wanted to make sure we went somewhere with good options for him. He opted for Indian food at Gujarati Rasoi, which sounded tasty to me. I honestly have no clue what I ate that day (which isn’t just a function of time at this point – I don’t think I would have known what it was even a day later!), but we grabbed our food and walked back to his office so we could eat at an actual table (it was also SUPER windy that day, making outdoor eating difficult). We had a good catch-up and then I hit the road!

This place was busy as well, but they got our food quickly. Doesn’t it look good??

Following a nice meal, I made a WINDY walk back towards the West End (more on that shortly), snapping a few photos of favorite views along the way. Isn’t it funny how I just never get tired of these sites? I just don’t think I’ll ever tire of the vibe London gives me, so I’m happy to take (and re-take!) photos every time I’m here.

Funnily enough, as I was walking on my last night of the trip, a couple of Doctor Who friends of mine from Canada were just arriving in London to start their own trip. Even though they were wiped (a normal feeling after a transatlantic flight), they wanted to try and stay awake, so I met them for a drink at, where else, Retro Bar! It was fun to see them outside of a con and help keep them awake for a bit, though I suspect the booze may have had the opposite effect. 🙂

Always lots of interesting things to see while walking in my favorite city. I’m glad I finally paid a visit to HMS Belfast in 2018!

Getting closer to walking across the bridge (I had to get across to get to the right tube station).

I sadly couldn’t stay too long (though maybe that was good for them, so they could go to their hotel and crash!) as I had something planned for my final evening. I mentioned the West End above, right? That’s where I made my way to, specifically to the Duke of York’s Theatre to see An Enemy of the People, starring none other than Doctor Who’s Matt Smith! I honestly wasn’t familiar with the show, but it looked interesting enough (though I’d heard a couple of negative things about it), particularly because part of the show involves live interaction with the audience in the context of a town meeting (which I thought worked well!). I don’t recall the exact price of the tickets (yes, I bought two for myself – more on that shortly), but I think I paid about £60. The theatre itself was nice (photos of my seat below) and I enjoyed the show, so it made for an enjoyable final night in London. The show has obviously wrapped up since last April, but if you get the chance to see a production of it at some point, I say go for it. For now though, settle for the pictures from my experience of it. 🙂

This is why I bought two tickets! There weren’t a ton of tickets available, but when I saw this box was open, I wanted to book it as I knew it would be more comfortable than being shoved into standard, narrow seats. Because there are just the two seats here, they’re only sold as a pair, so I bought the pair and got my own box!

The view from the box was solid and I could easily lean onto the ledge to see the action on the stage. It was also fun to have more of a birds-eye view during the town hall section, when different folks from the audience spoke up as if they were townspeople.

And that’s all he wrote for this UK trip! I enjoyed staying in East London this time around and will definitely stay there again. I found it to be a little separated from my normal haunts, but still very accessible, plus I feel like I vibed well with it. I also found it fairly easy to get to/from Heathrow, which was of course handy when I had to catch my flight home. Although I didn’t have a direct flight (that’s the price I paid for getting a great deal flying on American Airlines this time), it was *almost* direct in that I just had a quick stopover in Chicago.

As usual, you can check out a few photos of the journey home below.

I went to this lounge once before and it was just as comfortable this time as it was before. Good size, nice space, and tasty food. No Coke Zero though – womp.

I remember this chicken being pretty tasty!

Ultimately, I’m not writing this post from that tram at Heathrow, so I did make it home safely (though I was a little worried about my connection after waiting for that tram for so long). I’m annoyed that it’s taken me SO LONG to finally put a bow on the blog posts for this trip, but better late than never, right? I’ll hopefully be doing a few other catch-up posts for some smaller trips soon, so keep an eye out for those. And as for my next big trip, that may be coming sooner than I thought! Bet you can’t guess where. 🙂