London is an amazing city making it to the top of our list of favourite cities; however, many exciting attractions get lost in the vast sea of other experiences. Therefore we have made a list of attractions you are unlikely to find in a tourist brochure.

As we very recently wrote an article about City of London we should probably mention that this list contains places from both London and City of London. The latter one could almost be a separat item on the list itself, but we decided to limit it to a bit more specific attractions.

#1 St. Martin’s Window

St. Martin’s Window is a window in the church St. Martin-in-the-Fields. What makes this window unique is quite easy to spot. They church is located right next to Trafalgar Square and can be visited alongside the Trafalgar Square Police Station.

Find St. Martin’s Window on Google Maps

#2 Lloyd’s building

Lloyd’s building is often referred to as the Inside out building due to the obvious reason that what you usually find inside a building is now on the outside. Both stairs, ventilation shafts and other pipes are visible from the outside and makes the building really stick out from the vast amount of glass covered buildings in the area. If you visit this place you can also see Gherkin, the strange “egg building” in City of London.

Finn Lloyd’s building på Google Maps

#3 The cockney ATM

ATMs usually offer multiple languages; English, French, German… ehh… cockney? If you ar unfamiliar with cockney, it is a dialect spoken in London. Jason Statham often speaks cockney in his movies, and in addition to the somewhat special pronunciation it has arguably become known for it’s vocabulary. Unlike normal English cockney replaces some words with other words, and in a rather interesting way. The “rule” is that you first find a word that rhymes with the word you want to replace. Then you find two or more words containing the rhyming word (usually a common saying or known sentence) and say that instead, often without the rhyming word at all. For instance You’re in barney translates into You’re in trouble because trouble rhymes with rubble and Barney Rubble is a cartoon character. Other examples are stairs being replaced by apples because one might say apples and pears. This is totall confusing if you have not heard the dialect before, but someone thought it would be a bright idea to translate an ATM into cockney. The result is phrases like Please enter your Huckleberry Finn (PIN) and Sausage and mash (cash).

Unfortunately it appears that the cockney language option was removed when we tried to locate one of these ATMs; however, there are allegedly four other ATMs in London speaking cockney.

Dessverre så det ut til at språkvalget var fjernet da vi prøvde å finne en slik minibank, men det skal visstnok være fire andre minibanker i London som også snakker Cockney:

~~73 Commercial Street, E1 6BD~~
197 Mays Lane, EN5 2DY
Murco Service Station, Hatch Lane E4 6LP
447 Roman Road E3 5LX
24 High Street, E17 7LD

#4 Trafalgar Square Police Station

United Kingdom’s smallest police station is located almost in the middle of Trafalgar Square. One can barely fit a person inside and it appeared to be unused when we visited (no surprise there). Trafalgar Square has been an area frequently used in demonstrations, and someone figured out that it would be a good idea to have a view to control what was going on. And so the police station was created.

Finn Trafalgar Square Police Station på Google Maps

#5 Wild pelicans in London

Who would have thought that there were pelicans in London? Calling them wild might be an overstatement as they are quite tame, but nonetheless they are free and not locked up in a zoo. One of the pelicans did actually use to fly to London Zoo for lunch to eat fish. The pelicans were a gift from the Russian ambassador in 1664 and ever since there has been pelicans in St. James Park. if you are in luck you might see the pelicans coming off their peninsula to meet people and sit on the park benches.

Find the pelicans in St. James Park on Google Maps

#6 10 Adam Street

10 Downing Street is the address of the British prime minister and a highly guarded place 10 Adam Street is on the other hand an address in a very average street, with the exception that it looks almost identical to 10 Downing Street. This is a great place to take pictures pretending to visit the prime minister (even though the Brexit minister might have a cooler sounding title at the moment).

Finn 10 Adam Street på Google Maps

#7 St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East

As much as 47 % of London is allegedly green space. Then it might not surprise you that some of these areas are lesser known than others. St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East is still out of the ordinary as it is quite isolated, yet in the very center of City of London. Many people have lived nearby this area for years and not been aware that there is a small park here.

Find St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East on Google Maps

#8 John Snow

John Snow has arrived in London! This place might interest Game of Thrones in particular, but historians will maybe know that this John Snow refers to the British physician who found the source of the kolera outbreak in London in 1854. A water pump (now referred to as the John Snow Water Pump) was the source of the disease, had it’s handle removed and the disease stopped spreading. Today the water pump is still standing here and is quite special if you known the history. To be entirely correct the water pump is not standing there as of this writing due to construction work, but it will hopefully be put back in place once the construction work has completed. Alternatively one could visit the bar also named after John Snow, naturally being quite popular these days…

Find John Snow’s Water Pump on Google Maps

#9 Little Venice

Los Angeles might be most famous for housing Little Venice, resembling Venice in Italy; however, there is a place in London with the same name as well. Right north of Paddington Station lies numerous boats along the river and has clear references to Venice.

Find Little Venice on Google Maps

#10 One New Change Roof Terrace

The roof terrace One New Change provides an amazing view of the city, not to mention St. Paul’s cathedral. Be aware that there can be long lines to enter the terrace in the weekend evenings, so it could be a good idea to go here during the weekdays.

Find One New Change on Google Maps

#11 Platform 9 3/4

This is probably the least hidden attraction on the list. On Kings Cross there is the famous platform from Harry Potter: Platform 9 3/4.

Find Platform 9 3/4 on Google Maps

#12 Sewer lamp

Before the times of electricity, how were streets lit? In London the answer was sewers; gas from the sewer was used to lit the lamps. Today there is allegedly only one lamp left running on gas; however, we have to admit that it looks suspiciously similar to electricity driven lamps. Whether or not it’s gas driven we cannot say for sure, but it is an interesting sight anyway.

Find the sewer lamp on Google Maps

#13 Chislehurst Caves

This one we did unfortunately not have time to see on our last visit to London, but luckily that is an excuse to return later, right? Chislehurst Caves are, you guessed it, caves in London. The caves were used as a music venue in the 60’s and among others David Bowie, Status Quo, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones performed here. It should be mentioned that this is no natural cave system and that it was originally created to mine chalk and flint. Regardless, it looks very interesting, see pictures from the caves here. Be aware that the caves are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays ad that it’s harder to get there by trains on Sundays than the rest of the week.

Find Chrslehurst Caves on Google Maps

#14 Camley Street Natural Park

In the middle of London there is not just a park, but something that would more appropriately be described as a forrest. Right next to Kings Cross lies an area along the river covered with dense forrest wildlife and small ponds. It is very strange to walk from a busy city straight into a silent and green place where one can barely see any parts of the city anymore; it is absolutely worth a visit. Be aware that the park will be closed in autumn 2017 for restoration and won’t open until a year later.

Finn Camley Street Natural Park på Google Maps

#15 Inspiration for the telephone booths

One of the graves in St. Pancras Gardens is allegedly the inspiration for the iconic telephone booths in London. Once you to there you quickly realise why.