London secure luggage facilities

This must be one of the questions we are asked most regularly. Late night flights and morning check-outs from apartments do not ever go together in the busier times of year. Who wants to leave an apartment at 10am, only to have to wait until 8pm for the flight? What do you do with your bags now that London stations no longer have locker services?

We try to adapt to your needs and arrange for you to leave your bags in a secure place, but it’s not always possible. Here’s a list of the main London train stations which provide the best and most secure left luggage facilities.

There are also left luggage facilities at Victoria Coach Station. See the Transport for London website for details.

Here are a just a few of the nice things our guests have said about us recently :

Hi Portia, Just wanted to let you know we are loving the apartment and loving Clerkenwell too!

Loraine

 

Fantastic apartment in extremely good condition. Well situated. Plenty of space. Good service. We would recommend this apartment as the best we have tried in London.

Tabitta

 

Portia and Emma saved my last stay in London. My  booking had been cancelled at the last minute due to a flooding.The host of that appartment contacted them and they immediately provided a backup solution. I stood at their Pear Tree court appartment, a nice and cosy place. 

Didier

 

With the proliferation of more and more review sites, not just trip advisor, reviews are trusted as being independent. However, a word of warning; as a company, we receive numerous emails from agencies selling their review services for such websites as trip advisor. New research shows that as many as 60% of online reviews are fake, having been written by out-sourced companies.

Also, check to see that you are booking with a UK registered company and avoid using paypal!. If a company takes credit cards payment, check that they have PCI DSS approval.

Realex, who provide our PCI DSS Level 1 certification have produced a handy  guide which you can read here: PCI Compliance

Campaigners are fighting to preserve much more than the concrete walls, vivid with graffiti, or those stone steps and ledges which seem to go nowhere in particular. Southbank undercroft is the beating heart of London skateboarding. According to Ian Borden, professor of architecture and urban culture, this is ‘probably the most continuously skatebarded place in the world’. The traditions of the place see much further back than London Eye and many thousands of people are certain that the traditions must be preserved.

Current plans to redevelop the undercroft into retail units aim to raise funds towards £120 million refurbishment of Southbank Centre’s Festival Wing. Southbank officials have offered to build a new skate park, beneath Hungerford Bridge, in return for the redevelopment but the undercroft was not built as a skatepark. Long Live Southbank campaigners feel that the undercroft is irreplaceable. It has been described as ‘a mecca for skateboarders from all over the world’.

As a place where ‘a significant number of the inhabitants of any locality, or of any neighbourhood within a locality, have indulged as of right in lawful sports and passtimes on the land for a period of at least 20 years’ lawyers for the campaign are adamant that the site merits preservation.

Image: David Hawgood

Affordable Art Fair is back at Battersea Park from 7 to 10 March, too.  Over 100 galleries will be showing paintings, original artist-made prints, sculpture and photography.  This is the perfect place to find wonderful work by yet-undiscovered talent, as well as established names. Everything is on sale and priced between £40 and £4000. Advance tickets available online >> here 

London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, from 14 to 24 February, opens with a gala showing of Jeffrey Schwarz’s highly enlightening documentary I Am Divine (take tissues). From then til Margarita, the closing film, 27th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival makes Southbank the place to be for an inspired programme of features, shorts and documentaries, with industry events, an award ceremony and packed-out club nights at the weekends. Pick up the LGFF programme at BFI on Southbank or look and book >>online

Near River Thames, in Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House on the Strand, where Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 reunites major paintings from the master’s debut exhibition. The show was a success in 1901. It launched Picasso’s career in Paris at the tender age of nineteen. More information on >> Courtauld Gallery website

The biggest special exhibition at The British Museum this Spring looks back at Ice Age Art: Arrival of The Modern Mind.  British Museum is a vast and varied space, though. In Room 91, Social Fabric: African Textiles today takes a fresh look at the history, manufacture, social significance and artistic influence of cloth across the African continent.

At Sadler’s Wells Theatre, in Clerkenwell, from 15 to 27 March, 10^th Annual Flamenco Festival offers a programme of dance and music from the very finest contemporary flamenco artistes of our time. See the full programme and book tickets >>Sadler’s Wells website

As a little girl, I was always digging. I was only ever happy when up to my knees in muck, making mud pies or building dens.  This little gem of a Museum has the power to transport me back to those  heady Summer holidays, when I was determined to go on a journey of discovery, fishing for sticklebacks, picking crab apples and elderberries for mud pies, or hunting the big Pike that lived in the stream at the back of our house.

The Grant Museum welcomes family visitors and children, however young, will get a great deal out of their visit, especially the new interactive ipad and smartphone intercations. Children under 11 must be accompanied by an adult.

Not as large and imposing as the Natural History Museum, the Grant Museum is open to the public :

Monday – Saturday 1-5pm.

CLOSED on public holidays or for a few days surrounding Christmas and Easter.

The Grant Museum of Zoology is the only remaining university zoological museum in London. It houses around 67,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. Founded in 1828 as a teaching collection, the Museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and theDodo.

Address

Rockefeller Building
University College London
21 University Street
London WC1E 6DE

Phone - 020 3108 2052.

You can find the Museum  here on google maps. 

Chinese and Vietnamese New Year is celebrated on a grand scale in London. Londons Chinese New Year celebrations are said to be the largest outside Asia. Everyone joins in. On 10th February 2013, we will be happy to welcome the Year of The Snake.  Of course, the festivities are centred in Chinatown, close to Leicester Square in the south of Soho.  Holiday rental apartment POLLY sleeps 4 people, less than 5 minutes walk from Gerard Street, at the centre of London Chinatown.

For Chinese New Year, there is always a big stage in Trafalgar Square, too, where music and dance performances, readings and speakers are greeted with great enthusiasm. The lion dance  brings good luck to restaurateurs and shop owners in the neighbourhood and all Londoners hope to see the dragon dance; an auspicious start to the New Year. Chintaown London website

A Valentine’s citybreak in a London apartment would be a really romantic gift. Stay in BETSEY, within 5 minutes walk of Hatton Garden, Londons jewellery quarter, if you intend to shop for a ring (or any other special piece of jewellery, for that matter). The area has any number of excellent restaurants for dîner a deux. For a long, late breakfast or lovely lunch, Clerkenwell Kitchen, 3 minutes walk from the apartment door, is highly recommended.

It’s worth mentioning that, whenever you stay in a holiday rental apartment directly managed by Big Red London, we are always happy to arrange a ‘welcome’ hamper of essential items or special treats, when requested at least 48 hours before arrival.

From 15th to 19th February,  London Fashion Week AW2013 includes 60 catwalk shows and 90 exhibitors at Somerset House on The Strand, with more at showrooms around town. All Big Red London Covent Garden apartments are within easy walking distance of Somerset House and those in Wellington Street are only 4 minutes walk away.  The largest, WELLINGTON 3 sleeps 6 people.

Towards the north end of Camden Passage, near The Camden Head pub, the lively flea market is fun. Browse through vintage clothes and bric-a-brac at your leisure; you may well uncover something lovely at a lower price than you would find in any of the shops. Trading days are Wednesday and Saturday.

The African Waistocat Company
33 Islington Green, Camden Passage,  Islington, London N1
This tiny gem of a shop specializes in splendid waistcoats with fronts made from Nigerian asa oke cloth. Lengths of exquisite, antique cloth from Northern Nigeria are also on sale. Just as the waistcoats are tailored to an exacting standard, the fabrics used are hand-woven by skilled Yoruba craftsman. An engaging selection of wallets, handmade from various leathers local to South West Nigeria are on sale, too.
Open Wednesday & Saturday 1000h to 1800h, Sunday 1200h to 1800h and at other times by appointment only.
Telephone44 (0)20 77049698 or Mobile: 44(0)7950400048  for an appointment

Granny’s Goodies
Unit 3, 34a The Annexe, Islington Green, London N1
Porcelein-headed dolls, wax-headed dolls, boudoir dolls, celluloid dolls, fabric dolls and there are teddy bears and some dolls’ houses I’d quite like to call ‘home’, too. As well as antique dolls ranging in price from £100 to nearly £2000, Brenda at Granny’s Goodies holds a stock of clothing for teddy bears. Brenda can also secure beds at the dolls’ hospital.

Fat Faced Cat
22-24 Camden Passage, Islington, London N1
Covering all decades from the Victorian era right through to the 1980s, Fat Faced Cat is an elegant treasure trove of fashion from past times. The shop owner, who trained as a costume designer, compiles her stock from pieces personally-selected for excellent quality as well superb style. This is one of very few surviving vintage clothing retailers on Camden Passage in Islington, where once there were very many.

Pierrepoint Arcade
Head south and cross Charlton Place to find Pierrepoint Arcade. Here, you’ll find antique glass, porcelain, military collectables and antique prints.  Visit Himiko for exquisite pieces from Japan; silk kimonos, fans, antique prints and delicate carvings. Dreamtime specializes in millinery, jewellery and pretty accessories.

Visit London in January and you’re highly unlikely to find blue skies and sunshine. However, you will find a great place to stay with Big Red London and there’s plenty to see and do.

From 16 to 20 January, at Business Design Centre in Islington, London Art Fair presents the greatest names in contemporary British art. With solo shows, curated group displays and large-scale installations, over 100 galleries present work from emerging and established artists. Throughout the Fair, an extensive range of tours, talks and performances ensure that your visit will be as informative as it is enriching.  London Art Fair website

London International Mime Festival runs from 10 to 27 January at seven venues around London, including Barbican, Soho Theatre and Southbank Centre. As well as spectacular physical and visual theatre from all over the world, London International Mime Festival includes workshops on How To Be Stupid, The Pleasure of Juggling and Making Theatre Without Words, among other themes. London International Mime Festival website

Perhaps the biggest exhibition in London this month is way out west in South Kensington. Hollywood Costume at V&A includes Dorothy’s much-coveted ruby slippers, Darth Vader and fabulous frocks from films like Elizabeth and Marie Antoinette. Three galleries displaying many of the best-known wardrobes from the last 100 years of cinema means that this exhibition is hugely popular and sdvance tickets have now all sold There are tickets available from the box office each day, though. Inside Hollywood Costume at V&A

Sales shopping continues in London for much of the month of January. It’s an especially good opportunity to visit some of the smaller clothing boutiques around Soho and Shoreditch, where you can can treat yourself to the very best of London style at very fair prices.

There are always nightlife options too numerous to mention, too. We recommend that you head to Soho, Shoreditch or Clerkenwell to party, any night of the week.

We would not advise booking a ride on London Eye in advance, if you come to London in January. Frequent heavy cloud cover means it is best to wait and see whether any day of your visit is clear enough to see further than the opposite bank of River Thames. If not, do please come back to London a bit later in the year, when clear skies make great fun of this most iconic attraction.

The office opening hours over the holiday season:
Closed from Saturday 22nd December  until Thursday 27th December, when the office will re-open at 0930h.

Closed from 1200h GMT on 31st December 2012 until Wednesday 2nd January 2013, when the office is open from 0930h GMT until 1800h GMT, as usual.

Regent Street Christmas Lights, London W1
Christmas Lights 13^th November 2012 until 5 January 2013
On Regent Street, the Christmas lights ceremony begins on Tuesday 13 November at 5.30pm. There will be live music from big names including the soaring voice of operatic tenor Noah Stewart. Olympic and Paralympic athletes will also take to the stage to enjoy the finale: a fireworks display.  Regent Street retailers will be marking the event with various in-store activities.

Southbank Centre Christmas Market, London SE1
16 November until 23 December 2012
Between London Eye and Southbank Centre, the wooden huts of this German-style Christmas market include a pocket money priced stall, a kid’s craft stall for card making and elsewhere, lots of great gift ideas for all ages.

Dazzle at National Theatre, Southbank London SE1
5 November 2012 to 6 January 2013
The largest and the longest-running exhibition of contemporary jewellery in Europe.  Thousands of pieces for sale from new names as well as established designers mean that you are sure to find original approaches to the craft. Dazzle Specials focuses on the work of silversmiths and printmakers. There is also a section devoted to men’s jewellery and accessories.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2012
23 November 2012 to 6 January 2013
The presence of a giant observation wheel, an illuminated ice rink  (it’s the biggest outdoor rink in Britain) and two circuses make Hyde Park Winter Wonderland much more than a shopping experience. Although most events and attractions are ticketed, entry to Santaland and to the Christmas Market, where you will find all manner of seasonal treats on sale, is free.

All our London West End holiday rental apartments are ideal for a citybreak near West End shopping.