I was very lucky when I first moved to London a little over a year ago, because I landed a job right away in a social media agency that focused on anything and everything that is London related. Because of this, I was able to pick up the who, what and where of London within weeks – learning everything from the best pubs and bars, the greenest parks, the oldest buildings, the quirkiest pop-ups, to the biggest and smallest events around town.
This not only helped me get to know London, I also felt like I was ‘in’ on the local jokes and culture pretty quickly, and I think it contributed to making me feel more settled and comfortable in such a new environment.
The point behind this story is that you don’t have to do what I do to learn about London. The main reason behind people like us providing you with all this content is so that you too can learn about everything there is to know, see and do in London. This city is moving at a very fast pace and I think it’s important to keep in the loop, at least when you first move here and you have so much to learn.
To help with this, I’ve collated a collection of useful websites and pages which I use regularly to source content from. If you read one of these at least once every few days, you’ll be guaranteed to be kept in the London-loop, and it won’t be long until you’re telling your new British friends where to go and what to see.
Let’s start with the best ones (ok, I’m a little biased). The pages that I run are a part of the ‘Handpicked’ group.
The main one is Handpicked London, where I post anything interesting and London-related on a daily basis
If you prefer Twitter, you can follow @LDN
Then there’s our other Handpicked pages too – we have a page for each area of London such as Shoreditch, Soho or Brixton, and pages based on different interests such as Photography, Eats or London For Free.
Next is our website ‘Londonist’ http://londonist.com/ which is run by an incredibly talented team, who always know absolutely everything there is to know about London (seriously, their knowledge is scary)
Other sources that I find really useful are:
Time Out London http://www.timeout.com/london
Made in Shoreditch http://madeinshoreditch.co.uk/
Scout London http://www.scoutlondon.com/
London on the Inside http://londontheinside.com/
The Nudge http://thenudge.com/ (great for food and bars)
Who’s Jack http://wjlondon.com/
I think that should be enough to get you started.
Take a look over, find your favourite ones, bookmark them and get excited!
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8 thoughts on “What’s On in London”
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Oh wow, thanks so much for getting back to me! You don’t know how much it will be roughly do you? yeah I know what you mean but I think I should go for the experience! I will try for court tickets now that you mention it but they I’m expecting them to be a lot more expensive and I’m coming over on a tight budget haha! I’ll see how I go, but will definitely get up early and line up! Thanks again, I’m sure I’ll be firing more questions about things before I go! I’m very nervous haha xx
Totally normal to be nervous but once you’re here you’ll love it! The nervous feeling goes away pretty quickly, especially once you settle in and get into a routine.
Tickets are actually pretty cheap, I only paid £20 for general entry, but court tickets aren’t more than £50 in more cases, it’s just near-impossible to get your hands on them!
Here’s a good website for more info on queuing – http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/tickets/201205091336565749973.html
aaand prices – http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/tickets/201205091336561699698.html
x
Hello! Not quite sure how to use this blog haha but I am Australian moving to London in a couple of weeks, and I am so nervous as you can imagine haha. I really want to go to Wimbledon and I saw you mentioned it in your about me, I was wondering if you could give me some tips, do I just have to line up the morning of and try my luck? Sorry i am so clueless haha xx
Hey Karli,
Yes I went to Wimbledon last year – I recommend you go for the experience but as an Australian Open regular, I must admit that it was a pretty big let down. As general entry it’s really hard to enjoy as there’s not many courts and loads of people, so you just end up watching it on screen from the hill.
Court tickets would be great though!
I caught the first train in the morning, got there at 6:30am lined up for a few hours (bring a picnic blanket to sit on) and got in without a problem. This was on a weekday, not a weekend. You get a ticket with a queue number when you arrive so it’s not possible to queue jump!
You should always try for tickets online the night before too, as a limited amount of court tickets go on sale the day before 🙂
Good luck with your move and let me know how it all goes!
x
Thanks for all the info! This list is exactly what I needed. If there’s any others in particular for live, local music and independent arts stuff I welcome them 🙂
You’re very welcome 🙂
I’ll keep that in mind and see what I can do! x
How did you find your job? Did you go through an agency?
Actually, I found my job very randomly via Twitter, which suits well considering I work in Social Media. I’m working on a new page about Job Hunting at the moment so check back next week and I’ll hopefully have some more info for you!
In the meantime, I would look at LinkedIn, BrandRepublic.com, http://jobs.theguardian.com/ or monster.co.uk