In this article, we’re going to be agnostic with the location within London. Indeed, this article has been sitting around as a ‘draft’ since 2023, and I have just been adding to the gallery every time I walk by a mural in my day-to-day life. So, I stumbled onto all of these randomly, and accordingly, they are really from a random collection of places. I think the London neighborhoods covered here include Camberwell, Stoke Newington, Little Portugal, Bow, Bethnal Green, Walthamstow, Peckham, Hackney, Finsbury Park, Waterloo, Nunhead, Stockwell, Fitzrovia, Clapham, Earl’s Court, Soho, Notting Hill, Streatham… and probably more!

Today we return to football tourism with our quest to visit all the stadiums in the English Premier League. Up to this point we’ve covered Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, Fulham’s Craven Cottage, West Ham’s London Stadium, Spurs’ Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and Brighton’s AmEx Stadium. Now, at long last, we’re visiting Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, which sits in North London, within walking distance of my new flat! We’re going watch the EFL Cup quarter-final against the classic South-London side, Crystal Palace.

So here’s our destination today, along with a couple of nice pictures from the walk over. This match took place on December 23rd, so you will see lots of Christmas imagery & references in the images.

By the time the urban footprint of London really began to expand in the 18th century, Hampstead Village had become kind of a trendy place to be for Londons affluent intelligentsia, since it was beautiful, clean, and within striking distance of London. Likewise, the giant natural area now known as Hampstead Heath—which served as a shared backyard for this community—became the focal point of conservation efforts in the face of London’s creeping urban sprawl. Luckily, Hampstead already boasted an impressive roster of rich and influential residents who had the muscle to bring this conservation to reality. The result? Both Hampstead Village & Heath have grown into the stuff of postcards; a beautiful and secluded getaway from the hustle and bustle of London.

This article marks a ‘first’ for Peter’s Big Adventure: this was the FIRST time that I tried to upload so many photos at once that SquareSpace cut me off. Apparently the limit for a single-batch upload is 250. 😂

So that should be a good indicator for what is to come.

Today we’re venturing into East London to visit BRICK LANE. In Volume 1 of this series in South London, I spoke to how much walking I had endured in order to piece that article together. At the time, it seemed to me (a recent arrival here) that London’s street art was quite decentralized, but I have been proven wrong many times over since publishing that article. There are dense clusters of murals if you know where to look. And thankfully, I have gotten some good pointers from people who know London a lot better than I do about where to find these clusters.

And we’re back with more of the beautiful game! And my quest to get to as many stadiums in London as possible continues, this time with Craven Cottage, where Fulham will host the mighty Liverpool in the 2nd leg of the EFL Cup semi-final. In the 1st leg, Liverpool beat Fulham 2-1. This match would decide who moved on to the final. This will be the smallest Premier League stadium I’ve yet visited, so it should be a good time.

This article is going to be a LONG one! And despite the length, this is still just the tip of the iceberg that is London’s vast collection of museums. I’ve heard that London actually has almost 200 museums! Honestly, I am museum-ed out even after these 9. So I’ll do my best to keep my writings on each of these short and sweet.

Established in 1753 in central London, The British Museum hosts upwards for 4 million visitors every year, and has 8 million historical and cultural artifacts on permanent display. It is, without a doubt, one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. In fact, by some measures, it is the largest museum in the world… and nowadays I think it’s safe to say that it’s also the most controversial.

My quest to visit all of the football stadiums in London continues, this time with Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London. Today we’re going to be seeing the Spurs play against Bournemouth.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is incredible. It is absolutely the nicest stadium I have ever been in. The floors under the overhang are carpet! As soon as I walked in I was involuntarily smiling. And then, when I realized that we had unwittingly gotten AMAZING seats, I was really grinning. This was one of the coolest atmospheres I’ve ever experienced! Before the game even started, I already liked this stadium more than Stamford Bridge, and a LOT more than London Stadium.

I’ve heard it said that London is the ultimate Christmas city.

It definitely puts on quite a show come Christmas time! But the drawback is that, during the “festive period” (as it is called), the streets are MOBBED. The holidays in London are both magical and chaotic; enchanting and stressful. This year, I was lucky enough to have my loved ones come to London to visit me during the holidays, so I got to spend the “festive period” being a tourist in my new city. Despite the obvious stress that comes with trying to guide your clan through crowds of people, it was a lovely time, and I’m glad to be able to give it some coverage on this site. Because ✨Christmas London is a destination unto itself.

In the previous installment on street art in London (volume 1), I said the following:

“When I moved here, it quickly became apparent that London’s many famous murals were not all conveniently located in the same few alleyways as had been the case in some other cities. London was going to make me do some WALKING in order to find its murals. This was a true scavenger hunt.”

Well… I stand corrected! When I wrote that article, I hadn’t yet visited the Leake Street Arches.

I’ve said it before on this website and I’ll say it again: London is EASILY the most diverse place I have ever lived. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine any place on earth being more diverse than London. That is not hyperbole! I truly don’t think anywhere else can touch it in terms of diversity. So it should come as no surprise that London’s street art is as interesting and colorful as its inhabitants.

For the unindoctrinated, Everton is a Liverpool-based team coming to play on West Ham’s home turf. This is an interesting season for Everton because they were docked 10-points in what the football world has unanimously agreed is an injustice of the highest order. After that, death (i.e. relegation) seemed inevitable, but they have harnessed their collective spite to mount a revenge-fueled run of wins that has put them comfortably in the center of the table, safe from the relegation zone. If it wasn’t for those 10 points, they would be a strong contender for European qualification right now. Unfortunately for West Ham, this would ultimately mean a home-defeat for them. So there were lots of angry fans in East London on this day, but that’s part of the magic of the game. ✨

Today we’re going to Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea v. Brighton in the EFL Cup a.k.a. the Carabao Cup!

This is not technically my first English Premier League (EPL) game because it’s a cup game (i.e. it’s not part of the regular season, it’s a separate competition) but it’s still a good time. So let’s get into what this experience was like… because, it was an experience.

Today we’re going to walk from Green Park to the BT Tower at sunset. I’d plot out the route of my walk for you on Google maps, but I have no idea what my route actually was. As is my custom, I was trying to get lost. What I can tell you is that this walk will take us through a little corner of Mayfair, and then through neighborhoods called Soho and Fitzrovia. Having only been here for 1.5 months, I still feel quite under-qualified to be making any sort of statements about London as a whole, but these areas really feel like the “heart of the city” to me.

I don’t know if people coming to visit as tourists really get a sense of the scale of this place because most major tourist attractions are clustered relatively close to one another. But to me, whose first time in London was the day I moved to London, its size was a bit terrifying. I couldn’t afford to stay in the city center, so I found an Airbnb further afield. Fighting the traffic and crowds to haul my ass back and forth across this city to do apartment viewings was exhausting, and I only covered a small portion of the city in those trips.

Welp, I won’t bury the lead.

I am moving to London!

If you haven’t heard of it, that’s in England.

It’s a bit surreal that I haven’t been to the UK yet in my travels. I suppose it never seemed like it would be all that foreign, so every time I was planning a bit of travel, I opted for something that felt more AdV3nTuR0Us. I always used to say “I’m sure I’ll end up there eventually.”

Well… that turned out to be truer than I could have predicted.