Americans React to London Christmas Lights Tour - So Beautiful!
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- čas přidán 8. 12. 2023
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Reacting To My Roots
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Jasper, Indiana 47547
USA
In this video we react to a tour of London Christmas lights. I had heard that London went all out for their Christmas lights and decorations, but this was beyond anything we could have imagined. Not only did we get to see the incredible Christmas light displays, this was the first time we were able to see London from a walking perspective. The architecture of the old buildings and layout of the roads and alleys are the perfect backdrop for beautiful Christmas lights.
We were able to see some of London's best Christmas light displays and holiday windows. From Angels Walk and Leicester Square to Hamley's Toy Shop, Fortnum & Mason and the stunning London Christmas tree. This looks like a great city to visit this time of year!
Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this reaction please give this video a thumbs up, share your thoughts in the comments and click the subscribe button to follow my journey to learn about my British and Irish ancestry.
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the toy store is Hamleys first opened in 1760
FYI: 'HAMLEYS' is the oldest _(and largest toy shop in the world)_ and has been on Regent Street, in central London since it opened here in 1881. It has survived many financial 'world' recessions, including being bombed twice during WWII. It has SEVEN floors covering 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2), all devoted to toys, _(with different categories of toy on each floor)._ - Over the years, Hamleys has changed with the times - from dolls to computers to flying drones with cameras etc. Also, the majority of people don't know that it is named after a William Hamley, who founded a toy shop called "Noah's Ark" at No. 231 High Holborn, in London, in 1760!
Btw, the tree at Trafalgar Square has been the gift of the Norwegian capital, Oslo, each year since 1946, in thanks for allowing the Norwegian king and his family to have safe haven in England during the country's Nazi occupation.
Norway also sends Liverpool, Scotland, and I think a few other places in the UK a Christmas tree. It's just the one in London gets all the attention.
I never knew that. WOW!!!!
Manchester Christmas markets
Cannot believe they did not show the Christmas tree in Trafalgar square.
Wow great info thanks 😊
NYC is built on a block format, whereas London has grown organically and has small alleys and shopping areas tucked away in surprising places.
Yes it's great to explore the nooks and crannys all steeped in a long history as well .😊
London, like Britain generally, has buildings hundreds of years old.
Most British towns and cities are a lot more random than the US cities which were planned and built pretty much all at once. London especially, has streets and buildings from so many different eras, you just have to use whatever space you have. So it looks random, but the layout is almost a physical historical record of all the peoples who came before you.
American cities generally feel like they were drawn by one guy with a pencil and a ruler, built in the 1920s and have stayed the same since.
The powers that be did want to rebuild London on a grid after the Great Fire in 1666, but while they were inside deciding it, all the Londoners went out and staked out string where their houses used to stand to stop them changing it!
Hi Steve and Lyndsay I would strongly recommend that you both watch the sainsbury WW1 christmas advert,it tells the story of when the soldiers called for ceasefire. They played football on Christmas day, then went back to fighting the following day. That sainsburys advert will always be my favourite, it brings tears to my eyes when it comes on . I can't remember if it was the 2014 or 2018. You probably knew that but I thought I would suggest it to you. I also recommend watching the irn brew adverts they are funny I would recommend that you both view it first if you are doing a family video. Even if you both watch it I am sure you will find it funny. I have been following your channel since day one and I watch your videos all the time.
London is bigger than New York City. In fact, London is twice the size of New York City. London has a size of 606 square miles and New York has a size of 301 square miles. London looks so different because it is old and was built over centuries.
Highly debatable. I'm not sure that land area is all that relevant when measuring a city, and while London's metropolitan area has a population of 14 million, New York's is over 20 million. If somebody lives in New Jersey and commutes to Manhattan every day, they are effectively part of the New York economy although they don't even live in the same state. As a proud Londoner, I can say that New York is bigger but London is better 😇
@@nbartlett6538 Mick is correct, London is over twice the size of NY in terms of physical size.
And you're wrong, the 20 million figure refers to the entire state of New York, not the city or its met area. This is a figure widely used by stat websites who regularly get it wrong. In terms of city population both cities are almost identical with around 10 million, but London being twice the size makes it feel slightly less populated.
@@Axispaw1not quite. The state population is indeed about 20 million, but the metro population of New York urban area is also about 20-21 million. That number takes into account the portions of the city that actually sit in New Jersey state. It counts how many people live within the bit that’s brown on the map, for want of a better description. The London equivalent, measured in the same way, is generally agreed to be slightly less at around 18million.
The political population of London is currently about 9.6m. New York’s is smaller, but as per the above this is misleading.
Basic point is that New York, however you measure it, is ever so slightly larger than London, but not by much. The density of Manhattan gives a false impression in that regard
New York Christmas looks better
The city of London is actually only around 2 square miles. The figures given are for Greater London which encompasses The City of London (Central London). The City of London is really very small.
Covent Garden was the historic fruit, veg and flowers market in central London. The market moved out of the centre in the 1970s and the buildings were turned into restaurants, pubs, entertainment places etc
Yes, it moved to new premises in Nine Elms Lane (close to Battersea Power Station) in 1974.
A good place to be for restaurants, shopping and the London Transport museum.
You don't want to be too averse to crowds, though. 🙂
Oh okay! That makes sense
@@reactingtomyroots😊
Hamleys is the toy store, Harrods is the up, I mean UP market department store which had a re known toy department. They also have shops at major airports
Fortnum and Mason is one of the oldest continuously operating department stores in the world - opened in 1707.
Iconic Fortnum and Mason Food Hampers... 😋
European cities are generally very different to US ones, they’re are very walkable and liveable rather than somewhere you commute to to go to work
Love it!
I'd rather live in a sewer tbh
nothing is stopping you from doing that, tbh @@jernaugurgeh8110
Hi guys ,London is HUGE!!! This is a tiny tour 😂
Yes we have many casinos lol ❤
John Lewis christmas adverts are absolutely top tier. They win most years. Especially "man on the moon" probably there best ever.
You should also show lindsey the London new year fireworks.
P.s, London is larger than new York lol.
The UK doesn't really have casino's, we have like a betting shop where you can bet on football etc and have a few fruit machines. Gambling is heavily regulated in UK.
Yes! New year fireworks display would be a great video to watch.
We do have casinos, quite a few actually. Not on the same scale as casinos in America. But we definitely do have casinos.
Yes I was thinking the same thing. Snow Lindsey the new year fireworks.
@@kezlana6907 Indeed I was surprised by OP's comment, I spent 8 years in Southampton and there are 3 big ones there! Google says there are around 150 proper casinos in the UK, 52 of which are the Grosvenor chain. But yeah we do also have an abundance of betting shops, over 6000 apparently.
@@stumilesyt Me too! I see a lot of comments in videos of Americans learning stuff about the UK, where a lot of brits get our information wrong to be honest 🤣 yeah we have a lot of them!
There's Casinos in Every County and Major City
London is HUGE and much larger than New York. This vlogger is WALKING so you are only seeing a tiny part of the City Centre which is the expensive part of London; but the majority of London boroughs have standard department stores. The architecture is typical of Europe and goes back to centuries before America was discovered and most of London was rebuilt after the Great Fire in 1660.
The Great Fire only affected the City of London. None of the areas shown here were affected by the Great Fire though I agree that much of what we see hear was built after 1665.
The telephone company (BT) removed most of the telephone boxes, but many towns and villages refused to allow removal because it takes away the character, some places have even demanded the return of the boxes
They are used for things like mini libraries or places to keep a defibrilator etc
There are even phone box coffee shops.
Yes the red telephone boxes are still in place all over the UK (some are listed so cannot be removed). Not all of them still have working phones in them as they are not disabled accessible so more open lower phone booths have replaced them. However many are still phone boxes with modern pay phones in them and some have been repurposed to hold defibrillators or become book holders where you can leave books you’ve read for other people to take and read for free and then they pass on once they’ve read them. In the touristy central London areas they are proper phone boxes because so many tourists want photos in them.
Where i live in Redcliffe Queensland the Pay Phone now is free to phone everywhere in Australia. When i was a telegram boy in Portobello Edinburgh sometimes i had to go and change the money box as it was full of pennies, it weighed a ton that was around 1955-6.
@@duncancallum yes I was never strong enough to press button A, yes all those old pennies much larger that the new pence of today,
Horrible things the door was useless & People used to Piss in them
@@mikeoxlong4110 used to?? They still do
If you like lights like this, you should check out The Blackpool Illuminations. They are not Christmas lights as they begin in August, and last for 100 days. They stretch for 6 miles along the Promenade (the road along the sea). It includes over 1 million bulbs.
And Blackpool is better than London
They'll slowly bring more immigrants causing problems up here soon.
No bulbs anymore but LED lights...
The only thing Blackpool is cold at this time of year. There are also Christmas lights in the town centre.
I was in London last week, decorations were out of this world, so magical.
I really want to go I have never been around London during the Christmas holidays I have always wanted to but I have no one to go with I want to go soon and around summer and November but I want go early I want to go in the shops .
When you stopped the video to ask about the name of the toy store. The name was literally on the screen a few seconds before.
They don’t do listening 🤷🏻♂️
Every year us kids used to be taken to see the Christmas lights, and visit Hamleys toy shop.
my dream job a Hamlies toy demonstrator
Always come home with jumping beans
A theatre isnt movies, thats a cinema.. Theatres put on plays and musicals...
They call them theatres in America. Also a theatre in the UK can also mean you’re in the OR of a hospital.
What you need to remember is London is HUGE! The first half of the video is only parts of the West End. This is in the centre of London. To go to Greenwich means a Taxi, Tube, River (Uber) Boat, and will take at least 30 mins to get there. To go to the "City" again is a different area of London and will take a decent amount of time.
I LIVE in London and have visited many US city's over the years (including NY). London is MASSIVE in comparison to New York! London stretches over about twice as much as NY. I think MOST cities in the world have their CORE centre parts _(that the majority of tourists visit),_ but London has SO MANY places to see. TBH: Just the sheer number of museums, theatres, art galleries, private exhibitions, parks, gardens, statues, works of art, fountains and other places to visit would probably take you YEARS to see all. After over 30 + years in London, I have STILL only seen a TINY fraction of the things to see!
The light trails in Wisley gardens, longleat and Kew gardens are amazing, there are loads of light trails at Christmas in the UK, they are magical.x
They convert the Phone boxes into things like Libraries, coffee stand's, medical points etc.
Mainly defibs 🤣
Which is a good idea @@andreaconroy3623
That's cool! We were wondering about that. A little phone booth library would be awesome :)
Most if not all towns and cities in The UK decorate their streets and shops at Christmas time. Every village and town area has their own Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Christmas is a big thing here 😊
Not only UK, basically every city in Poland, Germany or Czechia as well :)
Sorry but this year its palestines turn baby. fee fee paistine !!
Every child should have the Hamley’s experience at some point. It’s other worldly! The doll houses are incredible.
As a Londoner born and raised I can say that Yes, it’s always busy in Londons ‘west end’ especially though at Christmas with everyone shopping and tons of tourists making it busy!
I worked on Oxford Street for 10 years and it’s crazy at Christmas.
There are a lot of stores that put in their own light displays and pay for it.
Covent Garden is ancient and used to be a convent back in the day. It’s a wonderful place to hang out in summer. My daughter and I would hang out and watch the outdoor entertainers. We do Christmas well. Halloween not so much, thankfully! It’s the most evil day of the year. My opinion.
Hamley’s IS the famous toy store.
The hat shop sells mostly handmade.
Our alleyways are ancient and you find tiny shops there that are so charming.
The Odeon was a club in the 80’s where I used to go every Saturday to dance the night away! Sometimes walking home barefooted, after dancing all night! lol!
The buildings that you enjoy Steve are a couple of hundred years old, not ancient.
Lyndsey, London is one of, if not the most expensive city’s in the world, just saying. Steve’s right.
Every expensive, luxury item is sold here in London.
It costs a fortune to live here and it’s not easy for all Londoners to thrive. To buy a house in London, you have to be wealthy or have parents with deep pockets or take on a massive mortgage!
I live in council property, thankfully but if I wanted to buy, it would cost £800 THOUSAND because of my central location and grade listed building (highly desirable)
There are decorations for all tastes here.
You need to check out some famous shops.
Harrods, selfridges, etc
the reason that there are so many video's on the London decorations is because it is where most tourist head too in the UK. all the major UK city's are decorated and have Christmas markets.
Hamley's toy shop was advertized on the open topped Bus (3:58) seconds before you stopped the video to ask about the toy store was called. lol
The rest of the uk has to fund or get fek all. Its alright for london typical greedy london
As others have said below the John Lewis ads are consistently great and deserve their own compilation reaction. I never thought a TV advert could make me cry but they've made it happen. But that's not to say other companies have not made some classics...
Sainsbury's - "1914" (2014)
Irn Bru - "Phenomenal Christmas" aka The Snowman (2007)
Marks and Spencers - "Christmas with love from Mrs Claus" (2016)
Boots - "Special Because" (2014)
Sainsbury's - "Mog’s Christmas Calamity" (2015)
I was in London last week and walking down Oxford street and under the winged angels was so fabulous. I’m going back 21st December so it will feel very christmasy ❤
To be honest, Christmas markets aren't really a traditional thing here in the UK. It's only in recent years that they've started to become popular. If you want to see REAL Christmas markets, you need to go to countries like Germany. The Christmas markets we do have here often tend to have a German theme, which goes to show you their real origins!
German Christmas markets have legendary status worldwide. However, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic also have incredible ones. I’m looking forward to the Vienna one in 2024. 😊
recent years? I remember going to christmas markets every year when I was a kid and that was in the 90s
@@zmadhatter2340 That’s recent to old folk like me! I was born in the 50s 😂😂
@zmadhatter2340 Relatively speaking, the 90s are "recent years". They didn't exist when I was a kid in the 70s. I don't remember them in the 80s either.
@@andybaker2456or me I remember the bloke who sold jacket potatoes out of the truck I also remember toys r us im a kid of the 80s 90s I remember looking at the mcalister home in the home alone movies thinking wow.
After much of old London was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666, a decision was finally made to, basically, be built back as it had been! Nearly all the old narrow streets and buildings were put back as they had been and still exist today.
Love that they decided to do that!
I think that they did come up with some fancy plans but some people just started rebuilding before they could be finalised. Sir Christopher Wren would be the one to look up
Pretty as it all looks and it is pretty with all the decorations and lights, my experience of London at Christmas was that it was so stressful, very crowded (more than this video shows), so much to the point on Oxford street they had police telling you when to cross the roads at various points and on The Tube it was so busy that you didn't have time to stop and think where you needed to go. The food was so expensive and I was aware of pick pockets too. Now this could be any city in any country in the world as pick pockets are no exception to London, but for me I've done London at Christmas once and I'm fine with that. Oh and as with any big city any time of the year always wear comfortable foot ware as you will be on your feet all day walking between places.
The toy shop is Hamleys. My kids are all adults now but my parents used to take them and their cousins to London every Christmas to go to Hamleys, see the lights and visit Father Christmas in Selfridges (a big department store). They took mr and my siblings when we were children too. Fond family memories 😊
Yes, London is always that busy.
If you enjoy British architecture, quaint side streets and Christmas lights I'd definitely recommend you looking at York at Christmas. Very very old architecture, the stunning cathedral and 'the shambles' which are cobbled side street with such old buildings they are actually wonky. It's stunning and so full of history and character.
They were Gambling in London and Paris before America was a Country.
Yeah! If I remember rightly the first casino was built in Italy, but first ever gambling came from China, that they know of at least.
@kezlana6907 Don't be daft Gambling was 1st Recorded by in Britain by Romans in Britain. But I'm sure Gambling was done the British before Romans even set Foot on Britain. As for China I have no doubt what so ever was 1000s of years ago it's a very ancient Race .But specifically Pinpoint where on the world it 1st happened is impossible. But I definitely know it was happening in France and Britain before 1776 .thank you for your information.
@@maxmoore9955 hence me saying "that they know of at least". Of course it can't be known exactly when, its hard to pin point when many things first started, that's why they often go on what was first recorded or can be traced back. But whenever I've looked into the history of gambling, the earliest record or when they say its dated back to, has always said in the Asian region. And that the first known casino was built in Italy.
As others have said Christmas markets are a relatively new thing to the UK, springing up in almost every city over the last 10 years or so. In my city we have a victorian Christmas fayre (going for 40 years or so). Lots of market stalls, fairground and food. The stall holders dress up as Victorians and people come from all over the country. I used to love it as a child but not so appealing as a 30 something with no children 😅
I unexpectedly had a free evening last week and walked around the St James area looking at all the lights on the designer shops. The displays were amazing and the buildings were so beautiful. Fortum and Mason is worth looking at, they had an advent calendar number on each window.
Lots of the telephone boxes have been converted, in my city they are often cash machines.
Walking the West End of London at night in the run up to Christmas is one of life’s joys. Truly. The ugly buildings are left unlit, the beautiful ones perfectly illuminated and all of a sudden you’re in one of the most beautiful cities on earth - a feeling that’s hard to believe when you’re in the cold grey 5 hours of daylight. And if it’s cold, well that’s what all the pubs are for :)
Covent Garden used to be the vegetable and fruit wholesale market in London. The building dates back to 1830. The market relocated to a more accessible site in 1974. The building was listed and saved from redevelopment and reopened as a shopping centre in 1980.
toy store is Hamleys. The Sainsbury's ad of 2014 very special. It's based on a real event during the 1914-18 World War. I have a feeling you have seen it though Steve, but if you don't mind seeing it again ......
Christmas at Kew. Absolutely worth finding a video about. Kew Gardens is well worth a visit at any time of year, but when they've got their Christmas lights up it's really something special.
I loved you reaction to the lights. Worked in London for 20 years, mostly in Mayfair so I know these places like the back of my hand. miss those days and wish I had appreciated them more. it does my heart good to see the city so busy and vibrant after the strange empty place that i saw during lockdown.
You should react to the Birmingham Frankfurt German Christmas market, one of the biggest in Europe and definitely the best, most visited in the UK…. It’s absolutely brilliant… Birmingham was the only UK city that made it in a list of most Christmassy cities in Europe this year also… 🎅🏽🍻🕺🏼🥳
I've seen a compilation of John Lewis Christmas ads , most big stores make mini epics each year . The street lights are usually provided by the Council but the stores do their own . Sadly Christmas isn't what it was in many other places as several big stores have closed since covid .Many London shops , especially the luxury ones are long established and it's a day out for shoppers so they seem relatively unaffected .
John lewis christmas adverts are the absolute best.
But at christmas time is when we most enjoy the adverts 😊
London is a very beautiful city and it’s absolutely huge, but yes, because of its age, there are so many cute streets and alleyways round every turn, and it’s doesn’t feel anything like as big as it is when you’re exploring. The Strand is another fabulous area to visit.
The toy store is Hamleys, the world's largest toy store.
Just a quick note, Steve and everyone, please watch Hannah Ricketts channel. At the moment she is doing Vlogmas, a view of London's streets, hotels and stores at Christmas, but she also does many walking vlogs round London the rest of the year. I am a proud Londoner, born and bred, who loves seeing my home town as it is now. So many memories. This recent video you watched is a few years old I think. One of the little towns near me has a large statue that miraculously gets dressed for Christmas. We also have our knitters that decorate post boxes etc too. You really have to get into the mind-set that the UK is tiny compared to you, probably not as big as the state you live in. Also please remember that UK was bombed to hell in WW2 so there are lots of modern buildings alongside old and extremely old. All our large cities are like that.❤❤❤👵🏴🌹🌲🌲🌲
I miss watching Vlogmas videos ❤️
@jessieb7290 they have been back since the beginning of December , Hannah is doing them again as we all love them.
Hi another good video thank you. People do not realise how HUGE London is, when most tourist think of London, they are really thinking about Central London, which is much smaller and is where most of the touristy stuff is. The video you just reacted to is all in central London. Regent St, Oxford St, Trafalgar Sq, Covent garden, Leicester Sq, etc are all within walking distance of each other. Trafalgar square is also near the Houses of Parliament, the Embankment, etc. All these area have great Christmas lights etc.
But London itself, the actual main city, is made up of 32 boroughs (each run by there own Council) and straddles both North and South of the River Thames, which also runs through central London. Its worth looking at a Map and seeing large London is, when compared to just the inner central London bit. Cheers 8-)
birmingham christmas market is excellent👍
Halloween has been celebrated in the UK for over a thousand years in one form or another during pagan times and Christian .It arrived in the the US from the UK .
Agree but it is not so commercialised as it is in the USA.
@@Sophie.S.. if you have ever tried to scrape out a Turnip to make a lantern for the kids (traditional Scottish style ) with a candle inside it .all I can say is God bless America and Pumpkins (So much easier ) .
@@paolow1299 and put the turnips out side to ward off evil spirits the same as decorating the trees to keep out bad spirits.it was prince albert who brought trees inside before that out side
@@anncolyer6379 Correct gold star on your exercise book .
@@Sophie.S..Christmas in the UK was once a religious celebration but has changed over the years - just like Easter and Halloween wherever they are celebrated!
Tim makes some great travel videos! Really informative for tourists. And yes my home town of London is absolutely the most beautiful city at Christmas 🥰. The toy store is Hamleys and it’s every kids dream but it’s soooooo over priced
Hope you all have a lovely Christmas. Looking forward to next year’s videos
Lovely video. Thanks guys.
Bond Street and New Bond street are different streets, hence why the word New is in it. Americans seem to not understand this, as I live in Jersey and they always think I mean New Jersey. I then have to explain that Jersey is in the Channel Islands which is British and 16 miles off the coast of France. the reason New Jersey is called that, is because our Governor founded New Jersey.
Love Jersey, many boat trips from Weymouth bay.
Don't forget that London is not the only City in the UK. Unfortunately, most Americans seem to think so, it's like us thinking New York is the only City in America. We get most of the snow in northern England and Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow have great Xmas Markets.
I'm down in devon and I don't recognise london at all as my capital.
Oh no, we definitely know there are more cities than just London :)
I wish people would realise London is not the be all and end of the UK. So, so many better places to visit which are far prettier
@@chucky2316 I agree mate, I'm up in mid-Northumberland and my 2 closest cities are Newcastle and Edinburgh, although I am not a city lover. 🦉🦢🦋🌺🎣♻
@@davehogg63 a beautiful part of the world you are in. I have been to London it is alien to me and its nothing to write home about in all honesty people are ignorant aswell nobody says good morning or acknowledges you in anyway like other parts of the country .its also expensive
I love your reactions - have a wonderful Christmas 🎄⭐️🤗🤗
Liberty's is my favorite in London, all the staircases and balconies are carved oak and very, very old, It's a black and white timber building and is beautiful all year but the Christmas decorations are special
Hi, the toy store is called Hamleys
Check out the Edinburgh Xmas Market. Voted the most beautiful in the UK this year 😊
I'm english and good on you I detest london
@chucky2316 I'm not a fan either. Just too busy for me. I was the same with New York, hated that too, too busy and erratic.
Always love your shows, thank you and Happy Christmas to the three of you :-)
In many towns and cities telephone boxes are often used to house mobile defibrillators. In many small towns and villages people set the up as mini libraries/book exchanges, and other similar things.
I haven’t seen one with a working phone for a long time.
Most if not all major Cities and large towns now have a walking/shopping area and I guess you could call them Outdoor Shopping Malls
Thank You for the Gift Offer Steve, but I am not a user of that Program.
Welcome to the West End of Central London! He started on Regent Street, then the first Department store (on Oxford Street) is Selfridges. That whole run of windows is their Christmas Display. Then he went to Covent Garden and the piazza is very famous. However, the market was originally well known for flowers and food so you see they reflect that history on the tree with the fresh fruit and spices. Then he went to Leicester Square. All of the areas he's walked around so far is actually all very walkable. Each station name denotes an old village or town area in London which is why each area looks a little different. This area is also called Theatreland which is why there are loads of street performers. The area itself is mostly around 17th Century from memory. New Bond Street is very exclusive and yes just like the Rodeo Drive type stores there. I lived there for 16 years and love London so much. And yes Lindsay, they do have some really good charity shops if you know where they are! So many designer outfits can be found at really good prices. Not in season but still great items usually worn once.
Excellent video both of you. Take care . Steve.
Good morning Steve and Lindsay!
Glenn lives not far from me. Edenbridge is in Kent, which is next to my county Sussex.
I used to go to Edenbridge a lot when I was little with my parents. They owned a caravan so we'd tow that behind us and go off for weekends. For a two-night camping trip, somewhere within an hour's driving was ideal, so we'd often go to Kent.
For longer holidays we'd take the caravan on the ferry to France (only 26 miles from England) and spend a few nights in each of, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium etc. We'd also go to Scotland, Wales or all over England.
Tudor England is my favourite period in history, and Anne Boleyn is one of the Tudor women I most admire. As Glenn told you, Hever Castle, (pronounced HEEE VER) is very close to Edenbridge and is one of my favourite places to visit. It was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn.
You should definitely check it out as it's soooo pretty, and set in beautiful grounds with a huge boating lake.
During the Summer they hold jousting tournaments with reenactment actors and it's good fun to watch. They encourage all the children to yell and cheer for the blues or reds, and you can buy a kid's T-shirt in blue or red from the gift shop.
Can't wait for you 3 to make it over. You are not gonna want to go home I promise you!
And we probably won't let you leave anyway! 😁 xxx
PS: The huge Christmas tree is a yearly gift from Oslo, Norway's capital, for England keeping their Royal Family safe during WWII.
London is twice the size of New York, but has half as many residents. New York has Central Park, but London is covered in green spaces, tons of Royal Parks (former grounds of palaces given over to public to enjoy) plus lots of other parks, trails, nature reserves, canal walks etc.
Yes Hamleys is the famous toy store.
Harrod's, John Lewis, Selfridge's etc are all department stores, mostly featuring higher-end goods, particularly Harrod's!
Although, even so, you can get some impressive luxury Christmas gifts in Harrods if you wanted to spoil someone special. Things like beautifully decorated keepsake Christmas tins full of biscuits, chocolates or sweet treats, for £20 or under. Yes, much more expensive than other similar products from cheaper stores, but still very reasonable for a luxury gift for a loved one.
Yes most of London is walkable, depending on how far you can walk obviously. I couldn't do it these days due to illness, but I was up there walking it all just over a decade ago.
You can walk from The South Bank, the strip along the Thames (pronounced TEMS) with the London Eye on, stroll along to Westminster Bridge, Cross the Thames looking directly at The Houses of Parliament and Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).
Behind those is Westminster Abbey. Keep walking until you get to St. James's Park, Green Park, and then Buckingham Palace.
Behind and to the left ish of Buckingham Palace is the areas of Soho, Mayfair and Kensington, very rich areas, where you'll find Harrod's, Selfridge's, John Lewis, the Natural History Museum, Hyde Park etc.
*BTW Hyde Park does a Winter Wonderland every Christmas, with ice skating rink, and the lights there are incredible and truly magical. Sophia would love it there!
From Soho, you can continue right in a clockwise direction, circling back past Buckingham Palace, stroll up The Mall, and this will lead you to Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Chinatown, Covent Garden, and to the right is Charing Cross, leading you out to The Embankment, the strip beside the Thames, that is opposite where you started.
If you wanted to walk ALL of that it would take you 2 hours or less, depending on tourist levels and if you get sidetracked looking at stuff, 😂. But, if you're in London for a week, this whole "loop" is where the majority of the tourist attractions are, so you could walk to one section every day, and visit a museum or shops or park etc per day. As an example, Big Ben to Buckingham Palace is easily walkable in under half an hour.
Lastly, yes Lindsay, we do have Casinos! Don't believe the hype about us all being posh, British people work to live, not live to work, and our free time is very much spent enjoying ourselves! Family, friends, days out, picnics, pubs, restaurants, amusement arcades, theme parks, castles, seaside, funfairs, casinos, race tracks, nightclubs, social clubs....having fun is very much the point of our existence. 😂
Hope that answers most of your questions. xxxxx
I am in Sussex too
@@jillybrooke29 😁 I was born in Crawley, West Sussex, and lived there til I was 36, then moved to East Sussex, and live near Eastbourne, I love being closer to the sea. Whereabouts are you? 😘
@@tamielizabethallaway2413 Eastbourne from 2001 😊 born in London
@@jillybrooke29 you're in Eastbourne? 😁 My parents are from London, proper Cockneys, Dad born in Shoreditch and Mum born in Wapping. Both my brothers were born in Stepney I believe, or thereabouts. Then my Dad's firm opened an office in Crawley, so he accepted promotion and pay rise, and they moved, got a 3 bedroom council house, with it's own garage, driveway and front and back gardens. My Mum thought it was a PALACE after living in a "flat" that had 3 rooms! Bless her. They moved down in 1969, and I was born in Crawley in 1970. We spent many weekends back in London though, visiting my Nan and Granddad, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins etc. Many still live in London, others moved out to Kent and Essex, some are in Devon and Norfolk too now. The 1970's and 1980's were crammed with Weddings, milestone Anniversaries, Engagements, 18th / 21st / 40th / 50th birthday parties etc, and it seemed like every other weekend we were driving up to London for another family do! I was a Bridesmaid 6 times! I still remember sitting in the back of the car, around midnight ish, my Dad driving us home with a cigarette in his hand, me sitting on my Mum's lap in the back, no seatbelts! She'd also be smoking a cigarette. I'd snuggle into her, my layers of satin and tulle of my Bridesmaid or Party dress all crumpled and slightly scratchy against my legs, and fall asleep with the smell of her red leather coat, her mint Wrigley's chewing gum, mingled in with the smell of cigarette smoke. Ahhh one of my favourite childhood smell combos! I told her once a few years ago, and she was horrified that a vivid childhood memory of mine was of her smoking! 🤣
Oh those were the days! 😁
@@tamielizabethallaway2413 My dad was born in East Ham, Essex then but his family moved back to Camberwell where I was born, mum was born in Thornton Heath, Croydon, Surrey oh and my mum chewed gum too !
London is massive
You are two BEAUTIFUL SOULS
London has grown as a collection of villages - I live here best city in the world so much to see and do with fantastic buildings and history
To be honest the local councils have been spending as much as the light so was much better last year but this year have only put up half the amount due to the financial crises especially as the electricity prices have gone through the roof.
Well London steals it's money instead of earning it so they can afford these lights
Very nice if you live in London,the rest of the country has fek all.
Used to be crammed with beautiful lights
@@joem664Not true. Many small towns across the country have lights and beautiful Christmas decorations as well as a big lit tree. The tree in my small town of March (Fenland, Cambridgeshire) has gone viral this year and even appeared on the main media in Australia!!! Google 'wonky tree' 😂😂
@@joem664birmingham and Manchester and Portsmouth look lovely at Christmas
The London Mare (mayor) prefers the name Winter Festival and encourages white public street lighting only, not traditional Christmas lights. so as not to offend others now forming the majority of people in our capital.
100%
Covent garden is no longer a market but more of a novelty place all year round, it has bars restaurants and street perfomers that are good fun in it's own unique and cool vibe.
I live in Fife, Scotland and I just watched Clan Broonford's walk around the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. The lights in the Gardens are absolutely beautiful. Well worth watching.
In the UK you will see pay phones everywhere across the country.
We have an old law in the UK, that requires the national phone company to provide and maintain pay phones.
So they can be used by any member of public, during an emergency.
Well, they are certainly disappearing from the more remote places. So obviously, that isn't mandated anymore. Probably the minute it breaks, they just sell it off to the local council for £1.
Just last week I actually saw someone using a payphone in town. It must be at least 10 years since the previous occasion. Haven't used one myself since probably the 90's. Really miss that smell! Lol.
BT are removing land lines to payphones and houses starting next year
London is twice the size of NEW YORK CITY,,,, so what is here is not just in one space ,,,,
Hi guys, check out Brockham fireworks display, there are plenty of video's on CZcams.
Brockham is a tiny village in Surrey, near to Dorking and Reigate..
People come from miles away too see the best display in Southern England..
The area in Surrey is beautiful, there are loads of video's of walks and a lot of history..
I am from Reigate, although not living there now, I miss the Town of my birth..
Covent Garden in pre reformation times was a convent. After the dissolution of the monasteries the convent went and the name gradually became Covent garden.
I've been to both New York and London at Christmas. New York simply cannot compare to London. New York is pretty disappointing. It looks good in all the Christmas movies. But in reality it's pretty dull and soulless.
Good to know! haha
Plus we have the underground in London, so you always know where you are cause you can read maps that are up on walls, or inside the trains.
NYC is so confusing cause instead of one street you need to learn two. It’s like 5th street and 47th avenue. Things like that. It’s probably wrong logistically, but you know my point. Whereas in London, it’s more “we’re on Oxford street”.
Haven’t been to London in ages, but back in the day you’d also have cops on most streets to prevent crime. They don’t do that in NYC.
Fortnum and Mason is the shop that the late Queen got her Christmas stuff from. Never been able to afford to go in there. I know I wouldn’t be able to afford anything, so I’ve never been in.
@@jessieb7290 New York has an underground too. They call it the subway. They have police on the streets in New York too. They walk around in pairs. I think New York is easier to navigate than London as London is a mesh of 💩 that never made sense. Where American cities are a simple block systems.
really nice festive lights, pity a lot of people can't afford to keep their heating, lights, cookers. on because of Tory policy
The Grinch - surely we might keep politics out of the celebration of Christ's Nativity!
Ken is labour's Khan typical London bloke he is stealing off the motorist
@@t.a.k.palfrey3882 love to keep politics out of Xmas, but with at least 2 homeless deaths it kind of makes the turkey stick in my throat
@@chucky2316 agree with that mind you can’t stand the labour leader Starmer, rather have had Tony Benn if he was still alive
What a lovely couple you are. Love the channel guys
London is made up of many small boroughs and it is magnificent at Christmas. Covent Garden is an area full of food stalls, entertainment a great place to spend time.
Not one display showing the true reason we celebrate Christmas the birth of Christ, thanks Londoners especially you Khan.
Khan is a 🎉🎉🎉🎉
How can you blame the mayor for decorative style that has been the same for two hundred years. The displays would have been similar under Johnson (Tory) and Ken Livingston (labour). You show your own bigotry for criticising a Muslim mayor for doing what a Christian (nominally) mayor and an atheist mayor have overseen. Add on the fact that most of these lights are put up by businesses or local councils.
@@jeremyd9624 it’s Khan who’s the racist and bigot. Remember the poster he put up of a white British family saying it wasn’t the true face of London. He’s ruined London changing road names etc. I’m from SW London and I don’t recognise the place. He’a done sod all about the black youths with their knife crime and gang culture. He’s only interested in his own muslim brethren.
Could you point to what cities base their displays on the birth of christ? I am pretty certain very few places do, nor have they for decades. Is that the fault of the London Mayor? Even majority white indigenous Brits celebrate it in a pagan, not Christian way.
London at Christmas is magical. As kids we were always taken in to town to catch a bus at Marble Arch,sit upstairs at the front and just do the bus route down Oxford st, regents st, Piccadilly etc.
I moved Fortnum & Mason at Xmas too
London ? Well, who isn`t familiar with being in London over here ? A few years back I was living in EIRE ( Republic of Ireland ) and went to Dublin about a week before Christmas Day. It was amazing. In St. Stephen`s Centre ( just next to St. Stephen`s Square in the centre of the city ) there was an entire - philharmonic - Orchestra playing Christmas carols and completely free of charge. Which is just as well - Dublin being an expensive city.
But that Carol Service with that Orchestra was simply beautiful. It was quality to be both seen and heard.
I love these videos with Lyndsey too. Keep them coming !
London is very walkable! Many very old narrow streets. Some still cobbled. Most have been there since the rebuilding after the great fire of London. Some rebuilt after the Blitz. I have walked all over the centre.
I live out in the countryside, but my partner and I are off for a weekend trip to London in about 20 minutes! Looking forward to it even more after watching this 😎 🎄
When you say countryside 😂
You're right, central London is a collection of historic neighbourhoods with different characters. London wasn't planned, it evolved. The Great Fire of London in 1666 gave the city the opportunity for a grand redesign but people objected and it was rebuilt mostly as it was.
I’ll be there on 23rd and 24th Dec this year. Can’t wait. London is so beautiful and busy at Christmas.
Hamleys is the famous London toy store in Regent Street. A big event when I was a child in the 60s was for my old dad to drive around London to see the Christmas lights.❤
The Morrisons Xmas advert - this years -with the singing oven gloves (pot holders I believe you call them in the US) just makes me laugh lol
London's streetplan was originally laid out by the winding paths of cows to their watering holes sometimes thousands of years ago (hence why the city has so many 'circuses' where several streets meet). These natural paths became with time, roads then streets. The Great Fire of 1666 offered a new opportunity to build on straight lines but the king delayed and people soon rebuilt where their old houses once stood. The height regulations of the Victorian era also ensured that buildings didn't top the palaces, and the city is notorious for disliking highrises (it demolished 400 of them in the '80s and 90s), though they've now come roaring back. This has resulted in a city with more people than NYC, but on an intimate, human scale -its rare one ever gets a straight street or vista to gauge how huge the place actually is. Smaller cities like Manchester can sometimes feel bigger at street level (no height limit and grid plan), but London is absolutely mined with interest, in hidden nooks and corners, protected alleys, pocket parks and myriad art. It's said Paris -long London's rival -is the world's most beautiful city with its radial streets and unified, intricate design, but London is the world's most interesting. The mix of architecture is crazy.
One thing that does remind people how big the city is are the crowds -although residential density is skewed by the city being one third parkland (in reality Brits endue the smallest average housing in the West, smaller than even the Japanese), the place still absolutely heaves, more than any city in the West. 20 million visitors come from abroad each year (often the highest number in the world) and something like 300 million daytrip in. Some tube stations have a capacity of 100,000 yet still close down every 5 days due to overcrowding, Oxford St alone gets 550,000 visitors each day, and the Soho entertainment district sees that each night. There are over 1 million stadium seats (and 6 mega stadia with 60,000-90,000 capacity) plus 1 million theatre seats. 7 international airports make it the worlds biggest hub, with up to 180 million passengers (2018).
Makes me wonder where the city council stores all the lights! I love visiting New Bond St.. Tiffany & Co always have the most beautiful Christmas displays!
Going up to London to see the Lights was a BIG treat when I was a kid. …a loooonng time ago now😂
Covent Garden used to be a fruit, vegetable and flower market (think My Fair Lady), I used to work nearby and was often given a bunch of carrots. This market was trade and everything was in bulk, except my bunch of carrots. They moved the market to the other side of the Thames, at Nine Elms, in the 80s I believe. The area then became a sort of boutique shopping area with an assortment of cafes, restaurant's, the London Transport Museum was also there but I think that's been moved, not sure. The name of the market came from a convent that used to stand on that spot a few hundred years ago.
Hamley's is the big toy store in London and you first paused your narration right on it at 3.59. Great to watch you guys enjoying the UK. See you when you get here! 🙂
I have lived in London all my life, but rarely ever go into Central London. I think though if I get time this year I might venture inside and see the Christmas lights. Great video,
Hamleys, is the toy store you're thinking about. Merry Christmas.
He always tells you which store he is in ....... but you are so excited you talk over that part of the narration!
The Regent street lights are best viewed from the front seats up top of a double decker bus (after rush hour).
London is like loads of little villages joined together. Each area has its own history and identity.
lol! Steve was so excited he paused the video and asked what the famous toy store is half a second after a bright red bus emblazoned with the word HAMLEYS all over it flashed up!
(Harrods does have a really good toy department too. We used to go to both Harrods and Hamleys as kids and both blew us away!)
Steve...Hamleys! They've just shown it as you paused the video! Your kid would love it!!!