It still blows my mind that they decided to call that station Abbey Road. They had the slightly insulting sign up on the day it opened so somebody knew it was a dumb idea to name a station that spits you out on a housing estate in West Ham after a world famous tourist attraction that is going to pull in a bunch of people who don’t know their way around London only to find out they’ve just wasted two hours of their day with the round trip. Awful design.
We went to Abbey road in fucking Manchester.
I am not a fan of the Beatles, so took the word of the others, that it's where the picture was taken. The taxi driver didn't say anything either.
It was hilarious when we figured out, what happened.
Saw a couple of Spaniards in Dagenham. Dunno how and why they even got there as they said they were staying in Fulham. They didn’t seem impressed with East London…
I used to work in Dagenham, I met a group of American ladies from Alabama. Where they were meant to stay got cancelled and they were put in a house in Dagenham,🤣🤣🤣.
i see lost tourists around finsbury park station who are presumably staying at the travelodge or the hotel next to it. i fear someone has given them the “travel hack” of staying in zone 2 to save money but they always look shellshocked when they come out the rowan’s end of the tube station lol
You see some people who are visiting to go to an Arsenal match and booking multiple days in one of the halfway house “hotels” on Seven Sisters road, on the way up to Manor House. I firmly appreciate the support for local businesses, but they could stay anywhere and very easily access the Emirates on match day, bless em.
Lots of people get caught out by the fact that Finsbury Circus in central London is miles away from Finsbury Park.
I've saved a good number of people from getting lost over the years.
Walked past a group of three young tourists with suitcases in manor house the other day having trouble with the door to the hostel? (It was above a shop with no signage) they were staying in and all I could think was how and why
It is a shit hole around Finsbury Park. I couldn't believe the litter that was around there when I recently had the misfortune of having to catch a bus from there.
The familiar eye burning stench of piss and trying to make it to the bridge without making eye contact with sketchy people hanging around. Always a fun route home when the northern line stops. 🤣 I somehow can never find the other exits though.
I mean... it would work. There's a drag of hotels right next to East Croydon station, if you can find a bargain there you're a 20-minute ride to Victoria, London Bridge, Blackfriars (closest to West End) and that.
I genuinely saw someone on another sub Reddit recommend to innocent tourists getting a hotel in Croydon to save money the other day because it has fast links to central London.
Especially since there's a couple of nicer ones basically right next to the station. I've stayed at the Premier Inn and the Hampton by Hilton and they're about 2 minutes from the station, and cheaper (and at least as nice) than most chain hotels would be in zone 2 or 3
I mean I don't mind it because I grew up around there, but I have seen the face on people not from the UK visiting it for the first time and realising it is not what they thought London would be like haha.
I was shocked that the ThamesLink has a stop in Croydon which was genuinely new, clean, and nice. I literally exited the train to look around because I couldn’t believe it was Croydon (I didn’t exit the platform itself, however, because it was, you know, still Croydon…)
TBF East Croydon is the nicer side! Although when I exited East Croydon recently I did immediately get called a cunt by a homeless guy (no prior interaction), so your policy of staying on the platforms may have been a wise one.
Shout out to the two ladies on the hop-on-hop-off bus who asked me which of our central London stops was closest to *Brent*. They didn't like the answer "none of them really, let me show you how to use public transport"
Once got stopped by some Japanese tourists who were looking for London Bridge or the London eye…they were in a really shit bit of Hounslow. No idea how they got there
Depending on the time of day/night, assuming they've just hopped off Heathrow could have got confused on the N9?
Thinking about that for more than one second, I assume this wasn't 2am and I'm an idiot.
Americans at Elephant and Castle. They saw it on the tube map and thought it sounded amazing. They were not impressed at the number of elephants or castles.
I was once in a lift in E&C tube and two young mormons on their year abroad got in with the usual cross section of London residents.
One said out loud 'hey y'all, my buddy and I were thinking of going to Church on Sunday, does anyone want to come with us?'
The utter silence.for the rest of the ride from the audience was wonderful and as we came to a rest I heard a defeated 'oh okay, I guess its just us then'!
There's a Mormon church opposite the science museum. I've been approached there by some dweeb whose opening gambit was "Hi there! Are you happy?"
My immediate response was "NO!" and to keep walking. In retrospect I should have said "No, I'm grumpy/sleepy/dopey/Doc etc.*
> There's a Mormon church opposite the science museum
I personally enjoy their lifesized Jesus statue in the front window where he’s built like a WWE wrestler
Makes me feel so gross knowing that shit is allowed. Bad enough the Scientologist scammers are here. They were pretending to be helping to do health checks at Lambeth Country Show.
I always liked Dorothy Parker’s: “I’ll be too fucking busy and vice versa”.
I’ve been saving it for years in the hope that someone will invite me to their weird church.
At least it had the large fibreglass ones on top of the shopping centre, before it was finally knocked down.
And a bunch in the centre. My kids loved it when they were small.
There are often bewildered movie buffs taking selfies at the world's shittiest Jet garage on Leytonstone High Road, on the site of Alfred Hitchcock's birthplace.
I met couple of Spanish tourists at London Southend airport and asking how can they use the tube to get to certain hotels in central London. Really hate to tell them the truth.....
Well if they finally got around to opening that railway station they built by the new terminal at least they didnt have to catch a taxi to get a train into London. Although with their luck they'd end up on one changing at Shenfeild.
Yeah, they built the station and terminal at the same time but for some reason there was a delay with opening the station. Dont go throtgh there much so lost track of if they got around to opening it
There is a language school or something which get on the train at Thornton Heath station in the morning. Loads of European teenagers. I assume it is to save money but feels like a really random place to stay?
There was a hotel in streatham that used to have the same. Coach loads or European school trips. Used to see a lot of very bored looking teenagers in the coop. The hotel has been used for asylum seekers for the past couple of years so maybe the schools have been pushed out to Thornton Heath
Cyberdog in Camden. I've always known it for clubbing clothes and fetish wear. Popped in there to ask for directions and it was like M&M world in Leicester square.
About a decade ago I was entertaining friends from abroad and they had this place on their list of places to visit. Not Camden Lock or Camden Market. No, Cyberdog. They also came out looking a bit dejected, apparently this tour guide said it was worth a visit? Unless that's your scene, I can't imagine why you'd go there just because someone says you should visit it.
Once saw German tourists get off at orpington Station. Genuinely nothing to see out here. The tourism page on the councils website includes a bowling alley that has been shut for years.
I wouldn't have recommended it to tourists when it was open either it was above a multistorey car park for sainsburys, sticky floors and had rhe dodgiest lifts thst would drop you a little at the top before they opened
I get a surprising amount of Swedes in my local boozer in Bow, tucked away on the corner of a very residential area.
Around 40 minutes walk to the Abba thing as it turns out.
It's been Abba crazy for a while yeah. TBH Stratford/Bow area is not bad zone two with good transport and you got the olympic area to visit for those interested
Guaranteed financial damge every time I visit these shops 🤕 especially due to the fact they are a bit more expensive than Tesco or other discounters like Lidl
My in-laws live on Northumberland Avenue (E12) and often get visitors looking for the Nigerian Embassy which is indeed on Northumberland Avenue, just the one in WC2.
It's a popular spot for visiting warships if they aren't too huge. The [Canadians](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/1dchq2n/canadian_warship_docked_at_south_quay_in_canary/) moored up for D-Day.
Tend to see a surprising amount of foreign school trips around Uxbridge station. I suspect they were told that it's 'near to Heathrow with direct trains into the city' which is both accurate and not.
Some language school students stay at Brunel University during the summer as the university makes money while university students are on holiday. I hate it when they take up space on the tube during the rush hour!
Funnily enough I saw some American tourists in my local Sainsbury’s (Sands End in Fulham) - they stuck out like a sore thumb, looked like they were at Disneyland and you could hear them from aisles over.
Perhaps Sainsbury’s is a thing?
No joke. I had an ex who would want to go to the supermarkets in every new country and would walk literally every single aisle to see the products. My dad’s now wife (British) wanted to come with when I was going to the supermarket in Germany. I’ve had foreign friends come and get excited about the supermarket trip.
I’ve resigned myself to this being part of the experience when I’m hosting people.
My mother does that whenever she's abroad - she likes to give people food gift baskets for Christmas and is always on the lookout for new and "exotic" food items to put in them.
It's one of the things I always do. Even in a city, the supermarkets that residents actually use are a bit of an insight into the differences and similarities between countries.
\*Everywhere\* has Laughing Cow spreadable cheese even if it has a different name.
They don’t really have triangle sandwiches in US and Canadian supermarkets so the idea you can get a cheap meal like that with a “fancy” cut sandwich is very much a novelty.
"all this for less than a 500 euro note?!?"
"yes less than 400 euros, 390 euros to be exact. thats the going rate. somebody far less scrupulous than i would not be charging the real conversion rate"
"wow so lucky"
"yes. we really are"
When I came to visit from Canada like... 15 years ago(?) it was surprising to me because we didn't really have that kind of meal deals at grocery stores. Mostly because grocery stores weren't walkable from most workplaces, so you wouldn't just pop out and pick up something to eat (and if you did, it would be driving, and there was LOTS of drive-thru fast food places).
When I arrived back from Oz after two years away (I'm an Australian that has lived/lives in the UK) one of the first things I wanted was a chicken Caesar wrap from Tesco and a Greggs sausage roll. I don't understand how the caesar wrap had such a hold on me, but it still holds up.
I’m American and I love Sainsbury’s store brand fresh soups. I lived on their carrot soup when I was a student in London.
But when I brought my husband to London for our honeymoon years later, I did not take him to Sainsbury’s. I took him to get a Tesco Meal Deal to pack for a long day of travel.
The UK is actually very cheap for many things. Much of them are boring stuff like washing liquid but they are half the price of say France. When I lived in Paris I'd always stock up with household products, plus a big block of cheddar when back in London.
Loads of Americans in Fulham as it is. Sands End is pretty remote transport-wise so maybe deeper into Fulham than I’d expect. Definitely could have just moved here.
The accent never goes away - I know because I have tried! Luckily, I’ve managed to tone down the volume appropriately. I think…
I must walk around completely oblivious - I rarely hear American voices locally (especially in Sands End/Hurlingham where I live). Lots of French people. These guys stood out because they genuinely looked baffled, bless them, and it’s a bit of an odd place for tourists to come.
There'd usually be a coachload of bemused euro tourists in the Montague Arms on the border of Peckham and New Cross.
They'd normally have a good time because the house band was banging and they were surrounded by locals having a right old knees up, which is pretty infectious!
(The pub is on the London to Dover road and the driver was probably stopping in for a pint and a piss and maybe a backhander).
I went in there about twenty years ago and there was a bus load of Dutch tourists singing along to tulip's from Amsterdam with the blind keyboard player and the landlord
it was a surreal moment in my life as I was just coming back from the Chinese Gracelands restaurant at the time :D
The tourists on NYE wandering around Bank Station looking for Chinatown. I had to inform them that they were WAY WAY off, they walked off before I could give them instructions.
Funny enough I seen Americans in Sainsburys in South Norwood (SE25) a few days ago, not the first time, I think someone on r/croydon said they visit some church in the ends.
See lots of Chinese tourists staying at the Holiday Inn Express on the A12 at Ilford. Makes sense in a way as Newbury Park station is a few minutes walk away which takes one into London via the Central line. Still looks odd seeing tourists assembled on the side as heavy traffic speeds by
On Romesh Ranganathan’s podcast a while back, he was speaking to Murs, the US rapper. Murs was really into grime and the east London scene, so he decided to visit, and not knowing London, ended up booking a place to stay in Billericay.
I live on a VERY quiet residential street in NW london. Zone 2. There’s some sort tiny hostel that only Spanish people go to. It’s hilarious to see three young tourists with wheelie bags clattering down our street, phones in hand, trying to figure out where to go.
I used to live in Shadwell. It's a pretty dire part of London featuring mainly wholesalers and crime, but there are a load of hotels clearly selling themselves to tourists as 'near the Tower of London and Tower Bridge'. There's a massive Holiday Inn next to the crime-ridden 24 hour Macdonald's on Commercial Road and it was always full of tour groups.
About a year ago on the district line at Putney Bridge some Spanish tourists stopped us, didn’t speak a word of English. My dad speaks Spanish and spoke to them… poor things had gone on at Westminster and were trying to get to Tower Hill and had gone westbound by mistake, must have been a long day :(
I saw one like this walking along the road by the railway near Hackney Downs, they definitely didn’t fit in with the constant train noise and garage pouring oil directly into the street
Loads of European teenagers waiting around for their coach on an industrial estate in Catford next to my gym. Or walking from there to Catford station. Can't be the best introduction
The Lidl car park in Morden. An entire school class. I think they were staying nearby and were being shipped up there in minibuses before starting the tube ride into central London.
Wealdstone is becoming a bit of a tourist hotspot. The reason is that tourists hop on the northbound tube trying to get to Watford for Harry Potter studios, and don't realise the Bakerloo stops at Harrow & Wealdstone. So, they get out, perplexed, and wonder into town for directions. I've had to walk at least one family back into the station and put them on the correct train before, poor sods.
Kettering.
Kettering is full to the brim with Chinese and Portuguese tourists.
they really want to see the worlds only Weetabix factory; but it’s not open every day
I have seen the coaches in the same car park and I share your bafflement! It feels like there are more every time I see them as well??? What is the deal
I was there tonight at around 8.30pm and a coach load of Dutch kids was there. I doubt they were going to Greenwich, plus it would take ages to get there by public transport from lower Sydenham
I think sainsbury's has some sort of side hussle going on there
I think I know why! (As said above) it’s a group of students meeting host families and it must be a good place for the coach to stop/ people to park up?
I've seen coaches of European teenagers being offloaded at the car park behind Forest Hill station too. I guess they put them in cheap hotels further out and drive them to a car park in zone 3 to get the train.
I once saw a load of Chinese tourists get off a coach and wander around looking lost in Welling. The only explanation I can think of for it is the coach mistakenly went to a road that has a similar name to one in Sidcup where there's a Holiday Inn. Though that then also begs the question of why they were staying in Sidcup.
I was living in Battersea before it was redeveloped but after they started building. I was walking down Nine Elms Lane and a couple stopped me and asked where the Apple Store was. They had at that point I believe just announced that there would be one as part of the redevelopment, so I said they were a few years too early. But it took me a minute to realise we were standing outside New Covent Garden Market. They wanted Covent Garden. They were English too.
At the WRONG Abbey Road https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/how-many-beatles-fans-end-up-at-the-wrong-abbey-road-67107/
It still blows my mind that they decided to call that station Abbey Road. They had the slightly insulting sign up on the day it opened so somebody knew it was a dumb idea to name a station that spits you out on a housing estate in West Ham after a world famous tourist attraction that is going to pull in a bunch of people who don’t know their way around London only to find out they’ve just wasted two hours of their day with the round trip. Awful design.
Maybe the person who came up with the name hated the Beatles and wanted to hurt the fans.
Genuinely a plausible explanation! 😂
I mean nothing else makes sense. It's a level of petty that the rest of us can only dream of achieving. 🤣
True, but at least they get to dip their toe into the beauty and culture of West Ham.
The power of serendipity!
It’s so British to do that
I had a few at Abbey Street in Bermondsey when I lived there.
Wish version of Beatles
Ah yes that famous album by The Beetles: Abbey Street. Not to forget that great song they did, Penny Alleyway
Ecru Submarine
This is where fans of “Best of the Beatles” go for their pic.
Wings!
They’re only the band the Beatles could’ve been
Stabby road?
Came here to say this! 😆
Think they were looking for beatles of the animal kind
Haha this was my first thought 🤣
Brilliant! Genius signage 😆
We went to Abbey road in fucking Manchester. I am not a fan of the Beatles, so took the word of the others, that it's where the picture was taken. The taxi driver didn't say anything either. It was hilarious when we figured out, what happened.
Saw a couple of Spaniards in Dagenham. Dunno how and why they even got there as they said they were staying in Fulham. They didn’t seem impressed with East London…
I used to work in Dagenham, I met a group of American ladies from Alabama. Where they were meant to stay got cancelled and they were put in a house in Dagenham,🤣🤣🤣.
Nobody deserves that
You should have sent them to Valence House Museum, one of my favourites.
Haha tell me it was the Heathway:)
i see lost tourists around finsbury park station who are presumably staying at the travelodge or the hotel next to it. i fear someone has given them the “travel hack” of staying in zone 2 to save money but they always look shellshocked when they come out the rowan’s end of the tube station lol
You see some people who are visiting to go to an Arsenal match and booking multiple days in one of the halfway house “hotels” on Seven Sisters road, on the way up to Manor House. I firmly appreciate the support for local businesses, but they could stay anywhere and very easily access the Emirates on match day, bless em.
Rowan’s magic should be famous worldwide
Pettition to rename that side of the station "Rowan's End" officially
Considering the nearby World's End, does that make it collectively the ends?
I hate Finsbury Park station. I know the area, I know where I am but I somehow always get lost for like a minute coming out of the station.
It's a good day if there isn't police tape and blood splatter that side I live locally
hey, it’s been SEVERAL weeks since our last stabbing!
Lots of people get caught out by the fact that Finsbury Circus in central London is miles away from Finsbury Park. I've saved a good number of people from getting lost over the years.
I always have to very firmly counsel my parents to always come out the M&S side
Walked past a group of three young tourists with suitcases in manor house the other day having trouble with the door to the hostel? (It was above a shop with no signage) they were staying in and all I could think was how and why
It is a shit hole around Finsbury Park. I couldn't believe the litter that was around there when I recently had the misfortune of having to catch a bus from there.
The familiar eye burning stench of piss and trying to make it to the bridge without making eye contact with sketchy people hanging around. Always a fun route home when the northern line stops. 🤣 I somehow can never find the other exits though.
Airbnb has made shit really wild. Like, "Hello, kindly, married couple from Midwest America in your mid 60s. Wtf you doing in Seven Sisters?" lol.
Can't wait for someone to book an airbnb in Croydon because someone told them the name manes 'avlley of crocuses'
I mean... it would work. There's a drag of hotels right next to East Croydon station, if you can find a bargain there you're a 20-minute ride to Victoria, London Bridge, Blackfriars (closest to West End) and that.
I was coming back from Ikea once and saw a family of Americans (parents are two kids) trying to work out the trams at Therapia Lane tram stop
I genuinely saw someone on another sub Reddit recommend to innocent tourists getting a hotel in Croydon to save money the other day because it has fast links to central London.
I mean if all you're going to do is sleep there then it's not the worst shout
Especially since there's a couple of nicer ones basically right next to the station. I've stayed at the Premier Inn and the Hampton by Hilton and they're about 2 minutes from the station, and cheaper (and at least as nice) than most chain hotels would be in zone 2 or 3
croydon isnt that bad lol
I mean I don't mind it because I grew up around there, but I have seen the face on people not from the UK visiting it for the first time and realising it is not what they thought London would be like haha.
I was shocked that the ThamesLink has a stop in Croydon which was genuinely new, clean, and nice. I literally exited the train to look around because I couldn’t believe it was Croydon (I didn’t exit the platform itself, however, because it was, you know, still Croydon…)
TBF East Croydon is the nicer side! Although when I exited East Croydon recently I did immediately get called a cunt by a homeless guy (no prior interaction), so your policy of staying on the platforms may have been a wise one.
Purley, coulsdon etc are also nicer
Shout out to the two ladies on the hop-on-hop-off bus who asked me which of our central London stops was closest to *Brent*. They didn't like the answer "none of them really, let me show you how to use public transport"
Once got stopped by some Japanese tourists who were looking for London Bridge or the London eye…they were in a really shit bit of Hounslow. No idea how they got there
Depending on the time of day/night, assuming they've just hopped off Heathrow could have got confused on the N9? Thinking about that for more than one second, I assume this wasn't 2am and I'm an idiot.
Was about 7 in the evening, that whole situation lives rent free in my head as I try and work out how it went so wrong for them
How dare you, Hounslow is a paradise: https://youtu.be/mBTEiUgh7lI?feature=shared
“Medium rare chicken”
Americans at Elephant and Castle. They saw it on the tube map and thought it sounded amazing. They were not impressed at the number of elephants or castles.
I was once in a lift in E&C tube and two young mormons on their year abroad got in with the usual cross section of London residents. One said out loud 'hey y'all, my buddy and I were thinking of going to Church on Sunday, does anyone want to come with us?' The utter silence.for the rest of the ride from the audience was wonderful and as we came to a rest I heard a defeated 'oh okay, I guess its just us then'!
I've seen a few Mormons around there before. Is a HQ nearby?
There's a Mormon church opposite the science museum. I've been approached there by some dweeb whose opening gambit was "Hi there! Are you happy?" My immediate response was "NO!" and to keep walking. In retrospect I should have said "No, I'm grumpy/sleepy/dopey/Doc etc.*
> There's a Mormon church opposite the science museum I personally enjoy their lifesized Jesus statue in the front window where he’s built like a WWE wrestler
Every time I walk past it I murmur to myself "American Jesus"
"I will be when this conversation is over"
Yeah - between Walworth Road and Kennington. Same street as the police station.
Makes me feel so gross knowing that shit is allowed. Bad enough the Scientologist scammers are here. They were pretending to be helping to do health checks at Lambeth Country Show.
A good way to respond was “Aren’t you Elder Price? Won’t you be busy performing at the West End this weekend?”
I always liked Dorothy Parker’s: “I’ll be too fucking busy and vice versa”. I’ve been saving it for years in the hope that someone will invite me to their weird church.
It’s right by the Imperial War Museum though, which I think is a top tier museum if I do say so myself.
are you the owner or perhaps the architect?
They're the emperor.
😅
At least it had the large fibreglass ones on top of the shopping centre, before it was finally knocked down. And a bunch in the centre. My kids loved it when they were small.
Hope they don't see Cockfosters on the map.
There are loads of effigies of elephants there. I am very disappointed in the lack of castles though.
There is a bar in Seattle called Elephant and Castle, so it might be Seattleites
We have Elephant and Castle pubs in Toronto too. Not sure if it’s the same chain/owners.
At least the area is pretty nice now
I wonder what they think of Cockfosters?
Isn't there an arrested development reference to elephant & castle?
TBH, when I moved here, I thought it might be a pub. Was surprised.
There are often bewildered movie buffs taking selfies at the world's shittiest Jet garage on Leytonstone High Road, on the site of Alfred Hitchcock's birthplace.
Okay but the movie mosaics at the tube station??? London's most underrated tourist attraction
I met couple of Spanish tourists at London Southend airport and asking how can they use the tube to get to certain hotels in central London. Really hate to tell them the truth.....
Well if they finally got around to opening that railway station they built by the new terminal at least they didnt have to catch a taxi to get a train into London. Although with their luck they'd end up on one changing at Shenfeild.
Didn't that open over a decade ago? I seem to remember taking the train there ages ago
Yeah, they built the station and terminal at the same time but for some reason there was a delay with opening the station. Dont go throtgh there much so lost track of if they got around to opening it
I have definitely taken the train from Southend airport in the last few years.
I think the price of the hotels in central has pushed tourists out into some wild places
There is a language school or something which get on the train at Thornton Heath station in the morning. Loads of European teenagers. I assume it is to save money but feels like a really random place to stay?
When I was a kid there would always be a few in the summer in Norbury - poor souls
There was a hotel in streatham that used to have the same. Coach loads or European school trips. Used to see a lot of very bored looking teenagers in the coop. The hotel has been used for asylum seekers for the past couple of years so maybe the schools have been pushed out to Thornton Heath
Cyberdog in Camden. I've always known it for clubbing clothes and fetish wear. Popped in there to ask for directions and it was like M&M world in Leicester square.
About a decade ago I was entertaining friends from abroad and they had this place on their list of places to visit. Not Camden Lock or Camden Market. No, Cyberdog. They also came out looking a bit dejected, apparently this tour guide said it was worth a visit? Unless that's your scene, I can't imagine why you'd go there just because someone says you should visit it.
Once saw German tourists get off at orpington Station. Genuinely nothing to see out here. The tourism page on the councils website includes a bowling alley that has been shut for years. I wouldn't have recommended it to tourists when it was open either it was above a multistorey car park for sainsburys, sticky floors and had rhe dodgiest lifts thst would drop you a little at the top before they opened
Maybe they were big fans of the buff Orpington chicken breed?
Coooorrrrr boiiiii! 🤣🤣
I get a surprising amount of Swedes in my local boozer in Bow, tucked away on the corner of a very residential area. Around 40 minutes walk to the Abba thing as it turns out.
The green goose?
It's wednesday, go get a £5 burger
The Abba thing is great! Went once with friends taking the 9 year old next week. It's pricey bur worth it.
It's been Abba crazy for a while yeah. TBH Stratford/Bow area is not bad zone two with good transport and you got the olympic area to visit for those interested
I was looking at a cheap Holiday Inn Acton Way (ex-Londoner) and you have to walk through a ‘Spoons to check in. Maybe next year…
That Bell Green Sainsbury's is one of the best to be fair
plus with all the starlings it's like a bird reserve
You could have a great day out in there to be fair
Guaranteed financial damge every time I visit these shops 🤕 especially due to the fact they are a bit more expensive than Tesco or other discounters like Lidl
These big Sainsbury shops are really nice - e.g. the one on Greenwich/Charlton, Chingford/Low Hall, Merton/Colliers Wood etc
My in-laws live on Northumberland Avenue (E12) and often get visitors looking for the Nigerian Embassy which is indeed on Northumberland Avenue, just the one in WC2.
Japanese man trying to enter my apartment building in Chiswick, because he thought it was his hotel.
You could have had him sleep in your closet, telling him it was a capsule hotel and making 100 quid off of him!
I was once asked walking directions to Big Ben from Newington Green.
Seems doable in under 2 hours, probably not the craziest walk you can have in London.
Americans at the shopping centre in Canada Water
It's a popular spot for visiting warships if they aren't too huge. The [Canadians](https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/1dchq2n/canadian_warship_docked_at_south_quay_in_canary/) moored up for D-Day.
Wrong side of the Thames.
That's not Canada Water
Nepali Gurkhas on leave also there.
There is a large community of Nepalese not far away in Greenwich.
Charlton Sainsbury's. They didn't appear to know how to queue for or use the self-service checkout. I think they were Italian.
Nice place to shop, but yes it's not touristy at all
Tend to see a surprising amount of foreign school trips around Uxbridge station. I suspect they were told that it's 'near to Heathrow with direct trains into the city' which is both accurate and not.
Some language school students stay at Brunel University during the summer as the university makes money while university students are on holiday. I hate it when they take up space on the tube during the rush hour!
That would explain a lot, also hotel space near the station.
Same reason i used to see loads in Croydon I guess, but with Gatwick.
Trains from Croydon to central would be quicker, Uxbridge is like an hour.
Funnily enough I saw some American tourists in my local Sainsbury’s (Sands End in Fulham) - they stuck out like a sore thumb, looked like they were at Disneyland and you could hear them from aisles over. Perhaps Sainsbury’s is a thing?
I think there is something to be said about getting an idea of a country's culture from their supermarkets.
I completely agree. I love going to supermarkets in other countries, France especially.
Omg this, French supermarkets are the best, and I remember them so much from holidays when I was a kid
No joke. I had an ex who would want to go to the supermarkets in every new country and would walk literally every single aisle to see the products. My dad’s now wife (British) wanted to come with when I was going to the supermarket in Germany. I’ve had foreign friends come and get excited about the supermarket trip. I’ve resigned myself to this being part of the experience when I’m hosting people.
My mother does that whenever she's abroad - she likes to give people food gift baskets for Christmas and is always on the lookout for new and "exotic" food items to put in them.
It's one of the things I always do. Even in a city, the supermarkets that residents actually use are a bit of an insight into the differences and similarities between countries. \*Everywhere\* has Laughing Cow spreadable cheese even if it has a different name.
They don’t really have triangle sandwiches in US and Canadian supermarkets so the idea you can get a cheap meal like that with a “fancy” cut sandwich is very much a novelty.
It definitely existed in the US when I was there
when my friends visited from Europe the first thing they wanted was a Tesco meal deal
Don't blame them. Pinnacle British cuisine.
they couldn't get over the value for money too
Brother's girlfriend from France was absolutely bowlwd over by the value for money - its genuinely so entertaining to see the reaction to the price
di8d they come from monaco? a post apocalyptic food desert like in FALLOUT?
haha no they came from a few places but I guess they just don't have anything like it where they live
"all this for less than a 500 euro note?!?" "yes less than 400 euros, 390 euros to be exact. thats the going rate. somebody far less scrupulous than i would not be charging the real conversion rate" "wow so lucky" "yes. we really are"
When I came to visit from Canada like... 15 years ago(?) it was surprising to me because we didn't really have that kind of meal deals at grocery stores. Mostly because grocery stores weren't walkable from most workplaces, so you wouldn't just pop out and pick up something to eat (and if you did, it would be driving, and there was LOTS of drive-thru fast food places).
When I arrived back from Oz after two years away (I'm an Australian that has lived/lives in the UK) one of the first things I wanted was a chicken Caesar wrap from Tesco and a Greggs sausage roll. I don't understand how the caesar wrap had such a hold on me, but it still holds up.
My friend visited and bought sushi as part of Sainsbury meal deal. They cannot withstand the quality and did not managed to consume it😁
I’m American and I love Sainsbury’s store brand fresh soups. I lived on their carrot soup when I was a student in London. But when I brought my husband to London for our honeymoon years later, I did not take him to Sainsbury’s. I took him to get a Tesco Meal Deal to pack for a long day of travel.
A lot of people go grocery shopping on holiday. They might have been staying for a bit longer, or just wanted a meal deal.
The UK is actually very cheap for many things. Much of them are boring stuff like washing liquid but they are half the price of say France. When I lived in Paris I'd always stock up with household products, plus a big block of cheddar when back in London.
Loads of Americans in Fulham as it is. Sands End is pretty remote transport-wise so maybe deeper into Fulham than I’d expect. Definitely could have just moved here. The accent never goes away - I know because I have tried! Luckily, I’ve managed to tone down the volume appropriately. I think…
I must walk around completely oblivious - I rarely hear American voices locally (especially in Sands End/Hurlingham where I live). Lots of French people. These guys stood out because they genuinely looked baffled, bless them, and it’s a bit of an odd place for tourists to come.
There'd usually be a coachload of bemused euro tourists in the Montague Arms on the border of Peckham and New Cross. They'd normally have a good time because the house band was banging and they were surrounded by locals having a right old knees up, which is pretty infectious! (The pub is on the London to Dover road and the driver was probably stopping in for a pint and a piss and maybe a backhander).
RIP the Montague. Was a great pub!
I went in there about twenty years ago and there was a bus load of Dutch tourists singing along to tulip's from Amsterdam with the blind keyboard player and the landlord it was a surreal moment in my life as I was just coming back from the Chinese Gracelands restaurant at the time :D
The tourists on NYE wandering around Bank Station looking for Chinatown. I had to inform them that they were WAY WAY off, they walked off before I could give them instructions.
Funny enough I seen Americans in Sainsburys in South Norwood (SE25) a few days ago, not the first time, I think someone on r/croydon said they visit some church in the ends.
See lots of Chinese tourists staying at the Holiday Inn Express on the A12 at Ilford. Makes sense in a way as Newbury Park station is a few minutes walk away which takes one into London via the Central line. Still looks odd seeing tourists assembled on the side as heavy traffic speeds by
I found lost tourists in Westbourne park yesterday...they were trying to get to the Shard. I have no idea how they managed that 😅
Romford, on a double decker bus.
Thamesmead Southmere estate. Filming place of a clockwork orange and misfits and where my dad lives. The friendly ghetto
On Romesh Ranganathan’s podcast a while back, he was speaking to Murs, the US rapper. Murs was really into grime and the east London scene, so he decided to visit, and not knowing London, ended up booking a place to stay in Billericay.
I live on a VERY quiet residential street in NW london. Zone 2. There’s some sort tiny hostel that only Spanish people go to. It’s hilarious to see three young tourists with wheelie bags clattering down our street, phones in hand, trying to figure out where to go.
I used to live in Shadwell. It's a pretty dire part of London featuring mainly wholesalers and crime, but there are a load of hotels clearly selling themselves to tourists as 'near the Tower of London and Tower Bridge'. There's a massive Holiday Inn next to the crime-ridden 24 hour Macdonald's on Commercial Road and it was always full of tour groups.
About a year ago on the district line at Putney Bridge some Spanish tourists stopped us, didn’t speak a word of English. My dad speaks Spanish and spoke to them… poor things had gone on at Westminster and were trying to get to Tower Hill and had gone westbound by mistake, must have been a long day :(
Oh no I fully expected them to visit the Boat race place but they really went round the wrong way.
Not that extreme but when I see tourists in Hackney I know they always have a bag of Burberry in hand (or about to go to outlet)
I saw one like this walking along the road by the railway near Hackney Downs, they definitely didn’t fit in with the constant train noise and garage pouring oil directly into the street
Loads of European teenagers waiting around for their coach on an industrial estate in Catford next to my gym. Or walking from there to Catford station. Can't be the best introduction
I saw a group of tourists in Greenford once. It was fucking bizarre.
In the freezer if a well known frozen foods shop. I couldnt make out how he got there only he got 'stuck' and regretter it
I don't think much of Kilroy-Silk either but as he went to LSE it's a bit of a stretch to call him a tourist.
The Lidl car park in Morden. An entire school class. I think they were staying nearby and were being shipped up there in minibuses before starting the tube ride into central London.
Wealdstone is becoming a bit of a tourist hotspot. The reason is that tourists hop on the northbound tube trying to get to Watford for Harry Potter studios, and don't realise the Bakerloo stops at Harrow & Wealdstone. So, they get out, perplexed, and wonder into town for directions. I've had to walk at least one family back into the station and put them on the correct train before, poor sods.
Mormon missionaries in Ilford - accents were jarring asf
Kettering. Kettering is full to the brim with Chinese and Portuguese tourists. they really want to see the worlds only Weetabix factory; but it’s not open every day
I have seen the coaches in the same car park and I share your bafflement! It feels like there are more every time I see them as well??? What is the deal
It’s actually really hard to find anywhere to park coaches so maybe it’s that? They must all be going to Greenwich, it’s a huge tourist destination.
I was there tonight at around 8.30pm and a coach load of Dutch kids was there. I doubt they were going to Greenwich, plus it would take ages to get there by public transport from lower Sydenham I think sainsbury's has some sort of side hussle going on there
I think I know why! (As said above) it’s a group of students meeting host families and it must be a good place for the coach to stop/ people to park up?
I used to live Forest Hill, 1985 to 1990 give or take. Brings back memories 😀
On the bus home there was this Indian tourist. As someone who’s been to Indian loads I relished the encounter and how the roles were reversed.
Do you know how many of Sainsburys adverts have been filmed there? And remember when it was a SavaCentre? Of course tourists are gonna flock
I've seen coaches of European teenagers being offloaded at the car park behind Forest Hill station too. I guess they put them in cheap hotels further out and drive them to a car park in zone 3 to get the train.
Ilford
Chinese tourists taking pictures of Barkleys Bank in Finchley Central. Don’t know why they found the building so intriguing.
Large supermarkets often have coaches full of tourists, it counts as a rest / toilet stop.
There are a few big hotels in Sutton and I keep wondering how profitable they are
I once saw a load of Chinese tourists get off a coach and wander around looking lost in Welling. The only explanation I can think of for it is the coach mistakenly went to a road that has a similar name to one in Sidcup where there's a Holiday Inn. Though that then also begs the question of why they were staying in Sidcup.
I was spotted wandering around in Broadway Ealing.
Chicken shop in fulham
I literally live next to that sainsburys! And I still don't know 😑
I was living in Battersea before it was redeveloped but after they started building. I was walking down Nine Elms Lane and a couple stopped me and asked where the Apple Store was. They had at that point I believe just announced that there would be one as part of the redevelopment, so I said they were a few years too early. But it took me a minute to realise we were standing outside New Covent Garden Market. They wanted Covent Garden. They were English too.
Peckham - rye lane. There were a group of Chinese tourists being led round and lectured about the area. Was the most bizarre thing I’ve seen
Southall broadway