Product Description

A guide to the pitfalls and pluses of moving to England's capital for 18-35 year-olds. You've just arrived in London, one of the busiest capital cities in the world. Perhaps you are a student, or are on a working year exchange, or have moved here for the first time. Maybe you have lived here all your life but need a concise and honest guide to what's good to do - and to the best bars around. The Big Smoke can seem like the most bewildering place on earth - but help is at hand in The London Bible. Area by area, and crammed full with everything you need to know about accommodation, transport, employment, restaurants, cinemas ...you name it, it's in here. This is the definitive companion to London - and a new bible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #744795 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

SX Magazine
Cool bars, great restaurants and the fantastic Spitalfields market. Holloway and Harlow scour the backstreets to give you the best.

About the Author
Both authors have adopted London as their home town and now have an intimate knowledge of all the capital has to offer.

Customer Reviews

This book really helped me to feel 'at home' in London
I arrived in London from Australia a few months ago and to say that I was overwhelmed was an understatement. Luckily, during my first week at a hostel in Earls Court, a fellow novice to London recommended The London Bible to me.
This guide seemed to be aimed directly at me, at 24-year-old who wanted to settle in London and really make the most of my time here.
I had purchased one of the usual backpacker guides before arriving, but what I really needed was information on settling in London, not just passing through.

The London Bible begins with THE BASICS, chapters that concisely and clearly explain all you need to know about 1) ACCOMMODATION (how letting agencies work, types of properties, postcode areas, council tax, bills, bond etc...) 2) RECRUITMENT AND MONEY (jobs, agencies, C.V.s, salaries, tax, how to open a bank account etc...) 3) TRANSPORT (how to navigate the tube!, fares, travelcards, buses, taxis etc...) 4) HEALTH (how to sign up with a doctor, how the NHS works, prescriptions, dentists etc...) 5) EDUCATION (universities, colleges, financial support, overseas students, language schools etc...) 6) COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA (getting a telephone & cell phone, newspapers, TV and the dreaded TV license etc...) 7) SHOPPING (where, what, sizes, budget shopping, cheap haircuts etc...) and then a few chapters on some other basics. I was very, very pleased with these sections as I just wanted to know easily how to do things. It's tough arriving in London - you have no idea where to start just to get a doctor. But this book says in plain and simple terms exactly what you should do. About a third of the book is devoted to all of this, yet it isn't rambling. Just a bit of background and then what to do to sort yourself out. Perfect. Exactly what I needed.

The second section of the book is...ENTERTAINMENT! Arriving in London was daunting - with so many clubs, bars, and places to go out I had no idea where to start at first. Luckily the book told me about the best clubs to try, where to go to see bands/theatre/galleries/soccer etc... I'm an Aussie and I'm enamored with all the history of London. Now I know where to go to drink in Charles Dickens' favourite pub (and where his favourite seat was!), I know which underground club has seen Muddy Waters, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, and the White Stripes all grace the stage and now hosts all manner of up-and-coming bands. I know where to go to see the works of Andy Warhol, Monet, and Van Gogh. And...I now know about the soccer teams and how to go to see them.

The third section of the book, AREAS, was extremely helpful when I started looking for somewhere to live after the youth hostel. London is massive. Looking at the listings for flatshares I had no idea what was a good or bad area and the book was very helpful with this. It gives an overview of the major areas and describes the differences (ie. Hoxton is trendy and bohemian, the City is dead at the weekends, and Hampstead is posh and leafy). Reading through the Areas chapters I was able to decide which neighborhoods I wanted to live in and then center my flatshare searches to those places. The added bonus of having the best pubs, bars, and restaurants per area was great because then I knew where to go out when I checked out the flats!

This is a long and rambling review, but I just wanted to let everyone who is coming to London, or has just arrived, know that this book really helped me to settle in easily, move to a cool flatshare in a neighborhood that I love, get a job in the media thanks to the agency listing, and to discover some fantastic bars and clubs - who knows, without it I might still be in the youth hostel, temping at a job I hated, and going to lame backpacker bars. Instead I'm making the most out of London. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone trying to settle into London.

London Bible
You might think there are a few too many London travel guides out there but this one's anything but anodyne - the authors have a very definite view on London and the writing's informed with their quirky throwaway comments which make for a saucy little read - sadly the pictures are only in black and white but the writing is very visual. The book aims to give the tourist on a shoe string a run-down on all the places to go, be seen, and not to go (Finsbury Park seems to be a particular pet-hate(!)) - they're full of recommendations on places to live and where to go for cheap eats etc if you've just arrived in London.
If you're sick of reading straight tourist guides or just want a fresh view on your capital city, this is a fun book, definitely geared towards girls out on the town, in the clubs and bars of the capital. Kind of Sex and the City meets the Rough Guide.

Not for serious people
Although the subtitle of the book is 'A Guide to Living and Working inthe Capital', I'd rather call it a guide to Living and Having Fun in thecapital. In my opinion this book is for people in their twenties, comingto London for living and going out.

Half of the book is a description of some boroughs. For each borough, ashort one-page introduction is included, followed by listings ofrestaurants, bars, late-night, entertainment, pizza-deliveries etc.

The other half of the book contains chapters about Sport, Entertainment,Nightlife etc. There are only a few chapters about more serious topicslike Transport, Communications and Accomodation.

So if you are going to London to have fun, this is the book for you. Butif you want to live and work there, try some of the other books aboutthis topic.