London on the longest day

This Thursday, June 21, is the longest day of the year and there‘s still time to book it as holiday (or pull a sickie) and discover the joys of a weekday off in London. Simply follow our guide to getting the most out of the 16 hours, 38 minutes and 24 seconds of daylight of the summer solstice

4.43am: sunrise

4.43am
Sunrise
Parliament Hill is the usual recommendation for watching the sun come up, but a spectacular alternative is to head to the Thames and watch the light spread across the water and hit the south bank, and the glass facades of Canary Wharf. Alternatively, saddle up and join Southwark Cyclists, who meet at 2am at Cutty Sark Gardens, get to Primrose Hill for sunrise, then return for a fry-up at Island Cafe, Flat Iron Square, SE1.
www.southwarkcyclists.org.uk.

5am: Billingsgate Market

5am
Billingsgate Market
London’s fish market gets going at around 4am for traders, but no fish are allowed to leave the premises until 5am, which is when most members of the public get there. Don’t miss the drawers full of live eels at the very back, enjoy the banter from the über-cockney porters and keep an eye out for the seal that lives in the nearby docks.
Billingsgate Market, Trafalgar Way, Poplar E14 (020 7987 1118) Poplar DLR or Canary Wharf tube/DLR.

6am
Explore Greenwich Park
No day out dedicated to the movements of the sun would be complete without a visit to Greenwich – if you want to hang around you’ll be able to visit the Royal Observatory (opens 10am-5pm), the National Maritime Museum (opens 10am-5pm) and check out Edwin Russell’s dolphin sundial. We also recommend a visit to the superb new Planetarium. But this is also ideal for an early-morning wander – the gates open early for pedestrians, so you’ll be able to see the wildlife and views across London before the tourists descend.
Blackheath Gate, Charlton Way SE10 (www.royalparks.gov.uk/parks/greenwich_park) Greenwich DLR/rail (trains start running around 5.30am).

7am: The Wolseley

7am
Have a market trader's breakfast
Hidden away in Smithfields market, the Cock Tavern caters for the local workforce by opening at 6am. Don’t expect opulent surroundings: the decor is rough and ready, there’s no daylight (it’s in the basement), and they certainly don’t do cocktails. They’ll serve you a pint if you can stomach it, but the uncompromisingly carnivorous breakfasts are the main attraction.
Cock Tavern, East Poultry Avenue, Central Markets EC1 (020 7248 2918) Farringdon tube/rail. Open 6am-11pm, Mon-Thur.

Or a posher version
At splendidly upmarket brekkie destination The Wolseley you’ll find omelette Arnold Bennett (£8.75), fried duck eggs with Ayrshire bacon (£9.50), crêpe complète (fried eggs, gruyère and bacon in buckwheat crêpe, £8), or grilled kipper with mustard butter (£8.50). Or you could simply work your way through a basket of pastries (£6.50).
The Wolseley, 160 Piccadilly, W1 (020 7499 6996/ www.thewolseley.com) Piccadilly tube. Breakfast served 7-11.30am, Mon-Fri.

8am
Take Communion at St Paul’s
It’s easy to forget that one of London’s most famous landmarks is also a working church. Morning Communion takes place at 8am in St Dunstan’s Chapel, and is open to the public. Alternatively, if you want to head further into town you can catch Morning Prayer (at 8.30am) at the more intimate St Giles-in-the-Fields.
St Paul’s Cathedral, St Paul's Churchyard EC4 (020 7236 4128/www.stpauls.co.uk) St Paul’s tube.
St Giles-in-the-Fields, 60 St Giles High St, WC2 (020 7240 2532/www.stgilesonline.org) Tottenham Court Road tube.

9.30am: climb Monument

9.30am
Climb Monument
At 202-feet high, the Monument to the Great Fire of London claims the fantastically specific title of ‘tallest isolated stone column in the world’. Situated 61 metres from where the fire started, it’s a Roman doric column with a flaming copper urn on top – impressive to look at, but even better if you clamber up the 311 steps to the balcony at the top. Get there at this time of day, just as it opens, and you’ll probably have it to yourself.
Monument to the Great Fire of London, Monument St, EC3 (020 7626 2717) Monument tube. Open 9.30am-5.30pm (last admission 5pm). Adm £2, under-16s £1.

11am
Get stoned
You can’t get to Stonehenge, but you’ve an hour to kill and fancy seeing some ancient menhirs – what to do? London isn’t overladen with pre-Roman megalithocity; there is the London Stone, a slightly odd bit of old rubble wedged into the wall beneath a sports shop on Cannon Street. Nobody can quite agree on its significance or provenance, but everybody agrees it’s very old even if London’s pagans prefer hanging out at Primrose Hill. If that doesn’t sate your thirst for standing stones, head to Hilly Fields, where 175 feet above sea level, 12 huge granite stones were erected to mark the millennium. A midsummer ‘fayre’ will be held there on Saturday June 23.
London Stone, 111 Cannon St, EC4. Cannon St tube/rail. Hilly Fields, Hilly Fields Crescent, SE4. Brockley rail.

Explore the Square Mile
The London Walks company will take you on a tour through the narrow alleys and cobbled lanes of the City, tracing the history of the street names and the imposing buildings – from the ruins of the Roman Temple of Mithras to the ancient Guildhall (wherever possible, the walk includes a visit inside the latter).
No need to book, just turn up at the Fish Hill Street exit of Monument tube at 11am sharp. (www.walks.com). Adm £6.

1pm
Admire the new Southbank Centre
If you haven’t already taken a gander at our incredible new arts space on the river, now is the perfect time. Antony Gormley’s ‘Blind Light’ is at the Hayward, featuring the now-famous cloud chamber – and you’ll be able to get a good look at the ‘Event Horizon’ sculptures scattered around London, all facing the gallery. There’s also the new Southbank Centre Square (at the Belvedere Road entrance), which features eight rows of LED lights set into the paving that respond to what’s being played in the auditorium.
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd SE1 (020 7921 0600/www.southbankcentre.co.uk) Embankment tube or Waterloo tube/rail.

2pm: visit Buckingham Palace

2pm
Visit Buckingham Palace
Face it – when are you ever going to actually go round the one place every tourist on the planet is desperate to visit, if not on a weekday afternoon? The highlights for the hefty admission fee include the obscenely lavish State Rooms (adorned with choice picks from the Royal Collections, including Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin and Canaletto paintings, and furniture that almost certainly didn’t come from IKEA) and the garden (a walled oasis with a lake, home to 30 species of bird and more than 350 different species of wild flowers).
Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Rd SW1 (020 7766 7300/www.royalcollection.org.uk) Victoria tube/rail or Green Park tube. Open 9.45am-6pm (last admission 3.45pm). Adm £15, concs £13.50, under-17s £8.50, under-fives free.

Head for South Ken
Alternatively, this could be your chance to do that much-put-off tour of the South Ken museum circuit. Start off at the Science Museum (Exhibition Rd, SW7; 0870 870 4868/www.sciencemuseum.org.uk), where, fittingly, you can see Robert Henri’s 1867 wooden model used to illustrate the causes of solar eclipses or John Rowley’s 1712 orrery, which was used to demonstrate the movement of the planets around the sun. Next, head to the Natural History Museum (Cromwell Rd, SW7; 020 7942 5000/ www.nhm.ac.uk), where the ‘From the Beginning’ gallery traces the origins of life in the solar system. Finally, the V&A (Cromwell Rd, SW7; 020 7942 2000/ www.vam.ac.uk), where you can see a lovely nineteenth-century embroidery of the solar system, Victorian photos of sunsets or an extraordinary seventeenth-century astrolobe from the Middle East.

3pm: Catch an afternoon film at The Prince Charles Cinema

3pm
Catch a (cheap) afternoon film
The Prince Charles Cinema, tucked just off Leicester Square, is famous for its Friday night ‘Sound of Music’ screenings, but it does show plenty of others – at a fraction of the price of the multiplexes nearby. Today’s matinees are ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ at 1pm and ‘The Last King Of Scotland’ at 3.40pm, or you could hang around for ‘Hot Fuzz’ at 6.20pm.
Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place WC2 (0870 811 2559/www.princecharlescinema.com) Weekday matinee (before 5pm) £3.50.

3pm: go bowling

Go bowling
Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes has no pretensions – eight classic lanes in what was once an underground car-park, a great range of beers from the Meantime Brewing Company, and nicely worn booths in which to munch burgers (from £6.75). In the evening, they charge for each lane by the hour (and it gets booked up quickly), but get there in the afternoon for special rates. A particularly good choice if the weather turns bad.
Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, basement of Tavistock Hotel, Bedford Way, WC1 (020 7183 1979/www.bloomsburybowling.com) Russell Square tube. Open noon until late. Off-peak rate (before 4pm) £3-£5.50 per person per game.

Afternoon tea at Claridges
A decadent, old-school treat. Served up in the art-deco foyer or reading room, with 30 teas to choose from.
Claridge’s, Brook St W1 (020 7629 8860/www.claridges.co.uk) Bond Street tube. Tea served daily 3-5.30pm. Set teas £31-£49. Cover (if not taking set tea) £3.

4pm
Find a beer garden
Get there around now, before the office drones spill out of their workplaces, and you should be able to nab the best table. A few of our favourites are:
Crown & Greyhound (73 Dulwich Village, SE21; 020 8299 4976). There’s almost always a free corner somewhere on the shady upper deck.
The Crutched Friar (39-41 Crutched Friars, EC3; 020 7264 0041). A neat little beer garden, tucked away in the City.
The Engineer (65 Gloucester Avenue, NW1; 020 7722 0950/www.the-engineer.com). The roomy back yard has sturdy furniture, plentiful heaters and verdant plants.
The Owl & the Pussycat (34 Redchurch St, E2; 020 7613 3628). The delightfully secluded garden is quite a treat in this urban quarter.
Rockwell (Trafalgar Hilton Hotel, 2 Spring Gardens, SW1; 020 7870 2959/www.thetrafalgar.hilton.com). Sip a cocktail on the lofty roof terrace, overlooking Trafalgar Square.
Spaniards Inn (Spaniards Rd, NW3; 020 8731 6571), ideal after a stroll on Hampstead Heath.

5pm: British Library

5pm
British Library
You’ll need to register at the front desk to gain access to the Reading Rooms, but you can always get into the exhibition galleries – containing a selection from millions of books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, patents, music scores, sound recordings, photographs and stamps held in the library. Oh, and they’ve got one of only four existing copies of the Magna Carta as well.
The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, NW1 (020 7412 7332/www.bl.uk) King’s Cross tube/rail. Open 9.30am-5.30pm.

7pm: have some ice cream

7pm
Laugh and eat
If you fancy heading back out east, Lee Hurst’s Backyard Comedy Club hosts a weekly ‘Curry on Comedy’ night on Thursdays. If you arrive before 7.30pm, the ticket price includes a free curry – as well as the usual high-standard line-up of comic talents.
Lee Hurst’s Backyard Comedy Club, 231 Cambridge Heath Rd E2 (020 7739 3122/www.backyardcomedyclub.moonfruit.com) Bethnal Green tube/rail. £13 advance, £16 on door, £8 members and concs.

Have some ice cream
If all this wandering about has left you hot and bothered, head to Piccadilly for some fantastic homemade ice cream at Lebanese restaurant Noura. The imaginative range of flavours includes milk and orange blossom, ashta clotted cream, strawberry, mango, pistachio, chocolate, rose-water and lemon (£5.50 each).
Noura, 122 Jermyn St SW1 (020 7839 2020/www.noura.co.uk) Piccadilly Circus tube.

8pm
See ‘Dusk’
Artist Michael Avatar will be creating a special event just before the sun goes down – called, aptly, ‘Dusk’ – at Artsadmin. Taking place in the new rooftop studio, with panoramic views, the work uses shamanistic techniques and astral magic to encourage the audience to find the dusk within themselves.
Steve Whitson Studio, Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial St, E1 (020 7650 2350/ www.artsadmin.co.uk) Aldgate East tube. Event starts at 9pm. Tickets £8.50, concs £7.

9.21pm
Sunset
A spectacular option for watching the last of the daylight disappear is Galvin at Windows, the 28th-floor bar at the Park Lane Hilton. The cheapest glass of red wine is an eye-watering £11.25, so you might as well go for champagne at just 25p more. Then just stand by the window, and enjoy the show.
Galvin at Windows, London Hilton, 22 Park Lane, W1 (020 7208 4021/www.galvinatwindows.com) Hyde Park Corner tube.

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