Great things to do on a Sunday in London
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By Time Out Editors
Updated: Wed Mar 10 2010
Get cultural | Cure a hangover | Take the kids out | Go alternative | Leap into action
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Learn to rollerski
This obscure pursuit (essentially cross-country skiing with wheels on the skis) is gaining more and more attention, not least due to Ben Fogle and James Cracknell using rollerskis to train for their race to the South Pole. The organisation Rollerski has lessons seven days a week at London locations including Hyde Park, Battersea Park and Richmond Park. Apparently the only weather in which you can’t use them is snow. Private classes are available. Read more
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Lose your inhibitions
85 St George's Rd, London, SE1 6ER
Grab your chance to take part in a freestyle dance workout where you can get in touch with your body and – always a bonus, this – your soul. The excellent Siobhan Davies Dance Studios runs a Sunday evening class called Five Rhythms/ Drum Dance. Read more
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Regain your inhibitions
2 Regent's Park Rd, London, NW1 7AY
You can learn how to baroque dance as stylishly as if you were at the court of King Louis XIV in one of these monthly classes at the home of English folk music and dance. Minuets, chaconnes and bourrées are on offer. Read more
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Play bike polo in N1
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The urban bike polo meet-up used to be at the top of Brick Lane, but has now shifted to a court on Downham and Ufton Road in De Beauvoir Town. Mallets and balls are provided so polo beginners need only bring a bike. And it’s still free! Read more
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Spot a booming bittern at the London Wetland Centre
Queen Elizabeth's Walk, London, SW13 9WT
The website declares it is the best urban site in Europe to watch wildlife, and who’s to contradict it? Bitterns are the big excitement for 2010 - apparently a record five have been spotted. Read more
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Climb the Monument
Monument St, London, EC3R 8AH
If you want to get some exercise and take in some of London’s history at the same time, climb Christopher Wren’s fantastic monument to the Great Fire of London, still the world’s tallest freestanding stone column and originally designed to function as a zenith telescope. With 311 steps up, you’ll be able to justify Sunday lunch. Read more
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Play boules in Kennington
2 Cleaver Square, SE11 4DW
This is one for when the weather gets warmer – as opposed to being cold enough to freeze the boules off a brass monkey. People come from far and wide to play in Cleaver Square on Sundays as well as to take refreshment in the Prince of Wales pub which faces on to it.
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Take a canal ride from Little Venice to London Zoo
between Blomfield Rd, Warwick Avenue and Warwick Crescent, London, W9 2PB
There’s a whole range of options if you want to spend your Sunday meandering along London’s waterways. The London Waterbus Company offers the trip from Little Venice to London Zoo, and onwards to Camden – and on occasion an all-day trip to Limehouse. You can also go on Jason’s Canal Boat Trip from Little Venice to Camden, which includes refreshments. Read more
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Get pedalling with Go Pedal
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Hire top-quality classic cruisers, ideal for city touring, and Go Pedal will drop off and collect the bikes. Prices are £22-£40 per bike per day, including delivery, collection, helmets and locks. Child seats and trailers are also available for hire. Read more
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The London Bicycle Tour Company
South Bank, London, SE1 9PP
This company boasts the largest selection of bikes for hire in London and also offers bicycle tours. Prices are from £3 per hour, £19 per day, and include locks. Helmets from £1 per day. Read more
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London Cycle Hire Scheme
TfL’s Vélib’-style cycle hire scheme will launch in May 2010 with 6,000 bikes parked in 400 docking stations in zone 1. Pick up a bike, drop it off at an alternate location. Rates are by period: 24-hour access is £1, seven-day access £5, annual access £45. Usage charges from £1 per hour. Read more
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Get cultural | Cure a hangover | Take the kids out | Go alternative | Leap into action-
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14 comments
Taking the kids out is not fun when you have to navigate crowds, stand in queues, do the same as everybody else, buy expensive sugary drinks and snacks, stand around while your children do 'an activity', and fight for space in this overcrowded city. Could you do a 'where is there space?' feature? I am serious. Recommendations for 'families' are generally ridiculous. By the way, my children are not particularly young and they are well behaved. It's me who can't stand all of the above.
And no mention of me, Time Out I am disappointed! I do think the EastEnd is the place to be on a Sunday, what with the markets, hullabaloo, and disco roasts ( ahem ahem ) and of course my very own EastEnd Cabaret every Sunday at Carnivale, Brick Lane! Free cabaret for the masses.
So I am very bias but there are some great secret bars and places to see, like Indo on Whitechapel High Street, never the hustle and bustle of Brick Lane on a Sunday but with all the charm and atmosphere! Or try out the new East Boats, where you can hire a canoe or London's only Punting boats from just next to Mile End station for £18 an hour.
See you around the EastEnd on a Sunday
Some great suggestions here. If you'd like to find great ideas for things to do that also do some good we've written a blog post about it here: http://www.leapanywhere.com/blog/130-charity-events-in- london-this-week-fun-things-to-do-good-and-easy-fundrai sing-ideas
Great article, so 2 of the first pages listings are completly inaccurate.. Nice work time! Think they just re ran this article last seen in 1984 edition
Loved the disco roast recommendation, but after taking the trip across town with a group of mates yesterday we got to The East Village and were told that they no longer does Sunday Roasts!!!!
Can't help feeling bad for the Time Out team when I read this - but I have to confess this article talked me out of a hard copy subscription on back to an online user.
Trouble is there are so many sites that people are using to tell me about their ideas on good things to do in London that Time Out really needs to use the advantage it has as an established name to ensure it stays the most useful. I really hope it does.
I have a (first) date on Sunday in London - anyone got any ideas!?
Oh! Time Out! What's occurring? I can accept that judgements on what counts as cultural etc. - roast dinner? Disco music?? are subjective, but why are you recommending a market that is not open on a Sunday (ie Broadway market) as a good thing to do on a Sunday? And I know you've got a link on the website, but there's no mention in the print edition that while you're popping to get your alternative oysters at Columbia Road, you may happen across a teeny tiny flower market. I am a big fan of TO normally, but this is really laaazy journalism. Sorry.
PS my favorite Sunday haunt is Church Street in Stoke Newington - Turkish coffee, fresh juices, mediterranean breakfasts and vintage clothes. Also an old school DVD rental shop with the discs arranged by director, not 'category', for that afternoon veg out.
Nice to see that TFL are finally doing the free bike hire scheme, but you have to wonder how long those bikes will last on the streets in a city where one is stolen approx every 4 seconds....
This might have to be crossed off the Sunday to do list fairly rapidly.
Must say I agree with Laura too. I found the Hangover Cure one particularly poor. Have the writers ever had a raging hangover or are they chained to their desks? Because every Londoner knows that Camden's hordes of tourists and pounding music are the worst place you could be on a Sunday morning....
I have to say I totally agree with Laura. Having said that.. it does pose another problem. I have many "hidden" gems I like to visit in London, from parties to shows, breakfast to midnight snacks...Timeout has picked up on these on occasion and within weeks if not days they kill any atmosphere there was in said destination and make it impossible to get a seat without booking weeks in advance..
The reviews for the past 8 - 12 months have constantly failed to deliver or find anything that you couldnt find by having a quick google! Part of me is happy, but I still feel TO could be highlighting some great things to do and help London business thats being hit hard of late, just keep your prying eyes out of my hidden spots!
try unsigned sundays @ bloomsbury bowling lanes. live acoustic music, cheap bowling, half price karaoke, films in the cinema and discount on food. come down and chill out on a sunday!
I DID like everything Time Out wrote here. Especially the Go Alternative part.
Keep up Time Out! You make me get out of bed every day and go explore London!
I really appreciate Time Out as a publication but invariably as a consumer of Time Out I care about, and am interested in, what is going on in London. It's for this reason that everytime I read a Time Out feature i get excited that it is going to throw up a hidden gem or suggest something to do that i haven't heard about or thought of doing before in the capital. But alas, the above feature 'Great Things to do on a Sunday in London' fails to deliver as so many have lately. Regular readers of Time Out already know a lot of what is going on in the Capital, what we are looking for are new inspiring ideas not 'go to camden market to cure a hangover' we've been doing that for years - since we were kids (and quite frankly there is no where worse on a hangover). Don't forget to cater for Londoners - not just tourists. PLEASE show me something new.
For Vintage lovers and retrophiles.. HULA BOOGIE! Floor stomping vintage music of 1930s to 1950s from DJs, retro cocktails, brulesque entertainment and dancing (and occasional bands) since 2003 at South London Pacific Tiki Bar, Kennington. Third Sunday of every month. Voted Best Club Night by easyJet. www.hulaboogie.co.uk