It was a short walk from Waterloo Station to The London Dungeon, here we had unfinished business. In 2012 when Kennedy was nine and Christian was six the three of us visited this attraction. We got maybe ⅔ of the way through before one of the children was so freaked out we had to exit through a secret side door. At 20 and 18 we had high hopes all of us would make it through 100% of the attraction. Kenny and Christian signed up to Student Beans and submitted their student ID – this gave them more than 50% off the cost of The London Dungeon. When we arrived at the attraction we discovered you could only buy student tickets online, so Kennedy sorted that for the two students while I purchased a ticket for the same timeslot at the self-service booths.
Our tickets were scanned and we were sent on our way with a ‘have a horrible day.’ We were plunged into darkness and joined the line snaking around to the actual entry where groups of about 40 at a time were let in. The attraction is made up of multiple ‘rooms’ which you are directed through to both learn a little about the history of London and get the shit scared out of you. Unfortunately, we didn’t know until we got inside and to the first ride that you couldn’t go on the couple of rides that are a part of the attraction if you are pregnant, have back or heart issues or have a broken limb. Christian was promptly rejected and escorted to meet me and Kennedy as we came off the first ride, a boat in the dark. I’m all for safety, but nothing on this ride would have harmed Christian and his splinted hand. We didn’t get wet and we didn’t have to hold onto anything.
During our journey from ‘room’ to ‘room’ we learned about Sweeny Todd, Jack the Ripper, the great fire of London and some of the gruesome torture tactics used in days gone by with some pretty cool 4D effects to add to the terror. While my 20 and 18-year-olds coped just fine there was more than one under 10 in our group freaking out for the entire journey bringing back memories.
Day 9 – another day of the family going in different directions. Murray was up and at ‘em first, as he made his way south to see a friend the rest of the family had a slower start to the day. Once the enfants had been through the chocolate Weetabix buffet we ambled to the Slough station and caught the express train to Paddington. After a stop for food, we navigated our way to the underground and took the Bakerloo line to Waterloo. Can anyone ever go to Waterloo without singing the song? Hindsight being a wonderful thing, what we probably should have done when we first arrived off the Eurostar was buy a 7-day 6-zone travel card. Learn from our mistakes. When you come to London give your transport some research time and make informed decisions, you will probably save yourself money. Unless you know the right questions to ask it can be hard to get the information that helps you best when you’re under pressure at a ticket booth! If you are buying the same ticket for three or more people at the same time you get 30% off.
After exiting the Dungeon Christian decided he’d had enough of being a tourist for the day. Back at Waterloo Station, he headed to the Bakerloo line to retrace his steps to Slough and we headed for the Northern line to continue further south to Battersea Power Station.
Built between 1929 and 1935 Battersea was a coal-fired power station which has been decommissioned and turned into 253 residential units, bars, restaurants, office space, shops and entertainment spaces. Outside the building alongside the river, there was a space set up to watch Wimbledon on a big screen, places to play boules, table tennis tables and a tennis court.
Our next stop was Little Venice which we reached via the Northern, then Bakerloo line.
After a false start with my old iPhone sending us in the wrong direction, we came across the main canal which we followed all the way to a pair of canal boats where we each had a margarita and ordered some carbs to share to get us through the journey back to Slough.
Dinner in the hotel finished off the day, another 10000+ step day.
Day 10 was a failed attempt at having a family day. With pairs setting off at slightly different times to the same place. On our way we walked past a house fire which Christian later learned had been caused by the lithium battery of an e-bike. We managed to have a family lunch together in Windsor before rejigging the pairs with the boys headed back to the hotel.
Kennedy and I ambled a way down the Long Walk which was created between 1682-85 by King Charles II. We didn’t walk all of the over 2.5-mile tree-lined path as that would’ve taken a good couple of hours, but it was lovely to wander for a while along where we have seen so many royal processions take place.
On our return to Windsor, we mooched about the local shops paying special attention to the sweet stores before taking an Uber back to our Slough Palace to meet up with the men-folk for a traditional English pub dinner.
Today I would describe as a bit of a slump day. It’s hard to keep up the pace of travelling over an extended period of time, it’s even harder for four people to keep the same pace and be in sync for extended periods. Everyone has different energy levels, drive to sightsee and tastes, for me getting the best out of the holiday is trying to find a way for everyone to get what they want out of their holiday while also spending time together, this can involve a lot of compromises. There are going to be off days when travelling and Day 10 was a bit of an off day for us.
Day 11
Our last day in London and we were keen to hit the ground running after yesterday’s bleh day. Out the door of our Slough Palace at 9.30am we made our final walk to the train station to purchase off-peak travel cards. Again for everyone to get the most of what they wanted out of the day we broke into pairs after a 20-minute express train to Paddington. The boys headed north to Arsenal’s (football) home ground to do a tour of the stadium. Kennedy and I transferred to the Elizabeth line underground for a couple of stops to Tottenham Court Road and a few hours of shopping. After that couple of hours, we discovered that essentially just done a big blocky and ended up on the other side of Tottenham Court Road station. Something I liked about a lot of the stores was that a lot of the mannequins were more my shape and the advertising featured a lot of diversity.
Time for some culture we made the less than 10-minute walk to the British Museum. Another great thing about London is that a lot of museums are free to enter, and this is the case of the British Museum which claims to cover ‘two million years of human history and culture’. Whoever has the energy to see two million years of history hasn’t just done 15000 steps around Tottenham Court Road station.
Wikipedia states that ‘In 2022 the museum received 4,097,253 visitors,’ I think 4 million of 2023’s visitors were there with us today. 4 million people plus 2 million years was a bit overwhelming so we didn’t last too long. Seeing the building and the main atrium alone made the visit to the institution founded in 1753 worthwhile.
A little nostalgia followed as I led us down familiar footpaths to Southampton Row and the Royal National Hotel the hotel where for a few years I met groups of excited travellers before dragging them around Europe on tours. While some things look largely the same, like the exterior of the hotel itself, there are lots of things that are different.
Something notably missing was the Thomas Cook which used to be situated on the corner near the Russell Square tube station. Kennedy had never heard of Thomas Cook, why would she, being born well after the time of travellers’ cheques. She shook her head at the ways of travel from the days before Wise cards when travellers would exchange their hard-earned cash for pieces of paper which you signed on receipt and could be exchanged for different currencies when you matched the initial signature and provided ID at a Thomas Cook, or exchange office. When working for Contiki in the 90’s you also got issued with travellers cheques to pay for the running of the tour. As a mobile cook in 1995, I remember being issued with about £7000 of travellers’ cheques, an absolute fortune at the time, to carry around strapped to my body to exchange over the course of 45 days to buy food for the 40-odd people I was tasked with feeding on a portable stove as we travelled as far out as Turkey, Hungry and Bulgaria.
A ride on a London bus to Trafalgar Sq and we had time for another trip to the Lego shop, avoiding the crowds of people in pink waiting for the Barbie movie premiere, and were still early for our 4pm meeting with the boys at The Moon Underwater. Deciding we’d sneak in a cheeky ½ pint we discovered the boys already inside with the same idea. After an Italian dinner on Leicester Square, we headed home for our last night in Slough.
Overall the stay in Slough has been about average. The hotel itself is great, with very comfortable rooms, plenty of space and reasonably priced. Slough itself though is a bit of a dump, dirty, not a lot going on, not even a movie theatre, and doesn’t feel like the safest area to walk around.
Today we are back on the Eurostar and heading to Paris Disneyland.
Gillian Scott Creative 