"Calling Londoners" Topic

I'll be in London for a few days soon. Being a WW2-gamer in 20mm and 6mm, what are my "must see"s and "must buy"s in London? Good miniatures-terrain-whatever stores, interesting museums etc. Being from Sweden I get very few visits there, what can I not miss when I'm in London?

Best/Thomas

Well, Thomas if you only get to one museum…..make it the Imperial War Museum

iwm.org.uk/lambeth/index.htm

set aside a complete day tho`!

I ain't a Londoner, but the Tower's always worth a visit, especially the Royal Armouries part. Not really WWII, but still very interesting.

As far as shops go, the only wargames one in your scale/interests is Navwar in Ilford, near Seven Kings station ( trains from Liverpool Street ) . They manufacture the Heroics and Ros line of 6mms. Their website navwar.freeserve.co.uk does have directions to the shop. Hannants model shop, next door to Colindale tube station, carries most of the 1/72 scale plastic kits and figures sets for WWII.

Other attractions are the National Army Museum in Chelsea ( national-army-museum.ac.uk ) , the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich ( firepower.org.uk ) and the RAF Museum in Hendon ( rafmuseum.org.uk ) .

The Royal Armouries are now in Leeds so the Tower is not really worth it so much.

I second the war museum – make sure you get to the National Army Museum as well – national-army-museum.ac.uk/. A little more out of your period but there is a good Burma display and there may be more now ( I moved back to Canada 5 years ago so things may have changed ) .

I just in london last spring so do this, figure out everything you want to go to and then look up their tube (public rail system) routes and schedules. its pretty cool cause all the highlights tend to be near the stations.

I like the National Army Museum, The Tower, and British Museum

take care
larry

So there's nothing (armoury-wise) at the Tower anymore?

I thought the Leeds one was filled with stuff they didn't have room for in London. What's in the White Tower now?

There's still the Koh-i-noor! (The Jewel, not the Curry-House)
You could always emulate Flashy and try to nab it!

I was at the Tower in July and the White Tower had a lot of Henry VIII-era armor on display.

When I went there a few years ago it had suits of armour galore and about seventeen million different types of pointy-stick and shooty-thing for poking holes in people (and whales!).

Hiya ...The National Army museum has been revamped since I last went to see my family in London and it is awesome. I prefer it to the Imperial War Museum, and that is saying something. Years ago it only featured British Army history from The ECW era until the start of the First World War, now it features WWI and WWII and modern conflicts. Extraordinary.

How about Churchill's war room/underground bunker, which is close to HMS Belfast, which I think is the largest remaining WWII RN vessel. These are both in Central London.

Someone call me? (heh) I must say the Churchill/Cabinet War Rooms is really fascinating . . . may not learn about the average Tommy there but it's is extremely rewarding to see how some British high command lived during the Blitz . . .

But otherwise the Imperial War Museum is better for 20th Century conflicts where the British Army Museum I enjoyed more for Horse & Musket stuff . .

I love London - it's, to me, the best city on Earth - I dare say it rivals New York, my home of 5 years . . .

There is a good architects model store near the eye hospital which is worth a visit terrain wise. Only wargames shops in central london apart from GW is Orc Nests near Leicester Square tube and this is only really fantasy and role play stuff apart from games and rules upstairs - also there is museum games near the brit musuem (tottenham Court rd. tube) which sells some 15mm stuff and rules as well as a good game selection - but again nothing to write home about. Most Brit companies only mail/net order now as I suppose it saves on overheads.
If you travel then Grand Manner which is gorgeuous resin terrain sell out of a shop near Stratford in Avon.
In London there is a BRILLIANT military bookshop tucked away near Covent Garden - I'll look up the adress and post it up.
if you are around and bored on a tuesday night you could always get a WW2 game at our club in North London :-)

Rich Jones

Thanks Rich, please post the adress of the bookstore ASAP since the plane leaves tomorrow morning. Unfortunately we will only be in London four days and they are booked solid since this is our first visit, but I fully intend to come back several times in the futureand could definetly find an open tuesday then, if the offer stands. What scale/system do you play?

Best/Thomas

I live near London and try to avoid the place like the plague ;-) but the Imperial War Museam is cool.

Rich Jones - where are you guys in North London as I am near Watford which isn't too far to pop down from.