"Wargamer's 'must see' places in London" Topic

Couple of minutes ago I finished booking my week long trip to London. This will be my first visit and of course I will be visiting all the newbie spots – Imperial War Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum and so on…

I would like however to find out what places are a 'must to visit' for a historical wargamer. Are there any good miniature shops, bookshops and lesser known historical locations that I should make a trip to?

Also, would it be hard to make a day trip to Bovington Tank Museum from London?

Thanks for any help!

Marcus B.

The Tower is pretty cool too, so much history compressed into such a small space.

I thought it was pricy though, for what is there, oh well.

Pricy perhaps, but you have to go on your first visit. I think it's a rule.

Obviously, it somewhat depends on your interests within "wargaming", but here are some things to consider:

Guards Museum (on Birdcage Walk, by Buckingham Palace)
Household Cavalry Museum (at Horse Guards parade)
Guards Toy Soldier Shop (Outside the Guards Museum)
National Army Museum (Chelsea)
HMS Belfast (Across the Thames from the Tower)
National Maritime Museum & Observatory (Greenwich)

All are easy to get to via the tube. Have fun!

British Museum and Tower of London.

Everything is expensive in London. It costs twice as much due to the conversion rate and has higher taxes. Such is the price to pay.

Here is the link for Bovington

tankmuseum.co.uk/home.html

Here is a link for train services in the UK.

nationalrail.co.uk

The nearest train station is Wool. When I tried to find trains the journey time was around 2 hours 45 minutes from Waterloo but I strongly advise checking.

If tanks are your thing it might be worth it, but if you really love them then a day will not be long enough.

"Everything's more expensive in London."

Yea, verily yea. I paid the equivalent of c. $100 USD in parking fees alone, for a stay of part of two days and one night! (It's all about that "congenstion charge" for the city centre -- you're supposed to pay it in advance, and I didn't know that: and in order to avoid a hefty fine we wasted many hours trying to figure out how to pay it before we left town.)

A favourite of mine was the Royal Artillery Museum firepower.org.uk at Woolwich. It has been moved and "improved" since I was last there so I can't be sure of it now.

x42

The Wallace Collection was pretty cool, had a room where you could try on bits of armour

link

Thanks for all the comments, seems like I need to plan my schedule very carefully, if I'm to visit all the sights.

If I wanted to bring some minis with me back to Sweden, are there any shops that you could recommend?

Again, depends on your interests. What are they?

"If I wanted to bring some minis with me back to Sweden, are there any shops that you could recommend?"

London is virtually a lead free zone.

I am pretty much omnivorous when it comes to historical period, but if I had to choose, then classical Greek and Roman republic/empire period would be pretty close to the top. I am also making first, cautious steps into Napoleonics.

Retail space in London is far too expensive for wargames shops. They can never make a profit.

Marcus, you may want to check out Orc's Nest (http://www.orcsnest.com/) and Leisure Games (http://www.leisuregames.com/index.html)
I also recommend Forbidden Planet (http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/WhereWeAre.html), very close Orcs Nest and lots of interesting stuff.

I also recommend the bookstore Winart on 99a Charing Cross Rd, close to Orc's Nest. Very good and cheap war/historical books. Note that there is an Adult bookstore downstairs in case you bring the family.
While on Charing Cross you also have Foyle's on 113-119 Charing Cross Road, huge selection of books of all sorts.

Winart has a remarkably good range of historical books butI always feel very sleazy going in! It makes we want to explain to everyone.."no really…I'm a wargamer!!" and that isn't something that happens every day!

Another vote for Orcs Nest…although it looks like a RPG store it does carry a good range of boardgames upstairs and some miniatures…definitely a good range of Copplestone castings and Wings of War planes….none of which are in your preferred periods…ah well…

In terms of things to see… teh Museum of London is also worth a visit if you have time…good Roman section

Well, that is the good part about being a tourist:anyone I would have to explain myself to is on the other side of the North Sea.

Oh, yeah, nearly forgot: Playin' Games in Museum Street, opposite the gates of British Museum.

Marcus,

Why not visit the Imperial War Museum on a Thursday, then you could combine it with a vist to the Exiles club in the evening. The Exiles meet in a pub not too far from the museum.

More information on the Exiles can be found at uk.geocities.com/exiles2005

In addition to giving you a game they will no doubt buy you a pint or two.

Thomas keeps on threatening to appear at the Exiles and may turn up one day too!

Ezza

The threat will hang continue to hang over you, Ezza. I had a date set up with your lads at Salute but the darned ExCel folks did not open The Fox so I had no way of finding them.
Well, next trip is set for december, I shall do my best to make it this time.