Suitcases appear on pavements. Bookshops become busier. Cafés fill with people comparing reading lists instead of holiday plans. Around the squares you'll hear dozens of languages, all with one thing in common: everyone is finding their feet in London.
Whether you're joining Goodenough College for the year, visiting family, arriving for a fellowship, or simply enjoying London in its most beautiful season, consider this your unofficial guide to becoming a temporary Londoner.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
The guidebooks will send you to Buckingham Palace.
We're more interested in showing you where Bloomsbury goes for lunch…
Where academics disappear at lunchtime :
- Lamb's Conduit Street: Independent cafés, neighbourhood restaurants, excellent bookshops and enough outdoor tables to make an entire afternoon disappear.
- Pasta Sophia : Smashing pasta at smashing prices? Can you collect one for me while you’re there?
- Bloomsbury Coffee at Russell Square tube: Owned by a local family, fantastic coffee, and those pastries and sandwiches… They’ve earned their rave reviews.
The museums everyone forgets :
London's best museums are often free.
The British Museum is five minutes away, but don't overlook gems like the Sir John Soane's Museum, the Foundling Museum and the Wiener Library. My favourite? The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.
The best benches :
Every Londoner has a favourite.
Find yours in Mecklenburgh Square, Russell Square or Brunswick Square and suddenly you'll understand why people fall in love with Bloomsbury.
WANDER FIRST. NAVIGATE LATER.
Some streets deserve no destination :
- Marchmont Street.
- Lamb's Conduit Street.
- Doughty Street.
- The little lanes around the Foundling Museum.
- The best discoveries rarely come from Google Maps.
The non-specific tube tip you'll thank us for later :
Sometimes the correct Tube exit is worth knowing almost as much as the station itself.
You'll work it out.
Londoners always do.
YOU’LL KNOW YOU BELONG WHEN…
… You find yourself :
✓ Carrying a coffee while walking somewhere purposefully.
✓ Beginning at least one conversation with, "Lovely day, isn't it?"
✓ Queuing patiently, even if you don't know what you're queuing for.
✓ Saying "Cheers" instead of "Thank you."
✓ Taking the bus. Complaining about the bus. Secretly loving the bus.
✓ Developing territoriality around your favourite garden square.
✓ Being thrilled when someone asks you for directions.
✓ Recommending Bloomsbury to everyone who'll listen.
Most importantly, remember that nobody feels like a Londoner on their first day.
Fortunately, Bloomsbury is one of the easiest places to begin.
Whether you're staying for three nights, three months or three years, we hope you'll soon feel at home.
And if you're looking for somewhere peaceful to stay while settling in, visiting family or exploring autumn in London, The Goodenough Hotel is right here in the heart of it all.