10 places of sanctuary in London
I really struggle with London’s relentless drive. It can feel impossible to hold onto safety and serenity when you are surrounded by movement, noise, smells and intense colour. London wasn’t built for people like me, but I am starting to build my own London, often through the unknown places, making the most of quiet times of day. Here’s a small collection of those places I have found give me some peace within this wild city, presented as a quiet morning alone!
Queen Elizabeth Hall’s Rooftop Garden (Wed – Sun, from 12 noon)
Morning on the Southbank is the only way I can survive it and I approach the rooftop garden after coffee and a trip to Foyles beneath the Southbank Centre for a smol browse. I bring my lunch and sit among the plants and I feel grateful to feel this way; calm and alone without the pressure to spend money. I can still hear sirens and building work, but it doesn’t intrude anymore. This space is mine for as long as I need it.
Southwark Cathedral (Mon - Sun, 8am - 6pm)
I don’t need to pay for the loo and so it’s high up my list of places to go. The wonder of Southwark is you don’t have to pay to look around either and there are so many places to sit, including a garden out the back. I find a space in the Lady Chapel and think about where I’m going next. It’s hard to stay present, especially when you are in the centre of London and the speed of human life is so intense. After sitting for 10 minutes I am thinking less about moving and suddenly a choir start singing in the distance, practicing in the choir school.
The National Theatre (from 10am Monday to Saturday)
Back on the Southbank because I live in the south and it always feels close by. I have come to this box of concrete because not many people do and it’s one of the few places that I can work without music on, the need to spend money or a fear of being watched. I look around the shop and think about how little I know about theatre. I then take myself to a long desk space and set up my laptop for work. There’s a funny sense of community between the laptop, book, flask people and the concrete acts like a blanket- I don’t have to be much here. I don’t worry about needing to feel inspired. I feel innately comfortable.
Serpentine Gallery (Tuesday - Sunday, 10am - 6pm)
I came here a lot when I studied at the Royal College of Music. Now, it feels like a long journey to make and I’m not often persuaded despite the calm, compact nature of the gallery. I’m not overwhelmed or guilt-ridden by not wanting to see ‘everything’, because ‘everything’ is not much. The Serpentine Gallery was made for people like me who want to think slowly and have small capacity for art. Sometimes just three works of art is enough for me- I am sustained by the small collection followed by a short walk to a bench in Hyde Park which looks straight up to Kensington Palace.
Telegraph Hill Park
My relationship to parks are complicated, as it brings back big memories of difficult times. Telegraph Hill is somewhere I go when it’s raining. Trolling up the road to the hill in the rain, people walk past me in the opposite direction, heading inside away from the weather. The park in the rain is the quietest it will ever be. I am soaked within five minutes and have never felt more alive. Depression is an experience that London can bring you close to, but sitting on a bench in Telegraph Hill park, looking over to a misty London is one remedy I have found for dark, rainy days.
London Review Bookshop (Monday - Saturday, 10am-6:30pm; Sunday 12-6pm)
Name a bookshop and cafe in London away from the main road. Five minutes from the British Museum and I find myself in my favourite bookshop- it’s away from the noise of Holborn and my walk from the bus stop takes me up a sleepy Drury Lane. I like that I can walk there without thinking and I arrive at the shop, greeted by friendly books and a wall of poetry downstairs. I always consider buying the complete Faber Emily Dickinson anthology, but her purple gargantuan collection is hard to justify, so I opt for coffee instead. People are having meetings and eating cake and I am thinking about why bookshop cafes are my favourite places to be and whether I can maybe stay forever.
St Albans
I am cheating because St Albans is not technically in London, but sometimes sanctuary needs to be found outside the messy innards of the M25. St Albans is a miraculous 30 mins from London Bridge by train and I go there for the whole cathedral-Oxfam books-park-pancake experience. It’s helping me because it’s not London and I can walk for ages around the cathedral grounds and parks without getting bored. The streets know their charm and the view looking up to the cathedral from the lake takes me into an Anthony Trollope novel. I go to St Albans to escape the modern capitalism and enter a corrupt and hilarious 18th century cathedral town. I watch a lady instruct a young boy where to put the easter bunny in a charity shop window for 20 minutes because ‘he needs to be sitting perfectly’.
Greenwich Royal Naval College Grounds
It might be Saturday morning but Greenwich is only alive to runners and eager tourists at 9am. I head straight to Paul Rhodes Bakery and get an iced coffee, taking it along with an almond croissant to the grounds between the Royal Naval College and Trinity Laban. The trees and buildings remind me of Cambridge, but a Cambridge that people forget is there. I don’t understand why its so perfect here and how quiet it can be, and the sound of a distant piano makes the morning feel even more beautiful. I think about how I miss structured practicing sometimes and wish for a balance of sunny morning practice without it becoming an obsession. I rarely think as deeply as when I’m sat by the Thames in Greenwich.
Caffe Nero at the BBC (Monday - Friday, 6:30am - 7pm; Saturday, 7am - 6pm)
I never realised I was allowed to go in here but any bum can sit in the Caffe Nero underneath Broadcasting House and watch the slow streams of BBC lanyards getting their (objectively bitter) coffee. Why does being at the BBC make me feel instantly inspired? People are friendly here, it’s amazingly quiet and I have only good memories of it. My emails are suddenly wildly exciting to me and I answer them all within 20 minutes, pausing as I watch the sun move across the courtyard and watch important looking people as they enter and exit one of London’s most famous semi-circles.
Give me yours!
I couldn’t think of a 10th place, so please give me your recommendations and places of sanctuary you’ve found!