Touring London

One of the many reasons I was so excited to visit London, England was because of all the fandom opportunities. You may have never heard of the  word fandom, so I have taken the liberty of providing the definition.

Urban Definition

Taken at Sherlock Holmes’ home address: 221B Baker Street

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my top 10 places to visit while here in London, and every single one of them had to do with some sort of fandom that I was a part of. Even after only my first weekend, I can already cross off Big Ben (Peter Pan), Parliament (V for Vendetta), Marylebone Station (The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night), 221B Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes‘ Address), and Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter). While I had some great photo opportunities at each place, there were also many, many souvenir shops within walking distance where I am happily willing to pay a few pounds for London fandom merchandise! (Even if it is made in China.)

One of my favorite moments on the trip was walking about near Big Ben and seeing a horde of school-age students walking around in what we thought were Harry Potter clothes!  We thought maybe they were on their way to a play or something. Turns out, their school just sported the same dress style with Gryffindor colors! It was such a shock, because required uniforms in the States do not look like that. All these kids were missing were cloaks and wands! I swear!

The Harry Potter Pseudo Children

I have been incredibly privileged and excited to see all of the amazing places I’ve visited and taken pictures at. While in line, I spoke to the workers at Platform 9 3/4 and I became so excited that I shook! London really is the perfect place for a person of many fandoms to visit, but you’ll need more than a weekend to fit everything in.

Traveling around the city is easy enough as well. So far I have taken the tube every where without GPS and have been pretty successful. My suggestion to you is to figure out where you want to go and see if other places are near it. For instance, 221B Baker Street was a stone’s throw away from Marlyebone Station, and Abbey Road is a tube stop away (even though I haven’t made it there yet). So plan ahead!