Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
daily
newspapers
are both tabloids: the
Metro
is
available on the public transport system in the
morning, and
the
Evening Standard
all over town
from mid-afternoon onwards - both are free. Each
of the London boroughs has a local paper, usually
printed twice weekly and filled mostly with news
of local crimes and cheap adverts.
UK OPERATOR SERVICES
Domestic operator
T
100
International operator
T
155
Opening hours and public
holidays
Generally speaking,
shop opening hours
are
Monday to Saturday 9am or 10am to 5.30pm or
6pm - with some places in central London staying
open till 8pm, and later on Thursdays and Fridays
(around 9pm) - and Sundays and Bank Holidays
noon to 6pm. There are still plenty of stores that
close completely on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
That said, numerous family-run corner shops stay
open late every day of the year. The big super-
market chains tend to open Monday to Saturday
from 8am to 10pm, Sunday 10am or 11am to 4pm
or 5pm. Note that many petrol (gas) service stations
in London are open 24 hours and have small shops.
Tourist attractions and
museums
are typically
open daily 10am to 6pm, occasionally with shorter
hours on Sundays and public holidays (see box
below). Most places are closed on December 25
and 26. Several museums now have late-night
openings until 9pm or 10pm, once or twice a week.
Individual opening hours are given in the main text
of this guide.
Money
The currency in the UK is the pound sterling (£),
divided into 100 pence (p). Coins come in
denominations of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1
and £2. Notes come in denominations of £5,
£10, £20 and £50. Many shopkeepers may not
accept £50 notes - the best advice is to avoid
having to use them. At the time of writing, £1
was worth $1.50, €1.15, Can$1.60, Aus$1.60 and
NZ$2. For the most up-to-date exchange rates,
visit
W
xe.com.
The easiest way to get hold of your cash is to use
your
credit/debit card
in a “cash machine” (ATM);
check in advance whether you will be subject to a
daily withdrawal limit. There are ATMs all over the
city, outside banks, supermarkets and post o
ces -
beware of stand-alone ATMs in small shops, which
charge up to £2 for each withdrawal. The opening
hours for most
banks
are Monday to Friday
9.30am-4.30pm, with some branches opening on
Saturday mornings. Post o
ces charge no commis-
sion, and are therefore a good place to change
money and cheques. Lost or stolen credit/debit
cards should be reported to the police and the
following numbers: MasterCard
T
0800 964767, Visa
T
0800 891725.
Phones
Public
payphones
on the streets of London are
iconic, ubiquitous and little-used. Most take coins
from 10p upwards - the minimum charge of 60p
will get you thirty minutes. Paying using a credit
card is expensive (20p per minute). Discount
phonecards with a PIN number, available from
newsagents, are the cheapest way to make inter-
national calls.
If you're taking your
mobile
/
cellphone
with you,
check with your provider that roaming is activated
(if you're coming from America, you will need a
multi-band phone, unless you have a smart phone).
Mobiles in Australia and New Zealand generally use
the same system as the UK so should work fine. If
you're staying for a while, it's easier to buy a handset
and SIM card when you arrive - a basic pay-as-you-
go phone can cost as little as £20.
London phone numbers are prefixed by the area
code
T
020. Mobile numbers are prefixed with
T
07; numbers with
T
0800, 0808 and 0500 prefixes
are free of charge (unless calling from a mobile);
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
You'll find all banks and o
ces closed on
the following Bank Holidays, while
everything else pretty much runs to a
Sunday schedule (except on Christmas
Day when most places shut down):
New
Year's Day
(January 1);
Good Friday
(late
March/early April);
Easter Monday
(late
March/early April);
Spring Bank Holiday
(first Monday in May);
May Bank Holiday
(last Monday in May);
August Bank
Holiday
(last Monday in August);
Christmas Day
(December 25);
Boxing
Day
(December 26). Note that if January
1, December 25 or December 26 falls on a
Saturday or Sunday, the holiday falls on
the following weekday.
