Saturday, August 20, 2011

How much?

London has the reputation for being an expensive city - mostly well earned. But that doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune to enjoy it.

Take this weeks' 24 hours extravaganza and this list of what remember of the outgoings :

  • Timeout London (above) £ 3.25 which was a good investment even if it did get the times of Arrietty wrong, requiring a bit of on-the-fly re-scheduling

  • Oyster card (also above) hard to say as I use a mixture of zones and pre-pay, but TfL says a day's travel in central London should never be more than £ 6.60 (unless TfL computers get confused)

  • Roundhouse tickets concert plus Curtain Call installation £ 7.50 - how about that? Ok the friends went with (who I'd sailed with from Lisbon to Gibraltar) did get it via one of those special offer emails

  • Tate Britain entry: FREE! (ok, I am a member, but most of the museum is free to view)

  • Courtauld's two exhibitions and permanent collection: £ 6.00 - again, how about that? World famous top pictures for well under a tenner

  • Home made burger with lots of trimmings in Covent Garden: £ 4.00

  • Tea and chocolate brownie: dunno, maybe £ 3.00 if eaten in to avoid the rain storm outside

  • Serpentine Gallery: Summer Pavilion and Installation: FREE - yup, not a penny to pay there

  • Arrietty film at Odeon Covent Garden: £ 7.50 - not bad that, its their mid week afternoon reduced price tickets


Grand total: £ 37.85 - which I think is pretty good for 24 hours of packed arts, music and cinema.

Ok it might be steeper if had eaten out rather than grabbed a sandwich at home, and there was that round of drinks at the Roundhouse and sneaky taxi ride to keep on what was a rather tight schedule, but even so I was impressed by how little it all added up to.