Travel: A novel take on visiting London

Stay

London's East End is well-stocked in restaurants, galleries, bars and quirky shops, and the stylish Town Hall Hotel puts you in a prime spot for exploring. Top-floor rooms come with views and a terrace. Rooms from $362, Town Hall Hotel.

Eat

There are an estimated 13,600 Indian restaurants in the U.K. and it can feel like half of them are clustered in Brick Lane. Travel west instead to Gymkhana and order generously: the duck dosas, suckling-pig curries and wild-deer biryanis encourage sharing. Cleave likes to take friends to the Green Pea in charming Greenwich. "It's old-fashioned London food," he says. "Pies and gravy, friendly, delicious, no fuss." Gymkhana, Green Pea.

Do

Scarred by shrapnel on the outside, gilded and glittering on the inside, St. Clement Danes Church has been rebuilt many, many times. It "represents in one building so much of what I admire about London," Cleave says. It's also a quick walk north to The British Museum, where you'll find two million years of human history – including this month's ceiling-bustling exhibition of three huge Egyptian statues, buried underwater for more than 2,000 years. And it's all free. St. Clements Danes, The British Museum.

Find it at home: Shakespeare's skull Scientists recently discovered the real one has gone missing. Here are three substitutes.

A novel take on London skulls

Metallic skull

$39, Z Gallerie.

Poor Yorick plush skull

$26, Bread Pig.

Dulce skull chocolates

From $13, Laura Slack.

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