London

Eyewitness Travel Guides

by Michael Leapman, Jane Ewart, Roger Williams

DK Eyewitness travel guides: award-winning guidebooks



Find your corner of London with this essential travel guide to this great city, designed to help you create your own unique trip and to transport you there before you've even packed your case - step back in time at the Tower of London and the British Museum, get a bird's eye view of London from the Shard, or relax in Hyde Park. The DK Eyewitness Guide to London covers the must-see sights and the hidden corners, so you won't miss a thing.

- Gorgeous, all-new color photography so you can imagine yourself there
- Reasons to love London world-class museums, lively local markets, pomp and pageantry - what will yours be?
- See London from a different angle - 24 pages of fresh ideas for exploring the city
- A year-long calendar of events in London gives a selection of local events and festivals for all seasons
- Sturdy, laminated pull-out city map gives transport information and Tube map
- Expert advice covers the practical stuff: get ready, get around and stay safe
- Over 20 detailed, color maps help you navigate the city with ease
- Expert tips to make memories that last - where to snap and share the perfect photo, take in stunning views and escape the crowds
- The most authentic places to stay, eat, drink and shop
- Easy-to-follow walks and itineraries take you on a tour of each area, with plenty of eat and drink stops en route.
- Hand-drawn illustrations show the inside of the must-see attractions, including Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament
- Covers Westminster and Whitehall; Mayfair and St James's; Soho and Trafalgar Square; Covent Garden and the Strand; Holborn and the Inns of Court; Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia; King's Cross, Camden and Islington; the City; Shoreditch and Spitalfields; Southwark and Bankside; South Bank; Chelsea and Battersea; South Kensington and Knightsbridge; Kensington, Holland Park and Notting Hill; Regent's Park and Marylebone; Hampstead and Highgate; Greenwich and Canary Wharf; plus sights beyond the city.

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide London is a detailed, easy-to-use guide designed to help you create your own unique trip.

DK Eyewitness: winner of the Top Guidebook Series in the Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards 2017.

Staying for longer? Try our DK Eyewitness guide to Great Britain.

About DK Eyewitness Travel For 25 years, DK's beautifully practical Eyewitness guides have been combining inspiring ideas and expert advice with easy-to-read maps and vivid photography to inform and enrich your holiday. This year they have been given a stunning new look that you will love even more. DK is the world's leading illustrated reference publisher, producing beautifully designed books for adults and children in over 120 countries.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Reference, London, History, British Literature, Guidebook

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

As guidebooks go this is a good one. A pocket sized London guide that covers all the essential info and is updated for 2019. It is lightweight and has a sturdy rain resistant outer cover and gorgeous illustrations. The amount of background info and history seems less detailed than other similar guides that I have owned in the past but with wikipedia a click away at all times that's probably wise. The book covers all the main london areas from Whitehall to Greenwich as well as greater London gems like Kew Gardens , Hampton Court and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. There's a detachable pullout map attached to the rear inside cover with a tube map. The only criticism I have is that the pages of the guidebook are "normal" matt paper rather than glossy "high quality" paper and so will be less resistant to our glorious rain (let's face it no trip to London is complete without a spot of the wet stuff).

Guidebooks have taken a huge hit from smartphone city guide apps over the past few years and in answer to this DK has thrown in a free app with this book. The App is great. Simply download on the Apple or Google Play stores and then activate it by scanning the bar code on the outside of the book. This unlocks the app and allows you to download 5 free audio walks of the city namely 1. South Bank, 2. Theatreland and Covent Garden, 3. Royal London, 4. City of London & 5. Museum Quarter. Simply load the audiotour you want to do and hit play. The offline map opens which shows you your location and once you find the start of the tour, will guide you around areas of interest. This is a great bonus and makes me much more likely to buy DK books in the same range (currently only London and New York). The app could be improved by adding a tube map or the contents of the guidebook itself but I guess that would cause problems with people not buying the book and just scanning the bar code in the book store. Overall a great guidebook and perfect for anyone planning a trip to London!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I own so many books and travel guides to London that it makes me wonder -- and still there always seems to be room for "just one more." However, if you're not into excess, here's a solution: the Eyewitness Guides do as good a job as any to introducing the novice traveler to a destination, but also feed the interest of those better acquainted with the area.

The sales pitch for these guides is definitely lived up to: they are visual, with hundreds (thousands?) of lush illustrations. Whoever does the job of selecting the photos and illustrations is to be commended - though I don't envy the person who has to get permission to reprint them. Spending an hour or so just thumbing through the pages without actually reading much gives a traveler a pretty good idea of what to expect, although the text is quite useful as well.

The book's introductory section is particularly helpful, with a quickie history lesson followed by a guide to "London's Best" for various key categories: parks and gardens, churches, museums and galleries, and ceremonies. There's a section on the Thames, which I particularly enjoyed, with a guide to London along the river.

After the introduction the book is given over to more detailed sections that parse the city area by area. These sections are color-coded, making them easier to find, and within each section are "street by street" guides to smaller areas of interest. It's easy to design a brief walking tour based on the "street by street" sections, but there are also three guided walks near the rear of the book. (Of course, if you're really into walking, there are literally dozens of guidebooks on walks in London, many quite specialized, which you may want to consult.)

The rear of the book is devoted to practicalities such as transportation, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment. I find the hotel and restaurant recommendations more suited to business or well-to-do travelers, but on occasion I do use them and find them reasonably accurate.

One quibble is that since the Eyewitness Guides are printed on nice, heavy stock, they're not that light. This is a guide that I think twice about putting into my day bag as it takes a toll on my shoulder and neck muscles. Perhaps in the future another format - digital? - will circumvent this problem.

[Terri Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always, publisher DK has created an exquisitely visual guide. This isn't the sort of guide you plan where to stay and eat or learn about the hours museums are open. Instead, it shows you what you might like to explore street by street with gorgeous photos and enough info to know where you are and what you'll see on a particular street. This eye candy really makes me hungry for London!!

[Linniegayl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love the DK Eyewitness travel guides. Filled with colorful photos, as usual this one is designed by areas of London. While I've been to London numerous times in the past, I got some new ideas from this book for other things to explore in some of my favorite areas. Not sure which version this entry says this was, but I read the 2021 version (couldn't get a more recent veresion).

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was good, but the suggested itineraries didn't seem very doable or interesting. I also wish there was more helpful information and recommendations for places to stay and eat on a budget. I may use some of the information if I ever go to London someday though!

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

My
grade = 95% - A

I found this one at a thrift shop book sale for a dime and couldn't resist it. Brand new looking and shiny, it was first published in 1993 and last "reprinted with revisions" in 1999.

You'd think that with all the historical features such as the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminister Abbey, a book like this couldn't really get out of date, but I found it funny that four of the newest major tourist attractions did not yet exist: The London Eye, The New Globe,
Tate Modern, and the Milenium (Wobbly) Bridge. Also some major landmarks such as the Gerkin and Shard Skyscrapers had not been built.

I have been to London so many times, first every Easter Break with students for over twenty years, then ten three week summer sessions at Oxford, plus various other trips over the years, and an average of two a year since I retired seven years ago, I just couldn't resist paging through and revisiting my favorite spots.

My favorite full page picture was a bench facing a gate that leads to steps leading down to steps to get access to the Thames shore. It's just outside (and with its back to) the National Theatre.

I have literally hopped over that gate hundreds of times (access has rusted shut) since I discovered mudlarking (beachcombing for pottery shards toward the end of the last century. (Wow! That really makes me feel old!)

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guide book of London is published by my favorite publishing house who publishes books with a great deal of information. DK Eyewitness Travel London 2016 has everything: maps in many different forms, photographs, illustrations, cutaway and floor plans of "major sites" plus 3-D aerial views of London's important areas, suggestions for restaurants, shopping, and forms of entertainment. This book will help one decide on her/his itinerary. And the information at one's fingertips, and what information it is, is unbelievably current. I noticed that The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens is noted, and those three playgrounds had not been discussed that much since they were built in 2000. This guide book has all kinds of information, old and new, to aid one in learning how to get around and see all the brilliant places to see in this fabulous, and my favorite, city!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of many Eyewitness travel guides I own. I seem to accumulate them at an astonishing rate, for just about every place I have an even passing interest in. I'm a sucker for the illustrations, even though I known from first-hand experience that the guide information itself is not always the most accurate or extensive.

As I recall, I gave Sarah and Greg (niece and son, respectively) a copy of this book to use while we did a family tour of London some years back, and they made good use of it. The photos of Hampton Court obviously grabbed them, for they put that on their "want to see list." Jack, bless his heart, took them to Hampton Court while I went up north to Bletchley Park for a day -- no one else had the slightest interest in that excursion!

+

[Emily M · Rating 3 out of 5]

If London was a guy, I would totally have sex with him in the back of a taxi cab. Or maybe on top of one of those double decker buses.

The Eyewitness guides can be annoying though because they don't tell you a ton of information about everything. They are like the little crackers you have before dinner, best to use in tandem with another more informative guide.

[Henrik Warne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library before visiting London. Somebody said “Why do you need a guidebook? You can look up the information on the web.”. Yes, but the book has it all organized in one place. That is much, much better than looking at random web pages.

I have been to London many times before, so I have already been to many of the attractions. But despite this, there were whole areas that I had never visited, like The City (with Bank of England, Royal Exchange, Monument), and Inns of Court. I really like how the book describes area by area, and lists the highlights in each (including top attractions). I also like their suggested walking tours, and the great 3d drawings.

In the beginning, there are suggested itineraries for different lengths of stay. There is also a section on the history of London. All in all, it was very useful to have, and it made me discover places I didn’t know existed.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eyewitness Travel Guides make excellent souvenirs because of the full-color photos and good maps. I recently (2025) purchased this 2014 edition in a thrift shop with the purpose of tearing it apart and using it section-by-section while exploring London. It seems a shame to do this, but it saves a lot of weight in the daypack.
Purchase a current copy if you are interested in the hotel and restaurant listings. Other than that, the sights of London don't change much and any year of this wonderful guide will work for you. It is laid out into 15 different neighborhoods, so it's great for planning your explorations by area.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I buy the Eyewitness travel guides only for the neighborhood maps which are outstanding. You will need another guidebook for more serious travel. The description of sites is very basic....but the maps!

[Dane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, even a Dorling Kindersley guidebook couldn't quite help me visualize London properly. However, now that I've actually been there and experienced it firsthand, this makes an excellent help in planning a second visit.

[Mojca · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 ½ - 4 stars

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good guide book. Lots of good information, though it's very factually delivered. No personal touch, but it's still a great resource.

[William Guerrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Copiously illustrated and easily digestible. Dated now, of course.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a much more enjoyable London travel guide than the last one I read, with the information arranged very well and easy to follow.

[Stephanie Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great travel book with lots of useful snippets of information. I read the 2015 edition. Great book, mage me more excited for my trip!

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Credo che non compreró piú una guida di questa collana.
Il costo nettamente superiore alle altre, l'ha personalmente tenuta abbastanza lontano per diverso tempo, per cui arrivo tardi a capire come fosse strutturata.
Tardi nel senso che non é nata ieri, avrá come minimo dieci anni alle spalle di team e revisioni.

Ció nonostante, nonostante i bellissimi disegni, le studiate grafiche, la comoda mappa estraibile e un giusto peso alle informazioni in pillole su come organizzarsi, non la trovo una bella guida.

Sará stato il confronto con la guida di National Geographic, ma vi é ben poco di discorsivo, ben poco di immersivo e di veramente istruttivo.
Il 99% si struttura in grandi immagini di impatto, rappresentazioni che saranno costate e che daranno pane a chissá quanti illustratori e architetti, corredate di tante didascalie tanto piccole quanto inutili. Senza bluff, apro adesso a casaccio una pagina > vi é rappresentato egregiamente un teatro elisabettiano e una freccia indica degli spalti a gradonate: ''i gradini erano posti a sedere''.

E se sfogliandola si ha l'illusione che abbia del contenuto, lí, di presenza, nel quartiere X, capisci che non ti sta dando nulla della storia di quella parte di cittá, di come si sia formata, di cosa abbia vissuto.
Ti lancia la foto di qualche elemento che dovresti vedere, qualche data se capita, e ovviamente la mini didascalia inutile sul cosa sia.

Ok, ho finito.

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 4 out of 5]

READ IN DUTCH

Ik vond dit een leuke, informatieve gids om mee te nemen op reis naar Londen. Hoewel ik zelf maar een dagje geweest ben, en dus nog niet een honderste heb kunnen doen van wat er allemaal geschreven is, geeft het toch allemaal een heel leuk gevoel om het allemaal alleen eens te lezen. Deze compacte serie is gelukkig niet zo zwaar en duur als de normale Capitool gidsen, wat meenemen of vakantie lekker makkelijk maakt! Hoezee!

[rabbitprincess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very eye-pleasing guide, lots of lovely photos, and the information is broken down very neatly by area. I liked the street-by-street views of the major sections of London, and of course the pull-out map at the back is a neat addition (also invaluable, since it depicts the Underground). The only real downside is that it's actually kind of heavy for a guidebook, and if you're planning to load up your suitcase with souvenirs, you may have to take that into consideration!

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before my trip to England, I read three travel books on London and two histories of London. The 2012 DK edition was the best for planning. I didn't particularly agree with the "Four Great Days in London" section, but it was simple to ignore those two pages. I was happier to put together my own itinerary after reading the in-depth descriptions of London sites. Also, the pull-out map from this volume was the best map I found of London--extremely useful during touring.

[Ke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading it once thru was somewhat repetitive, but the book is well organized and it has a lot of valuable information.

It can be even more helpful for visitors, but as someone who wants to live in London, I learned a great deal too.

There are nice pictures, but I wished there was a better map of the greater London area.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the new 2013 so I could plan my upcoming trip to London. This made me so excited. I thought the travel guide was fantastic. I practically read it from cover to cover. It had GREAT illustrations. It even gave a really nice illustrated history of London and timeline. I am so much more informed and prepared now. I read 3 others and this was my fave.

[Jon Higashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend reading this book if you're traveling to London. It took me awhile to get through it, and I don't think it's the best book to get off the plane with. Study it beforehand, and you'll be good to go. Lot's of nice color photos--which makes it kind of heavy, also another reason to to cart it around the streets.

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on a big campaign to go on a European trip in 2013. I could never possibly see and do everything I want to so I am trying to narrow it down now. The Tower of London is a MUST SEE! (people were tortured there!) Cheeri-Oh!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the three guides I read prior to my trip, this is the one I took with me. Good map, well thought-out division into sections of the city, and really nice suggested walks made it a good way to see the highlights.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty much only good for the pictures...

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous guides - bulky, but worth every penny for travel or for dreaming of future trips!

[Susan]

This book is so helpful! Good maps, lots of pictures and current information