48 Hours in SW1: How to Do London Properly (Starting from Pimlico)

By Nestor Stay · 6 min read · The Regency, SW1P

A two-day itinerary for people who want to feel like they live here, not like they’re visiting.

There’s the London that exists in travel guides — the Tower, the Palace, the obligatory phone box — and then there’s the one that people who actually live here navigate quietly and well. This is firmly the second kind. Two days, starting and ending at The Regency in Pimlico, with no queue, no tourist bus, and no pretending Big Ben counts as a personality.

DAY ONE   

Morning: Pimlico Road, Done Properly 

Pimlico Road is one of those streets that London keeps quietly to itself — eight minutes on foot from The Regency, and a world away from the tourist drag. Antique dealers, independent interiors boutiques, and two of the neighbourhood’s best breakfast spots sit side by side on a street that feels genuinely residential rather than curated for visitors. Daylesford Organic is the choice if you want to spend money well on breakfast. The Orange does a brunch that’s reliable without being smug about it.

Late Morning: Tate Britain

Ten minutes on foot from The Regency along Millbank, Tate Britain holds the greatest collection of British art in the world — and is, for reasons nobody has adequately explained, substantially less visited than the Tate Modern across the river. Turner, Hockney, Hogarth, Bacon, Freud: all here, all walkable from Pimlico, with no queue at the door. Turner’s late paintings in Room 1620 are worth the trip on their own. The Millbank walk back along the Thames is one of the better riverside stretches in central London — particularly in the late afternoon, when the light on the water does something close to theatrical.

Afternoon: Chelsea

Chelsea is 15–20 minutes on foot from The Regency — close enough that taking the tube feels like a failure of imagination. King’s Road is your main drag: independent shops, good cafés, and the kind of unhurried people-watching that makes you grateful you’re not on a schedule. Sloane Square is a few minutes further and has a different energy entirely — more purposeful, slightly charged. The grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, open to the public and almost entirely unknown to visitors, are the area’s best-kept secret: proper lawns, the occasional Chelsea Pensioner in scarlet, and an improbable amount of quiet for somewhere this central.

Evening: Dinner

Pimlico is not a neighbourhood that shouts about its restaurants, which is part of why the ones that have survived here are worth trusting. Grumbles on Churton Street has been there since 1964 and makes no     attempt whatsoever to be fashionable — which is precisely why it works. Straightforward cooking, neighbourhood atmosphere, the kind of place where you eat well and leave feeling like you actually had dinner rather than an experience. Alternatively, The Regency has a fully equipped kitchen and the supermarkets on Vauxhall Bridge Road are well-stocked. There’s a specific pleasure in cooking a good meal in a good apartment in a part of London that feels genuinely residential.

DAY TWO

Morning: Westminster on Your Own Terms

Westminster is 20 minutes on foot from The Regency, and doing it on a weekday morning before the tour groups arrive is a different experience entirely. Walk across Lambeth Bridge, follow the South Bank briefly, then cross back at Westminster Bridge. You’ll see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and the river all at once, without queuing for any of it. Westminster Abbey is worth going inside at least once — if the ticket price feels steep, the exterior and surrounding streets are themselves worth the walk.

Late Morning: St James’s Park and Green Park

Walk north from Westminster into St James’s Park — London’s most central and most beautiful royal park. The pelicans on the lake are a genuine institution and always slightly surreal to encounter. Walk through to Green Park, which is quieter, less ornamental, and considerably better for sitting on the grass and feeling pleased with yourself for being in London.

Afternoon: Battersea Power Station by River Bus

From Millbank Pier — 10 minutes on foot from The Regency — the Thames Clipper runs directly to Battersea Power Station. About 15 minutes on the water, views the tube can’t compete with, and roughly the same price. Battersea Power Station is now a shopping and dining destination worth an afternoon of wandering. The observation lift inside one of the chimneys gives you one of the better elevated views of London. Come back by river, or walk the Thames path — either way you’ll arrive back at The Regency having done a meaningful amount of London on foot and by water, without once touching the tube at rush hour.

Evening: End Well

Your last evening. Go somewhere good. The Victoria area has improved enormously in recent years — Nova restaurant complex is 10 minutes on foot and has enough variety to satisfy any mood. Or walk back to Pimlico Road for something local and unhurried. Or, honestly, come home to The Regency, put something good on the Smart TV, and have the kind of quiet evening in that cities make you forget is an option. Either way: well done. You did London properly.

The Regency is eight minutes from most of what made this weekend worth it. If you’d like to do it yourself, you know where to start.