5 Things You Don't Know About London

By Donald Strachan

London's party year is almost over. Brits have a saying for this: "After the Lord Mayor's show . . . " And 2012 was one heck of a show, whose highlights included the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and a memorable Olympic and Paralympic Games which broadcast images of London's sights across the world. Beach volleyball in the shadow of Big Ben was something the city's original architects could never have imagined.

If you want to see London looking as good as it ever has, now is the time to visit.

Donald Strachan (www.donaldstrachan.com) is co-author of Frommer's London 2013. You can also find him at www.twitter.com/_DonaldS.

Photo caption: View from the Emirates Air Line over the Thames in Greenwich, London, with O2 Arena in the background -- to be known as North Greenwich Arena during the Olympics.

London's marquee sights got a scrub and polish in time for the Olympic summer. At Kensington Palace (tel. 020/3166-6000; www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace), a cool £12 million was spent on a new Jubilee Garden and on reorganizing the collection to showcase the lives of some its most famous former residents, including Queen Victoria and Princess Diana.

Historic three-masted clipper the Cutty Sark (tel. 020/8858-2698; www.rmg.co.uk/cuttysark) reopened after surviving -- only just -- a calamitous fire in 2007. Once the fastest ship of its generation, it is now suspended 11 ft. above a Greenwich berth.

Photo caption: The gardens at Kensington Palace in London, England.

Gin is back in full swing, that's for sure. Though the martini is a US invention, its key ingredient, "London Dry," calls this city home. Sipsmith (www.sipsmith.com) is London's leading boutique distiller: You'll find it behind many of the best bars, and can tour the distillery on a Wednesday -- book ahead with around 6 weeks' notice on tel. 020/8741-2034. The 90-minute tour and tutored tasting costs £12.

For the best martini in the city, sink into the fireside sofa at the Egerton House Hotel, 1719 Egerton Terrace, Knightsbridge (tel. 020/7589-2412; www.egertonhousehotel.com), and let bar maestro Antonio weave his juniper-scented magic with a frozen bottle, a frozen glass and a slice of lemon -- "no shake, no stir" is the house style.

Photo caption: A bottle of London Dry Gin from boutique distiller Sipsmith in London, England.

The city's center of gravity has been shifting eastward for a few years now -- and it will take another leap in 2013. From July 2013, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (www.noordinarypark.co.uk) will open as a massive public green space straddling the banks of the River Lea. Enveloped by this park, the Copper Box will become London's third-largest indoor stadium and concert venue. The Olympic Stadium will remain, as will a modified version of architect Zaha Hadid's Aquatic Centre. In Spring 2014, the helter-skelter-like ArcelorMittal Orbit will reopen, offering a unique panorama over London from its viewing platform.

Photo caption: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England.

If I only had a few days to enjoy the city, I'd make a beeline for Tate Britain's "Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde" (tel. 020/7887-8888; www.tate.org.uk), the definitive retrospective of the British art "Brotherhood." Over 150 works are on show, including major paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt. Tickets cost £14 for adults, £12.20 for students, seniors and children ages 12 to 18. The show runs through January 2013.

Another essential is "Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men," which runs at the Museum of London (tel. 020/7001-9844; www.museumoflondon.org.uk) until April 2013. This deliciously dark exhibition examines the symbiotic relationship between surgeon-anatomists and grave-robbers (known as "resurrection men") in the early 1800s. There's plenty of grisly detail, including one account of men who devised a way to speed up the supply of bodies . . . they were soon caught and hanged for murder. Tickets cost £9 for adults, £7 for children ages 12 to 18.

Photo caption: The Museum of London in London, England.

Inaugurated in June 2012, the Emirates Air Line (www.emiratesairline.co.uk) is a one-kilometer (.6-mile) cable car linking North Greenwich's major concert venue, the O2 (tel. 020/8463-2000; www.the02.co.uk), with the Royal Victoria Dock north of the river. From your gondola 90m (295 ft.) above the Thames you catch a unique view of the redeveloped Docklands, London's new financial center, as well as the city beyond. Best of all, you can board with your Oyster Card, at the discounted fare of £3.20 for adults, £1.60 children ages 5 to 15 per flight. Now we have the cable car, perhaps 2014 will see the addition of a ski slope . . . but don't hold your breath.

Photo caption: A view of the Emirates Air Line cable car system spanning the Thames, with O2 Arena (North Greenwich Arena) in the background.