Here are the available houses for rental in London.

Review by Anna from Leicester

I love visiting London. There is always something different to do, no matter how many times you visit. During our week in London we went to the theatre, a comedy club, on the Eye at night, a gallery, walked along the river (always a favourite), watched the ice skaters at the wonderful Somerset House, went to the new Planetarium at Greenwich, went on the river, ate out somewhere different every day, walked in the park, went to the Zoo (only disappointment all week, it is run down and there are very few animals), and more.

Review by Neil from Medfield, Massachusetts, USA

London is a great city but very expensive. However, the flat was a good value for the money. The owners Jade and Riaz were very cordial and easy to correspond with. Our family would be spending Thanksgiving in London. Jade offered to help us get a turkey for our dinner. Our entire trip and the flat were an excellant choice for us. we would do both again. Spend more time in London and rent from Jade and Riaz.

Review by stephanie from reims

There is a lovely gentlemanly atmosphere in the architecture of London, and yet you can feel this is a very young cosmopolitan city, you can always find the quirkness Londonians have in the least expected places!

How to find the boat train to Paris

At Cannon Street station in London there's an obscure doorway. Next to it is a bell. If you press this you are summoned up to a concrete walkway where you get lost for a while until you glimpse a little office.
It's fitting that the office is out of the way, for it's the source of a very unusual kind of ticket: a ticket for a boat train.
Once the words 'boat' and 'train' were easy companions. In 1939, Britain's railway companies operated 164 vessels.
Maybe terror in the skies will bring about a revival of British boat trains, but for the moment we're down to one.
The term 'boat train' was always associated with crossing the Channel, and the only service remaining with any echo of the old glamour is the 7am from Charing Cross. Officially, it is merely the recommended train for getting to Paris by train and boat, because no trains today are timetabled to connect with cross-Channel boats.
It just happens, by pure coincidence, that things link up pretty smoothly if you catch the 7.00, and you can be in Paris in time for a bath, a cocktail and a good dinner, all of which, frankly, you will need after your 10 hour journey.
There again, you will be able to afford them, for the second class return ticket from Charing Cross to Gare du Nord costs a hilarious £49, one sixth of the fully flexible Eurostar fare of £298.
The 07.00 runs every weekday. One of its attractions is that it's unlikely to be targeted by Osama bin Laden; by the same token, though, most of the staff at Charing Cross don't know that it's the recommended train for Paris either.
As far as they're concerned, it's just another knackered slam door train dividing at Tonbridge, the back half going to Canterbury, the front to Dover and other bits of the South Coast.
The Golden Arrow was the second most glamorous boat train. Between 1929 and 1972 it ran every day from Victoria to a station called Dover Marine, where it connected with a ferry; passengers continued on from Calais to Paris via the Arrow's French counterpart, the Fleche d'Or.
The carriages looked similar to a compressed version of the Royal Opera House: on the front of the engine, besides the two flags, was a noble arrow of the sort fired by Robin Hood.
There was nothing on the front of the 07.00, of course, except a lot of dirt, so I trudged to my seat. There was one other person in the carriage, a glum businessman sipping coffee from a plastic cup.
It would have been so different on the Golden Arrow; and even more different on the Night Ferry. ... more

All aboard the big sleeper

Thirty-odd years ago, the overnight sleeper from London to Edinburgh was the pinnacle of childhood excitement.
My sisters and I would be woken by our mother, have outdoor clothes pulled on over our pyjamas and then, soft toy and toothbrush in hand, we'd be piled, half asleep, into a London taxi.
'King's Cross please, driver,' Mum would say and we would snuggle back in the bench seat, knowing that our near-magical journey north had begun.
Half a lifetime later, and with children of my own, I thought it might be interesting to see if the overnight magic still worked, particularly in these dark days for railways and their passengers.
My sisters were doubtful - it won't be the same, it can't be - but I was determined.
One phone call to the National Rail Enquiry Service and I began to think the sisters had a point.
Yes, there was still an overnight sleeper to Edinburgh but these days it goes from Euston and not King's Cross, which as Harry Potter and architecture fans will tell you is not the same thing at all.
And no, sir, it didn't operate on Saturday nights. If we needed more information we should ring ScotRail's enquiry centre which, bizarrely, is in Cardiff.
There Gareth, bless him, couldn't have been more helpful. He booked us in for the Sunday night and recommended we took two adjoining compartments with an interconnecting door.
I still had my doubts but we were back on track. ... more