Get a gratis tour of parliament via your MPs office
^or ^if ^you ^know ^someone ^who ^works ^there
Between 3am and 4am (usually, weather conditions permitting), the London Eye is put in to a self-cleaning sequence and rotates at around 6RPM. That doesn't sound like a lot, except that's one revolution every 10 seconds! It gets all the rain, dust, filth etc off, all the mud and so on ends up in the thames.
They don't permit you to ride it in this time, except slipping the cleaners (who aren't the normal ride operators) £20 will get you on one of the pods.
It's a hell of a rush although tbh only a matter of time until somebody gets hurt then they stop this.
Do you know about Mail Rail? Have a hunt online on it. It's pretty interesting!
Anyway, the claims that it's obselete / non-functional are typically bullshit to stop people from asking the Royal Mail to have a go on it; they were spending daft amounts of cash just running tourists around. They don't run post in it any more however they do still permit people to ride it with special carts (not the mail carts) - but you have to be aware of how to ask.
To get a ride, just ask your postman, who will pass a form next time he's on his rounds. It costs less than £30 a person and you have to sign up well in advance.
Similar thing applies for the Big Ben by the way - tours are only obtainable through your MP.
There's a top secret mode on most Oyster Top-Up machines. Not the ones on National Rail stations which also vend rail tickets - only the ones London Underground operate, which comprise the blue preliminary screen and are always flat at the front.
If you swipe your card, select Up, Cash then hold your card on the reader for 15+ seconds, it will unlock a small game of pong which plays for 30 seconds. You tap the screen's top or bottom corners to move the row up and down.
If there's another individual on the network, you'll be paired alongside them. If you're the only one on the system playing at the time, you'll play against simple A.I.
Your high-score is recorded on your Oyster card when you discharge after the game. One game won = 10 points. 100 points can be redeemed for £1 off any fare.
Don't do this when there's a line though for fucks sake, one and all will hate you.
is subjective but for comparatively little money, you can attain two or more pedicabs and have them race between locations with your friend(s).
Oxford St to Victoria works well.
Make it clear to all pedicabs that the winner gets a £10 tip. Follow through on that.
Then merely sit back and take pleasure in a madcap dash through London.
The London Aquarium is pretty neat, and all the tanks are open-topped - even the shark tanks - also sharks go totally NUTS for Bonio biscuits. employ this information as you wish.
Keep it to yourself, however you can get a free cocktail at the bar at the top of the OXO tower if you bring ten wrappers from OXO cubes with you. OXO cubes are roughly £3 a pack and are useful in cooking anyway; everyone's a winner!
You get a unique cocktail depending on the wrapper style - beef is different to vegetable stock for example. They rotate these choices weekly however they're all pretty cheap cocktails, don't be expecting too much.
Bank Station is a bit of a maze, and there's a lot of space connecting platforms due to this.
TFL employees will deny this for security reasons, however it's relatively well known amongst city goers that there is a secreted drop slide connecting the upper levels and the Central Line platforms. Both the start and the end are concealed at the back of access doors which are locked - nearly all of the time.
Try each door on the way in the station which has some light showing at the back of it - they're the vented doors not the solid doors - give it a tug. If it opens, there'll be a number of mats with handles on and you can go for it. You can't get locked in at the underside as there's a green push-button to release the lower door.
And hey, the Central Line has a number of pretty cool spaces to go now you're there, too!
