WHEN French writer Jean-Paul Sartre said that hell was other people, he wasn’t, as many people think, talking about vast crowds of them elbowing you and jostling for every precious millimetre of space.

But, coming from Paris, one of the most densely populated parts of the planet, he must have been familiar with that sensation of being hemmed in on all sides.

It was a sensation I felt for the first time since the pandemic last week, when I spent a week in London with the family.

Amazingly, there are almost ten million people living, breathing, and existing in the English capital - not counting the vast swarms of tourists - and each of them seems to have sharp elbows and a keen sense of purpose in where they’re heading, along with a keen sense that you are in their way!

Whether it’s crouching under the armpit of a sweaty banker on the Tube, or fighting your way past the armies of shoppers and their flailing bags on Leicester Square, the city is not a place where you ever feel lonesome.

All of which may make you think we had an unpleasant break in London, but far from it. We had an absolute ball.

I have been a regular visitor to the city, and lived there for two years at the turn of the millennium, but this was the first time I had visited it with the family, with the express purpose of doing all the touristy things that I hadn’t done since I was a child.

In many respects, London - the historic city of landmarks, arts and culture - doesn’t change, but in other respects, it is constantly evolving and providing new challenges for the occasional visitor.

With that in mind, I decided to provide an updated guide for those of you who are planning a trip to London in the coming months... things I learned, and........

© Evening Echo