{"id":1674,"date":"2011-12-10T15:50:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-10T05:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2012-11-28T18:45:36","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T08:45:36","slug":"london-2011-part-4-shopping-hammersmith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=1674","title":{"rendered":"London 2011 part #4 – Shopping – Hammersmith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hammersmith<\/strong> is not really a common stop for London tourists, in fact the locals will probably tell you to stay away from it! Possibly in part its because it feels like it’s the old shopping center that went downhill when the new mega shopping mall came to town. BUT, the reason I decided to head out this way again was because of a recommendation and subsequent successful trip out the last time I was in London, the two main draw cards being, TK Maxx<\/strong> and Primark<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

TK Maxx<\/a> is very similar to the big brand items clearance items at shopping centres like DFO<\/a> or Harbourtown<\/a> but all in one store. Womenswear takes a fair chunk and the whole lower level, handily arranged by clothing type on racks. Upstairs there’s menswear, footwear and household items. Brands vary but it all depends on when you go, this time there seemed to be a fresh shipment of Britian’s popular activewear, Bench<\/a>. Sneakers were sadly lacking this time, unlike my last visit where Adidas Muppet or Mr Men collabs were being thrown away for ~50BP, a year later appearing on sneaker sites for $200+AU! They do however have a good range of hiking shoes, boots and technical runners which go well with a large selection of out of season jackets, parkas, windbreakers etc.<\/p>\n

Primark<\/a> is probably just as avoidable for Londanites as Lowes or Valleygirl is to most Aussies but their range and prices are unmistakably good value. If you’re looking for general business\/office basics then this is definitely the place to go. Plain colours, simple, clean designs with a modern touch and best of all original enough to still look just a little bit different back home in Australia.<\/p>\n

While both these spots were disappointing this time, a third reason has appeared in the last few years one tube stop away at the newly built Wood Lane<\/strong> or upgraded Shephard’s Bush<\/strong> stations, Westfield London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Westfield London<\/p><\/div>\n

I know what you’re thinking, ANOTHER Westfiled, but this thing is something else. It’s the only one in London and being only a few years old, the place looks super modern and is huge with 300+ stores and an open air feel thanks to the high glass ceilings. The centre boasts 319 stores, (search the whole list here<\/a>) some of the staples are Onitsuka, Vans, Adidas, Puma and Nike<\/strong>, which are all on par for their respective names. Nike had a second story but again all regular fare. For variety in sneakers and clothing and sale items Sole, Foot Asylum, JD Sports and Sports Direct<\/strong> were worthy stop-ins.<\/p>\n

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Lego Deathstar <\/p><\/div>\n

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Lego Tower Bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

One other must see is the Lego store<\/a>, the (fully operational) Death Star or detailed model of the London Tower bridge will draw you in but the wall of coloured bricks sold by the soda cupful will make you want to stay! Only the basic bricks were available in this manner but they were in every colour ever made. In hindsight even one kg of bricks could’ve easily fit sprinkled through out my luggage. There are also stations to test build your own creations or customise your own Lego man. They of course, also have a good range of Lego merchandise.<\/p>\n

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Wall o' Lego<\/p><\/div>\n

Lastly if you’re looking for the Wetzels Pretzels<\/strong> stand, sadly it is no longer there. Those poms don’t know what they’re missing!<\/p>\n

Covent Garden and Soho are next on the shopping list.<\/p>\n

London 2011 part #1 – Arrival, Soho Shopping<\/a>
\nLondon 2011 part #2 – Central London sight seeing<\/a>
\nLondon 2011 part #3 – Chelsea Flower show<\/a>
\nLondon 2011 part #5 – Shopping – Covent Garden and Soho<\/a>
\nLondon 2011 part #6 – Shopping – Camden<\/a>
\nLondon 2011 part #7 – Shopping – Shoreditch<\/a>
\nLondon 2011 part #8 – Hyde park, Piccadilly Circus <\/a><\/p>\n

London photo gallery here<\/a>
\nChelsea flower show photo gallery here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hammersmith is not really a common stop for London tourists, in fact the locals will probably tell you to stay away from it! Possibly in part its because it feels like it’s the old shopping center that went downhill when the new mega shopping mall came to town. BUT, the reason I decided to head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1407,388],"tags":[1006,1426,1475,1469,487,1418,1440,1408,1437,179,1471,525,1288,1472,1293,1345,100,1474,378,300,770,1470,1428,1436,2775,391,1416,1351,444,595,1473],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2547,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/2547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}