Autism-friendly things to do in London

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I find the tubes pretty full on. But the buses can be really nice especially if you can sit on the top of a double decker one and get a nice view. Also, parts of London are really nice to walk. You can walk from Westminster across the bridge and all the way up the south bank passing by the film museum and other nice museums all the way up to the Tate modern passing by nice sites like the globe theatre and the london eye. Then you can cross the millennium bridge and go over to St. Paul's and the monument. All without the need for public transport.

There are also quieter areas like Hampstead Heath and Richmond which have more green areas and are more like villages in the city.

Lots of references to "families". Not to "individuals".

Obviously another one who thinks Autism is only for children and we loooove to be surrounded by 32498723497234 billion people that stress the s**t out of us.

My choice in London: Hyde Park. Barely any people, calm, quiet. Mostly trees. The pond is beautiful.

My second choice: Kings cross, jump on a train and leave the city.

^^ I like your thinking. I try to avoid London as much as possible. Here now to catch a flight back home to Sweden for easter..... more space, fresher air, less people!

London City airport in that case, Heathrow was too big and full of people, lines to go through customs. Same goes for Schiphol, Frankfurt and other large airports. It is nice to have lots of stores to buy stuff before your flight though.

UK countryside is nice, hoping to get off my butt and go to Bletchley some day, have been close going there at one point when i was in Stevenage.

I lived in London for three years attending a university. I found the best places to be:

1) 2nd front seat of a Routemaster, writing on my laptop going home at 23:00. Taking the front seat seemed far too assertive for me.

2) My classroom. I got very upset if someone took my usual seat, though.

3) Hyde Park. Big enough to allow you to get lost. And I agree the Serpentine is nice to walk around.

4) My room. Often couldn't deal with the crowds (or the friends), so spent a lot of time hiding there.

5) Burger King. It's a sleazy place where nobody cares who you are or what you looked like, so it seemed to fit my outsider character.

6) British Museum. People are quiet, and there are seats. I'd spend some long moments in the east Asia art gallery, gazing at the sculptures of monks and imagining their previous life before ending up there.

To be honest I didn't like London, and I'm happy I moved away.

shhhhh....don't let it get out, or it won't stay like that for long.....!

I went once it was pretty interesting. Bletchley that is. I live in the English countryside, it is nice apart from being filled with ambitious mums who spend a lot of time comparing their Victoria sponges, their miraculously non muddy boots and feeding their children white bread with jam and the crusts cut off.

I hate flying so any airport is like the anteroom to hell for me. Also flying with an autistic child who also gets stressed out so you have to act like you aren't stressed is not great. But arriving is good.

London has quite a lot of green spaces and most of the ones away from the centre are not too busy. I would particularly recommend Richmond Park in the SW of the city. It is HUGE (3 times the size of NYC’s Central Park!) and, in the centre of the Park especially, it feels like you’re nowhere near the city. There are also hundreds of deer roaming freely in the park which is another attraction. Just don’t get too close to them! Richmond itself is a very nice place to spend a day in especially on the riverfront. Definitely worth visiting if you’re in London for more than a few days.

Alexandra Park in North London is another green space worth visiting. There are spectacular views of the city from Alexandra Palace (home to the world’s very first TV service) and you also have Highgate Wood nearby which is a wonderful slice of ancient woodland and is considerably less busy than the similar surroundings of Hampstead Heath. Crystal Palace Park in South London has really cool dinosaur sculptures built in the Victorian era as well as Sphinx statues which are remnants of the Crystal Palace that once stood there.

Aside from green spaces, I would recommend visiting some of the quieter museums and galleries such as Tate Britain and the V&A and small museums such as the Cartoon Museum. Foyles book store on Charing Cross Road is also worth mentioning. It’s a huge store with over 200,000 books in stock and it’s relaxed atmosphere makes it very easy to spend a few hours in there.

Tate britain is great. Just passed the last hour there- quiet and nice! Tate modern is really crowded though.

I like the idea of Hyde Park. Where there are trees, there are Sweet Peas hiding in them. Om Nom and Peahawk.

More likely, they do know we hate it, but don’t give a s**t, and optionally say we have to be forced for our own good.

If I ever go to London, I want to go to Iffley Road, the historic site of Roger Bannister's record-breaking feat of being the first person to break the four-minute mile.

That’s certainly a nice reason to visit but Iffley Road is in Oxford which is about an hour from London by train.

Foyles bookshop is probably the only thing that could tempt me into central London nowadays. I believe it has changed a bit though since the last time I went many years ago. It used to be somewhat messy and shambolic and it wasn't exactly easy to find stuff. Once you'd chosen your books you had to take them to the desk of the relevant department where they would give you a hand written chit. You then took the chit to the payment desk which was elsewhere. Having paid and got your receipt, you then had to go back to the original desk to get your books which had been wrapped for you whilst you were elsewhere paying for them. I believe they have now smartened up the shop and even have some of those evil computer things and a website.

Lived in London once for about 8 months to take a job there. It caused the biggest breakdown I've ever had. Horrible place. Avoid if you have Aspergers, or indeed, if you don't.