Holborn

Holborn is a mixture of old and new. Some churches and pubs date back to the 17th century and even further. Nearby City is spreading its tentacles into Holborn so you see a lot of people in suits grabbing sandwiches from various lunch places. Holborn is also home to a variety of university students and lawyers. This is one of the best places for history lovers in London!

Sights:

• Inns of court are beautiful campus areas for lawyers near the Chancery Lane and temple tube stations. Churches and inns are beautifully decorated and in the midst of these old buildings you get the feel of the world of Harry Potter. The place gets magical appearance when the sun has set, because of just few old street lamps light up the place. 
• St. Andrew of Holborn is a fine looking old church with chess board floor. You might want to check it out, 'cause it's free entrance.
• Temple Church is one of the oldest churches in London. It became well known for larger audiences after the release of DaVinci Code and now there's an entrance fee. If you're a fan of the book, or you just like history, this is a good place to visit. It was once the official church of the Knights Templar. 

Eating:

• There are mostly chain places to grab lunch in a hurry, but some places are worth mentioning. Woolley's is a brilliant small lunch joint. They do sell meaty foods, but they have a good variety of vegetarian dishes on offer. Lentil dal or vegetarian chili are delicious and they cost about 5 pounds. Salads are also good and you can choose whatever you like from their salad bar.
• Bahn Mi Bay is a great Vietnamese Restaurant near Chancery lane Station. It serves cheap Vietnamese baguettes for take-away, or if you eat in, the noodle salads ore delicious.
• Bar Polski is a great Polish bar near Holborn Station. Pierogies and borch are authenticly Polish and you can get a large array of Polish vodkas.
• Tandoori Raj is a small Indian restaurant. It's not exactly anything special apart from great lunch deals. With less than 5 pounds, you can select anything for a lunch box from their buffet. 

Drinking:

• There are a lot of amazing old pubs in Holborn. Princess Louise is one of my favourites. Downstairs is highly decorated with glass and wood carvings, but it's a bit crowded now and then. Upstairs looks like a cozy living room with sofas and fireplaces. Beer is cheap and delicious! Apparently Karl Marx was one of the regulars back in the day.
• Cittie of Yorke looks like an old beer cellar with huge wooden wine barrels. There are small cubicles where you can have an intimate conversation with your friends. One of the most original looking old pubs.
• Ye olde Mitre is an old pub hidden between buildings near Chancery lane. The area where bar is located used to be a part of Cambridge and thieves would hide there since London police couldn't arrest them there.
• Ye Olde Chesire Cheese has been there since right after the great London fire in 1666. It's an atmospheric cellar with great beers for little money. You get a feeling of a bunker in the cellar without any windows. Upstairs they have wood carvings on the floor just like in the old times, when people like Charles Dickens used to drink here.
• The Enterprise is a nice, rather small pub with fancy ceramic decorations on the walls, miniature airoplanes in the ceiling and a fire place. There is a small yard in the back, which is nice in the summertime when it's warm. The beer selection is pretty good with some tasty real ales and great pilsner.
• The Old Bank of England is one of the fanciest looking pubs in London. It's a Fuller's pub so the beer selection is quite good. The main thing is the decorations though. 
  
• The Seven Stars is a historic pub in the heart of Inns of Court. It has a historic atmosphere and good real ales on tap, but I must warn you that it's also full of lawyers.  
•  London's microbrewery craze has reached Holborn as well. Temple Brew House is a pleasant cellar bar that serves self made excellent craft beers. There's also good pub food available.
• Holborn Whippet is a great little pub with a great selection of craft beers. They also have some burgers and pizza in case you're hungry. There are also some seats outside on the beautiful Sicily Avenue. 

Parks:

• On sunny days Lincoln's Inn Fields is full of university students sunbathing, drinking or playing games. This small park is a getaway in the middle of the most hectic part of the city.  

 Cafés:

• One of the greatest Coffee places in London, Shoreditch Grind, has now expanded to Holborn. There's a bit more room here in Holborn Grind than in the original and the coffee is as good!
• Fleet Street Press is a great little café with excellent espresso-based drinks and delicious cakes and other sweet bakery. It looks really small to the street, but there's more room in a cozy cellar.

Art & Museums:

• Courtauld Gallery is one of the fine art galleries of London. The permanent collection mainly includes quite conventional art from old medieval art up to Van Gogh, but they also host some changing exhibitions of more modern art. It's set in the beautiful Somerset House that also has an ice rink during the winter.
• Hunterian Museum is one of the weirdest museums I've ever been to. It's dedicated to anatomy of humans and animals. You can find a vast collection of body parts in jars and skeletons of various kinds of animals and humans. It's a bit creepy but very interesting all the same. As a curiosity, the collection includes Winston Churchill's dentures.

• Sir John Soane's Museum is a museum full of statues and paintings related to ancient Greek and Rome. The museum itself, however is even the more interesting sight here. The collection looks pretty much the same as it did in the 19th century. They even host candle lit evenings in there every week. 
• Two Temple Place is a small museum with changing exhibitions. The main sight is the house itself. It's an old town house with magnificent wooden staircase and a beautiful dining hall upstairs.

Areas around Holborn: Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, Soho, City, Finsbury, Southwark