St Martin’s in the Concrete

London’s newest church and the one with the most honest name according to the vicar, the Rev Jim Probert. Built in 1972 near Blackfriars, the church has no stained glass and is deliberately plain as it’s designed for people who just want to pay a quick visit during their lunch break. Confessions take place only on the 13th of the month and people are advised to book ahead when the 13th falls on a Friday.

National Landscape Gallery

The history of Printing through the ages from Gutenberg and Caxton right up to the modern day computer printer. This gallery has replicas of the Caxton press and also biographies of the lesser known pioneers of printing such as Wynand “Wynkyn” de Worde, who was a printer and publisher in London at the end of the 15th Century. Wynkyn is recognized as the first to popularize the products of the printing press in England. More modern day geeks can have their printing problems solved by the in-house printer team, who promise never to tell enquirers to switch off the printer and then switch it back on again.

The A to Z Museum

The history of the alphabets of the world is covered in this Museum in Bloomsbury near the British Museum. 2.6 billion people (36% of the world population) use the Latin alphabet, about 1.3 billion people (18%) use the Chinese script, about 1 billion people (14%) use the Devanagari script (India), about 1 billion people (14%) use the Arabic alphabet, about 0.3 billion people (4%) use the Cyrillic alphabet and about 0.25 billion people (3.5%) use the Dravidian script (South India). But how many people use the Khmer alphabet or the Burmese alphabet? This museum will show you with the help of interactive maps. Fascinating listening stops allow visitors to hear native speakers enunciate each individual letter in an alphabet and then gives the visitor the opportunity to say the same letters – an accuracy percentage is provided to show how closely the visitor has listened. Rare British languages are also covered and provide visitors with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to hear Manx and Cornish spoken. Foreign visitors can also listen to regional British accents and take a fun quiz to see how many they can accurately identify. Anyone confusing Glaswegian with Estuary English will have to pay to leave the museum.