Tottenham Court Road

London street of bliss for the consumer. Location of cheap computer hardware shops, electronic gadget shops and music shops: the place to get a Korg MS-50 with patchboard.

At its junction with the Charing Cross Road are some fantastic bookshops which sell everything booklike anyone could want, from code manuals to sheet music.

Tottenham Court Road tube (Northern Line).

Things of note in Tottenham Court Road

Every Saturday located in the vicinity are between 1 and 3 computer fairs, at various constantly changing locations. The easiest way to find them is to head for Goodge Street tube (which is on TCR) and look for the big signs pointing in a number of directions. These computer fairs are almost certainly the best (that's to say cheapest) place to go for PC components in London, with very noticable savings compared to retailers like Dixons.

Shops in the area include Computer Exchange (see http://www.cex.co.uk), who pay generous prices for second hand computer hardware and games. For audio there is a shop called Shasonic, as well as a number of similar small electrical stores, good value for Minidisc players, dictaphones and simlar, especially as they can be bargained down, but not so good for computers.

Public Transport in TCR includes the 10, 73, 29 and 134 buses and three tube stations, Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street and Warren Street, all on the Northern Line. TCR connects to Charing Cross Road, Oxford Street and, at the other end, Euston Road.

Food can be got from Burger King, Pret à Manger and Benjy's. Money can be got from two branches of HSBC.

Also of note in Tottenham Court Road, or indeed not of note are the large signs saying 'Golf Sale'. When a news reporter, as part of a novelty item asked people standing under the huge neon sign if they knew whether there was a golf sale in the area, nearly all of them hadn’t a clue.

And Finally, should you be in the area, don't forget to not pay a visit to the Church of Scientology, located close to Goodge Street.

London Underground station under St Giles' Circus. Here, the Central Line crosses the Northern Line. Of particular interest are the mosaics on the walls by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. The main escalators down from the booking hall pass through a set of matched arches, which are somewhat picturesque and make a change from the usual routine of escalators on the tube.