The London Tourist Board (LTB; www.londontown.com) has a desk in the arrivals section of Heathrow Terminal 3 (daily 6am-11pm), and another in the Underground station concourse for Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 (daily 8am-6pm), but the main central office is in the forecourt of Victoria Station (Easter-April Mon-Sat 8am-7pm, Sun 8am-6pm; May Mon-Sat 8am-8pm, Sun 8am-6pm; June-Sept Mon-Sat 8am-10pm, Sun 8am-7pm; Oct-Easter daily 8am-7pm). Other centrally located offices can be found near Piccadilly Circus in the British Visitor Centre ( www.visitbritain.com), 1 Regent St (June-Oct Mon 9.30am-6.30pm, Tues-Fri 9am-6.30pm, Sat & Sun 9am-5pm; Nov-May same times except Sat & Sun 10am-4pm), in the arrivals hall of Waterloo International (daily 8.30am-10.30pm), and in Liverpool Street Underground station (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat & Sun 8.45am-5.30pm).

Individual boroughs also run tourist offices at various prime locations. The two most central ones are on the south side of St Paul's Cathedral (April-Sept daily 9.30am-5pm, Oct-March Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, Sat 9.30am-12.30pm; tel 020/7332 1456; www.cityoflondon.gov.uk), and at the south end of London Bridge (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10.30am- 5.30pm; tel 020/7403 8299; www.southwark.gov.uk). The above offices will answer phone enquiries ; LTB can only offer Visitorcall (tel 0839/123456), a spread of pre-recorded phone announcements - these are a very poor service, and the calls are charged at an exorbitant rate.

Most of the above offices hand out a useful reference map of central London, plus plans of the public transport systems, but to find your way around every cranny of the city you need to invest in either an A-Z Atlas or a Nicholson Streetfinder, both of which have a street index covering every street in the capital; you can get them at most bookshops and newsagents for under £5. The only comprehensive and critical weekly listings magazine is Time Out, which costs £1.95 and comes out every Tuesday afternoon. In it you'll find details of all the latest exhibitions, shows, films, music, sport, guided walks and events in and around the capital.