Lonely Planet's new London guide reckons the old girl is looking better than ever.

Past editions of the Lonely Planet guide have criticised the UK capital as "the home of dirty pigeons and liquored–up lager louts" with hotels so awful "they made Fawlty Towers look like a documentary" but Sarah Johnstone, author of the 5th edition of the London guide, proclaims that the city richly deserves its surprise Olympic win. 

A surge in high quality ‘budget boutique' hotels also bodes well for the 2012 Olympics.

"Cheaper hotel rooms here used to be a dowdy melange of net curtains, shabby bedspreads, worn carpet and whatever paint colour was on sale at the local DIY store," Johnstone says.

"Now it seems that hoteliers at all levels want in on the modern design revolution and have belatedly taken Ikea's advice to chuck out their chintz. It seems the days of paying through the nose for a grease-laden fry-up served with a scowl and a sagging mattress are happily long gone."

Johnstone says, "Millennium structures like Tate Modern and the London Eye now represent the city as much, if not more than, St Paul's Cathedral or the Houses of Parliament in the minds of international visitors."

She recommends that if there is one word of English slang you should know before you arrive in London, it is ‘chav'."

"Chav is a catch-all term of abuse for anyone working class who has the audacity to spend lots of money on Burberry, Kappa, Reebok and other labels deemed chavvy."

Johnstone quotes French president Jacques Chirac's comments last year that "one cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad" and adds: "We can't help wondering when Jacques last ate anything in the UK, save a royal banquet. But if he has been let down by the royal household he may find that real Londoners are eating better than ever."

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