Hopping across the pond...(travel advice wanted)

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i think we're going to stay in london when we first arrive for a couple of days just to recover from jet lag and get acclimated, so one thing i would appreciate knowing is where are the safe(r) areas one can walk (parks, quiet neighbourhoods) in london with less fear of being robbed or stabbed or something? (Edit #2--i feel i should include here that i'm not unfamiliar with big cities: i've stayed in toronto more times than i can count--my sister has lived there for years--and i even lived in one of it's suburbs briefly a few years ago so i'm not a complete hick. )

we're really not sure yet exactly where we're going to go other than london and probably a walking tour of hadrian's wall. also i have a cousin over there who was just here in canada visiting that i didn't get to see while he was here but would like to meet up with at some point when i'm over there. anyway, we're still in the early planning stages of the trip so nothing is set in stone yet.

edit* to include a belated thank you to everyone who has offered tips and suggestions--i've been busy the last week so i haven't had much time to reply until now. we'll post updates as we set our plans and choose locations in case anyone has further advice or suggestions about them. thank you guys!

If you stay in Zone 1 it's pretty safe everywhere in London. I've never felt unsafe walking by myself when I was in Zone 1 areas.
The problem is that hotels are very expensive in Zone 1. So if you have to stay in Zone 2, choose the north or the west areas.
South of the Thames river could be dangerous so you might want to stay away altogether.

Hrmm, someone recommended Kensington area to me, for hotels, just because it's close to a good deal of the touristy areas. I'm going to guess that is in Zone 1? lol I'm also going to guess that it's expensive although I haven't actually looked at hotels in the area yet. lol I worked for Marriott Hotels for 8 years so I know how expensive the hotels in London can be and this may be the only moment I will ever regret that I no longer work there. lol Luckily I still have a lot of friends there so I could probably still get a decent discount...

Yes, Kensington is very nice and posh. If you can get a discount from your friends that'll be great, as most of the reasonably priced hotels in central London get booked up pretty quickly. I've used booking.com several times because they have free cancellation deals.

I'm very anal when it comes to travel planning. I have to plan everything and research the s**t out of everything such as hotel location, wifi availability, how to get to the hotel from the airport, from the hotel to everywhere I'm going... I have to know everything in advance otherwise I feel very uneasy. London transportation is pretty easy though.

I'm hoping with going in October that we'll miss most of the tourist crowds lol. I went to Scotland the first couple weeks of September and it wasn't too bad, still a bit busy, but I'm sure much less busy than if I'd gone in July or August.

I'm the same with planning. My trip to Scotland was a guided tour of the whole country, which was nice because I didn't have to do any planning lol, but this trip is going to involve much more planning than that one did.