In London, how do you know whether you should wait to be seated or seat yourself in a restaurant?

Question

In London, how do you know whether you should wait to be seated or seat yourself in a restaurant?

Answer 1

wait to be seated.

Answer 2

When you walk in the door, it should be apparent

a GOOD retsaurant will have a maitre de waiting at the door to greet you, if there isnt one, he may be busy, look for signs, a maitre de will have a podium with his book, if there isnt one there, stop a little inside the door, for a few seconds and scan the room, if no one approaches you, assume you should seat yourself, though this will be rare, unless you are in MacDonalds of course! LOL!