The West End
The most famous feature of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) is Elizabeth Tower, more commonly known as Big Ben. A major £61-million…
Must-see attractions in London
London
The oldest church in the City, All Hallows has been a place of worship since 675 CE. It was spared in the Great Fire, but much of today's building is from…
The West End
The iconic building from which the BBC began radio broadcasting in 1932 and from where all TV and radio broadcasting in London has taken place. Since 2013…
North London
With its clean lines and the simple arches of its twin train sheds, you might be forgiven for thinking that King's Cross is a more modern building than…
London
This 16th-century Georgian pile is one of the few surviving in the City, and it was the home of Samuel Johnson, author of the first serious English…
South Bank
Mostly geared towards kids, the Sea Life London Aquarium includes a shark tunnel, ray lagoon and Gentoo penguin enclosures that will keep little ones…
London
It's said that a true Cockney is born within earshot of the Bow bells, and they ring out from the delicate steeple at St Mary-le-Bow, designed by…
South Bank
Buried between soaring blocks of flats, this tiny alley has been transformed by locals into a secret garden lined with potted plants. A small wooden…
North London
Built in 1873 as North London’s answer to Crystal Palace – the cast-iron and plate-glass structure built in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of…
Kensington & Hyde Park
This 900-year-old tree stump is carved with elves, gnomes, witches and small creatures. One of the photos in the gate-fold of the Pink Floyd album…
Kensington & Hyde Park
This is sculptor George Frampton’s celebrated statue; close to the Long Water. Kensington Gardens were an inspiration for JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan,…
London
This small museum affords a look at the history of Crystal Palace and local history. A guided tour takes place at noon on the first Sunday of each month,…
Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields
Built in 1738 to house a Welsh charity school, this unassuming building is an interesting reminder of Clerkenwell's radical history. From here in 1902 and…
The West End
Built in what used to be countryside between the City of London and Westminster, St Giles-in-the-Fields isn’t much to look at but its history is a…
Brixton, Peckham & South London
This small museum celebrates the world's first underwater tunnel, built here in 1843. The tunnel was the brainchild of engineer Marc Isambard Brunel …
London
Smithfield is central London’s last surviving meat market, and though most of the transactions today are wholesale, visitors are invited to shop too;…
Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields
Founded here in the 17th century, Truman's Black Eagle Brewery was, by the 1850s, the largest brewery in the world. Spread over a series of brick…
The West End
This modest house southeast of Trafalgar Sq is where American statesman Benjamin Franklin lived from 1757 to 1775 as he tried to broker peace with Britain…
The West End
Visible from virtually everywhere in central London, the 189m-tall BT Tower was the highest structure in the city when it opened in 1966 (St Paul's…
The West End
Take stock of the history of the five regiments of foot guards (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards) and their role in military campaigns…
Kensington & Hyde Park
Frequented by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, George Orwell and William Morris, Speakers' Corner in the northeastern corner of Hyde Park is traditionally the…
The West End
Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective novels have been boosted by the popularity of the Sherlock TV series, and fans of the books trek here to elbow…
The West End
The full-on pageantry of soldiers in bright-red uniforms and bearskin hats parading down the Mall and into Buckingham Palace is madly popular with…
The West End
In a more accessible version of Buckingham Palace’s Changing the Guard, the horse-mounted troops of the Household Cavalry swap soldiers here at 11am from…
East London
Both adults and children are inevitably charmed by this combination of mock Victorian schoolroom (with hard wooden benches and desks, slates, chalk,…
Greenwich
Reached via glass-topped domes (with lifts and steps) on either side of the River Thames, this white-tiled 370m-long pedestrian tunnel opened in 1902…
London
The Corporation of London’s official church was built by Christopher Wren in 1677, but almost completely destroyed during WWII bombing. Its immaculate…
North London
Fans of modern architecture will want to have a look at this Modernist structure, the central house in a block of three designed by the ‘structural…
London
Printing presses on Fleet St fell silent in the 1980s, but St Bride's is still referred to as the 'journalists' church'; a moving memorial in the north…
Greenwich
For fan fans, this small but lovely museum has a wonderful collection of over 4000 historic and modern fans (only a small portion are on display) from…
The West End
The London Metropolitan Police has moved several times since its founding in 1829 but the latest move – to this renovated neoclassical block with a modern…
Kensington & Hyde Park
Hyde Park is separated from Kensington Gardens by the gently curving Serpentine lake, created when the River Westbourne was dammed in the 1730s. At…
East London
This garden is typical of the kind of grassroots regeneration happening around Dalston: a project led by the community, for the community – and a roaring…
Greenwich
Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor to replace a 13th-century church and consecrated in 1718, baroque St Alfege features a restored mural by James Thornhill …
The West End
In the northeast corner of St James's Park, at the junction of Horse Guards Rd and the Mall, stands this memorial, one column of marble and another of…
London
The inner workings of Tower Bridge can't compare with its exterior magnificence, but this geeky exhibition tries to bridge that gap with details of the…
East London
Sitting in the shadow of Tower Bridge, this once-booming part of London's Docklands was built in 1828 by engineer-extraordinaire Thomas Telford. To make…
London
It takes a little stagecraft to bring these ruins to life, but it's amazing what low lighting and Latin chanting can do. This Roman temple was dedicated…
London
The definition of a concrete jungle, this glass-topped conservatory is a surprisingly lush urban rainforest inside the brutalist Barbican, London’s second…
East London
Still known to most Londoners as the Olympic Stadium, this large sportsground is the main focal point of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It had a Games…
