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Dickens House Museum
The great Victorian novelist lived a nomadic life in the big city, moving around London so prolifically that he left behind him an unrivalled trail of blue plaques. This handsome four-storey house is his sole surviving residence before he upped and moved to Kent. The house was saved from demolition and the fascinating museum opened in 1925, showcasing the family drawing room and 10 rooms chock-a-block with memorabilia.
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Docklands
It's worth sparing a few minutes to glance around the strange sci-fi neighbourhood of Docklands. Sir Norman Foster's sleek Canary Wharf Underground station is monumental, while Cesar Pelli's 244m Canary Wharf Tower dominates the landscape.
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Dr Johnson's House
This wonderful house, built in 1700, is a rare surviving example of a Georgian city mansion. Huge office blocks loom around it, making tiny Gough Sq quite hard to find. The house was the home of the great Georgian wit Samuel Johnson, the author of the first serious dictionary of the English language (transcribed by a team of six clerks in the attic) and the man who proclaimed 'When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life'.
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Dulwich Picture Gallery
The UK's oldest public art gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery was designed by idiosyncratic architect Sir John Soane between 1811 and 1814 to house Dulwich College's collection of paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Poussin, Lely, Van Dyck and others. It's a wonderful, atmospheric place but with scarcely a dozen rooms to hang the artwork, limited wall space makes it difficult to view some of the paintings properly.
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Eltham Palace
No fan of Art Deco should miss a trip to Eltham Palace, not so much for the remnants of the palace building itself but for the fabulous Courtauld House on its grounds.
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Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
The only museum in Britain devoted to Italian art, and one of the leading collections of futurist painting in the world, the Estorick Collection is housed in a listed Georgian house and stuffed with works by such greats as Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and Ardengo Soffici. Well-conceived special exhibitions might concentrate on Italian divisionism or a collection of classic Italian film posters. Highly recommended.
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Fan Museum
The world's only museum entirely devoted to fans has a wonderful collection of ivory, tortoiseshell, peacock-feather and folded-fabric examples alongside kitsch battery-powered versions and huge ornamental Welsh fans. The 18th-century Georgian town house in which the collection resides also has a Japanese-style garden with an orangery serving afternoon teas.
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Fenton House
One of the oldest houses in Hampstead, this late-17th-century merchant's residence has a charming walled garden with roses and an orchard, fine collections of porcelain and keyboard instruments - including a 1612 harpsichord played by Handel - as well as 17th-century needlework pictures and original Georgian furniture.
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Firepower, The Royal Artillery Museum
Not a place for pacifists or those of a nervous disposition, Firepower is a shoot-'em-up display of how artillery has developed through the ages. The History Gallery traces the story of artillery from catapults to nuclear warheads, while a multimedia exhibit called Field of Fire tries to convey the experience of artillery gunners from WWI to Bosnia in a 15-minute extravaganza.
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Florence Nightingale Museum
Attached to St Thomas's Hospital, this small museum tells the story of feisty war heroine Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who led a team of nurses to Turkey in 1854 during the Crimean War. There she worked to improve conditions for the soldiers before returning to London to set up a training school for nurses at St Thomas's in 1859.
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Fulham Palace
Summer home of the bishops of London from 704 to 1973, Fulham Palace is an interesting mix of architectural styles set in beautiful gardens and, until 1924, enclosed by the longest moat in England. The oldest part to survive is the little redbrick Tudor gateway, but the main building you see today dates from the mid-17th century and was remodelled in the 19th century.
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Fuller's Griffin Brewery
Of interest to anyone who enjoys bitter and/or wants to see it being made and/or would like to engage in a comprehensive tasting session, Fuller's is now the last working brewery extant in London. You can visit only on the 1.5-hour guided tour, which must be booked in advance by phone.
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Geffrye Museum
Definitely Shoreditch's most accessible sight, this 18th-century ivy-clad series of almshouses with a herb garden draws you in immediately. The museum is devoted to domestic interiors, with each recently renovated room of the main building furnished to show how the homes of the relatively affluent middle class would have looked from Elizabethan times right through to the end of the 19th century.
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Golden Hinde
Okay, it looks like a dinky theme-park ride and kids do love it, but stepping aboard this replica of Sir Francis Drake's famous Tudor ship will inspire genuine admiration for the admiral and his rather short - average height: 1.6m - crew. This tiny five-deck galleon was home to Drake and his crew from 1577 to 1580 as they became the first sailors to circumnavigate the globe.
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Great Fire Memorial
This statue of a corpulent boy has a rather odd dedication: 'In memory put up for the fire of London occasioned by the sin of gluttony 1666'. All becomes clear when you realise the Great Fire was started in a busy bakery. The Fortune of War tavern once stood on this site, and 'resurrectionists' brought corpses here to be sold to surgeons.
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Great Mosque
The best example of the changes in population that this area has experienced over the past several centuries is this house of worship on Brick Lane. Built in 1743 as the New French Church for the Huguenots, it served as a Methodist chapel for a time until it was transformed into the Great Synagogue for Jewish refugees from Russia and central Europe in 1899. In 1975 it changed faiths yet again, becoming the Great Mosque
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Green Park
Less manicured than the adjoining St James's, this park has trees and open space, sunshine and shade, though no flower beds - hence the name. It was once a duelling ground and served as a vegetable garden during WWII. In 1763, fireworks were held in the Green Park to celebrate peace; Handel wrote the music that accompanied them.
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Greenwich Foot Tunnel
Looked at objectively, this is just a pedestrian tunnel, built in 1902. But it's made quite thrilling by virtue of crossing beneath the River Thames. The echoing footsteps create a certain frisson and, thanks to the tunnel's slope, you see oncoming pedestrians' feet before their faces are revealed. (Although there's CCTV security, those prone to claustrophobia probably won't enjoy the experience.)
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Greenwich Park
One of London's largest and loveliest parks, with a grand avenue, wide-open spaces, a rose garden and impressive views across the River Thames to the Docklands from atop the hill. Covering a full 74ha, it is partly the work of Le Nôtre, who landscaped the palace gardens of Versailles for Louis XIV. It contains several historic sights, a teahouse, a café and the Wilderness - a deer park in the southeast corner.
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Guards Museum
If you found the crowds at the Change of Guards tiresome and hard to see, get here by , any day from April to August, to see the guards in formation outside the museum for their march up to Buckingham Palace. Then check out the history of the five regiments of foot guards and their role in military campaigns from Waterloo on, in this little museum established in the 17th century during the reign of Charles II.
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Guildhall
Bang in the centre of the Square Mile, the Guildhall has been the City's seat of government for nearly 800 years. The present building dates from the early 15th century, making it the only secular stone structure to have survived the Great Fire of 1666, although it was severely damaged both then and during the Blitz of 1940.
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Guildhall Art Gallery
The gallery of the City of London provides a fascinating look at the politics of the square mile over the past few centuries, with a great collection of paintings of London in the 18th and 19th centuries. The real highlight of the museum is deep in the darkened basement, where the archaeological remains of Roman London's amphitheatre, or coliseum, lie.
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Ham House
Known as 'Hampton Court in miniature', Ham House was built in 1610 and became home to the first Earl of Dysart, an unlucky individual who had been employed as 'whipping boy' to Charles I, taking the punishment for all the king's wrongdoings. Inside it's furnished with all the grandeur you might expect.
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Hampstead Heath
Sprawling Hampstead Heath, with its rolling woodlands and meadows, is a million miles away - well, approximately four - from the city of London. It covers 320 hectares, most of it woods, hills and meadows, and is home to about 100 bird species. It's a wonderful place for a ramble, especially to the top of Parliament Hill, which offers expansive views across the city and is one of the most popular places in London to fly a kite.
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Hampton Court Palace
Here history is palpable, from the kitchens and grand living quarters of Henry VIII to the spectacular gardens complete with a 300-year-old maze. This is one of the best days out London has to offer and should not be missed by anyone with any interest in British history. Set aside plenty of time to do it justice, bearing in mind that if you come by boat from central London the trip will have already eaten up half the day.
