Sights in London
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Covent Garden Market
London’s first planned square is now the exclusive reserve of tourists who flock here to shop in the quaint old arcades, be entertained by buskers, pay through the nose for refreshments at outdoor cafes and bars, and watch men and women pretend to be statues.
On its western flank is St Paul’s Church. The Earl of Bedford, the man who had commissioned Inigo Jones to design the piazza, asked for the simplest possible church, basically no more than a barn. The architect responded by producing ‘the handsomest barn in England’. It has long been regarded as the actors’ church for its associations with the theatre, and contains memorials to the likes of Charlie Chaplin and…
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Hunterian Museum
The collection of anatomical specimens of pioneering surgeon John Hunter (1728–93) inspired this fascinating, slightly morbid, little-known, yet fantastic London museum. Among the more bizarre items on display are the skeleton of a 2.3m giant, half of mathematician Charles Babbage’s brain and, hilariously, Winston Churchill’s dentures.
Thanks to a massive refurbishment some years back, the atmosphere is less gory and allows decent viewing of such things as animal digestive systems (forensically documented in formaldehyde) and the ‘hearing organ’ of a blue whale. Upstairs there’s a display on surgery techniques, which will impress and disgust in equal measure.…
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Greenwich Park
Handsome venue of the 2012 Games equestrian events, this park is one of London's loveliest expanses of green, with a rose garden, picturesque walks and astonishing views from the crown of the hill near the statue of General Wolfe, opposite the Royal Observatory. Covering a full 73 hectares, this is the oldest enclosed royal park and is partly the work of André Le Nôtre, the landscape architect who designed the palace gardens of Versailles for Louis XIV, the Sun King. The park is rich in historic sights, including a teahouse near the Royal Observatory, a cafe behind the National Maritime Museum, a deer park, tennis courts in the southwest and a boating lake at the Queen's…
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BBC Television Centre
If you’re interested in TV production, this is the perfect chance to visit the vast complex of studios and offices that bring the BBC’s TV programs to the world. Visit is by two-hour guided tour only and bookings two days in advance are essential (no children under nine years, nine tours Monday to Saturday). You’ll see the BBC News and Weather Centres as well as studios where shows are being made; keep your eyes peeled all the while as you’re very likely to spot a celebrity wandering around the corridors.
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Tower of London
One of London's four World Heritage Sites (joining Westminster Abbey, Kew Gardens and Maritime Greenwich), the Tower offers a window on to a gruesome and quite compelling history.
In the 1070s, William the Conqueror started work on the White Tower to replace the castle he'd previously had built here. By 1285, two walls with towers and a moat were built around it and the defences have barely been altered since. A former royal residence, treasury, mint and arsenal, it became most famous as a prison when Henry VIII moved to Whitehall Palace in 1529 and started meting out his preferred brand of punishment.
The most striking building is indeed the central White Tower, with its…
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National Maritime Museum
Narrating the long and eventful history of seafaring Britain, this museum is one of Greenwich's top attractions. Museum space increased with the Sammy Ofer Wing, which opened in late 2011.
The exhibits are arranged thematically and highlights include Miss Britain III (the first boat to top 100mph on open water) from 1933, the 19m-long golden state barge built in 1732 for Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the huge ship's propeller installed on level 1. The museum also owns the uniform coat that Britain's greatest seafaring hero, Horatio Nelson, was wearing when he was fatally shot (and the actual bullet), plus a replica of the lifeboat used by explorer Ernest Shackleton and…
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Victoria & Albert Museum
The V & A has the finest collection of decorative art and design ever assembled and galleries are being redeveloped and reinvented all the time. Visitors are particularly drawn to the fashion displays and the Islamic and Asian galleries with their carpets, ceramics, and ornate arms and armour.
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Ridley Road Market
Massively enjoyed by the ethnically diverse community it serves, this market is best for its exotic fruit and vegetables, specialist cuts of meat and colourful fabrics. You’ll also find the usual assortment of plastic tat, cheap clothing and mobile phone accessories.
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Houses of Parliament
Coming face to face with one of the world's most recognisable landmarks is always a surreal moment, but in the case of the Houses of Parliament it's a revelation. Photos just don't do justice to the ornate stonework and golden filigree of Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin's neo-Gothic masterpiece (1840).
Officially called the Palace of Westminster, the oldest part is Westminster Hall (1097), which is one of only a few sections that survived a catastrophic fire in 1834. Its roof, added between 1394 and 1401, is the earliest known example of a hammerbeam roof and has been described as the greatest surviving achievement of medieval English carpentry.
The palace's most famous…
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Madame Tussauds
With so much fabulous free stuff to do in London, it's a wonder that people still join lengthy queues to visit pricey Madame Tussauds, but in a celebrity-obsessed, camera-happy world, the opportunity to pose beside Posh and Becks is not short on appeal. The life-size wax figures are remarkably lifelike and are as close to the real thing as most of us will get. It's interesting to see which are the most popular; nobody wants to be photographed with Richard Branson, but Prince Charles and Camilla do a brisk trade.
Honing her craft making effigies of victims of the French revolution, Tussaud brought her wares to England in 1802. Her Chamber of Horrors still survives (complete…
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Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace (1605) became the favourite royal residence under the joint reign of William and Mary and remained so until George III became king and moved across the park to Buckingham Palace. It still has private apartments where various members of the royal extended family live. In popular imagination it's most associated with three intriguing princesses: Victoria (who was born here in 1819 and lived here with her domineering mother until her accession to the throne), Margaret (sister of the current queen, who lived here until her 2002 death) and, of course, Diana. More than a million bouquets were left outside the gates following her death in 1997.
The building is…
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Piccadilly Circus
Together with Big Ben and Trafalgar Sq, this is postcard London. And despite the stifling crowds and racing midday traffic, the flashing ads and buzzing liveliness of Piccadilly Circus always make it exciting to be in London. The circus looks its best at night, when the flashing advertisement panels really shine against the dark sky.>/p>
Designed by John Nash in the 1820s, the hub was named after the street Piccadilly, which earned its name in the 17th century from the stiff collars (picadils) that were the sartorial staple of the time (and were the making of a nearby tailor’s fortune). At the centre of the circus is the famous lead statue, the Angel of Christian…
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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.
Check in at reception to visit the impressive Great Hall (ring ahead as it often closes for formal functions), where you can see the banners and shields of London’s 12 guilds (principal livery companies), which used to wield absolute power throughout the city. The lord mayor and sheriffs are still elected annually in the vast open hall, with its…
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London Zoo
These famous zoological gardens have come a long way since being established in 1828, with massive investment making conservation, education and breeding the name of the game. Highlights include Penguin Beach, Gorilla Kingdom, Animal Adventure (the new childrens' zoo) and Butterfly Paradise. Feeding sessions or talks take place during the day. Arachnophobes can ask about the zoo's Friendly Spider Programme, designed to cure fears of all things eight-legged and hairy.
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Thames Barrier
The sci-fi–looking Thames Barrier is in place to protect London from flooding and, with global warming increasing the city’s vulnerability to rising sea levels and surge tides, the barrier is likely to be of growing importance in coming years. Under construction for a decade and completed in 1982, the barrier consists of 10 movable gates anchored to nine concrete piers, each as tall as a five-storey building. The silver roofs on the piers house the operating machinery to raise and lower the gates against excess water. They make a surreal sight, straddling the river in the lee of a giant warehouse. The reason why London needs such a flood barrier is that the water level…
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Highgate Cemetery
Most famous as the final resting place of Karl Marx, George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans) and other notable mortals, Highgate Cemetery is set in 20 wonderfully wild and atmospheric hectares, with dramatic and overdecorated Victorian family crypts. It is divided into two parts on either side of Swain's Lane. On the eastern side you can visit the grave of Karl Marx. The real draw however is the overgrown western section of this Victorian Valhalla. To visit it, you'll have to take a tour (%8340 1834; adult/child #7/3; 1 hr; h1.45pm Mon-Fri, hourly from 11am to 3pm Sat & Sun Nov-Mar, to 4pm Apr-Oct). Note that children under eight are not allowed to join. It is a maze…
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Tate Britain
The more elderly and venerable of the two Tate siblings, this riverside Portland stone edifice celebrates paintings from 1500 to the present, with works from Blake, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Barbara Hepworth, Whistler, Constable and Turner – in particular – whose light-infused visions dominate the Clore Gallery. It doesn't stop there and vibrant modern and contemporary art finds expression in pieces from Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Tracey Emin while the controversial Turner Prize (inviting annual protests outside the gallery) is held here every year between October and January. Free one-hour thematic tours are held at 11am, noon, 2pm and 3pm from Monday to Friday…
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Guildhall Art Gallery & Roman London Amphitheatre
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, as well as the vast frieze entitled The Defeat of the Floating Batteries (1791), depicting the British victory at the Siege of Gibraltar in 1782. This huge painting was removed to safety just a month before the gallery was hit by a German bomb in 1941 – it spent 50 years rolled up before a spectacular restoration in 1999.
An even more recent arrival is a sculpture of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, which has to be housed in a protective glass case as the Iron…
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Hyde Park
At 145 hectares, Hyde Park is central London's largest open space. Henry VIII expropriated it from the Church in 1536, when it became a hunting ground and later a venue for duels, executions and horse racing. The 1851 Great Exhibition was held here, and during WWII the park became an enormous potato field. These days, it serves as an occasional concert venue and a full-time green space for fun and frolics. There's boating on the Serpentine for the energetic, while Speaker's Corner is for oratorical acrobats. These days, it's largely nutters and religious fanatics who address the bemused stragglers at Speaker's Corner, maintaining the tradition begun in 1872 as a response…
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Dr Johnson’s House
This wonderful house, built in 1700, is a rare surviving example of a Georgian city mansion. All around it today huge office blocks loom and tiny Gough Square can be quite hard to find. The house has been preserved, as it was the home of the great Georgian wit Samuel Johnson, the author of the first serious dictionary of the English language and the man who proclaimed ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life’.
The museum doesn’t exactly crackle with Dr Johnson’s immortal wit, yet it’s still an atmospheric and worthy place to visit, with its antique furniture and artefacts from Johnson’s life. The numerous paintings of Dr Johnson and his associates, including…
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Bank of England Museum
When William III declared war against France in the 17th century, he looked over his shoulder and soon realised he didn’t have the funds to finance his armed forces. A Scottish merchant by the name of William Paterson came up with the idea of forming a joint-stock bank that could lend the government money and, in 1694, so began the Bank of England and the notion of national debt. The bank rapidly expanded in size and stature and moved to this site in 1734. During a financial crisis at the end of the 18th century, a cartoon appeared depicting the bank as a haggard old woman, and this is probably the origin of its nickname ‘the Old Lady of Threadneedle St’. The institution…
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Imperial War Museum
Fronted by a pair of intimidating 15in naval guns, this riveting museum is housed in what was once Bethlehem Royal Hospital, also known as Bedlam. Although the museum's focus is on military action involving British or Commonwealth troops during the 20th century, it rolls out the carpet to war in the wider sense. There's not just Lawrence of Arabia's 1000cc motorbike, but a German V-2 rocket, a Sherman tank and a lifelike replica of Little Boy (the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima).
In the Trench Experience on the lower ground floor you walk through the grim reality of life on the Somme front line in WWI; the Blitz Experience has you cowering inside a mock bomb shelter…
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St James’s Park
This is one of the smallest but most gorgeous of London’s parks. It has brilliant views of the London Eye, Westminster, St James’s Palace, Carlton Terrace and Horse Guards Parade, and the view of Buckingham Palace from the footbridge spanning St James’s Park Lake is the best you’ll find. The central lake is full of different types of ducks, geese, swans and general fowl, and its southern side’s rocks serve as a rest stop for pelicans (fed at 2.30pm daily). Some of the technicolour flowerbeds were modelled on John Nash’s original ‘floriferous’ beds of mixed shrubs, flowers and trees. Spring and summer days see Londoners and tourists alike sunbathing, picnicking, admiring…
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Hampstead Heath
Sprawling Hampstead Heath, with its rolling woodlands and meadows, feels a million miles away – despite being approximately four – from the City of London. It covers 320 hectares, most of it woods, hills and meadows, and is home to about 180 bird species, 23 species of butterflies, grass snakes, bats and a rich array of flora. It's a wonder-ful 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. Alternatively head up the hill in North Wood or lose your-self in the West Heath.
If walking is too pedestrian for you, another major attraction is the bathing…
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Charterhouse
You need to book six months in advance to see inside this former Carthusian monastery, where the centrepiece is a Tudor hall with a restored hammerbeam roof. Its incredibly popular two-hour guided tours begin at the 14th-century gatehouse on Charterhouse Square, before going through to the Preachers’ Court, the Master’s Court, the Great Hall and the Great Chamber, where Queen Elizabeth I stayed on numerous occasions.
The monastery was founded in 1371 by the Carthusians, the strictest of all Roman Catholic monastic orders, refraining from eating meat and taking vows of silence, broken only for three hours on Sunday. During the Reformation the monastery was oppressed,…
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