Sights in England
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Westminster Abbey
If you're one of those boring sods who boast about spending months in Europe without ever setting foot in a church, get over yourself and make this the exception. Not merely a beautiful place of worship, Westminster Abbey serves up the country's history cold on slabs of stone. For centuries the country's greatest have been interred here, including most of the monarchs from Henry III (died 1272) to George II (1760).
Westminster Abbey has never been a cathedral (the seat of a bishop). It's what is called a 'royal peculiar' and is administered directly by the Crown. Every monarch since William the Conqueror has been crowned here, with the exception of a couple of unlucky Eds …
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Natural History Museum
This mammoth institution is dedicated to the Victorian pursuit of collecting and cataloguing. Walking into the Life galleries (Blue Zone) in the 1880 Gothic Revival building off Cromwell Rd evokes the musty moth-eaten era of the Victorian gentleman scientist. The main museum building, with its blue and sand-coloured brick and terracotta, was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and is as impressive as the towering diplodocus dinosaur skeleton in the Central Hall just ahead of the main entrance. It’s hard to match any of the exhibits with this initial sight, except perhaps the huge blue whale just beyond it. Children, who are the main fans of this museum, are primed for more pr…
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Tower Bridge
London was still a thriving port in 1894 when elegant Tower Bridge was built. Designed to be raised to allow ships to pass, electricity has now taken over from the original steam engines. A lift leads up from the northern tower to the overpriced Tower Bridge Exhibition, where the story of its building is recounted within the upper walkway. The same ticket gets you into the engine rooms below the southern tower. Below the bridge on the City side is Dead Man's Hole, where corpses that had made their way into the Thames (through suicide, murder or accident) were regularly retrieved.
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St Paul's Cathedral
Dominating the City with a dome second in size only to St Peter's in Rome, St Paul's Cathedral was designed by Wren after the Great Fire and built between 1675 and 1710. Four other cathedrals preceded it on this site, the first dating from 604.
The dome is renowned for somehow dodging the bombs during the Blitz and became an icon of the resilience shown in the capital during WWII. Outside the cathedral, to the north, is a monument to the people of London, a simple and elegant memorial to the 32,000 Londoners who weren't so lucky.
Inside, some 30m above the main paved area, is the first of three domes (actually a dome inside a cone inside a dome) supported by eight huge …
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National Gallery
Gazing grandly over Trafalgar Sq through its Corinthian columns, the National Gallery is the nation's most important repository of art. Four million visitors come annually to admire its 2300-plus Western European paintings, spanning the years 1250 to 1900. Highlights include Turner's The Fighting Temeraire (voted Britain's greatest painting), Botticelli's Venus and Mars and van Gogh's Sunflowers. The medieval religious paintings in the Sainsbury Wing are fascinating, but for a short, sharp blast of brilliance, you can't beat the truckloads of Monets, Cézannes and Renoirs.
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Tate Modern
It's hard to miss this surprisingly elegant former power station on the side of the river, which is fortunate as the tremendous Tate Modern really shouldn't be missed. Focussing on modern art in all its wacky and wonderful permutations, it's been extraordinarily successful in bringing challenging work to the masses, becoming one of London's most popular attractions.
Outstanding temporary exhibitions (on the 4th floor; prices vary) continue to spark excitement, as does the periodically changing large-scale installation in the vast Turbine Hall. The permanent collection is organised into four themed sections, which change periodically but include works by the likes of Mark R…
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Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Sq is the public heart of London, hosting rallies, marches and feverish New Year's festivities. Londoners congregate here to celebrate anything from football victories to the ousting of political leaders. The square is one of the world's grandest public places. At the heart of it, Nelson surveys his fleet from the 43.5m-high Nelson's Column, erected in 1843 to commemorate his 1805 victory over Napoleon off Spain's Cape Trafalgar. The square is flanked by splendid buildings: Canada House to the west, the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery to the north, South Africa House and the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields to the east. Further south stands Admir…
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London Eye
It may seem a bit Mordor-ish to have a giant eye overlooking the city, but the London Eye doesn't actually resemble an eye at all, and, in a city where there's a CCTV camera on every other corner, it's probably only fitting. Originally designed as a temporary structure to celebrate the millennium, the Eye is now a permanent addition to the cityscape, joining Big Ben as one of London's most distinctive landmarks.
This 135m-tall, slow-moving Ferris-wheel-like attraction is the largest of its kind in the world. Passengers ride in an enclosed egg-shaped pod; the wheel takes 30 minutes to rotate completely and offers 25-mile views on a clear day. Visits are preceded by a short …
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British Museum
The country's largest museum and one of the oldest and finest in the world, this famous museum boasts vast Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, European and Middle Eastern galleries, among many others.
Begun in 1753 with a 'cabinet of curiosities' bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane to the nation on his death, the collection mushroomed over the ensuing years partly through the plundering of the empire. The grand Enlightenment Gallery was the first section of the redesigned museum to be built (in 1823).
Among the must-sees are the Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, discovered in 1799; the controversial Parthenon Sculptures, stripped from the walls of the …
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York Minster
Not content with being Yorkshire's most important historic building, the awe-inspiring York Minster is also the largest medieval cath- edral in all of Northern Europe. Seat of the archbishop of York, primate of England, it is second in importance only to Canterbury, home of the primate of all England – the separate titles were created to settle a debate over whether York or Canterbury was the true centre of the English church. But that's where Canterbury's superiority ends, for this is without doubt one of the world's most beautiful Gothic buildings. If this is the only cathedral you visit in England, you'll still walk away satisfied – so long as you have the patience to …
reviewed
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Science Museum
With seven floors of interactive and educational exhibits, the Science Museum covers everything from the Industrial Revolution to the exploration of space. There is something for all ages, from vintage cars, trains and aeroplanes to labour-saving devices for the home, a wind tunnel and flight simulator. Kids love the interactive sections. There's also a 450-seat Imax cinema.
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Buckingham Palace
With so many imposing buildings in the capital, the Queen's well-proportioned but relatively plain city pad is an anticlimax for some. Built in 1803 for the Duke of Buckingham, Buckingham Palace replaced St James's Palace as the monarch's London home in 1837. When she's not off giving her one-handed wave in far-flung parts of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II divides her time between here, Windsor and Balmoral. If you've got the urge to drop in for a cup of tea, a handy way of telling whether she's home is to check whether the yellow, red and blue royal standard is flying.
Nineteen lavishly furnished State Rooms – hung with artworks by the likes of Rembrandt, van Dyck, …
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Sir John Soane's Museum
Not all of this area's inhabitants were poor, as is aptly demonstrated by the remarkable home of celebrated architect and collector extraordinaire Sir John Soane (1753–1837). Now a fascinating museum, the house has been left largely as it was when Sir John was taken out in a box. Among his eclectic acquisitions are an Egyptian sarcophagus, dozens of Greek and Roman antiquities and the original Rake's Progress, William Hogarth's set of caricatures telling the story of a late 18th-century London cad. Soane was clearly a very clever chap – check out the ingenious folding walls in the picture gallery. Tours (£5) are given at 11am on Saturdays.
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Museum Of Science & Industry
The city’s largest museum comprises 2.8 hectares in the heart of 19th-century industrial Manchester. It’s in the landscape of enormous, weather-stained brick buildings and rusting cast-iron relics of canals, viaducts, bridges, warehouses and market buildings that makes up Castlefield, now deemed an ‘urban heritage park’. If there’s anything you want to know about the Industrial (and post-Industrial) Revolution and Manchester’s key role in it, you’ll find the answers among the collection of steam engines and locomotives, factory machinery from the mills, and the excellent exhibition telling the story of Manchester from the sewers up. With more than a dozen permanent exhibi…
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Shakespeare's Globe
Today's Londoners might grab a budget flight to Amsterdam to behave badly. Back in Shakespeare's time they'd cross London Bridge to Southwark. Free from the city's constraints, they could hook up with a prostitute, watch a bear being tortured for their amusement and then head to a theatre. The most famous of them was the Globe, where a clever fellow was producing box-office smashes like Macbeth and Hamlet.
Originally built in 1599, the Globe burnt down in 1613 and was immediately rebuilt. The Puritans, who regarded theatres as dreadful dens of iniquity, eventually closed it in 1642. Its present incarnation was the vision of American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, who sa…
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Museum Gardens
A peaceful 4-hectare city-centre oasis which houses a wealth of medieval history, much of it in picturesque tatters. Assorted ruins and buildings include the Museum Gardens Lodge dating from 1874, and a 19th-century working observatory. The abbey ruins make a suitably evocative backdrop for the Mystery Plays held in the gardens every four years.
Take time out from York's summertime tourist hordes to wander past the abbey's Hospitium and Gatehall entrance, the Victorian Gothic Gardens Lodge and a VIP accommodation lodge dating from 1470. Then plunge into the Yorkshire Museum and its fine collection of Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and medieval remains. Pride of place goes to…
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St Margaret's Church
A patchwork of architectural styles, this church is worth a look for its two extraordinarily elaborate Flemish brasses. You can also see a remarkable 17th-century moon dial, which tells the tide, not the time. You'll find historic flood-level markings by the west door.
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Borough Market
On this spot in some form or another since the 13th century, ‘London’s Larder’ has enjoyed an enormous renaissance in recent years, overflowing with food-lovers, both experienced and wannabes, and has become quite a tourist destination.
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Hampton Court Palace
Built by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1514 but coaxed out of him by Henry VIII just before the chancellor fell from favour, Hampton Court Palace is England's largest and grandest Tudor structure. It was already one of the most sophisticated palaces in Europe when, in the 17th century, Wren was commissioned to build an extension. The result is a beautiful blend of Tudor and 'restrained baroque' architecture.
Take a themed tour led by costumed historians or, if you're in a rush, visit the highlights: Henry VIII's State Apartments, including the Great Hall with its spectacular hammer-beamed roof; the Tudor Kitchens, staffed by 'servants'; and the Wolsey Rooms. You could easily s…
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Everton FC
Liverpool's 'other' team are the blues of Everton FC, who may not have their rivals' winning pedigree but they're just as popular locally. Tours of Goodison Park run throughout the year except on the Friday before home matches.
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British Library
You need to be a 'reader' (ie member) to use the vast collection of the library, but the Treasures gallery is open to everyone. Here you'll find Shakespeare's first folio, Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, the lyrics to 'A Hard Day's Night' scribbled on the back of Julian Lennon's birthday card, Oscar Wilde's handwritten 'Ballad Of Reading Gaol', religious texts from around the world and, most importantly, the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus (one of the earliest Bibles) and 1215 Magna Carta.
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Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms
Down in the bunker where Prime Minister Winston Churchill, his cabinet and generals met during WWII, £6 million has been spent on a huge exhibition devoted to ‘the greatest Briton’. This whizz-bang multimedia Churchill Museum joins the highly evocative Cabinet War Rooms, where chiefs of staff slept, ate and plotted Hitler’s downfall, blissfully believing they were protected from Luftwaffe bombs by the 3m slab of concrete overhead. (Turns out it would have crumpled like paper had the area taken a hit.) Together, these two sections make you forget the Churchill who was a maverick and lousy peacetime politician, and drive home how much the cigar-chewing, wartime PM was a cas…
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Old Royal Naval College
Designed by Wren, the Old Royal Naval College is a magnificent example of monumental classical architecture. Parts are now used by the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music, but you can visit the chapel and the extraordinary Painted Hall, which took artist Sir James Thornhill 19 years of hard graft to complete.
The complex was built on the site of the 15th-century Palace of Placentia, the birthplace of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. This Tudor connection, along with Greenwich's industrial and maritime history, is explored in the Discover Greenwich centre. The tourist office is based here, along with a cafe and microbrewery. Tours of the complex leave at 2pm dai…
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Ely Cathedral
Dominating the town and visible across the flat fenland for vast distances, the stunning silhouette of Ely Cathedral is locally dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens'.
Walking into the early 12th-century Romanesque nave, you're immediately struck by its clean, uncluttered lines and lofty sense of space. The cathedral is renowned for its entrancing ceilings and the masterly 14th-century octagon and lantern towers, which soar upwards in shimmering colours.
The vast 14th-century Lady Chapel is the biggest in England; it's filled with eerily empty niches that once held statues of saints and martyrs. They were hacked out unceremoniously by iconoclasts during the English Civil War. Howeve…
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Old Trafford (Manchester United Museum & Tour)
Home of the world's most famous club, the Old Trafford stadium is both a theatre and a temple for its millions of fans worldwide, many of whom come in pilgrimage to the ground to pay tribute to the minor deities disguised as highly paid footballers that play there. Ironically, Manchester United are not as popular in Manchester as their cross-town rivals Manchester City, whose fans have traditionally regarded United's enormous wealth and success in strictly Faustian terms. United fans snigger and dismiss this as small-minded jealousy, but they too have become disillusioned with the price of success and during the 2009–10 season protested vehemently against the club's owner…
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