PLACES OF INTEREST LONDON

LONDON

The Tower Bridge

The bridge consists of two towers which are tied together at the upper level by means of two horizontal walkways Construction started in 1886 and took eight years The bridge opens so that ships can pass through

The Tower of London

is a historic castle The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom Now it is a museum

Houses of Parliament

Palace of Westminster, as it is also known – has occupied the same spot since 1016 The oldest surviving part of the building is Westminster Hall  Big Ben is the name of the bell and the clock there sets the exact time time

The Buckingham Palace

the official London residence of the British monarch - located in the City of Westminster It became the principal royal residence in 1837, on the accession of Queen Victoria It is also famous for changing the guards

The London Eye

a giant 135-metre tall Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually There are 32 capsules which never stop

The City Hall

the headquarters of the Greater London Authority which is the Mayor of London and London Assembly It was opened in July 2002

The Trafalgar Square

At its centre there is the Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues It is used as a location for political demonstrations The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars There is also the National Gallery

The Piccadilly Circus

It is particularly known for its video display and neon signs It is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the West End There is also the memorial fountain and statue of an archer popularly known as Eros

The Globe Theatre

is a faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse first built in 1599, where Shakespeare worked and for which he wrote many of his greatest plays Each year the theatre season runs from April to October with productions of the work by Shakespeare and modern authors, and plays to an audience of 350,000 who experience the ‘wooden O’

The Harrods

The store occupies a 20,000 m2 site and has over 90,000 m2 of selling space in over 330 departments The Royal family do their shopping there one of the five owners was Mohamed Al-Fayed

The Wembley Stadium

a football stadium the 90,000 capacity venue is the second largest stadium in Europe, and serves as England's national stadium It is the home of the England national football team The new image dates to 2007

The National Gallery

It houses the national collection of Western European painting from the 13th to the 19th centuries It is on show 361 days a year, free of charge You can find it on the Trafalgar square

The Saint Paul‘s Cathedral

the seat of the Bishop of London it dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren The Royal Family holds most of its important marriages, christenings and funerals at Westminster Abbey, but St Paul's was used for the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer

The Westminster Abbey

has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs is also the place where some of the most significant people in the nation's history are buried or commemorated e.g. The Poets‘ Corner)

The Tate Gallery

houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art It is a network of four art museums The gallery was founded in 1897 it was renamed the Tate Gallery after Henry Tate, who had laid the foundations for the collection

The Millenium Dome

It was originally used for a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium it is now a key exterior feature of The O2 The Prime Meridian passes the western edge of the Dome

The Greenwich Observatory The Prime Meridian

is best known as the location of the prime meridian The fuondation stone was laid in 1675 by King Charles II The scientific work of the observatory was relocated elsewhere in the first half of the 20th century, and the Greenwich site is now a tourist attraction

The Victoria Kew Gardens

The living collections include more than 30,000 different kinds of plants the herbarium, which is the one of the largest in the world, has over 7 million preserved plant specimens The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants