London Events
Places of interest
London
is a living and constantly changing city. Some cities depend on impressive historic buildings for their greatness, others on being the center of government or culture or finance; still others are exciting because they are new. What makesLondon
unique is that it is all of these in one. It is simply the most culturally rich, stimulating, and dynamic city in the world.
Buckingham Palace
The Buckingham Palace has served as official residence of the British sovereign since 1837. The Duke of Buckingham's relatively modest mansion built in 1705 is now lost behind successive additions of regal rooms, splendid art, and an imposing facade. Areas remain open to the public on a regular basis and the changing of the guard takes place almost every day at 11.30am.
Westminster
Commonly known as The Houses of Parliament, this Victorian Gothic riverside palace, with its landmark Big Ben clock tower, is London's newest palace, built on the foundations of its oldest. In 1834, a fire destroyed the rambling old palace, which had been the principal London Royal residence from William the Conqueror to Henry VIII.
St. Paul's Cathedral
This is the cathedral church of London Diocese - a church for Londoners, while Westminster Abbey serves the nation. This, the fifth church on the site, is England's only baroque cathedral, the only one with a dome, and the only one built between the Reformation and the 19th century. It was also the first to be built entirely by a single architect, Sir Christopher Wren.
Tower Bridge
This is one of the world's most celebrated landmarks, and probably the most photographed and painted bridge on earth. It is the capital' only bridge downriver of London Bridge and begun in 1886, it is also one of its newest. It stipulated a Gothic-style bridge to sympathize with the neighboring Tower of London.
Tower of London
Britain's most perfect surviving medieval fort is tucked behind the sleek City towers. The Tower is not just a fort; it contains a palace, prisons, an execution site, chapels, and museums. Headless bodies, bodiless heads, phantom soldiers, clanking chains - you name them, the Tower's got them. The Tower is built through ages for varying purposes, mostly as expressions of royal power.
Madame Tussaud's
Madame Tussaud's is not so much a wax museum as an enclosed amusement park. A weird, moving, sometimes terrifying collage of exhibitions, panoramas, and stage settings, it manages to be many things to many people, most of the time. Madame Tussaud attended the court of Versailles and learned her mask-making craft in France.
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus, with its statue of Eros, is the hearth and soul of London. The circus isn't Times Square yet, but its traffic, neon, and jostling crowds might indeed make 'circus' an apt word to describe this place.
