London’s
most famous landmarks
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BuckinghamPalace
The Palace
was originally called Buckingham House when it was built for the Duke of
Buckingham. Although it was bought by King George the Third in 1762 it wasn't
until 1837, when Victoria became Queen, that the Palace started to be used as
the principal home of the Royal Family. The gardens of the Palace cover an area
of almost 40 acres and are the largest private gardens in London.
Westminster Abbey
Ahead of us
is Westminster Abbey. Consecrated in 1045 by Edward The Confessor, it is the
most historic church which you can visit in London. It was in this church that
on Christmas Day 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned and since then every
King and Queen except two have been crowned here. It is also the resting place
for many of our earlier Kings and Queens.
As well as
Royals, many famous people are commemorated and interred here in the Abbey
including Charles Dickens, George Frederick Handel, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas
Hardy, Laurence Olivier, David Livingstone and Charles Darwin. Many Royal
Weddings have also taken place here including that of Her Majesty the Queen
Elizabeth the Second and Prince Phillip in 1947, and, most recently of course,
Prince William married Catherine, or 'Kate' Middleton here, on the 29th of
April 2011. They are now officially titled the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Westminster Abbey is a place not to be missed on any visit to London.
The Changing of the Guard
The
Coldstream, Grenadier, Welsh, Irish and Scots Guards Regiments. It’s these
regiments which you can see taking a part in the changing of the guard ceremony
which happens outside of Buckingham Palace at 11.30 in the morning. During the
summer months the Changing of the Guard occurs every day but during the winter
(and weather permitting), on every other day.
Buckingham
Palace is the least favourite of her Majesty’s homes, she prefers Balmoral in
Scotland, and considers Windsor Castle to be her family home .She refers to
Buckingham Palace as her London office. In August and September, the State
Apartments and gardens are open to the public to raise funds for the reparation
of that part of Windsor Castle destroyed in the terrible fire of 1992.During
the winter months you cannot gain access to the Palace but to get a sense of
the way our monarch lives you can always visit the Queens Gallery or the Royal
Mews.
Big Ben
On the end
of the Houses of Parliament, is one of London’s most famous landmarks, known as
Big Ben. Big Ben is actually the largest bell within the tower and not the
tower itself. Big Ben weighs 13 and a half tons , and is the bell that chimes
the hour. To honour the Diamond Jubilee of our present queen, Elizabeth the
Second, the clock tower is now officially known as 'The Elizabeth Tower'.
Downing Street, 10
Downing
Street, number 10 has been the official home of our Prime Ministers since
1732. The Prime Minister is the man or woman who effectively runs the country
in the name of theking or queen.
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar
Square, directly ahead of us is Nelsons Column, one of London’s most iconic
landmarks. But look in front of the column at the statue of the man on
horseback.
This is King
Charles the First who is looking towards Whitehall to the place of his
execution at the Banqueting House in 1649. The Statue was created during
Charles's lifetime in 1633.
Following
his execution, the statue was hidden for safe-keeping in a church crypt, as
Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans, who then ran the country, were intent on
systematically destroying all images of royalty.
Just behind
the statue is a bronze plaque set in the pavement from which all distances from
London are measured. Trafalgar Square was laid out to commemorate the Battle of
Cape Trafalgar in 1805, a decisive battle where our naval hero Admiral Lord Horatio
Nelson defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets.
Behind
Nelsons Column, we see the National Gallery; well worth a visit, it contains
one of the finest collections of western art in Europe, and is free of charge
Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly
Circus is very central, and one of the most important junctions in London –
surrounded by clubs, theatres, cinemas, restaurants and casinos, it’s the
beginning of what we call the ' West End', the entertainment centre of London.
It gets very busy here at night, with lots of people, who come here for their
entertainments. Piccadilly Circus is where the world’s first electric
advertising was placed in 1910.
Wellington Arch
This is one
of the busiest traffic junctions in London, The Duke of Wellington Place, known
locally as Hyde Park Corner. The large arch in the centre of the traffic island
is the Wellington Arch designed by Decimus Burton. Sometimes referred to as the
Constitution Arch, it stands in the middle of an area dedicated to the first
Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley. He was the victor at the Battle of
Waterloo in 1815, where he defeated the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The arch was
built to celebrate that victory, and is now open to the public. It contains a
museum. On top of the arch, the statue known as ‘Quadriga’, the Angel Of Peace
landing on the chariot of war, acts as a sort of balance, because around the
arch there are many war memorials including the memorial to The Royal Regiment
of Artillery with the howitzer on top pointing directly towards the battlefield
of the Somme in France, where so many fell during the First World war.
Albert Hall
The Royal
Albert Hall, as it was designated by Queen Victoria when it was dedicated by
her in 1872, commemorating her dearly beloved Prince Albert, who sadly had
passed away in 1862.
The Albert Memorial
The Albert
Memorial, the finest Neogothic memorial in London by Sir George Gilbert Scott,
with a gilded statue of Queen Victoria’s husband, reliefs of 169 painters,
architects, musicians, poets and sculptors, people who have greatly helped to
increase the sum of human knowledge. The four outer corners show the elephant
for Asia, the bull for Europe, the Bison for American and the Camel for Africa.
Victoria and Albert Museum
The
beautiful Victoria and Albert Museum known affectionately as the V & A, one
of the world’s finest collections of art and design. It was opened in 1901 by
Edward the Seventh, the eldest son of Queen Victoria
Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner
One of
London’s greatest institutions, Speakers Corner. This is an area of London
where anybody can enjoy freedom of speech. Come along here on a Sunday and
listen to religious, political or humorous speakers who enjoy having arguments
with their audience. And, if you've a mind to, have a go yourself. But remember,
Sundays only.
The speakers
normally stand on ladders or boxes (traditionally a soap-box); the reason for
this is that they must be six inches above the soil of the nation, so they
cannot be arrested for Blasphemy, Treason or Heresy! There are four basic
rules. You cannot swear 'excessively' and you are not allowed to incite a riot,
beg for money, or insult the monarch.Apartfromthis- anythinggoes!
St Paul’s Cathedral
The
magnificent St Paul's Cathedral. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren it was
completed in 1710, after the previous one had been badly damaged in the Great
Fire of London in 1666.
It is the
largest classical church in Northern Europe, and the design of St. Paul’s was
inspired by the churches of the Medici in Florence. You can climb to the Golden
Gallery on top of the Cathedral from where you have the most sensational views
across the City of London. Buried in the crypt of the cathedral are Lord
Nelson, Arthur Wellesley (The Duke of Wellington) and also Sir Christopher
Wren, the Cathedrals great architect, who lived for 92 years. Engraved on
Wren’s tomb the immortal words ‘SiMonumentumRequiris –Circumspice’ – ‘if my
monument you seek, look around you’.
The Globe Theatre
The white
building with the thatched roof is the reconstructed Shakespeare’s Globe
Theatre. It was rebuilt by the late actor Sam Wannamaker. Many of the greatest
plays in the English language were first performed at the Globe after it was
first built in 1599. A spark from a cannon used in a production of
Shakespeare's "Henry the Eighth" set light to it in 1613 and it was
destroyed.
This whole
area has now being rejuvenated, as an educational, cultural and entertainment
complex with Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern as the
centrepieces. In the early 1600s in this area there would have been rowdy
taverns and bawdy houses in these narrow streets close to the River Thames.
Sometimes 3000 people would descend on the Globe to see a play in those days
.All public entertainments were banned in the City of London. Even then, it was
a place of business. So it was here in Southwark, by the Bankside area, that
people came for their entertainments. The modern version, the International
Shakespeare Globe Centre, was inspired by the determination and vision of the
late actor and director, Sam Wanamaker.
Tower Bridge
Perhaps the
prettiest bridge in the world -Tower Bridge. Often mistaken for London Bridge,
but that is Tower Bridge.
It was
opened in 1894, and the two halves of the road between the Towers open up to
allow tall ships to pass through, because the area between here and Tower
Bridge, known as the 'Pool of London', is where the warehouses used to store
cargoes brought by ships from all over the world. It was one of the focal
points for the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the bridge opened to salute
the great flotilla of a thousand boats. ThatwasinJune 2012.
The Tower of London
One of
London’s most famous landmarks coming into view, Her Majesty's Royal Palace and
Fortress, The Tower of London. A castle which is over nine hundred years old,
it has been a royal residence, a prison, a Royal Mint, a menagerie and a place
of torture and execution.
The oldest
part of the complex is the White Tower, which was built around 1078 for William
the Conqueror. The White Tower is the large square tower that you see on the
left, the one with the flag flying.
It was here
in the 1500s that Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the six wives of
king Henry the Eighth were executed. Many unfortunates suffered the same fate
here in those days.
The Tower of
London is home to the Crown Jewels: a priceless collection wore by kings and
queens for coronations, including the two largest diamonds in the world.
The Tower’s
ceremonial guards, the Beefeaters, live within the walls with their families.
They are recruited from the Armed Forces. To become a Beefeater, you must have
served 22 years, the maximum term in the British Armed Forces. Their job is to
guard the Crown Jewels.
The Tower of
London is a world Heritage site, and is still technically, a Royal Palace,
although no Royals live here anymore
London’s Eye
The London
Eye was constructed for the Millennium, and was only supposed to be here for
two years, as a temporary structure. It has 32 pods, which can each hold 25
people, and it stands 450 feet above the river. It takes approximately 30
minutes to go all the way round on the London Eye
TobaccoDock
.
The building
dates from 1811, and is only occasionally open to the public, but near the
North entrance there is a bronze statue of a boy with a Bengal Tiger, which
commemorates an event in the 1800s. At the time, a local man called Charles
Jamrach ran the worlds largest exotic animal store, known as the 'Jamrach
Animal Emporium' here on the Ratcliffe Highway. Being so close to the docks, he
had a constant flow of seafarers eager to sell strange and unusual animals from
distant lands, which they had obtained on their travels. He supplied many
specimens from his menagerie to private collectors, even supplying the London
Zoo. On one occasion, a fully grown Bengal Tiger escaped from the Emporium. A
nine year old boy tried to pet it, thinking it was the biggest cat he had ever
seen, when it snatched the boy in its jaws! The story goes that Charles Jamrach
rushed to the scene and prised open the tiger’s jaws with his bare hands,
releasing the boy, who was amazingly unharmed. Charles Jamrach was also
mentioned in Bram Stokers 'Dracula'; he sells a Norwegian grey wolf to the
London Zoo, which later escape
The area
known as 'The Isle of Dogs', previously the heart of the Docklands industry in
London until the middle of the last century. Not only docks, but brass
foundries, ironworks, factories, shipbuilding yards and engineering firms once
filled the land.
The Isle of
Dogs is situated on a horseshoe bend on the Thames. The origin of the name is
obscured in the mists of time, but it is believed that King Henry VIII kept
hunting dogs here in the 1500s.
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