1The Tower of London is one of the world’s most famous fortresses and has seen service as royal palace, prison, armoury and even a zoo. The ancient stones reverberate with dark secrets, priceless jewels glint in fortified vaults and pampered ravens strut the grounds. Constructed over 900 years ago by William the Conqueror, the Tower of London is steeped in a rich history. This fortress was expanded by many medieval kings and is a grand structure used by Royals through the years as a refuge and powerbase. The Tower is still home to her majesty's Crown Jewels, on display for visitors to see, and the infamous Beefeaters tasked with the job of guarding them as well as showing visitors some of the attractions highlights. The White Tower is the huge and beautiful stone building in the middle of the sight. Currently it hosts the exhibition of Tudor, Stuart, Hanoverian and Windsor arms and armour “Fit for a King”. This vast collection begins by exploring armour created for both the battle and sports fields with an unmissable chance to see Henry VIII’s and Charles 1’s spectacular armour. Situated in central London just a stones throw from the River Thames, the Tower of London is the one of the city's premier attractions. With so much on offer it's no wonder it's popular with visitors.

2Sightseeing visitors to London can enjoy a trip back in time with a visit to the spectacular Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Situated on London’s Bankside, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is areconstruction the original building that housed Shakespeare's theatre in London, an open-air playhouse where the playwright penned many of his greatest plays.

This modern building is a faithful reconstruction of the Globe, first built in 1599, and perfectly evokes the atmosphere of Elizabethan London. Resident storytellers on the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Tour and Exhibition introduce visitors to all aspects of the Globe, historical and contemporary, including Sam Wannamaker's epic struggle to recreate the theatre.

3Come and experience the glory of St. Paul’s Cathedral and see how it’s iconic dome dominates the London skyline. Built between 1675 and 1710, the catherdral has gone through a £40 million programme of cleaning and repair work for its 300th anniversary and the work has transformed the exterior and interior of the building.

There is so much to discover throughout this vast cathedral including The Aspe, an American Memorial Chapel dedicated to servicemen and women who died during World War II. Also there is The Quire, where the choir and priest sit during services and is home to the cathedrals grand Organ and High Altar.

The highlight of St Pauls' Cathedral is the remarkable Whispering Gallery, situated 30 metres above the cathedral floor and is famous for its acoustics. Another 55 metres above the Whispering Gallery is the Golden Gallery which offers breathtaking panoramic views of central London for those with the energy to climb the 530 steps.

Below the cathedral in the elegant and spacious crypt, are the tombs and memorials of such historical luminaries as Admiral Lord Nelson and the Duke Of Wellington.

4You can find hundreds of the most famous and beautiful paintings in the world at The National Gallery. The pictures in the collection belong to the public and entrance to see them is free.

More than 2,000 Western European paintings are on show, dating from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. Discover inspiring art by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Holbein, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Constable, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso.

The National Gallery has a number of audio guides and tours available to help you explore the collection and make the most of your visit. Make up your own tour and choose at random from over 1,200 paintings on display

• Nelson`s Column - Raised in 1843 and now one of London`s best-loved monuments, commemorates the one-armed, one-eyed admiral who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but paid for it with his life. The statue which surmounts the granite column is more than triple life-size but still manages to appear minuscule, and is coated in anti-pigeon gel to try and stem the build-up of guano. The acanthus leaves of the capital are cast from British cannons, while bas-reliefs around the base - depicting three of Nelson`s earlier victories as well as his death aboard HMS Victory - are from captured French armaments. Edwin Landseer`s four gargantuan bronze lions guard the column and provide a climbing frame for kids to clamber over. 14 stonemasons held a dinner on top of Nelson`s Column before the statue was placed there. Every year, London receives as a gift huge Christmas tree from Norwegian city of Oslo.

• - Piccadilly Circus - During the weekend this place is absolutely packed with people. Nightlife is in abundance here, especially with nightclubs like the Hippodrome, MGM Cinema, local pubs and bars, people trying to draw your picture and the Trocadero centre. Inside the Trocadero is Segaworld the world`s largest indoor theme park, spanning seven floors and offering you all kinds of 21st Century games.

• - Changing the Guard - Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1. Take tube to Victoria, St James`s Park or Green Park tube station. There are actually two ceremonies at separate places. T he more popular venue is Buckingham Palace where at 11.30am on most days The Queen`s Guard, accompanied by a band, arrives from Wellington Barracks having marched via Bird Cage Walk to the palace. The ceremony lasts about 40 min. and takes place inside the railings of the palace. A separate ceremony also takes place daily throughout the year at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall at 11am Mon-Sat and 10am on Sun. Here The Queen`s Life Guard - ride in to perform the ceremony via Hyde Park Corner, Constitution Hill and The Mall.

• Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre - The biggest crowds currently to be found along Bankside are milling around this place, a spectacular reconstruction of the polygonal playhouse where most of the Bard`s later works were first performed. (The original site of the Globe, marked by a blackened plaque on a brewery wall on Park Street, lies beneath a listed Georgian terrace.) The theatre, which boasts the first thatched roof in London since the Great Fire, uses only natural light and the minimum of scenery, and currently puts on shows from mid-May to mid-September. Also on site are a restaurant, cafe, cinema and, inevitably, a shop selling lots of Bard merchandise.

• Hyde Park - This is the most prominent and famous London park. Surrounded from north with Queensway and Bayswater (plenty of youth hotels and hostels including Whiteleys shopping centre), with Mayfair (American Embassy, Bond Street, the Intercontinental hotel) from east, Kensington on west (nice small shops on Kensington Church Street) and Knightsbridge on south (Exhibition Road, Royal Albert Hall, Harrods shop, Belgrave Square with Embassies), this park has the best London location from where you can reach main shopping areas. Being 360 acres in size it can take some time to cross it over. In summer time there is an option of renting a small boat and gently paddling in the lake, having refreshing drink or maybe fishing in certain allocated places. You will need a licence for fishing so please purchase one before you come here. If you are into roller-skating this is the place for you. At the Speakers Corner you are free to scream at the whole wide world or have a normal debate with strangers about topics that interest you. Kensington Palace can be found in Kensington Gardens, part of Hyde Park. If you would like to pay tribute to late Princess Diana go there. After her death thousands upon thousand's of people came just to lay the flowers and leave cards.

• The second London park that visitors regularly see is Green Park. This is the place where on Saturdays and Sundays you can hardly move due to huge number of people standing outside B uckingham Palace gates. Maybe while you are at the gates you will have a chance to see people attempting to access the Palace driving car trough the gates or just landing with parachute like it happened before. The Buckingham Palace was built in 1703 and bought by King George III sixty years later on. It became a permanent residence of Kings and Queens after King George IV commissioned remodeling in 1824. It was "updated" twice more for needs of the court and their families. If you can see the Royal flag flying over the east front, you know that Her Majesty the Queen is inside. The interior of the Palace is open to the visiting public during August and September.

Adjacent to the Green Park is St. James's Park. Y ou can really enjoy these parks on Sundays when they are closed to traffic. Inside the park you can see St. James's Palace that was originally built on the site of a lepers` hospital. Just before his execution Charles I decided to spend his last night there. It is the home of Duke and Duchess of Kent as well as offices for various other royals. You are not allowed to go inside, apart from Chapel Royal that is open for services only. Short walk from the Palace you will emerge on to Parliament Square and see splendour of the Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

Taking a tube to Baker Street, Regent`s Park or Portland Street you will emerge in front of Regents`s Park. Situated in northwest London, this park can offer you variety of fun and leisure. Inside the park is boating lake where you can yet rent a boat and take pictures of birds nesting on an island found in the middle of lake. If you are avid lover of beautifully cultivated flowers you will have memorable experience. With plenty of chairs and benches around, you could just sit and watch the time pass you by.

The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster - officially named Saint Stephen's Tower - is commonly known as the Big Ben. The tower is one of London's most famous landmarks.

Big Ben

The clock inside the tower was the world's largest when it was installed in the middle of the 19th century. The name Big Ben actually refers to the clock's hour bell, the largest of the clock's five bells. The other four are used as quarter bells.

Big Ben

There were two bells cast as the clock tower's hour bell. A first, 16 ton weighing bell was cast by John Warner and Sons in 1856. Since the Clock Tower was not yet completed, the bell was hung temporarily in the Palace Yard. The bell soon cracked so it was recast in 1858 in the Whitechapel Bell Foundry as a 13.5 ton bell. Unfortunately soon after this bell was placed in the belfry in July 1859, it cracked as well. This time, instead of yet again recasting the bell, the crack was repaired and a lighter hammer was used to prevent any more cracks. The hour bell was probably named after Benjamin Hall,

Clock face

the First Commissioner of Works. Some sources however claim the bell was named after Benjamin Caunt, a British heavyweight boxing champion.

The Clock

The clock was the largest in the world and is still the largest in Great-Britain. The clock faces have a diameter of almost 25ft (7.5m). The hour hand is 9ft or 2.7m long and the minute hand measures 14ft (4.25m) long. The clock is known for its reliability, it has rarely failed during its long life span. Even after the nearby House of Commons was destroyed by bombing during World War II, the clock kept on chiming. The clock's

mechanism, designed by Edmund Beckett Denison, has a remarkable accuracy. The clock's rate is adjusted by simply adding small pennies on the shoulder of the pendulum.

The Tower

The tower was constructed between 1843 and 1858 as the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. The palace is now better known as the Houses of Parliament. The clock tower rises 316ft high (96m) and consists of a 200ft (61m) high brick shaft topped by a cast iron framed spire. The clock faces are 180ft / 55m above ground level.

Views

Unfortunately the clock tower is not publicly accessible, but if you're looking for views over London the London Eye is currently the best option.

Trafalgar Square, the largest square in London, is often considered the heart of London. Ever since the Middle Ages, Trafalgar Square has been a central meeting place. At the middle of the square stands a tall column, a monument honoring admiral Nelson.

Nelson's Column

The square was originally called Charing. Later it became known as Charing Cross, after a memorial cross on the square. The nearby underground station - aka 'tube' - is still named Charing Cross.

History

From the 13th century on the area was the site of the King's Royal Hawks and later the Royal Mews. In 1812 the Prince Regent - who would later become King George IV - asked architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash had the terrain cleared but he died before his plans were realized. The new design for a large square was finally implemented between 1840 and 1845 under supervision of architect Sir Charles Barry, who is best known for

Landseer Lion

his Houses of Parliament.

Nelson's Column

At the center of the square is the tall Nelson's Column which was built to commemorate the victory of Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson over the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar on the 21st of October 1805. Nelson was fatally wounded during that famous battle off the Spanish coast. His body was taken back to London and buried in the St. Paul's Cathedral. The Corinthian column was built in 1842 and is approximately 170ft or 52 meters high (including the base). It was built after a design by William Railton that was chosen from a selection of 124 competition entries. On top of the column stands an 18ft (5.5 meter) tall statue of Lord Nelson, created by Edmund Hodges. At the base of the

National Gallery

column are four huge lions modeled by Sir Edwin Landseer. They were added later, in 1868.

National Gallery

Trafalgar square also contains a large number of statues and two fountains by Sir Edwin Lutyens, added in 1939. The square is surrounded by many great buildings. On the north side is the neo-classical National Gallery, built between 1834 and 1838. It houses a collection of more than 2300 paintings, including works by van Gogh, Renoir, Leonardo da Vinci and Claude Monet. On the east side the square is bordered by the Canada House,

St. Martin-in-the-Fields

completed in 1827. Opposite the Canada House is the South Africa House, which opened in 1933.

St. Westminster Abbey, located near the Houses of Parliament, is more a historical site than a religious site. Since 1066 every royal coronation, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII has taken place in Westminster Abbey.Martin-in-the-Fields

At the north-east corner is the St. Martin-in-the-Fields parish church. The church, with a large white steeple, was built in 1721 by James Gibbs and was used as a model for many churches, especially in the United States. It is the fourth church at this site, the first was built in the 13th century.

About Madame Tussaud and Her Wax Museum

Marie Tussaud (1761-1850), a native of Strasbourg,

Madame Tussauds

France, learned the fine art of sculpting from her mother's employer, a physician skilled in the art of wax modeling. The doctor, Philippe Curtius, was one of the first to display such works of art, opening an exhibition in 1776. Young Marie made her first sculpture at the tender age of 16, fashioning a

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likeness of French enlightenment writer, Francois Voltaire.

Her first solo exhibit appeared on Baker Street in 1835 followed by her famous Chamber of Horrors collection in 1845, where Madame Tussaud displayed a collection of death masks that she had made of the victims of the guillotine during the French Revolution in Paris. In the meantime, she added many likenesses to her collection.

Hitler

Marylin Monroe

In 1884, several decades after her death, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum moved to its current location on London's Marylebone Road, where millions have stood on queue for hours to get a glimpse at her work and that of her successors.

The current museum suffered a fire in 1925 and many statues were lost. However, the molds remained intact and several of the pieces were recreated. It is now one of London's busiest attractions and during peak tourist season, it is common to encounter long lines that stretch for blocks. The museum started an overseas expansion in 1970, when it opened a branch location in Amsterdam. Today it has expanded to many more cities including Las Vegas, New York City, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Washington DC and Hollywood.

What You'll See

Tussaud and her successors have fashioned literally thousands of replicas of famous people. Visitors can view world leaders, actors/actresses, sports legends, famous writers and artists, religious

The Beatles

figures, musicians, and a host of other characters. Besides those displays there's also several themed sections in the museum including the Chamber of Horrors and an taxi ride for a journey through history. While the London museum has a decidedly British slant, visitors from all over the world will recognize a majority of the characters.

Westminster Abbey, located near the Houses of Parliament, is more a historical site than a religious site. Since 1066 every royal coronation, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII has taken place in Westminster Abbey.

Burial Ground

The abbey also serves as the burial ground for numerous politicians, sovereigns and

Westminster Abbey

artists. The abbey is stuffed with tombs, statues and monuments. Many coffins even stand upright due to the lack of space. In total approximately 3300 people are buried in the church and cloisters. Some of the most famous are Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton and David Livingstone.

History

The history of the abbey starts in 1050, when King Edward The Confessor decided to build a monastery. Only a small part of this Norman monastery, consecrated in 1065, survived. The only representation of this original building is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. Most of the present building dates from 1245 to 1272 when Henry III decided to rebuild the abbey in the Gothic style. The building was later significantly expanded: the Chapel of Henry VII was added between 1503 and 1512, while the two West Front Towers date from 1745. The youngest part of the abbey is the North entrance, completed in the 19th century.

The Nave

The abbey's nave is England's highest. In the nave you find the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, a World War I soldier who died on the battlefields in France and was buried here in French(!) soil. Nearby is a marble memorial stone for Winston Churchill. His body is not, like many fellow prime ministers, buried in the abbey, but in Bladon.

The Cloister

The Cloister was originally built in the 13th century. It was completely rebuilt after it was destroyed by a fire in 1298. The cloister was used by the Benedictine monks for meditation and exercise.

Chapter House

The beautiful octagonal Chapter house is one of the largest of its kind in England. It has an original tile floor dating from 1250 and 14th century murals.

Henry VII Chapel

The Henry VII Chapel (aka Lady Chapel), built 1503-1512, is one of the most outstanding chapels of its time, with a magnificent vault. The chapel has a large stained glass window, the Battle of Britain memorial window. The window, which dates from 1947 and replaces an original window that was damaged during World War II, commemorates fighter pilots and crew who died during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

The British museum

Established in 1753 with the donation of 71,000 objects from the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, the British Museum quickly became one of the city's top attractions.