WELCOME TO LONDON
Welcome to London
"Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts and extinguish all cigarettes. We are beginning our descent and within ten minutes we will be landing at the Heathrow airport." Perhaps your heart beat a little faster when the hostess made this announcement, because it meant you were arriving in London for the first time, with a feeling of excitement about what might lie ahead.
London is a complex urban metropolis with a central nucleus in the City, around which extend 28 boroughs, sprawling over an area of low hills on either side of the river Thames, This vast urban area, known as Greater London, includes, as well as the counties of London and Middlesex, parts of Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire. One of the world's most visited cities, London, will definitely meet your expectations from its history and architecture to its vivid art experience and cultural diversity. Introducing London Once you have freshened up in your hotel room after your long and tiring trip, you will probably decide, full of enthusiasm and curiosity, to begin without delay your personal conquest of London, about which you have heard so much. And there are many things to see in this enormous and complex city. WESTMINSTER PALACE Westminster, meaning "monastery in the west", was the site of the first significant settlement outside the City although it remained only a monastery until it was enlarged by Edward the Confessor between 1050 and 1065 when he also made his palace there, beside the river.The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its tenants, the Palace lies on the Middlesex bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster, in central London. CLOCK TOWER The Clock Tower, which has become one of London's most familiar symbols, stands at the north-west corner of Westminster Palace. Completed in 1858 and 96 meters high the clock within has four enormous faces, severn and a half meters in diameter and although wound by hand keeps almost exact time: in fact it only loses a fifth of a second every 118 days. In August 1976 the old mechanism stopped for some days, causing consternation to Londoners used to ordering their days around the chimes of the famous bell. The main bell, weighing more than thirteen tons and known as Big Ben, is named after Sir Benjamin Hall, Commissioner of Works when the clock was installed. Big Ben is in fact the second bell founded at Whitechapel for the Clock Tower as the first cracked when being tested. WESTMINSTER ABBEY The original construction is believed to have been dedicated to St Peter and its foundation is traditionally attributed to the Saxon king Sebert. It was consecrated by Mellitus, the first bishop of London in 616. Westminster Abbey is not a cathedral, nor the seat of a bishop, nor a parish church, but a "royal peculiar", that is, royal property administered by a Dean and Chapter independent from the control of either the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London. The church is filled with funerary monuments and commemorative plaques and constitutes an English Pantheon. BRITISH AIRWAYS LONDON EYE London decided to celebrate and commemorate the arrival of the new millennium in a suitable fashion by construing one of the most daring and innovative projects of recent history for the event.On the south bank of the Thames, not far from Waterloo Station, a gigantic panoramic wheel was built - the British Airways London Eye - better known to Londoners as simply the London Eye- with comfortable 'pods' from which one has a breathtaking panorama of the city. At 135 meters it is the forth highest structure in all of London; the circumference is 424 meters; there are 32 pods , each capable of carrying 25 people. With over 15,000 visitors a day this spectacular wheel is now one of the most popular and famous attractions of the city. After the experience of hovering in the air for half an hour (the time necessary for a single complete revolution) enjoying a unique 360 degree view over London, a quite different, but equally exciting experience awaits below. In the nearby London Aquarium one can observe the underwater world of the sea, and admire over 30,000 different types of fish.
WHITEHALL A hunched and pensive figure of Winston Churchill, sculpted in bronze by Ivor Roberts Jones, stands in Parliament Square looking towars Whitehall. This short stretch leading from Westminster to Charing Cross is the political centre of the city, so much that journalists frequently write phrases such as "Whitehall states...". BUCKINGHAM PALACE Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837 and today is the administrative headquarters of the Monarch. The Palace is very much a working building and the centrepiece of Britain's constitutional monarchy. It houses the offices of those who support the day-to-day activities and duties of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh and their immediate family.The Palace is also the venue for great Royal ceremonies, State Visits and Investitures, all of which are organised by the Royal Household.Although Buckingham Palace is furnished and decorated with priceless works of art that form part of the Royal Collection, one of the major art collections in the world today. It is not an art gallery and nor is it a museum. Interesting fact: the royal standard flying above the palace indicates that the Queen is in residence. PICCADILLY CIRCUS The small roundabout, with no architectural unity, has been called "the world's umbilicus". According to tradition, all the Queen's subjects should meet in Piccadilly Circus at least once in their lives. It certainly appears as if the whole world gathers here, colorful people, dressed in an infinite variety, of every creed and race. The flashing neon illuminated advertisements lend much to the character of the Circus, especially when seen by night.The fountain is surmounted by an aluminium statue depicting the Angel of Christian Charity but commonly referred as "Eros".
OXFORD STREET This long, chaotic thoroughfare linking Hyde Park to the City is the real center of shopping in London: more than 300 shops are located here (one of the highest concentrations in the world) offering a most varied range of items from cheap gifts to haute couture fashion. The buildings' facade, boasting a monumental use of the classical order has at its center a sculpture by Gilbert Bayes, known as The Queen of Time a solemn figure supporting a large clock with two faces. BRITISH MUSEUM The museum owes its foundation to an Anglo - Irish doctor in the 18th century, Sir Hans Sloane, a collector of books, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, precious stones and antiquities. Today the museum has almost 100 rooms housing fine collections of antiquities (Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, including the Parthenon marbles and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - , Roman, Chinese and Oriental in general, but also European prehistory), numismatics, prints and drawings and books. The museum also contains the famous circular reading-room at the centre of the building, covered by a dome almost as large as the one over the Roman Pantheon. HYDE PARK
Hyde Park, St. Jame's Park, Green Park and Kensington Gardens are, as William Pitt described them, the lungs of London. Hyde Park, covering an of 159 hectares, is the largest. Hyde Park in London has something for everyone. You can enjoy swimming, boating, cycling and skating. There are pitches for team games, tennis courts, tracks for horse riding and a spectacular children’s playground. TOWER BRIDGE
London's Tower Bridge is one of the most recognizable bridges in the world. Its Victorian Gothic style stems from a law that forced the designers to create a structure that would be in harmony with the nearby Tower of London.Taking photographs of the Tower bridge is a favorite London tourist activity, but you can also go inside the bridge, where you'll have a magnificent view over London from the walkway between the two bridge towers. Inside the bridge is the Tower bridge Exhibition, a display area that encompasses the walkway and the two famous towers where you can observe the Victorian engine room. Visitors can learn about the history of the bridge via photos, films, and other media. SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM Alone of its kind, this museum is dedicated to the most celebrated literary detective, Sherlock Holmes, who is as well known as any historical celebrity. The museum located at 221B Baker Street is preserved in the exact manner as depicted in the Sherlock Holmes novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. MADAME TUSSAUD Here wax figures of famous and infamous figures from the past and present are on display. When Madame Tussaud arrived in London from France her specialty was the faithful portrayal of the decapitated heads of the French nobility, but gradually she extended her talents to treat more and more subjects. Today wax figures of the Tussaud include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars, and famous murderers. Today considered one of the foremost tourist attractions in London, the west wing of the museum now houses the Planetarium, the first to open in England, in the 1950s. MARKETS The fame of the London street markets spreads well beyond the confines of the city. These colorful, lively and noisy gatherings offer an extraordinary variety of products, and the possibility of purchasing genuine bargains but more importantly they represent a slice of London life as lived by Londoners as well as outsiders. PUBS Pubs, designed originally for the consumption of alcohol, are one of the most characteristic features of English life. London has an endless variety of pubs contributing strongly to the local colour, and this is especially true in the case of those pubs which have remained unaltered over the centuries. Pubs which have preserved their architecture and traditional signs, together with their furnishings, are extremely evocative of times past.