London Attractions, England

British Museum
The British Museum, which also houses the British Library, is one of London's greatest tourist attractions. The Museum itself has one of the finest collections in the world covering the art and antiquities of Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, the Roman Empire, Southern and Southeast Asia, China and the European medieval period. The Library has additional exhibition rooms. The private collections of Sir Robert Cotton (d. 1631), Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford (d. 1724) and Sir Hans Sloane (d. 1753) formed the basis of the Museum. Founded by an Act of Parliament in 1753, the Museum was accommodated from 1759 in Montague House before moving to its present Neo-classical building, erected between 1823 and 1857. This was designed by Robert Smirke and completed by his brother Sydney, who was responsible for the circular Reading Room and the dome. The main facade is 123m/403ft long and has a colonnade of 44 Ionic columns. On the north side is the King Edward VII Building, erected in 1907 to 1914. Parts of the museum are now housed in separate buildings, including the Museum of Mankind and the National History Museum.

East Molesey - Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace, perhaps the finest and most interesting of Britain's royal palaces, lies southwest of London on the north bank of the Thames. It is no longer a royal residence, but part of the palace is still occupied by persons who have been granted "grace and favor" apartments by the monarch. The palace was built between 1514 and 1520 as a private residence for Cardinal Wolsey, who presented it to Henry VIII in order to secure the king's favor. The Great Hall and other parts of the palace date from Henry's occupation. Five of his six wives (the exception being Catherine of Aragon) lived here as queen, and the ghosts of his third and fifth wives, Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard, are said to haunt the palace. It was a favorite residence of Elizabeth I, who heard of the defeat of the Spanish Armada while staying here. Charles I also lived at Hampton Court, both as king and as Cromwell's prisoner. The first major alterations to the palace were carried out in the reign of William and Mary, when the east wing was rebuilt by Wren in Renaissance style, the Tudor west part remaining unaltered. The palace was opened to the public in the time of Victoria.

National Gallery
The National Gallery possesses one of the most valuable and comprehensive collections of pictures in the world. The building in which they are housed was designed by William Wilkins and was completed in 1838. From the terrace there is a view of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. Outside the building stands the monument of James II as a Roman emperor by Grinling Gibbons (1686) with the inscription "King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland" as well as a bronze replica of the Washington statue by Houdon in Richmond, Virginia. The gallery was founded in 1824 when Parliament voted £57,000 for the purchase of 38 pictures from the famous Angerstein collection which were first seen in the Angerstein rooms at 100 Pall Mall. Numerous later purchases and donations made it necessary to enlarge the building in 1876 when the dome was added and further extensions were made in 1887, 1927 and 1929. In 1952 the entrance vestibules were decorated with mosaics by Boris Anrep. In recent years a new annex has provided much-needed additional display space, and in 1991 the Sainsbury Wing was opened. This is a Neo-Classical building by the American architects Venturi Scott-Brown Associates, donated by the Sainsbury brothers.

Queen's House
Queen's House is a building of great interest in its own right. A Palladian mansion, designed by Inigo Jones - imitated in many other houses of the period but never equalled - it is a masterpiece of Classical architecture, notable for its symmetrical proportions, harmoniously contrived detail and finely executed marble floors, wrought-iron ballustrades and carved and painted ceilings. The house, begun in 1617, was commissioned by James I as a residence for his wife, Anne of Denmark, but was abandoned after her death. In 1629 Charles I had it completed by Inigo Jones for his wife, Henrietta Maria. The latter, who had fled during Cromwell's domination, returned to the palace in 1660. With Greenwich Park as its garden Queen's House epitomises the entire art form of royal residences. After six year's renovation, which cost five million pounds, Queen's House was reopened in May 1990.

St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, seat of the Bishop of London and "parish church of the British Commonwealth", is the largest and most famous of the City's churches. The place where the present-day cathedral stands was the site of a Roman temple of Diana and in the seventh century of a church. In its day one of the richest churches of the world, was Old St Paul's, a great Gothic church with a spire 170m/500ft high which was badly damaged by fire in 1561, partly rebuilt by Inigo Jones in 1627-42 and finally destroyed in the Great Fire (1666). The present cathedral, begun in 1675 and completed in 1711, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The plan was approved only after long wrangling with the church commissioners, who turned down Wren's first two designs. The result was a compromise between Wren's original idea of a dome and the commissioners' preference for a plan in the form of a Latin cross. As finally built, however, St Paul's is Wren's masterpiece - a harmoniously proportioned Renaissance church 170m/515ft long and 75m/227ft wide across the transepts, with two Baroque towers 67m/212f) high and a magnificent dome rising to a total height of 111m/365ft. Since the repair of damage suffered by the cathedral during the last war and the cleaning of the facade to remove the accumulated grime of 250 years, St Paul's has been restored to its original majestic beauty, and even the external sculptured decoration by Francis Bird, Edward Pierce and Grinling Gibbons can be seen and appreciated.

Tate Gallery
The Tate Gallery, one of London's largest art collections, was opened in 1897 in a classical-style building designed by Sidney R. J. Smith on Millbank, on the banks of the Thames. The gallery was built at the expense of Sir Henry Tate, a wealthy art collector, who presented his own collection to the nation as the basis of a national collection of significant British pictures from the 16th century to the present day.
The layout of the gallery has been altered in recent years and director Nicholas Serota has completely re-grouped the exhibits. Whereas the pictures used to be displayed in separate departments for the British collection 16th - 20th century, the international modern collection and the British modern collection, they are now all arranged chronologically, according to specific themes, under the headings "Past-Present-Future". Visitors are able to make immediate comparisons and see the relationships linking the exhibits. The central hall is now reserved for sculpture and extra rooms house temporary exhibitions. As the gallery can only show a third of its collection at one time, the items exhibited are changed every nine to 12 months and the visitor is advised to obtain a current plan of the exhibition at the information desk.

Tower of London (photo - right)
Historically the Tower is the most important building in England and the most visited of London's attractions. It was a stronghold which was many times besieged but never taken; but it was also a royal palace (until the time of James I), a prison (still used during the last war, when one of its inmates was Rudolf Hess), a mint (until the opening of the Royal Mint nearby in 1810), a treasure vault (still containing the Crown Jewels), an observatory (until the establishment of Greenwich Observatory in 1675) and for five centuries (until 1834) a menagerie.

Westminster Abbey
A church dedicated to St Peter is said to have stood on the site of Westminster Abbey from the early seventh century until it was destroyed by the Danes. This church was named "Westminster" to distinguish it from the "Eastminster", St Mary-of-the-Graces. Westminster Abbey - officially the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster - was founded by Edward the Confessor in 1065 as his place of interment, and from his burial (1066) until that of George II (1760) most English and British sovereigns were buried here, as well as numerous prominent national figures. Since 1066, when William the Conqueror was crowned here, Westminster Abbey has been the place of coronation of every subsequent sovereign except Edward V and Edward VIII, as well as the scene of many royal weddings. Westminster Abbey belongs to the Crown, under an independent Dean and Chapter.

Buckingham Palace
Since Queen Victoria's accession (1837) Buckingham Palace has been the London residence of the royal family. Originally built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham, it was purchased by George III in 1762. In 1825 George IV commissioned John Nash, his court architect, to alter and enlarge the palace; the east wing was added in 1846; and in 1913, when George V was king, the east front was given its present neo-classical aspect by Sir Aston Webb. When the sovereign is in residence the royal standard flies over the palace night and day. Guard is mounted by units of the Guards Division in full uniform. On great occasions the sovereign appears, with members of the royal family, on the central balcony.

Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge, opened in 1894, is one of London's best known landmarks, with its two neo-Gothic towers rising 65m/200ft above the river. The two heavy bascules or drawbridges bearing the roadway can be raised in a minute and a half to allow large ships to pass through (a rare occurrence nowadays, since cargo vessels now moor farther downstream). Since 1975 they have been raised by electric power. There is also a museum housing the older hydraulic machinery which is still maintained in working order so as to be available in case of emergency. The glass covered walkway, 43m/142ft above the Thames, gives a splendid view of the river. Both towers contain an interesting exhibition employing animatronic characters and other special effects to explain the history of the bridge.

europe, map of europe, travel europe, 89 europe, europe tour, eastern europe, flight to europe, great britain europe, europe cruise, europe vacation, history of europe, travel europe france, map of western europe, britain europe general great, cheap flight to europe, europe car rental, europe news, wow europe, rail europe, map of eastern europe, western europe, europe trip, europe travel guide, backpacking europe, europe hotel, central europe, europe germany, europe travel package, nfl europe, eastern europe travel, europe ireland, europe train, cheap travel europe, blank map of europe,  europe river cruise, europe airfare, ski europe, cheap airfare to europe, europe country,  country in europe, holiday, visit europe, europe france, europe atlas, union europe, europe beach, cheap ticket to europe, united kingdom and europe,