Buckingham Palace and other London, United Kingdom Things to Do Tips

This is one of the top three things to see in London (with the British Museum & Tower of London). The palace is easy to get to requiring only a smallish walk through from a nearby tube station. From the Green park station it's a nice walk through Green Park to the from of the palace and also the ticket booth why you can buy tickets for palace tours. The Palace was built in 1703 and is home to the British Royal family plus it's the administrative headquarters of the monarchy. If you take one of the tours you will get to see some of the State rooms only plus a collection of paintings including flemish and dutch masters Rubens & Rembrandt.

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Address: The Mall, SW1
Directions: Green Park tube

Not too far from speakers corner the Italian gardens are a very nice spot to sit and have an ice cream. They are part of the Kensington gardens.

It's a bit of a bizzare inclusion in this part of town but I guess that fashions have come and gone with these gardens a popular item when they were first built in the 1800s at the request of Queen Victoria.

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Address: Park Lane, Bayswater Road, Knightsbridge
Directions: Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner, Lancaster Gate tubes
Website: http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/hyde.htm

This is a very well laid out museum with a fantastic ancient civilisation section - a lot smaller than the Louvre (though it's still got 4km of galleries) but with a few key items (if that's your thing!!). The Rosetta Stone is here (bridged the gap of decyphering hyrogliphs as the same notice from the Rosetta hotel was in modern Greek, Ancient Greek & Hyrogliphics), Elgin Marbles and a very large Ramses 2 statue. The Roman & old England section is well done and the library is particularly impressive. The shop here is great with my nieces & nephews all having Sarcophagus pencil cases (they are the envy of their friends at school). Entry is free (donation can be made) and this is a 'have to do' place in London.

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Phone: 0 20 7323 8299
Address: Great Russell Street, WC1
Directions: Holborn tube
Website: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

This is one very odd looking building that is home to the Mayor of London, the London Assembly and the Greater London Authority. They became tenants of this egg-shaped structure in July 2002. It is 10 storys high and made of glass & steel. Worth a look but not really much else.

The building itself is located on the south bank of the Thames near Tower Bridge.

Parts of City Hall are open to the public Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm and on some weekends. Check out the below link for more detail on that.

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Website: www.london.gov.uk

There are some great exhibits here with a very large dinosaur in one of the first rooms you get to. The T Rex exhibit is great with a mechanical T Rex moving and snarling to the delight of the crowds. There are 14 complete dinosaurs here (per the leaflet) with other areas including Human Biology -- An Exhibition of Ourselves, Our Place in Evolution, Origin of the Species, Creepy Crawlies, and Discovering Mammals. It is well laid out and worth a visit.

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Phone: 0 20 7942 5011
Address: Cromwell Road, SW7
Directions: South Kensington tube
Website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk

The fastest way to get to Greenwich is to take the Tube in Central London to Waterloo Station, where you can take a fast train to Greenwich Station. Alternatively, from Waterloo Tube, take the Docklands Light Rail through the various stations, past Canary Warf and off at Grenwich. Greenwich has been the zero point used in the reckoning of terrestrial longitudes since 1884. At Grenwich there is the From National Maritime Museum which has everything from the dreaded cat-o'-nine-tails used to flog sailors to Nelson's Trafalgar coat complete with bullet hole in the left shoulder clearly visible. You can stand on the zero degree line (yay) then take a walk around the free museum. The view over the docklands is really good from up on the hill (where the Museum is). While you are out this way you can also visit the Cutty Sark - it's a tea thing!!

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Address: Greenwich, SE10
Directions: Cutty Sark DLR

As the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, Big Ben is to London being its most iconic feature. Big Ben does not refer to the whole clocktower but to it huge thirteen ton bell as designed by Edmund Beckett Denison.

Big Ben is 9 feet in diameter and 7 1/2 feet high. Big Ben was cast on 10 April 1858 with the first chime rung on 31 May 1859. It was made at Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London by George Mears, the then master bellfounder and owner of the foundry. Apparently it had a net cost of ₤572 (full cost of ₤2401 less ₤1829 for the metal reclaimed from the previous bell).

In September 1859, a mere two months after it officially went into service, Big Ben cracked. This led to Big Ben being out of commission for approx three years. The reason was found to be that a hammer, more than twice the maximum weight specified by George Mears, had been installed by Dension. I understand that this led to two court trials including a libel case. Denison lost both cases.

A new hammer was created and the bell turned one eigth of a turn (so the cracked bit wouldn't be hit). This is the mechanism that is still heard today.

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Address: Parliament Square, SW1
Directions: Westminster tube
Website: http://www.parliament.uk

This sculpture of Queen Victoria, seated, was done by Sir Thomas Brock and includes a gilded Victory atop a base of marble, surrounded by allegorical figures representing Victorian virtues, such as Truth, Constancy, Motherhood and Courage. It was completed in 1911. I'm not sure of the full story but the memorial has a New Zealand connection with some sort of dedication to this colony under each of the allegorical figures.

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Address: The Mall, SW1
Directions: Green Park tube

The Tower is one of Londons most iconic images and has been around since the 11th century as building began in 1066 by William the conqueror. It has a sordid past housing many of Englands more infamous people by some of the more infamous kings and queens - it's not about what you know it's about who's in charge!! The Tower is located on the banks of the Thames in central London & has its famous Tower Bridge located right beside it.

Admission to the Tower is almost £14 for adults and includes a tour from one of the Beefeaters. Tours leaves every thirty minutes and are really good so best you tag along on one. The Beefeaters provide a hurmous angle to the goings on over the past few centuries and are very good.

A word of warning - the queue for the Crown jewels can get very long so get there early.

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Phone: 0 20 7709 0765
Address: Tower Hill, EC3
Directions: Take the Circle or District lines (yellow or green) to the Tower Hill stop. The exit from the Underground leads right to the Tower
Website: http://www.armouries.org.uk/tower/

The current Cathedral was built after the Great Fire of 1666 and completed in 1710 to specifications by Sir Christopher Wren. It's one of the few churches in Europe where you are charged a fee to visit - approx £7 - and is a fairly gray and souless place. To avoid the fee you can go to a service which is really what the place was built for after all!! One of the highlights of St Paul's is its dome. Climb the spiral steps, all 259 of them, and check out the Whispering Gallery. The acoustics are brilliant with even the faintest whisper able to be heard clearly on the opposite side. The second steep leads to the Stone Gallery, opening onto a panoramic view of London. The last leg brings you to the Inner Golden Gallery, situated at the top of the inner dome - it's all downhill from here......

A must do when you are here is a visit to the Crypt which has its entrance around the left side of the Cathedral. There is also a nice cafe and toilets.

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Phone: 0 20 7236 4128
Address: St Pauls Churchyard, EC4
Directions: St Pauls tube
Website: http://www.stpauls.co.uk