The stretch of the Thames alongside the Houses of Parliament is the only restricted area of the river, due to obvious security concerns. River traffic must keep to the east bank.
Big Ben refers to the 13 ton bell in the clock tower of Westminster Palace. Opinion is divided as to whether it was named after the then Commissioner of Works, or a famous prize-fighter of the time.
This mother church of English Roman Catholics was completed in Early Christian Byzantine style in 1903. Since that day Masses have been sung here everyday without interruption.
One of London’s lost rivers joins the Thames here. The Tyburn, which gave its name to the famous gallows, begins in Hampstead and now runs entirely underground.
The street takes its name from Admiral Vernon’s 1739 conquest of the Spanish port of Portobelo in modern-day Panama. On Saturdays it’s now home to a famous antiques and street market.
Opened in 1881, the museum facade uses terracotta tiles which were resistant to the soot of Victorian London. The largest of the famous dinosaur skeletons in the central hall is a diplodocus.
The V&A is the world’s largest museum of decorative art and design and holds 4.5 million objects. Henry Cole, the museum’s first director, printed the world’s first Christmas card in 1843.
Britain’s first escalators were installed at this famous department store in 1898. Women were offered brandy at the summit in order to calm their nerves.
This area is named after an ancient crossing of the River Westbourne, which now runs underground. The knights are more obscure - one legend is that two knights fought to the death on the bridge.
‘Billionaires Boulevard’ tells you all you need to know about local property prices. Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Europe, bought Nos.18-19 for £70 million in 2005.
The main entrance to Waterloo Station is the Victory Arch, a memorial to employees of the London and South Western Railway staff killed in the First World War.
Currently the third tallest Ferris wheel in the world (the tallest when built in 1999, but now behind Singapore and Nanchang), it moves at 0.6mph, and you can see 25 miles from the top.
The Chartists (a radical political reform movement) held their ‘monster rally’ here in 1848, attended by more than 100,000. Despite fears of revolution and bloodshed, the event was peaceful.
The world’s largest museum of urban history documents the city’s development from Roman settlement to cosmopolitan metropolis. Attractions include the Lord Mayor’s State Coach.
The Bankside Power Station was built as a ‘cathedral of power’ in 1963, but closed in 1981. It reopened as one of Europe’s finest modern art galleries in 2000. The Turbine Hall is 35m high.
Hampstead Heath was a favourite outing for Karl Marx and his family, and held a popular fair in the 19th century. Like the Guy Fawkes night bonfires held here, it oftern turned drunken and violent.
The famous illuminated advertising of Piccadilly Circus began as early as 1893, before most of the city had electric street lighting.
The square here was laid out by Inigo Jones in 1630, on land once used by the monks of Westminster Abbey as a garden, but confiscated by Henry VIII during the Reformation.
Marie Tussaud, born in Strasbourg in 1761, made her first wax figure of the great French philosopher Voltaire in 1777. She opened a museum in London in 1835.
In 1991 an IRA bomb hidden in a bin in Victoria station killed one man and injured 38. This led to the removal of all litter bins from London stations.
One of the gallery’s most famous pictures is the Chandos portrait, which is said to be of William Shakespeare by his friend Richard Burbage. But some dispute its provenance.
The gallery opened in 1824 to exhibit 38 paintings purchased by the government. The UK national collection is relatively small because unlike in Europe, the monarch’s collection was not nationalised.
One of the biggest objects in the maritime museum is Prince Frederick’s lavish state barge, built in 1732 for the son of George II, and used by royalty to travel along the Thames until 1849.
The British Museum began from the collection of naturalist Sir Hans Sloane which he left to the nation on his death in 1753. Now it houses 7 million objects including more than 100 Egyptian mummies.
To mark the 50th birthday of the Royal Air Force in 1968, Flight Lt. Allan Pollock flew his Hawker jet under the walkway of Tower Bridge. This unauthorised stunt won him a court martial.
From 1235 until 1835, the monarch’s personal zoo was kept at the Tower, and it included many exotic animals given as presents by other monarchs, including polar bears, leopards and elephants.
An urban myth, which began shortly after WWII, suggests that an ancient Roman battleground is located here and the body of Iceni Warrior Queen Boudica is buried somewhere beneath platform 9 and 10.
Every year a Norway Spruce is erected here and decorated as part of the Christmas festivities. The tree is a gift of thanks from the Norwegians for Britain's support during the Second World War
In 1837 The Royal Opera house was the first ever theatre to use limelight. Limelight comes from the mixing of oxygen and hydrogen and then adding real burning lime to achieve a bright light.
Named after hotelier Cesar Ritz, who also managed The Savoy Hotel, the Ritz was the first hotel in London to have en-suite rooms, it was also the first steel framed building in England.
Harrods was bought in 1985 by Mohamed Al Fayed for £615 million, it covers 4 1/2 acres and holds over 300 department stores.
This road was used as the route for transporting bricks after the Great Fire of London in 1666, hence the name. It now boasts the greatest concentration of curry houses in Britain.
