Notice the clock that crowns the main building? You'll see a black mark next to the number '2'. That's the hour at which Charles I was beheaded at the neighbouring Banqueting House.
Probably London's most famous music heritage site. Made famous by the Beatles but plenty of other historic acts have recorded here too. Read more.
The acoustics here were once so bad, it was said this was the only venue where a composer could be sure of hearing his work twice. It was corrected in 1969 by putting diffusing discs on the ceiling.
Lombard Street is the banking centre of the city, it is named after the goldsmiths of Lombardy who settled here after being granted the land by King Edward I in the 12th century.
Bishopsgate often displayed the heads of recently executed criminals on spikes for passers by to to see. The heads were used as a warning to anyone thinking about breaking the law.
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.
The nunnery of St. Helen's was founded in the early 13th century and is the largest surviving church in the city, it survived the Great Fire of London, the Dissolution and The Blitz.
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.
On top of Trinity Square stands the statue of Old Father Thames who is seen to point the way to Docklands from his perch above the Port of London Authority.
Part of the University of London, Senate House was the inspiration for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. During the 1936 construction the principle was killed by a trolley falling down a lift shaft.
In 1616 Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, commissioned Inigo Jones to build the Queen’s House, the first fully Classical building in England. The house now forms part of the National Maritime Museum.
Site of a famous horse-racing track was used from 1890 to 1962, when it was sold for residential development. The royal box and grandstand were burnt down by suffragettes in 1913.
Lord Burlington built a grand Palladian villa here with sculpture, gardens and a dome modelled on those of Imperial Rome. He also displayed treasures collected on his ‘Grand Tour’ of classical Europe.
This club was still being built as a cinema when the First World War broke out, and it became an aircraft factory. It opened as the King’s Cross Cinema in 1920, which closed in 1974.
This theatre was famous in the 1940s and 50s for hosting big American names like Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jnr, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby.
Opened as the Queen’s Theatre in 1705 by playwright and architect Sir John Vanbrugh, in 1986 it hosted the world premiere of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, and it’s been on ever since.
London’s oldest theatre is in its fourth incarnation. The third burned down in 1809. It is said to be one of the world’s most haunted theatres, so watch out for ‘The Man in Grey’!
The Coliseum opened in 1904 as a ‘people’s palace of entertainment’. During WW2 it became a canteen for air raid wardens, and Winston Churchill once addressed them from the theatre stage.
This theatre, opened in 1806, is said to be haunted by the actor William Terriss. He was stabbed to death at the stage door in 1897 by a rival actor, who blamed Terriss for keeping him out of work.
In the 18th century the park was notorious for highwaymen and Horace Walpole was one of many robbed here. Handel’s ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks’ was composed for an event here in 1749.
Next to the Coliseum theatre this 200 yard alley connects St.Martin’s Lane and Bedfordbury. Just 15 inches wide at its narrowest point (a London record) only one person at a time can use it!
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.
These are the working stables of Buckingham Palace and house the carriages and cars used for ceremonies such as the State Opening of Parliament. The Cleveland Bay carriage horses also live here.
This museum is famous for stuffed animals and musical instruments from around the world, all part of the collection of Frederick John Horniman who made his fortune in the 19th century tea trade.
Named after a former Lord Mayor of London (d.1703), this museum shows how the English home has changed from 1630 to 1998 with 11 ‘sample’ rooms, each with festive decorations at Christmas.
Impress your friends by telling apart the 5 regiments of Foot Guards: Scots Guards have no plume, Grenadiers have white, Coldstream have red, Irish have blue, and Welsh have green and white.
The oldest tennis tournament in the world was first played here in 1877. It was won by an Old Harrovian racquets player named Spencer Gore in front of a crowd of 200, paying a shilling entrance each.
The oldest regular fixture at the ‘home of cricket’ is the annual Eton vs Harrow schools match, played here since 1818. In the museum you can find the passing bird killed by a cricket shot in 1936.
The physician John Snow investigated a cholera epidemic in Soho in 1854 and made the breakthrough that cholera was water-borne. By turning off the public water pump here he saved many lives.
