Top 10 Things
To Do In London England
Listings 6
to 10
What to do
in London?
6 (-) The Changing
of the Guards
The Changing of the
Guard takes place in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace at around 11am.
The St. James' Palace detachment of the Queen's Guard bears the Queen's
Colour if she is home or the Regimental Colour is she has gone out. The
guard marches along the Mall to Buckingham Palace, where the Buckingham
Palace detachment has formed up to await their arrival. From there the
climax begins. For more:
7 (36) Big Ben
Big Ben – the
world's greatest clock, (Big Bell actually, Big Ben is the name of the
greatest bell) has to be heard, seen, photographed and remembered for
you will probably see it many times again. Every time you do see Big Ben
on the media you will think back to standing there waiting to hear the
‘dong’.
Big Ben is not the
tallest clock in the empire but it’s the best, the icon, probably
the most televised clock in the world, even Londoners love it. It could
have had its own TV series but the government feared it might move to
Hollywood to pursue a movie career.
London would not
be London without Big Ben. From the pennies that it uses to keep it on
time to it's enlighten face smiling down on the cold inhabitants as they
struggle across the windy Westminster Bridge.
When parliament
is in session a light emanates above Big
Ben's face.
8 (37) The National
Gallery in London
 Look
at the Beautiful Pictures at the National Gallery
Walk around the aisles
of the National Gallery and expose yourself to some of the greatest European
art on the planet. Housed in a majestic building in Trafalgar Square the
National Gallery is surprisingly unstuffy and relaxed. Get up close and
personal to Monet's Water lily pond, Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Rembrandt's
portraits, and the spectacular Da Vinci's 'Virgin of the Rocks' and Raphael's
'Madonna of the Pinks' to name a few. The National Gallery is home to
2,000 masterpieces of the Western European art. The Van Gogh room is a
must.
The permanent collection
costs nothing which is amazingly when you consider the priceless nature
of the art on display. Admission prices are applied to special exhibitions.
No pictures or video are allowed.
You'll recognise
many of the works on display but there are guided and audio tours. You
can make up your own tour and choose at random from over 1,200 paintings
on the Collection Tour, or select from a range of family and themed trails.
The "60 Minute
Tour" features the highlights on offer at the Gallery. It is available
in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Polish, Portuguese,
Dutch, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin) and Korean. The audio
guide is free with a London Pass
9 Natural History
Museum
Known for its underfed
Dinosaur at its entrance the Natural History Museum itself is large and
quite impressive. Have a good look at the columns and floors for the detail
contained within their architecture.
What really matters
of course is what awaits you inside. The awesome Whale Hall starring the
biggest creature on earth, past and present, the endangered Blue Whale,
the spectacular Darwin Centre Cocoon, the exciting Attenborough Studio,
the big facts about the rise and fall of the Dinosaurs and the eruptive
studies of volcanoes and ground shaking work on earthquakes. If that's
not enough there are special displays that show case topical insights
into the natural world.
10 (15) Westminster
Abbey
Every year over one
million people come to Westminster Abbey to explore it history, marvel
at it's architecture and artifacts and worship at its daily services.
Westminster Abbey is a very special place with the current building dating
back 700 years and its predecessors dating back to over a 1,000. Benedictine
monks first came to the site of Westminster Abbey in the middle of the
tenth century. They established a tradition of daily worship which continues
on to this day.
Since 1066 English
Kings and Queens have been crowned here and 17 monarchs have been buried
here. In fact, there are a total of 3,000 or more bodies buried within
the Church and Cloisters accounting for most of the significant ex-people
in England's history. Over 600 monuments and memorials help to testify
to their import. The impressive list of dead people is only matched by
the architecture and sculpture within the Abbey. On mass Westminster Abbey's
tombs and memorials comprise the most significant single collection of
monumental sculpture in the UK. The Church just oozes with royal dead.
However, where most of us might keep our skeletons in the cupboard. ..Westminster
Abbey keeps its bodies under foot.
The impressive Gothic
Church we know today was built by Henry III in 1245 and is a treasure
trove of paintings, stained glass, textiles and other artifacts. The Library
and Muniment Room contain collections of historically important archives,
printed books and manuscripts.
It is easy to arrive
at Westminster Abbey not quite know which way to turn. Audio guides are
available in eight languages but for a small fee you can and should sign
up to the highly-popular verger-led tour. For well over an hour you will
be guided gently around Westminster Abbey to the Shrine (containing the
tomb of Saint Edward the Confessor), the Royal Tombs, Poets' Corner, the
Cloisters and the Nave.
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Top 100 Things To Do In London, England
