... Jamess, Mayfair and Marylebone, to the north of estminster, have been the playground of the rich since the Restoration, and no contain the citys busiest shopping zones Piccadilly itself, Bond Street, Regent Street and, most frenetic of the lot, Oxford Street.East of Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Covent Garden form the heart of the est End entertainment district, here youll find the largest concentration of theatres, cinemas, clubs, flashy shops, cafes and restaurants. Adjoining Covent Garden to the north, the university quarter of Bloomsbury is the traditional home of the publishing industry and location of the British Museum, a stupendous treasure house that attracts more than five million tourists a year. elding the est End to the financial district, The Strand, Holborn and Clerkenell are little-visited areas, but offer some of central Londons most surprising treats, among them the eccentric Sir John Soanes Museum and the secluded quadrangles of the Inns of Court.A couple of miles donstream from estminster, The City the City of London, to give it its full title is at one and the same time the most ancient and the most modern part of London. Settled since Roman times, it became the commercial and residential heart of medieval London, ith its on Lord Mayor and its on peculiar form of local government, both of hich survive, ith considerable pageantry, to this day. The Great Fire of 1666 obliterated most of the City, and the resident population has dindled to insignificance, yet this remains one of the great financial centres of the orld ranking just belo Ne York and Tokyo. The Citys most prominent landmarks noadays are the hi-tech offices of the legions of banks and insurance companies, but the Square Mile boasts its share of historic sights, notably the Toer of London and a fine cache of ren churches that includes the mighty St Pauls Cathedral.The East End and Docklands, to the east of the City, are equally notorious, but in entirely different ays. Impoverished and orking-class, the East End is not conventional tourist territory, but to ignore it is to miss out the crucial element of the real, multi-ethnic London. ith its abandoned arehouses converted into overpriced apartment blocks for the citys upardly mobile, Docklands is the corner of the don-at-heel East End, ith the Canary harf toer, the countrys tallest building, epitomizing the pretensions of the Thatcherite dream.Lambeth and Southark comprise the small slice of central London that lies south of the Thames. The South Bank Centre, Londons little-loved concrete culture bunker, is the most obvious starting point, hile Southark, the citys lo-life district from Roman times to the eighteen century, is less knon, except to the gore-addicts ho queue up for the London Dungeon.In the districts Hyde Park, Kensington and Chelsea youll find the largest park in Central London, a segment of greenery hich separates ealthy est London from the city centre. The museums of South Kensington the Victoria Albert Museum, Science Museum and Natural History Museum are a must, and if you have shopping on your London agenda you may ell ant to investigate the hive of plush stores in the vicinity of Harrods, superstore to the upper echelons.Some of the most appealing parts of North London are clustered around Regents Canal, hich skirts Regents Park and serves as the focus for the capitals trendiest eekend market, around Camden Lock. Further out, in the chic literary suburbs of Hampstead and Highgate, there are unbeatable vies across the city from half-ild Hampstead Heath, the favorite parkland of thousands of Londoners. The glory of Southeast London is Greenich, ith its nautical associations, royal park and observatory. Finally, there are plenty of rearding day trips along the Thames from Chisick to indsor, a region in hich the royalty and aristocracy have traditionally built their homes, the most famous being Hampton Court Palace and indsor Palace.London. Historical buildingsPolitical, religious and regal poer has emanated from estminster and hitehall for almost a millennium. It as Edard the Confessor ho established estminster as London s royal and ecclesiastical poer base, some three miles est of the real, commercial City of London. In the nineteenth century, hitehall became the heart of the Empire, its ministries ruling over a quarter of the orlds populations.The monuments and buildings from this region include some of Londons most famous landmarks Nelsons Column, Big Ben and the House of Parliament, estminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, plus the citys to finest permanent art collections, The National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. This is a ell-trodden tourist circuit for the most part - hence the councils decision to reinstate the old red phone boxes ith fe shops or cafes and little street life to distract you, but its also one of the easiest parts of London to alk round, ith all the major sights ithin a mere half-mile of each other, linked by to of Londons most triumphant avenues, hitehall and The Mall.Despite being little more than a glorified, sunken traffic island, infested ith scruffy urban pigeons, Trafalgar Square is still one of the Londons grandest architectural set-pieces. Londons Trafalgar Square, the citys official center, features some of Englands most treasured historic monuments. The square as laid out beteen 1829 and 1841 on the site of the old royal stables and is lined on its northern side by the National Gallery. The gallery, begun in 1824, boasts one of the finest art collections in the orld, ith ork from every major estern artist from the 15th through the 19th centuries. The squares dominating landmark is a pedestal supporting a statue of Lord Nelson, the British naval hero ho defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar in Spain, in 1805. Trafalgar Square is the location for festivities at Christmas Eve, Ne Year, and other major public occasions.Nelsons Column, raised in 1843 and no one of the Londons best-loved monuments, commemorates the one-armed, one-eyed admiral ho defeated Napoleon, but paid for it ith his life. The statue hich surmounts the granite column is triple life-size but still manages to appear minuscule, and is coated in anti-pigeon gel to try to stem the build-up of guano. The acanthus leaves of the capital are cast from British cannon, hile bas-reliefs around the base are from captured French armaments. Edin Landseers four gargantuan bronze lions guard the column and provide a climbing frame for kids to clamber over. If you can, get here before the crods and atch the pigeons take to the air as Edin Lutyensfountains jet into action at 9am.Keeping Nelson company at ground level, on either sides of the column, are bronze statues of Napier and Havelock, Victorian major-generals ho helped keep India British against the north all are busts of Beatty, Jellicoe and Cunningham, more recent military leaders. In the northeast corner of the square, is an equestrian statue of George IV, hich he ...
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