Greater London - 34 Attractions You Must Visit
About Greater London
Greater London is a ceremonial county of England that makes up the majority of the London region. This region forms the administrative boundaries of London and is organised into 33 local government districts—the 32 London boroughs and the City of London, which is located within the region but is separate from the county.
Types of Attractions in Greater London
List of Attractions in Greater London
40 Marsh Wall
Viewing Decks
Iconic Buildings
Bar/ Pubs
127 m (419 ft), 39-storey hotel which is the tallest all-hotel building in the United Kingdom and the tallest Novotel in the world. On the 39th floor, you can find a rooftop bar that offers a great view of Canary Wharf and the Banking District.
Big Ben
Monuments
Notable Architectures
When completed in 1859, its clock was the largest and most accurate four-faced striking and chiming clock in the world. The tower stands 315 feet (96 m) tall, and the climb from ground level to the belfry is 334 steps. Its base is square, measuring 39 feet (12 m) on each side. Dials of the clock are 23 feet (7.0 m) in diameter.
Buckingham Palace
Palaces
Art Galleries
Symbol and home of the monarchy of the United Kingdom. The palace has 775 rooms, and the garden is the largest private garden in London. The staterooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring.
Churchill War Rooms
Museums
The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of British statesman Winston Churchill.
Cutty Sark
Museums
One of the last clipper ship to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development. The design development halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion. Built in 1869, she was in service till 1954- first as a tea clipper and later to wool trade and as a cargo ship.
Hampton Court Palace
Palaces
Museums
Notable Architectures
Along with St James' Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many the King Henry VIII owned. The palace has two distinct contrasting architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. It currently is open to the public displaying many of its original furnitures still in their original position, in addition to the works of art from the Royal Collection.
Hayward Gallery
Notable Architectures
Art Galleries
An art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London. Its massive and extensive use of exposed concrete construction are features typical of Brutalist architecture. The Hayward does not house a permanent collection. Instead, it hosts three or four major temporary exhibitions of modern or contemporary artworks each year.
HMS Belfast
Museums
Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy, now permanently moored as a museum ship. Commissioned in early August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Belfast was initially part of the British naval blockade against Germany.
Hyde Park London
Lake/ River/ Ponds
Parks
Sculptures
Largest Royal Park in London, divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water lakes. The park covers 142 hectares (350 acres) and it is a popular spot for demonstrations, parades and other events.
Kensington Palace
Palaces
Museums
A residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century. Today, the State Rooms are open to the public and displays many paintings and other objects from the Royal Collection.
London Eye
Viewing Decks
Iconic Buildings
The structure is 135 metres (443 ft) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres (394 ft). When it opened to the public in 2000 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel.
London Transport Museum
Museums
Established to conserve and explain the transport heritage of London. The museum is spread into locations- in Covent Garden displaying buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from the 19th and 20th centuries as well s the first underground electric train, from 1890. Larger exhibits are held at Acton depot location and they include a complete 1938 stock tube train as well as early locomotives from the first sub-surface and first deep-level lines.
London Zoo
Zoos
Aquariums
World's oldest scientific zoo. Today, it houses a collection of 673 species of animals, with 19,289 individuals, making it one of the largest collections in the United Kingdom. The zoo was home to the only living quagga ever to be photographed and the it held a number of now extinct Tasmanian tigers.
Monument to the Great Fire of London
Viewing Decks
Monuments
202 feet (62 m) in heigh, the monument commemorates the Great Fire of London. It stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 feet west of the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666.
Museum of London
Museums
Documents the history of London from prehistoric to modern times. The museum is the largest urban history collection in the world, with more than six million objects.
National Maritime Museum
Museums
The Museum has the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea comprising more than two million items, including maritime art, cartography, manuscripts including official public records, ship models and plans, scientific and navigational instruments, instruments for time-keeping and astronomy.
Natural History Museum
Museums
The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture, and also for the specimens collected by Charles Darwin.
Palace of Westminster
Palaces
Notable Architectures
Meeting place for the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Contains over 1,100 rooms organised symmetrically around two series of courtyards and which has a floor area of 112,476 m2 (1,210,680 sq ft). Part of the New Palace's area of 3.24 hectares (8 acres) was reclaimed from the River Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long (980 ft) facade, called the River Front.
Royal Academy of Arts
Art Centres
Institution to to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate. The Royal Academy has an important collection of books, archives and works of art accessible for research and display.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Sculptures
Botanical Gardens
Houses the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world. It consists of 132 hectares (330 acres) of gardens and botanical glasshouses. Its living collections includes some of the 27,000 taxa and the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens.