I lived in London for over 30 years, and in this video I want to show you the 10
must-see sights. The iconic postcard sights of London. What's important about
them is that they will cost you absolutely nothing to see them.
The first one is the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of
Parliament. Inside is the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It's a
very beautiful building. One of the big misconceptions of course is about Big
Ben the clock tower.
Big Ben is actually name of the bell inside the tower that chimes, and the
tower is called the Queen Elizabeth Tower. Named after Queen Elizabeth the
Second when she entered her 60th year of reign. Just across from Big Ben you'll
see the South Bank which is a popular tourist stretch with SeaLife Aquarium
and you'll also find the London Eye, which is that massive ferris wheel
that become such an iconic sight - particularly at New Year.
Just behind me is Admiralty Arch and behind that is one of the most famous sights of
London: Trafalgar Sqaure. The square was named after the Battle of Trafalgar
during the Napoleonic Wars when the British were fighting the French and
Spanish just off a place called Trafalgar. Of course it has
Nelson's Column, and there's lions guarding it. It also has a number of plinths
with statues. The fourth one remains empty and has different rotating
pieces of artwork on it.
And, of course, no trip to London would be complete without a visit to Buckingham
Palace.
This is the official home of the monarchy, and they spend a lot of time
here or at Windsor Castle about 20 miles outside London. It is a real big
favourite. You can tell if the Queen is in residence because the Royal Ensign,
which is a gold and red flag, will be flying above Buckingham Palace.
If it's just the Union Jack it means that the monarchy is not in residence.
During the Changing of the Guard, the old guard is replaced by the new guard who
arrive from Wellington Barracks, normally accompanied by a band. And it's
lots of fun, lots of ceremony. If you are here during summer you can also tour the
State Rooms and the gardens, which is a real must do. So if here in July or
August it's worth checking online and search for Buckingham Palace tickets and
I'd strongly recommend going on the tour because you get great insight into the
Royal Family's way of live and (of course) you get to see places that very
few people actually get to see.
Another really important part of a visit to Buckingham Palace is the Queen
Victoria Memorial, which just sits just opposite the palace itself. And so after
Buckingham Palace, our next stop which is the Tower of
London, so we head back down the Mall.
By the way two things that you're going to need if you want to do this tour of
the best sights of London, one is a good pair of walking shoes and also one of these..
which is an Oyster card. It's a prepaid card that you use on all the buses and
tubes. Just pick it up at the Underground station and you load it up with
money, and the great things is that it caps the fare and only charges you the lowest fare possible for
all of the trips you do. And so once you get to Tower Hill tube station you're at
some of the most important sights of London: the Tower of London behind me and
Tower Bridge. So let me tell you a little about the Tower of London. Its official
name is actually the Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London and it has a
reputation for being a very violent place. However not that many people were
actually executed here because executions used to take place on Tower
Hill across the other way.
However it has been used for all sorts of things including, obviously, a prison.
It's been used as an armory and as a public records office, the Royal
Mint used to be here and still within those walls are the Crown Jewels and they
are a real must see. Now the Tower actually held prisoners from about 1,100
right through until 1952. The Kray brothers, which were famous Eastern
gangsters, were apparently some of the last people ever held here.
The main period of holding prisoners was in the 16th and 17th century when people like Sir
Walter Raleigh were held right here and that's
what the expression "sent to the Tower" came from.
In the First World War and Second World War it was also used to hold various
enemies of the state and in fact people were actually executed in
here for espionage. One of the more famous sights of London is behind me
right now, it's the Tower Bridge. It opened in 1895 and connects the north and the
south side of London with of course the Thames flowing underneath. It's a
magnificent building.
Now walking across it's going to give you one of the most magnificent
views you can possibly have of London right up the river towards
London. What you can see behind me with the river behind
me are many of the more recent and modern buildings
of London like The Shard which
is a massive tall building and has the tallest observation platform in Europe.
You've got the London Assembly where the mayor has his office
and HMS Belfast which was a old World War II Battleship. Behind me on the other
side you have the City of London, which is the heart of the financial
center and you have buildings which are known as the Walkie-Talkie,
Cheese Grater and the Gherkin.
In London as some of these pictures show, is it's very
busy wherever you go. It's crowded and crowds of people everywhere but
it's quite good fun so it's
still great. And so once you've had time at the Tower of London it's
time for the next big site which is Saint Paul's Cathedral.
So here I am in the gardens of St Pauls. I'm doing this in the gardens at the
back as it's a bit quieter here. It's where
major events take place like
State Funerals and the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess
Diana was held here and big celebrations like Queen's Jubilee. It's built on
the highest point in the City of London and
until 1967 it was the tallest building in London. It was built by
Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London and during World War Two as
bombs fell all around London surprisingly the Dome survived
and it became like a beacon of hope through the whole of the Second
World War. Unfortunately I cannot show you inside as
videos or pictures cannot been taken inside. One of the challenges when you're sightseeing in London is
trying to find some where to go to the loo!
And so that's another big plus for places like Starbucks as places like
public toilets you have to pay about 50p to go and spend a penny, which is what
I'm about to do. And the next stop, which is not that far away,
is the Millennium Bridge which is affectionately known as the "wobbly
bridge". When it opened in June 2000 it had to be closed the same day,
because people found as they walked over it be swayed and made them sea sick. It took two
years to fix before was reopened. The Millennium Bridge has become a major
tourist attraction and attracts lots of people because it takes you from St Pauls
on the one side and to the Tate Modern which is a
free gallery on the other side. It's in a very beautiful
old Art Deco power station. Now along this stretch of the river, which is the
South Bank of the Thames, there's always lots of activity. Lots of people
hanging around, lots of events and stores. So it's always good
if you want to stop and have something to eat or just simply relax after this
frantic sightseeing.
And so my next tip in terms of must-see sights is Hyde Park it's a massive park and
one of the big four parks in London. These big Royal Parks are
connected, so you have Kensington Gardens, you have Hyde Park, you have Green Park
and that eventually leads to St. James's Park. Many people say that you can
pretty much walk across London on greenery, I don't know that's entirely
true but there's a lot of green space in London and Hyde Park is one of the most
important.
There's a couple of key things within Hyde Park that you can see. There's the
Serpentine, which is a lake that's splits the park. There's Speaker's
Corner, which is very famous particularly on the weekend, when people gather and it's a
chance for free speech and to talk about anything you want to talk about - getting
heckled and cheered. Then also down towards the
Knightsbridge side of Hyde Park you'll find two very important buildings.
One of which is the Albert Memorial, which Queen Victoria built in honor of
her husband, and across the road from that is the magnificent and
circular Albert Hall, which is where big concerts are held - in particular the Proms
every year. And so as we head to our next site, one of things I want to do is
give you tips based on what I've been seeing today as I have been traveling around.
I've heard so much incorrect information spoken about the history and what people are seeing,
so what I am trying do is I try to give you a short overview of each place.
But I strongly recommend you get a good guide book or
find a reputable site online. I'll put some links in the notes so you can make sure
that you have a good sense of what you're actually seeing - and try not to
listen to some of the bizarre ideas and thoughts
as you go around the city. The next site is the British Museum. It
was established in the 1700s and over the last half-century
it's collected over 8 million items. It's focus is on human history, art and culture.
It has a couple of controversial pieces or areas within it, such as the
Parthenon Statutes, where is a constant discussion between Greece and the UK
about their return.
However the collection here is amazing, and the two most popular areas are the
Egyptian areas (including a display of mummies) and also of course the "Elgin Marbles"
as they used to be called which are the Parthenon sculptures. Like all museums in the
the UK, the British Museum is free. They do ask if you will make a donation but
you don't have to if you don't want to. Our next site is actually
collection of three things. It's a collection of three amazing museum
buildings - and of course the museum's inside them are also awesome and quite
amazing.
The first is the Natural History Museum. It has over 80 million specimens and
it's better known for its dinosaurs which are big hit with kids. Over 5
million people visit a year.
Across the road the V&A is the world's largest decorative arts museum and named
after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Both of these were opened in the
1850s. It's a great museum and probably one of my favorite museums
in London. A little bit up the road from that is the Science
Museum which is very hands-on interactive museum. It gets about
three-and-a-half million visitors a year. It's great for kids because it really
immerses them into science lets them get their hands kind of
involved and dirty, if you like. Just going to look at the buildings
themselves is amazing, they're all together in South Kensington in the west
of London - and again you can get in for free. All museums are free and you can
spend days in them if you want to.
No trip to London is complete without a stop at Harrods. It is over five
acres in Knightsbridge and has 330 departments, and apparently sells
everything you could possibly want. It used to be owned by Mohamed Al-fayed whose
son Dodi was in a relationship with Lady Diana when they both died in a
car crash in Paris.
It's now a controlled by Qatar. So as I said I've lived for over 30 years in London.
I adore the city and hopefully you'll find those 10 must-see sights absolutely
fantastic and really helpful. I tried to choose the sites that are iconic sites
and really represent London and also that you can see without having
to pay to see - other than (of course) your transportation. A couple things
that really like to do. First of all let me know in a comment
which of those sites you love the most or are looking
forward to seeing. Secondly it be great if you left a thumbs up on the
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