Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens • London
Originally a hunting ground for kings and aristocrats, now a favorite of locals, Hyde Park is one of London’s largest Royal Parks, ranging across 142 hectares. It’s set in the center of the city,...
Borough Market • South Bank, London
Sometimes called “London’s Larder,” the Borough Market has been located in this same spot since the 13th century. This ever-popular spot is always packed with food lovers, gastronomes, and visitors wandering among its food exhibits,...
Kew Gardens • Richmond
The 132-hectare Kew Gardens are the finest product of British botanists, and are not only a research center, but also a public garden. Enter by Victoria Gate, at the elaborate 700-glass-paned Palm House, an...
Victoria & Albert Museum • Kensington & Hyde Park
Opened in 1852, the V&A Museum was part of Price Albert’s endowment to the nation after the successful Great Exhibition in 1851, for the “improvement of public taste and design.” The museum’s 146 galleries boast...
Natural History Museum • Kensington & Hyde Park
The Natural History Museum is a kids’ delight, with architecture right out of Hogwarts, but adults love it too. Richard Owen, the museum’s first superintendent, referred to it as a “cathedral to nature.”
A Dinosaurs...
London Eye • Bankside, London
London’s iconic riverside Ferris wheel has views from the top that extend in every direction for 25 miles (on a good day). A “flight” in London Eye's glass-enclosed pods take 30 minutes, perhaps less...
The Shard • Southwark, London
The Shard, also known as the Shard of Glass and Shard London Bridge, is a 95-story super-tall skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano that forms part of the Shard Quarter development. The...
Tate Modern • South Bank, London
Swiss architects Herzog and Meuron were awarded the prestigious Pritzker prize for their transformation of the Bankside Power Station into what is Londoners’ favorite museum. The Tate Modern’s modern and contemporary art collection is...
Tower of London • London
In the Tower of London’s bloody history, it has been a palace, and observatory, an armory, a mint, and most notoriously, a prison and execution site for 22 people. It is actually a castle...
Churchill War Rooms • West End, Whitehall
With war seemingly imminent in August 1939, the British cabinet and armed forces chiefs moved underground to the basement below what is now the Treasury. Churchill War Rooms served as the nerve center of...