DK Travel : London : History & Culture

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Highgate Cemetery

On the opposite side of the Heath to Hampstead, Highgate grew up as a healthy, countrified place for nobility who built large mansions here. Many of the famous people who lived in the area are buried in Highgate Cemetery. Soon after it had been consecrated in 1839, its Victorian architecture and fine views made it a popular outing for Londoners. Karl Marx and the novelist George Eliot are buried in the less glamorous East Cemetery.
Holland Park

There is a great deal of charm about Holland Park, where enclosed gardens are laid out like rooms in an open-air house. At its centre is Holland House, a beautiful Jacobean mansion, which was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1941. What remains is used as a youth hostel and the backdrop for summer concerts. Peacocks roam in the woods and in the gardens, including the Dutch Garden, where dahlias were first planted in England.

Café, Holland Park
Horniman Museum

Recently transformed with a new £13 million development, this distinctive museum appeals to both adults and children. A new giant creepy crawly display sits alongside an interactive gallery devoted to music and world cultures. The café looks over the 16-acre garden.
Houses of Parliament

The ancient Palace of Westminster is the seat of the two Houses of Parliament – the Lords and the Commons. A Union flag flies on the Victoria Tower when the Commons is in session. Night sittings are indicated by a light on the Clock Tower – the tower that houses Big Ben, the 14-ton bell whose hourly chimes are recognized around the world.
Hoxton

If you want to see the latest in British contemporary art, then this is the place to come. Hoxton Square is home to the White Cube gallery, where many of the now established contemporary artists, known as the YBA’s (Young British Artists), such as Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin, first made their names. Acrobats and aerial performers put on shows at Circus Space on the north side of Hoxton Market. Popular cafés and restaurants include the Hoxton Kitchen and Bar and the Real Greek.
ICA

A stately, colonnaded terrace by Nash houses London’s hippest gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Arts. The ICA’s cutting edge policy on the visual arts includes developing new and challenging digitally-produced works, and Becks Futures, the UK’s largest arts prize for students.
Imperial War Museum

It is well worth the effort to visit this museum, which documents the social effects of war as much as the technology involved in fighting it, with displays on food rationing, censorship, air-raid precautions and morale-boosting strategies. Concerned mainly with conflicts in the 20th century to the present, it has changing exhibitions and an excellent shop that will appeal to those with a nostalgia for wartime London.
Jimi Hendrix

The American guitarist (1942–1970) stayed in central London at No. 23 Brook Street.
JMW Turner Bequest

Turner’s paintings were left to the nation on condition that they be seen by the public free of charge (see Tate Britain).
John Betjeman

A devoted Londoner, with a fine disdain for bureaucracy, mediocrity and hideous architecture, Betjeman (1906–84) was made Poet Laureate in 1972. His poems are full of gentle wit and humour and he remains one of Britain’s favourite poets.