DK Travel : London : Places of interest

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Harrods

No backpacks, no torn jeans... Harrods’ doormen ensure even the people in the store are in the best possible taste. This world-famous emporium began life in 1849 as a small, impeccable grocer’s, and the present terracotta building was built in 1905. It is most striking at night, when it is illuminated by 11,500 lights. It has more than 150 departments and on no account should you miss the wonderfully tiled and decorated food halls. Pick up a floor plan as you go in. An Egyptian theme decorates the central well, at the bottom of which is a shrine to Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed.
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.
HMS Belfast

The last of the big-gun armoured ships,HMS Belfastwas built in 1938 and saw active service in World War II and Korea. In 1971 she was saved for the nation as an example of an early 20th-century British warship and opened as a museum. Visitors can tour the bridge, the huge engine rooms, the galley and the messdecks, where you get an idea of what life must have been like on board.
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.
Houses of Parliament
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.
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.
Keats House

Keats Grove, off Downshire Hill, is one of the loveliest areas of Hampstead. The house where the poet John Keats wrote much of his work is a pretty white villa, containing facsimiles of his fragile manuscripts and letters, as well as some personal possessions. Poetry readings and talks are given on Wednesday evenings.