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Madame Tussaud’s museum of waxwork models of the famous has been one of London’s major attractions for a century. To avoid a long wait, arrive early in the day or book ahead by phone or web to get a timed ticket. Next door, the Planetarium has a 30-minute show about the night sky. You can buy a combined ticket for both.

Lying on the northern side of Regent’s Park, London Zoo is home to 600 different animal species. The zoo is heavily into conservation and you can see the breeding programmes of endangered animals, such as the giant weta and Knysna seahorse. A map is provided and their booklet is full of fascinating animal lore.

“The finest collection of art ever assembled by one family,” is the claim of the Wallace Collection, and it is hard to disagree. Sir Richard Wallace, who left this collection to the nation in 1897, was not only outrageously rich but a man of great taste. As well as 25 galleries of fine Sèvres porcelain and an unrivalled collection of armour, there are old masters by English, French and Dutch artists, including Frans Hals’TheLaughing Cavalier .

The best part of Regent’s Park lies within the Inner Circle. Here are Queen Mary’s Gardens, with beds and bowers of wonderfully fragrant roses, the Open Air Theatre with its summer Shakespeare productions and the popular Park Café –one of half a dozen cafés in the park. Rowing boats, tennis courts and deck chairs can be rented and in summer musical performances take place on the bandstand.

This is the place to unravel the mysteries of England’s greatest gift to the world of sports. Founded in 1787, the MCC is the governing body of the game, and its home ground, Lord’s, is a venue for Test matches. The museum can only be seen as part of a guided tour of the ground.

Take a camera when you visit here so you can have your picture taken sitting by the fire in the great detective’s front room, wearing a deerstalker hat and smoking a pipe. This museum is great fun, brilliantly reconstructed with some excellent touches. A Victorian policeman stands guard outside, uniformed maids let you in and, upstairs, wax dummies (including the villainous Moriarty) re-enact moments from Holmes’s most famous cases.

Concerts in the Wigmore Hall have a middle-European quality to them, particularly the September Sunday morning Coffee Concerts. Nobody is here to be seen – they are only here for the music, which they know and love. The accoustically wonderful hall was built in 1901 by the Bechstein piano company, which had showrooms next door.

John Nash wanted the canal to go through the centre of his new Regent’s Park, but objections from neighbours, who were concerned about smelly canal boats and foul-mouthed crews, resulted in it being sited on the northern side of the park. In 1874, a cargo of explosives demolished the North Gate bridge beside London Zoo.

Synonymous with the BBC, Broadcasting House has sailed majestically down Portland Place like a great liner since it was built in 1932. The expansion in radio and, later, television, meant that additional, larger premises were soon required, and now most broadcasting is done from other studios. New plans, however, aim to redevelop Broadcasting House as a new, modern centre for BBC Radio, the BBC World Service and BBC News.

Five times a day the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer from the minaret of the London Central Mosque. Built in 1978, with a distinctive copper dome, it acts as a community and cultural centre for followers of Islam. It is a hospitable place: step inside and see the sky-blue domed ceiling and its shimmering chandelier. Prayer mats cover the floor for the faithful who turn towards Mecca to pray.