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The oldest museum in the world, it contains a rich collection of treasures and artifacts from every corner of the globe (see British Museum).

The nation’s most important art collections are held in these two galleries, which hold some of the finest paintings in the world (see National Gallery and Portrait Gallery).

London’s two Tate galleries house a superb collection of international art. Modern focuses on contemporary work after 1900, and Britain on national art from 1500 to the present (see Tate Modern and Tate Britain).

The official home of the Queen, Buckingham Palace is one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, where the changing of the Queen’s guard happens every day (see Buckingham Palace).

The oldest museum in the world, and one of London’s most fascinating, contains treasures and artifacts from all over the world.

Life on Earth and the Earth itself are vividly explained here using hundreds of traditional and interactive exhibits.

Established in 1962 to display works from the Royal Collection, this fascinating gallery shows paintings and other pieces from the royal collection.

This exciting museum traces centuries of scientific and technological development, with impressive and educational displays.

The other Tate gallery in London, focusing on work from 1500 to the present, has the best collection of British art in the world.

Located adjacent to each other at the top of Trafalgar Square, these comprehensive galleries make up the core of Britain’s art collection.

This museum of decorative arts is one of London’s great pleasures, with 145 astonishingly eclectic galleries. One of the highlights is the huge Fashion Collection, with exhibits dating from 1600 to the present day. The museum also has collections of jewellery, ceramics, metalwork, glass, paintings, prints, sculpture and rooms full of Indian and Far Eastern treasures.

When Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for The Hall of Arts and Sciences, to everyone’s astonishment she put the wordsRoyalAlbertbefore its name, and today it is usually just referred to as the Albert Hall. It is a huge, nearly circular building, modelled on Roman amphitheatres, and seats 7,000. Circuses, boxing matches and all manner of musical entertainments are held here, notably the Sir Henry Wood Promenade Concerts.

Royal Albert Hall

The main street in Soho is a lively thoroughfare both day and night. It is also the centre of London’s sex scene, and now the site of popular gay pubs, Compton’s of Soho and the Admiral Duncan. Soho’s vibrant streetlife spills into Frith, Greek and Wardour streets, where pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafés have pavement tables, often warmed by gas heaters in winter. Some, like Bar Italia in Frith Street and Balans Café at 34 Old Compton Street, are open 24 hours. Everywhere fills up when the evening’s performance at the Prince Edward Theatre ends. A delicious breakfast is to be had at Patisserie Valerie, and such long-standing shops as the Italian delicatessen I Camisi, and the Vintage House (700 whiskies in stock), give the area its village feel. Body tattooists are at work here, and fetish shops show that the sex industry still flourishes.

Old Compton Street

Bar Italia, Frith Street

The most exciting North London markets are open every weekend, and linked by the busy and colourful Camden High Street. Camden Market, near the tube station, is packed with stalls selling clothes, shoes and jewellery. Further up the road, by the canal, Camden Lock Market focuses on crafts and ethnic goods. Stalls in the warehouses of Stables Market have great food on sale. Open weekends only between 8am and 6pm.

Regent’s Canal, Camden Lock

When this square was originally laid out in 1670 it was a grand and fashionable place to live. Celebrities of the 17th and 18th centuries to live here include Sir Isaac Newton and the painters Joshua Reynolds and William Hogarth. Today the square forms the heart of London’s West End entertainment district and houses the Empire and Art Deco Odeon cinemas. There is also a cut-price theatre ticket booth called “Tkts” on the southside of the square.

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.

London’s most venerable and most beautiful church, the scene of coronations and royal weddings and the resting place of monarchs.

The highest observational wheel in the world, offering amazing views of the city and beyond. While waiting for a flight, visit the attractions in nearby County Hall –Saatchi Gallery, London Aquarium, Namco Station and Dalí Museum.

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.

This is a delightful royal residence on a domestic scale, still in use by members of the royal family: Diana, Princess of Wales lived here as did Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister. The first-floor state apartments, built by Sir Christopher Wren for King William III and Queen Mary, are open to the public, and the audio guide (free; pick one up as there is no literature or labelling in the rooms) evokes 17th–18th-century court life. Rooms on the ground floor have a collection of royal costumes, including those belonging to Queen Elizabeth II and Diana.

The best of British art is held at the Tate and works range from 1500 to the present. Look downstream to see the home of British Intelligence (MI5). This large building, known as Thames House, is built inside a bug-proof “Faraday cage”.

This edifice to Queen Victoria’s beloved consort, Prince Albert, glowing from a recent restoration, is a fitting tribute to the man who played a large part in establishing the South Kensington museums. Located opposite the Royal Albert Hall, the memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and completed in 1876. At its four corners are tableaux representing the Empire, which was at its height in Victoria’s reign.

The official home and office of Britain’s Prime Minister is one of four surviving houses built in 1680 for Sir George Downing (1623–84) who went to America as a boy and returned to fight for the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War. The building contains a State Dining Room and the Cabinet Room, where a group of 20 senior government ministers meets regularly to formulate policy. Next door, No. 11, is the traditional residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Downing Street has been closed to the public for security reasons since 1989.

A cornucopia of treasures is housed in this enchanting museum named after the devoted royal couple. There are fine and applied arts from all over the world, from ancient China to contemporary Britain. Highlights include extraordinary plaster copies of statues, and monuments and artifacts from the Italian Renaissance. Displays are arranged over six floors of galleries. The stunning new British Galleries display more than 3,000 objects illustrating the best of British art and design since 1500. There are restored period rooms and touchable objects.

The whole world of animals and minerals is vividly explained.

Earth Galleries, Natural History Museum

Decorative relief, Natural History Museum

London’s most exclusive shopping street, Bond Street (known as New Bond Street to the north and Old Bond Street to the south) has long been the place for high society to promenade: many of its establishments have been here for over 100 years. The street is home to top fashion houses, elegant galleries such as Agnews and the Fine Art Society, Sotheby’s auction rooms and jewellers such as Tiffany and Asprey. Where Old and New Bond Street meet, there is a delightful sculpture of wartime leaders Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill – well worth a photograph.

This is undoubtedly London’s most elegant park, with dazzling flower beds, exotic wildfowl on the lake (watch the pelicans being fed at 3pm), a good café with outdoor seating and music on the bandstand in summer. The bridge over the lake has a good view to the west of Buckingham Palace and, to the east, of the former Colonial Office where just 125 civil servants once governed the British Empire that covered one fifth of the world.

Ornate oriental archways in Gerrard Street mark the entrance to Chinatown, an area of London that has, since the 1950s, been the focus of the capital’s Chinese residents. Here you can shop at Chinese supermarkets, gift shops and martial arts suppliers and, on Sundays, browse the street stalls selling exotic vegetables. The Chinese New Year, celebrated in late January or early February, is a particular highlight. Chinatown abounds with excellent-value restaurants.

Trafalgar Square – once the royal mews – is a hub of the West End and a venue for public rallies and events. From the top of a 50-m (165-ft) column, Admiral Lord Nelson, who famously defeated Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, looks down Whitehall towards the Houses of Parliament. The column is guarded at its base by four huge lions – the work of Edwin Landseer. On the north side of the square is the National Galleryand the church of St-Martin-in-the-Fields while, to the southwest, Admiralty Arch leads to Buckingham Palace.

Admiralty Arch

For 300 years, Covent Garden was a fruit, vegetable and flower market – immortalized by Lerner and Loewe’s hit musicalMy Fair Lady . In 1980 the Victorian halls, with their lovely iron and glass roofs, were transformed into a vibrant, modern-day market place, surrounded by cafés and bars and enlivened by regular street entertainment.

Shops and cafés in the former market area

Street entertainment in Covent Garden

Clowns in Covent Garden

This huge barrier across the lower reaches of the Thames, just past Greenwich, was built in 1982 to prevent the dangerous combination of wind and tides from flooding the city. The Visitors’ Centre explains the problem, detailing a long history of flooding in London.

When the Pool of London was the gateway to the city’s larder, this flamboyant bridge was constantly being raised and lowered for sail and steam ships bringing their cargoes from all corners of the Empire. Pedestrians who needed to cross the river when the bridge was open had to climb up the 300 steps of the towers to the walkway overhead. Today, visitors on the 90-minute Tower Bridge Exhibition tour still have views from the 40-m (135-ft) high walkways. The entrance is beneath the north pier, where a “journey through time” begins. It ends with a hands-on experience in the massive engine room, and exits via a shop on the south bank of the river.