traveldk.com

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.

During the dark days of World War II, Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet met in these rooms beneath the Government Treasury Chambers. They have been kept just as they were left in 1945, with sandbags piled up outside and colour-coded phones. Take a guided audio tour through the rooms where ministers plotted the course of the war or visit the Churchill Museum which opened here in 2005.

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.

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.

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.

To see a Shakespeare play at the reconstructed Globe is a magical experience. Seated in three tiers, open to the skies, the audience is encouraged to heckle and shout as they did in Shakespeare’s day. Except when a matinee is playing, visitors to the exhibition next door are given guided tours of the theatre by staff.

The most accessible arts centre in London still has the air of friendly, egalitarian optimism that brought it into life in the 1950s and 60s. The Royal Festival Hall’s three concert halls have diverse programmes while the Hayward Gallery is a major venue for large art exhibitions. The National Film Theatre, run by the British Film Institute, puts on a full programme of movies. The Royal National Theatre’s three theatres (Olivier, Cottesloe and Lyttleton) are further east along the riverside.