Explore London

Trafalgar Square is a public square in Westminster, laid out by John Nash and opened in 1844, named after the naval battle of 1805. Nelson's Column, 52 metres high, stands at its centre between two fountains, and the square is framed by the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Fourth Plinth with its changing artworks.

The National Gallery on the north side of Trafalgar Square holds the national collection of Western European painting, more than 2,300 works from the mid-13th century to 1900. Founded in 1824, it opened in William Wilkins's building in 1838, and its rooms range from Giotto and Raphael to Titian, Rembrandt, Turner and Cézanne.

The National Portrait Gallery holds portraits of people who shaped British history and culture, from Tudor monarchs to present-day figures. Founded in 1856, it moved in 1896 to its building on St Martin's Place next to the National Gallery, which reopened in 2023 after a three-year renovation with a new entrance.

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space in London's West End, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. The corner building on its northern side carries a large curved video display, and the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, topped by an aluminium figure of Anteros often taken for Eros, stands on the plaza.

St James's Park is a 23-hectare Royal Park in Westminster, first enclosed as a deer park for Henry VIII in the 1530s. A long lake with Duck Island and a colony of pelicans runs through it, and the park is framed by The Mall, Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards and Birdcage Walk.

Somerset House is a neoclassical building complex on the Strand, designed by Sir William Chambers and begun in 1776 on the site of a Tudor palace to house government offices. Today it is an arts centre: visitors cross its large courtyard with floor fountains, walk the river terrace and see changing exhibitions and events.

Sir John Soane's Museum is the former home and studio of the architect Sir John Soane on Lincoln's Inn Fields, kept as he left it at his death in 1837 under an Act of Parliament of 1833. Its narrow, top-lit rooms are packed with antiquities, architectural fragments, models and paintings, including Hogarth's series A Rake's Progress.

The British Museum in Bloomsbury is a museum of human history, art and culture, founded in 1753 and open to the public since 1759. Its Greek Revival building by Robert Smirke surrounds the glass-roofed Great Court, and its collection of about eight million objects includes the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and Assyrian palace reliefs.

Westminster Cathedral is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster and the seat of its archbishop. Designed by John Francis Bentley in a neo-Byzantine style and built of striped brick and stone in 1895–1903, it has chapels lined with mosaics and marble, Eric Gill's Stations of the Cross and a bell tower with a viewing gallery.

Tate Britain on Millbank shows British art from the 1500s to the present day. The gallery opened in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art, funded by the sugar refiner Henry Tate, in a building by Sidney R. J. Smith; the adjoining Clore Gallery by James Stirling holds the Turner Bequest of paintings and drawings by J. M. W. Turner.

The Imperial War Museum in Southwark covers conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth from the First World War to the present day. Founded in 1917, it has occupied the domed former Bethlem Royal Hospital since 1936; two 15-inch naval guns stand at the entrance, and the atrium displays aircraft, a V-2 rocket and a Second World War tank.

Tate Modern is the national gallery of international modern and contemporary art, opened in 2000 in the former Bankside Power Station designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Its collection displays of art from 1900 to the present fill the converted boiler house and the Blavatnik Building extension, and the Turbine Hall hosts large commissions.

The Millennium Bridge is a steel suspension footbridge across the Thames linking Bankside, by Tate Modern, with the City of London below St Paul's Cathedral. Designed by Foster and Partners, Arup and the sculptor Anthony Caro, it opened in June 2000, closed two days later because it swayed, and reopened in 2002 after dampers were fitted.

The Wallace Collection is a national museum in Hertford House on Manchester Square, the former London townhouse of the Marquesses of Hertford. Bequeathed to the nation in 1897 and opened in 1900, its 25 galleries show Old Master paintings, French 18th-century paintings, furniture and porcelain, and a large collection of arms and armour.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, housed since 1997–98 in a red-brick building by Colin St John Wilson beside St Pancras station. Visitors can see the Treasures Gallery with manuscripts and early printed books, temporary exhibitions and the glass tower holding King George III's library.

Hyde Park is a Royal Park of 140 hectares in central London, taken by Henry VIII as a hunting ground in 1536 and opened to the public in 1637. The Serpentine lake runs through it, Speakers' Corner has been a place of public debate since 1872, and the park held the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace.

Borough Market is a food market beside London Bridge station in Southwark, on a site where a market has been recorded since at least the 12th century. Its iron-and-glass halls date largely from the 1850s; traders sell produce, cheese, meat, fish and bread alongside street-food stalls, and the portico of Covent Garden's Floral Hall was re-erected here in 2004.

Southwark Cathedral stands by the southern end of London Bridge on a site of Christian worship for more than a thousand years. The Gothic church, built between 1220 and 1420 for an Augustinian priory and given a new nave in the late 19th century, became the cathedral of the Diocese of Southwark in 1905.

The Sky Garden occupies the top floors of 20 Fenchurch Street, the City of London tower nicknamed the 'Walkie-Talkie', designed by Rafael Viñoly and completed in 2014. Under a glass roof, terraced planting rises beside viewing areas and an open-air terrace that look out over the Thames and the City; visits are by timed ticket.

Leadenhall Market is a covered market in the City of London whose history goes back to the 14th century. The present cobbled arcades and ornate roof of iron and glass, painted green, maroon and cream, were designed by Sir Horace Jones in 1881. Today it houses shops, pubs and restaurants.