Top 19 London Attractions

It is unlike­ly that any­one will argue with the fact that Lon­don is one of the main tourist des­ti­na­tions in the world. Accord­ing to offi­cial sta­tis­tics, Lon­don attracts over 15 mil­lion vis­i­tors a year. The British cap­i­tal is a vibrant con­cen­tra­tion of art, enter­tain­ment, music and numer­ous mon­u­ments. The British are right­ly proud of the huge con­cen­tra­tion of cul­tur­al attrac­tions in Lon­don. From roy­al palaces to the Hous­es of Par­lia­ment, Roman ruins, cas­tles and cathe­drals, you can spend many days explor­ing the city’s land­marks, but always find some­thing new and inter­est­ing.

The cap­i­tal of Eng­land and the Unit­ed King­dom is also the most pop­u­lous city in the UK with over 9 mil­lion inhab­i­tants. The his­to­ry of Lon­don goes back over 2,000 years, when the Romans first found­ed the ancient city of Lon­dini­um here. Numer­ous tourists come here through­out the year, and if you plan to be among them, here is a list of the top 17 Lon­don attrac­tions for the active trav­el­er.

British museum

Locat­ed in the Blooms­bury area, the British Muse­um is ded­i­cat­ed to human his­to­ry and cul­ture. Its per­ma­nent col­lec­tion of approx­i­mate­ly 8 mil­lion works is one of the largest and most com­pre­hen­sive exhi­bi­tions in the world, span­ning the his­to­ry of all con­ti­nents. The British Muse­um illus­trates and doc­u­ments the his­to­ry of human cul­ture from its incep­tion to the present day. Vis­it­ing the muse­um is free, but some­times there are small queues.

Westminster Palace

The Palace of West­min­ster (more com­mon­ly known as the House of Com­mons and the House of Lords) is the Hous­es of Par­lia­ment in the Unit­ed King­dom. The his­to­ry of the House of Com­mons and the House of Lords spans over 900 years, from the time of the Anglo-Sax­ons to the present day. The cur­rent build­ing was built in the 19th cen­tu­ry, restored after a fire in the mag­nif­i­cent tra­di­tion of Vic­to­ri­an neo-Goth­ic archi­tec­ture. The exte­ri­or of the Palace of West­min­ster is dec­o­rat­ed with Big Ben, the leg­endary clock tow­er on the banks of the Riv­er Thames. This land­mark of Lon­don is rec­og­niz­able all over the world and is one of the most vis­it­ed places in Lon­don.

Tate Modern

Tate Mod­ern is the UK’s nation­al gallery for inter­na­tion­al con­tem­po­rary art. She is part of the Tate Group (along with Tate Britain, Tate Liv­er­pool, Tate St Ives and Tate Online). Tate Mod­ern is the most vis­it­ed con­tem­po­rary art gallery in the world, with 4.7 mil­lion vis­i­tors a year. Admis­sion to the Tate Mod­ern is absolute­ly free, with the excep­tion of some spe­cial exhi­bi­tions.

Tower of London

The Tow­er of Lon­don is a his­toric cas­tle locat­ed on the north bank of the Riv­er Thames in cen­tral Lon­don. This famous land­mark is locat­ed in Lon­don’s Tow­er Ham­lets, sep­a­rat­ed from the east­ern edge of Lon­don City Square by the open space of Tow­er Hill. The Tow­er was found­ed towards the end of 1066, in hon­or of the Nor­man con­quest of Eng­land. In gen­er­al, this is a com­plex of sev­er­al build­ings in two rings of pro­tec­tive walls and a moat. The Tow­er of Lon­don has played a very impor­tant role in Eng­lish his­to­ry.

Madame Tussauds museum

Madame Tus­sauds is a wax muse­um in Lon­don with branch­es in many major cities on four con­ti­nents. It was found­ed by the wax sculp­tor Marie Tus­sauds, becom­ing one of the main attrac­tions in Lon­don. Wax fig­ures of his­tor­i­cal and roy­al fig­ures, movie stars, sports stars and even infa­mous assas­sins are on dis­play here.

Science Museum

The Sci­ence Muse­um is the largest muse­um on Exhi­bi­tion Road in South Kens­ing­ton. It was found­ed in 1857 and today is one of the most vis­it­ed places in the city, attract­ing 3.3 mil­lion vis­i­tors annu­al­ly. Here you can expe­ri­ence the main sci­en­tif­ic achieve­ments of the past 300 years, as well as vis­it the stun­ning IMAX cin­e­ma. Entrance to the Sci­ence Muse­um is absolute­ly free.

Museum of Natural History

The muse­um is entire­ly devot­ed to earth sci­ences and includes approx­i­mate­ly 80 mil­lion exhibits in five main groups: botany, ento­mol­o­gy, min­er­al­o­gy, pale­on­tol­ogy and zool­o­gy. The Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry is a world-renowned research cen­ter spe­cial­iz­ing in the tax­on­o­my, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and con­ser­va­tion of the rich­es of the earth. Con­sid­er­ing the age of the insti­tu­tion, many of the exhibits have a very great his­tor­i­cal as well as sci­en­tif­ic sig­nif­i­cance. Some spec­i­mens were col­lect­ed by Charles Dar­win him­self. Like all oth­er muse­ums in Lon­don, the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um does not require any entrance fee.

“London Eye”

A mod­ern but already very pop­u­lar attrac­tion in Lon­don is the Lon­don Eye, a giant fer­ris wheel locat­ed in Jubilee Gar­dens on the South Bank of the Thames. The 135 meters high Fer­ris Wheel was cre­at­ed in hon­or of the mil­len­ni­um of Lon­don. On a clear day, vis­i­bil­i­ty from the sum­mit is 40 kilo­me­ters.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Lon­don’s Vic­to­ria and Albert Muse­um is the world’s largest muse­um of dec­o­ra­tive arts and design, with a per­ma­nent col­lec­tion of over 4.5 mil­lion items. It was found­ed in 1852 and named after Queen Vic­to­ria and Prince Albert. Per­mis­sion to V&A is free except for spe­cial exhi­bi­tions and events.

National Gallery

The Nation­al Gallery is an art muse­um on Trafal­gar Square in Lon­don, found­ed in 1824. It hous­es the nation­al col­lec­tion of art in the West­ern Euro­pean tra­di­tion from the 13th to the 19th cen­turies. It is one of the most vis­it­ed muse­ums in the world, after the Lou­vre in Paris, the British Muse­um and the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art.

Trafalgar Square

Trafal­gar Square is a large city square found­ed in hon­or of Lord Hor­a­tio Nel­son’s vic­to­ry over Napoleon’s navy at the Bat­tle of Trafal­gar in 1805. The cen­tral mon­u­ment of the square is a tall pil­lar with the fig­ure of Nel­son con­tem­plat­ing Lon­don. His mon­u­ment is sur­round­ed by four lions and a series of large foun­tains. This land­mark of Lon­don got its name in hon­or of the Bat­tle of Trafal­gar — a British naval vic­to­ry dur­ing the Napoleon­ic Wars, which took place on Octo­ber 21, 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafal­gar.

Westminster Abbey

West­min­ster Abbey is a large Goth­ic church in the city of West­min­ster, not far from the Palace of West­min­ster. West­min­ster Abbey has been around for over a thou­sand years. Bene­dic­tine monks first set­tled the site in the mid­dle of the tenth cen­tu­ry, estab­lish­ing a tra­di­tion of dai­ly wor­ship that con­tin­ues to this day. In 1066, the church became the site for the coro­na­tion and is the bur­ial place of sev­en­teen mon­archs. The exist­ing struc­ture was built by Hen­ry III in 1245 and became one of the most impor­tant Goth­ic build­ings. Admis­sion to West­min­ster Abbey is free.

Buckingham Palace

This is the Lon­don res­i­dence and the main work­place of the Queen of Great Britain. Locat­ed in the city of West­min­ster, the palace is the venue for offi­cial cer­e­monies and a sym­bol of roy­al hos­pi­tal­i­ty. Buck­ing­ham Palace has served as the offi­cial Lon­don res­i­dence of British sov­er­eigns since 1837, and despite being used for many offi­cial events and recep­tions, the State Rooms of the Palace are open to vis­i­tors through­out the year.

Hampton Court

Hamp­ton Court is one of the most famous palaces in Europe. Its Grand Hall dates back to the reign of Hen­ry VIII. This is the place where Eliz­a­beth I learned about the defeat of the Span­ish Arma­da. Oth­er points of inter­est include the Clock Hall with its spec­tac­u­lar 1540 astro­nom­i­cal clock, the Chapel, the Roy­al Cham­bers and the Tudor ten­nis court. The Hamp­ton Gar­dens are also worth a vis­it, espe­cial­ly in mid-May when they are in full bloom. The Gar­den Com­plex includes the Secret Gar­den, the Lakes, the Eliz­a­bethan Gar­den, the Wilder­ness and the famous Palace Labyrinth.

Piccadilly Circus

The two most famous tourist areas in Lon­don are locat­ed not far from each oth­er. Trafal­gar Square and Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus are pop­u­lar for attrac­tions such as the Soho Locks, the Lon­don The­ater and the Enter­tain­ment Dis­trict. Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus is the inter­sec­tion of sev­er­al busy streets — Pic­cadil­ly, Regent Street, Hay­mar­ket, and Shaftes­bury Avenue. Lon­don’s most famous sculp­ture, the Winged Eros, is a fine­ly bal­anced mas­ter­piece of art on this live­ly site.

covent garden

The cov­ered mar­kets of Covent Gar­den are just the begin­ning of a larg­er com­plex that encom­pass­es the shops and restau­rants of Long Acre with its neigh­bor­ing streets, as well as Cen­tral Square with its street per­form­ers. The halls and gal­leries of Covent Gar­den Mar­ket, with their spe­cial­ty shops and stalls, attract a lot of tourists. Absolute­ly every­thing is sold here, from fine hand­i­crafts to small sou­venirs. In the build­ing of the for­mer flower mar­ket, you will find the Lon­don Trans­port Muse­um with his­tor­i­cal exhibits — vin­tage cars, trams and bus­es. This area is also home to the Roy­al Opera House, anoth­er famous land­mark in Lon­don.

Greenwich and Docklands

For cen­turies, Green­wich and the Dock­lands has been the main base of the British Navy. —- Green­wich is best known to tourists as the home of Cut­ty Sark—-. It is also home to the Green­wich Vis­i­tor Cen­ter with its exhi­bi­tions show­cas­ing more than 500 years of mar­itime his­to­ry and the Pal­las Athena style man­sion known as the Queen’s House. The impres­sive exhibits of the Nation­al Mar­itime Muse­um, the largest muse­um of its kind in the world, illus­trate the his­to­ry of the British Roy­al Navy. The live­ly Dock­lands is locat­ed on the oth­er side of the riv­er. It has been trans­formed into an inter­na­tion­al busi­ness dis­trict and is filled with Lon­don’s finest restau­rants. The excel­lent Dock­lands Muse­um, housed in old Geor­gian ware­hous­es, is ded­i­cat­ed to the riv­er port and its his­to­ry since Roman times. Inter­ac­tive infor­ma­tion dis­plays are espe­cial­ly inter­est­ing for chil­dren.

Kew Gardens

Kew Gar­dens is offi­cial­ly known as the Roy­al Botan­ic Gar­dens. It is locat­ed in south­west Lon­don on the south bank of the Thames. This is a won­der­ful place to spend time enjoy­ing the many plants on an impres­sive 300 acres. Estab­lished in 1759, the gar­dens became a gov­ern­ment park in 1841. In 1897, Queen Vic­to­ria added the Queen’s House and the sur­round­ing wood­land to the site. Many tours of the park are com­plete­ly free, and Kew Gar­dens hosts numer­ous con­certs and cul­tur­al events through­out the year.

Churchill War Rooms

Among Lon­don’s most excit­ing his­tor­i­cal sights is the well-pre­served com­mand cen­ter from which Prime Min­is­ter Win­ston Churchill direct­ed British mil­i­tary cam­paigns dur­ing World War II. Their spar­tan sim­plic­i­ty and lim­it­ed con­di­tions high­light the dif­fi­cul­ties that Eng­land expe­ri­enced dur­ing the expan­sion of Nazi pow­er through­out Europe. Here you will see the tiny room where Churchill slept and the makeshift radio room where he broad­cast his famous war speech­es. Numer­ous sim­ple details, such as Clemen­tine Churchill yarn and maps of Europe with mark­ers, cre­ate an inde­scrib­able atmos­phere.

One of the most vis­it­ed cities in the world has some­thing for every­one, so don’t miss the chance to vis­it the cap­i­tal of Eng­land at least once in your life to expe­ri­ence all the high­lights of Lon­don.