London Town

A travel guide to London, England

London. Home to Big Ben and the British Museum, bobbies and Beefeaters, punk hairdos and a stiff upper lip, fish 'n' chips and the royal family, giant black taxicabs and double-decker buses, time-traveling phone booths and tea-time at Harrods, Sherlock Holmes and the Crown Jewels.

London's architectural hodgepodge
London tends to measure time by events of grand destruction. The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed almost every last inch of the medieval city (thatched roofs catch fire pretty quickly). Luckily, a Renaissance genius named Christopher Wren was on hand to rebuild the city, raising over 50 churches and countless other buildings. With World War II came the Blitz, German planes raining destruction again over the city. The result: the City of London is today an odd architectural mix of medieval houses, Renaissance churches, Victorian public buildings, and postmodern bank headquarters.You can break out the opera glasses for an evening of West End theater, dance in cutting-edge clubs, and drink in the pubs where Shakespeare got sloshed.

And oh yes, there is a London Bridge, but despite reports to the contrary, it isn't falling down.

London also has some of the world's foremost museums, including exhaustive collections of everything from paintings, antiquities, and historical artifacts to decorative arts, wax models, and film memorabilia.

Reid's Guide to London

Top sights in London 1) The British Museum 2) The National Gallery 3) Westminster Abbey 4) Tower of London 5) St. Paul's Cathedral 6) Tate Modern 7) Tate Britain 8) Buckingham Palace 9) Parliament and Big Ben 10) The V&A	Free sights in London 1) The British Museum 2) The National Gallery 3) Tate Modern 4) Tate Britain 5) Victoria & Albert Museum 6) Museum of London 7) British Library 8) National Maritime Museum 9) Royal Observatory 10) Sir John Soane's Museum	Reid's List: London 1) Shakespeare at the Globe 2) A day in Greenwich 3) A historic pub crawl 4) A traditional afternoon tea 5) The British Library 6) Watching Parliament debate 7) Taking a walking tour 8) Free concerts 9) Breakfast at Fox & Anchor 10) Food Courts at Harrods

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