Local Attractions

London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom, is a 21st-century city with history stretching back to Roman times. At its center stand the imposing Houses of Parliament, the iconic ‘Big Ben’ clock tower and Westminster Abbey, site of British monarch coronations. Across the Thames River, the London Eye observation wheel provides panoramic views of the South Bank cultural complex, and the entire city.

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the Centre of state occasions and royal hospitality.

London Eye

The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe’s tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over three million visitors annually.

Tower of London

The Tower of London, officially His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the river Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded toward the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new Norman ruling class.

London Bridge

Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. It is the oldest road-crossing location on the river, and from ancient times until the 1720s was the only bridge on The Thames. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It replaced a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a 600-year-old stone-built medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of timber bridges, the first of which was built by the Roman founders of London.

Madame Tussauds London

Madame Tussauds is a wax museum founded in 1835 (188 years ago) by French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as “Madame Tussaud’s”, the apostrophe is no longer used. Madame Tussauds is a major tourist attraction in many cities, displaying the waxworks of famous and historical figures, as well as popular film and television characters.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter is a walk-through exhibition and studio tour in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England, owned by Warner Bros. and operated by their Studio Tours division. It is located within Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in Watford, in southwest Hertfordshire, and houses a permanent exhibition of authentic costumes, props and sets utilized in the production of the Harry Potter films, as well as behind-the-scenes production of visual effects. The tour is contained in Soundstages J and K, which were specially built for the attraction, and is separate from the studio’s actual production facilities.

The British Museum

The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. The British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge. The museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.[6] It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum’s expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonization and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881.