Attractions

The world's oldest national public museum, housing eight million objects spanning two million years of human history, from the Rosetta Stone to the Parthenon Marbles.

The monarch's official London residence since 1837, its State Rooms opened to the public each summer and its forecourt the daily stage for the Changing the Guard.

A sprawling maze of stalls, food traders and alternative fashion strung along Regent's Canal, still humming with the punk and counterculture energy that built it.

The secret underground bunker beneath Whitehall from which Winston Churchill and his war cabinet directed Britain's fight through the darkest hours of the Second World War.

Inigo Jones's elegant 17th-century piazza, once London's fruit and vegetable market, now a covered marketplace of shops, cafes and street performers beside the Royal Opera House.

The UNESCO-listed maritime quarter where the Prime Meridian splits the globe in two, crowned by Wren's Royal Observatory and the tea clipper Cutty Sark.

A vast Tudor and Baroque royal palace on the Thames, built by Cardinal Wolsey and seized by Henry VIII, famous for its astronomical clock and hedge maze.

The Gothic Revival Palace of Westminster, seat of the UK Parliament since the medieval era and home to the Elizabeth Tower's famous bell, Big Ben.

London's grandest royal park, stretching from Speakers' Corner to Kensington Palace around the tranquil waters of the Serpentine.

A UNESCO World Heritage landscape on the Thames holding the world's largest collection of living plants, crowned by Decimus Burton's soaring Victorian Palm House.

A 135-metre observation wheel on the South Bank, built for the Millennium and still one of the best ways to see the whole of London laid out beneath you.

London's world-famous wax museum on Marylebone Road, showcasing lifelike figures of royalty, film stars and historical icons, founded by sculptor Marie Tussaud.

A free-to-enter collection of Western European painting from the 13th to the 19th century on Trafalgar Square, spanning Van Eyck to Van Gogh under one roof.

A cathedral-like Romanesque building in South Kensington housing 80 million specimens, from Hope the blue whale skeleton to a full hall of dinosaurs.

London's dazzling West End junction, ringed by giant illuminated advertising screens and watched over by the winged Anteros statue, gateway to the theatre district.

John Nash's grand Regency landscape ringed by cream stucco terraces, home to the fragrant Queen Mary's Gardens and London Zoo.

A hands-on temple to invention in South Kensington, from Stephenson's Rocket to a real Apollo command module, with free entry across seven floors.

A faithful thatched-roof reconstruction of the open-air Elizabethan playhouse on Bankside, staging Shakespeare's plays much as his own company once did.

London's highest free public garden, occupying the top three floors of the "Walkie-Talkie" tower, with landscaped terraces and sweeping views across the City.

A grand neoclassical palace on the Strand whose Thames-facing courtyard shifts from dancing fountains in summer to a glittering ice rink in winter.

Christopher Wren's Baroque masterpiece and dome-topped survivor of the Blitz, rebuilt after the Great Fire and still one of London's most recognisable silhouettes.

Britain's national gallery of modern and contemporary art, housed in a former power station on Bankside with a soaring Turbine Hall for large-scale installations.

London's tallest skyscraper, a glass-clad spire by Renzo Piano soaring above London Bridge, with an observation deck offering 360-degree views across the capital.

London's iconic Victorian Gothic bascule bridge across the Thames, with glass-floored high-level walkways and steam-powered engine rooms open to visitors.

England's most formidable medieval fortress, guarding the Crown Jewels behind nine centuries of royal history, imprisonment and legend.

London's grand civic square, guarded by four bronze lions and Nelson's Column, commemorating the decisive naval victory of 1805.

The world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, in South Kensington, spanning fashion, ceramics and sculpture from ancient times to today, with free general admission.

The Gothic abbey church where every English and British monarch has been crowned since 1066, resting place of kings, poets and scientists, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.