London Walking Tour 1

This walk starts at Buckingham Palace and finishes at Trafalgar Square. The first in a series of free video guides to help tourists enjoy London.

There is a map of the route at
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qgXRb069RyqAY6WkCGXxRQxjKQHE-jVJ&usp=sharing

Clicking the markers along the route gives access to more detailed information.

Transcript:

This walk passes many of London's famous attractions as well as a host of lesser known places. There is link to a map of the route below this video.

It starts at Buckingham Palace, official home of the Queen of England, where the changing of the guards ceremony is a major attraction. To the left of the facade, along Buckingham Palace Road, the Royal Mews and Queen's Gallery are also popular.

The nearest underground station is Green Park.

Leave Buckingham Palace along The Mall, the route used by visiting foreign dignitaries when meeting the Queen.

To the left sentries guard gated Clarence House where several members of the Royal Family reside.

Then just past the first junction, Queen Mary's commemoration plaque is set into the wall of Marlborough House where she once lived. Her husband was King George V.

Pass the statues of King George VI, his wife Elizabeth and the facade of The Royal Society Building. Before reaching Admiralty Arch turn right by the shrewdly camouflaged Admiralty Citadel to Horse Guards Parade.

About fifty meters further on, near the statue of Clive, the once top secret Churchill War Rooms have now become a popular tourist attraction.

At the end of Horse Guards Road go left towards Parliament Square, inhabited by several statues including Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill and surrounded by a thousand years of history.

The clock tower, officially called The Elizabeth Tower but more commonly known as Big Ben, seems to dominate.

At the opposite end of the building the monarch enters for the traditional opening of parliament through the appropriately named Sovereign's Entrance which is situated below the Victoria Tower.

Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst features in the nearby Victoria Tower Gardens while the imaginatively named Knife Edge Two Piece by Henry Moore is located just across the road.

Beyond the sunken 14th century Jewel Tower, thought to have been built to house the valuables of King Edward III, King George V, cloaked in white, faces the Houses of Parliament.

Nearby St Margaret's Church has a reasonable history. Sir Walter Raleigh, William Caxton and John Milton are buried there. Samuel Pepys and Winston Churchill were both married there. It's actually located within the grounds of Westminster Abbey, one of London's foremost tourist attractions, where since Christmas Day 1066 all of England's monarchs bar two have been crowned.

Pass the Westminster Scholars War Memorial and Dean's Yard building on the way to The Central Methodist Hall, where the very first meeting of the United Nations took place, before returning past The Supreme Court to Parliament Square.

Head along Whitehall past The Cenotaph, designed by Edwin Lutyens who is now at rest in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, to gated and guarded Downing Street where the Prime Minister's official residence is at number ten.

Arguably more interesting than the statues of military leaders and other notables along the way, the Guards mounted on their horses present a popular photo opportunity. Be aware though that getting too close carries the risk of being kicked or bitten.

The two on the clock above the Horse Guards is blackened because that was the time on 30th January 1649 when King Charles I was beheaded on scaffolding outside the Banqueting Hall opposite.

There's a statue of him on horseback and still connected to his head where Whitehall enters Trafalgar Square.

Dominant is Nelson's column erected more than forty long years after the Battle of Trafalgar took place.

Next to Admiralty Arch, the ceremonial entrance to The Mall and Buckingham Palace, Canada House enjoys a prime location as does the South African High Commission located directly opposite.

At the back of the square, beyond the fountains and lions, the popular National Gallery is world class while over on the corner, St Martin's in the Fields, parish church of Buckingham Palace, has a reasonably priced and atmospheric cafe down in the crypt with an imaginatively stocked gift shop close by.

Visitors to the National Gallery quite often attend the free lunch time recitals there if only to give respite to weary feet. In fairness, it should be said, the musicians are actually of a very high standard indeed.

Candlelit evening concerts are also very well attended though a tad more expensive.

Click the link to see the second video of this walking tour of London which continues from Trafalgar Square and finishes at St Paul's Cathedral.

Видео London Walking Tour 1 канала flyandvisit