London is one of the great literary, historical and cultural cities on the planet, as would be expected for the capital of an empire which once covered a quarter of the Earth's land area. There's so much to do here, you really have to prioritize what you see, although you will certainly stumble upon unexpected cultural jems in the streets of London. Some of the cultural and historical centres I visited included Madame Tussaud's wax museum, the British Museum, the British Library, the National Gallery, the Cabinet War Rooms (Churchill Museum), and the Globe Theatre, were I saw one of Shakespeare's Plays!
Statue of Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street (he lived on this street in the novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle). Amazing what you find just walking around London!
One of the highlights of my trip was definitely seeing a performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, performed in the reconstructed Globe Theatre (where his plays were originally performed), on the banks of the Thames. Shakespeare makes so much more sense when you see it performed rather than reading the script, especially when it's in the Globe! For 5 pounds, you can get a "groundling" ticket, in the standing-room only area right in front of the stage. I got there early and managed to snag a spot right at centre stage, in the first row. I had my elbows on the stage, and several times got sprayed by water (and once what I'm pretty sure was spit during a particularly passionate speech!). The play was hilarious, and the audience absolutely loved it. Several parts involved the actors running around below the stage, with the groundlings, so you had to be quick on your feet to get out of their way! It was by far the best play I've ever seen. Because the plays are outside, they only perform from April-October (and I managed to be there for one of the rare sunny matinees!). If you are ever in London when they're performing, you absolutely have to go see one of Shakespeare's plays. Best 5 pounds I ever spent, seriously!
The Globe Theatre (reconstructed in the 90s).
The canopy of the stage, and some of the box seats.
The stage, all done up for Much Ado About Nothing. The balcony from Romeo and Juliet is behind the screen on the right.
Madame Tussaud's may sound tacky and touristy, but it is really so much fun! The iconic wax museum was started by Madame Tussaud, who started off making masks of decapitated heads during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. While the wax heads of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI can still be seen in the museum, today it is home to uncannily good replicas of celebrities and historical figures. It'a a lot of fun to wander around and take your picture with David Beckham or the Queen!
The entrance to Madame Tussauds.
Amy Winehouse, with Britney Spears in the background. The models take several months to make, and the artists take extremely precise measurements of their subject. They even use their own make-up, and each strand of hair is inserted one at a time. Many of the models are dressed in the subject's own clothes! The quality of the models is astounding, for many of them it feels like you are really right next to a real person. One thing I realized: all of the singers and actresses they had were a size 0!
Hello James, M!
Jack Sparrow! He looked just like he did in the movies!
Breakfast at Tiffiny's, and guess who was invited??!
Just happened to bump into Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall...
The 5th Beatle!
The Oval Office.
The blade that decapitated Marie Antoinette.
There was a "haunted house" kind of thing, "Her Majesty's Prison", with actors jumping out at you trying and succeeding to freak you out. I don't think I've ever screamed so much! There's actually a disclaimer before you go in saying this is not suitable for people with heart problems. At the end of the museum is a 4-D movie theatre - I'd never even heard of 4-D movies before! It was a short firm about the Marvel superheroes saving London, in 3-D, plus smoke, mist spayed in your face, vibrating seats, and your seat punching you in the back every time a superhero punched someone! Lots of fun, and I don't even like superhero movies!
At one end of Trafalgar Square, with the famous Nelson Column, is the National Gallery. This is one of the free "national museums", like the British Museum. The National Gallery has one of the best art collections I've ever seen (I can't decide if it's edges out the Hermitage or not!) with iconic pieces from the early Middle Ages through Picasso. Rooms and rooms full of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Reubens, Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, Manet, Monet, the list goes on forever! There is also one of Da Vinci's Virgin on the Rocks, the other is in the Louvre. I remember the first time I was here, 6 years ago with my mom and brother, we spent 2 hours in the Middle Ages section before realizing that's only the beginning of the museum! My favourite painting here is the cheerful Yellow Sunflowers by Van Gogh. I would love to live in London, if only to spend my free time in the incredible (and free!) museums here.
The National Gallery, on Trafalgar Square.
One afternoon I was walking past King's Cross Station - why not go find Platform 9 3/4? They actually have signs in the train station telling you where to find it! I remember the last time I was in London they had it between the actual platforms 9 and 10, but I suppose because of all the tourists they moved it to the side of the building. They should really move the trolley though, the muggles will be suspicious of a trolley half way through the wall!
I was surprised by the exterior of the British Library - I expected an old stone building like the other museums, but this one was housed in a newer brick building. Despite being initially a bit disappointed by the architecture (by this point my expectations were pretty high!), the inside of the building was really quite beautiful. Although you need a keycard to access the upper reading rooms, on the main floor is the beautiful King's Library, built in the early 20th century. I stumbled upon a really interesting display of famous books and manuscripts, including 2 of the 4 existing copies of the Magna Carta! They also had the original lyrics to Yesterday by The Beatles, scrawled on a piece of lined paper, scratch-outs and all.
Entrance to the British Library.
The King's Library.
I love the British Museum. This is a treasure house with iconic pieces from every period of history. The highlights are the Egyptian collection (including giant statues from Ramses the Great's temple and part of the Sphinx's beard), the Rosetta Stone, and the Elgin Marbles (the statues from the Parthenon).
The main entrance of the British Museum.
The great hall.
Mummies in the Egyptian Collection.
Giant statue outside Ramses' the Great's temple.
Part of the Sphinx's beard!
The Rosetta Stone. This has inscriptions in Demotic (common Egyptian), hieroglyphs, and ancient Greek. This allowed the hieroglyph writing system to be deciphered.
The Roman Britain collection.
For mom: Grandma's china is in the British Museum!
The Elgin Marbles. These are the statues that used to line the exterior and the interior of the Parthenon in Athens.
The Whitehall district, adjacent to Westminster, is full of government ministries and civil servants. During WW2, the Cabinet War Rooms (also known as the Churchill War Rooms), were established in the basement of one of the ministries as a kind of bunker / safe house where Churchill and the other members of the war cabinet could run the war in relative safety. The ceiling had a concrete layer in it meant to provide a measure of protection against potential bombings, but it was far from bomb-proof. Fortunately this was never tested, as the location of the War Cabinet was never discovered by the Nazis.
A visit to the museum gives an interesting insight into how the War Cabinet lived and worked while they were running the British war effort. There is also an extensive museum adjacent to the actual War rooms that gives an interesting insight into the life of Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister during WWII.
The entrance to the Churchill War Rooms (Cabinet War Rooms) in Whitehall.
Churchill making a phone call to President Truman (they have a recording of the phone call in this room, quite amusing to hear!)
People working inside the War Rooms rarely left, there were sleeping bunks in the lower level. Read the caption in the picture!
The Map room.
The map room. The British war effort was effectively run out of this room.
This was a campaign poster for Churchill's last electoral campaign as an MP. He was an MP until 1964, the year before he died at the age of 90. His profile was so famous that it was clear to everyone what this poster was. He was voted the Greatest Briton of all time in 2002. His funeral was the first time the monarch had attended the funeral of a commoner in hundreds of years, and was one of the largest assemblies of statesmen ever. Churchill led such a colourful life, and had many quirks and unique traits. One thing I learned in the museum was that although he seemed to never be without a cigar, he never inhaled them. He was a prolific artist, writer (he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his histories of WW2), and had a turbulent political career. An excellent read for anyone interesting in learning about his fascinating life is Roy Jenkin's biography, Churchill.
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