MUSEUM OF LONDON
Perhaps the most comprehensive city museum in the world, the multi-award-winning Museum of London presents a lively account of well over 2,000 years of history, reflecting the way people lived as much as buildings that have been excavated. The latest permanent exhibit, all about London and Londoners from 1666 to the present day, is fascinating for all the family.
Displays are chronological, starting with the prehistory gallery that follows the story of Londoners before Roman settlement, progressing to Roman London. The latter is a highlight, with reconstructed rooms and superb sculptures from the Temple of Mithras discovered close by. The Medieval gallery shows objects from recent excavations, never displayed before, shedding light on the Dark Ages of the 15th century and going through more enlightened times up to 1558. Highlights include an audiovisual on the Black Death, a reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon home and objects from 13th-century Jewish houses in the City of London. In the Stuart section you will find Oliver Cromwell’s death mask, the Cheapside (jewellery) Hoard, plague exhibits and the Great Fire Experience, accompanied by a reading from the diary of Samuel Pepys.
Further galleries, from late Stuart times to the present, feature many fascinating large-scale exhibits. Most handsome of all is the opulent Lord Mayor’s State Coach, made in 1757. The World City galleries cover the period from the French Revolution to the outbreak of World War I, and in the Victorian Walk section are some fascinating reconstructions of London shop fronts.
Map Reference 20L 
London Wall 
020 7001 9844 
Daily 10–6 
Free 
Good café-restaurant (£) 
Barbican, St Paul’s, Moorgate 
Family events, including costumed actors, most Sats, Suns and during school hols
ST BARTHOLOMEW THE GREAT
Founded in 1123 by Rahere, the court jester to Henry I, this is London’s oldest church. The entrance is a half-timbered Tudor gatehouse, and the atmospheric interior is reminiscent of a small cathedral. It has the best Norman chancel in London (rivalled only by the Chapel of St John in the Tower of London) with Norman piers supporting an upper gallery. Among the fine tomb monuments is that of Rahere, the church’s founder.
Map Reference 19L West Smithfield 020 7606 5171 Tue-Fri 8:30–5 (4 in winter), Sat 10:30–4, Sun 8:30–8 Inexpensive Le Comptoir Gascon (£–££) Barbican, St Paul’s, Farringdon
England’s first moveable type printing press operated alongside St Bride’s, starting a 500-year link with Fleet Street’s newspaper industry. The present church, completed in 1675, is by Christopher Wren, though its interior is modern, having been gutted by a bomb in 1940. The crypt holds an interesting small museum tracing the history of the church and its long connection with the Fleet Street newspaper trade.
Map Reference 19K Fleet Street 020 7427 0133 Mon-Fri 8–6, Sat 11–3, Sun 10–1, 5–7:30 Free Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (£) Blackfriars Lunchtime concerts (most of year, not Lent and Dec) Tue, Fri 1:15, choral services Sun 11, 6:30
ST KATHARINE DOCKS
To experience London’s huge dockland warehouses as they used to be without making the journey east, visit St Katharine Docks (walk), conveniently close to the Tower of London. Here exotic items such as ostrich feathers, spices, teas and ivory (up to 22,000 tusks in a year) were once stored. The docks closed in 1968 and were developed to cater to the tourist trade with shops, restaurants and historic sailing ships at anchor. The picturesque late 18th-century Dickens Inn pubrestaurant has 17th-century timbers in its galleried frontage.
Map Reference 24H Free Dickens Inn (£) Tower Hill
ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
Best places to see.
ST STEPHEN WALBROOK
This is arguably the finest of all the City’s churches. Built by Christopher Wren between 1672 and 1679, its dome was the first in England and was clearly a prototype for Wren’s engineering tour de force, the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. The church was beautifully restored between 1978 and 1987, with the original dark-wood fittings making a striking contrast to the gleaming white marble floor and the controversial giant white ‘Camembert cheese’ stone altarpiece, designed by Sir Henry Moore in 1972.
Map Reference 21K 39 Walbrook 020 7283 4444 Mon-Thu 10–4, Fri 10–3 Free Sweetings (££), 39 Queen Victoria Street Bank, Cannon Street
SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM
In terms of size and layout, this extraordinary labyrinthine museum is the most unusual art and antiquities collection in the capital. It was formerly the home of the designer and architect Sir John Soane (1753–1837) and has, according to the terms specified by Soane himself, been kept exactly in its original condition. Much of this magpie collection is arranged around a central court and is aided and abetted by false walls, alcoves, domes and skylights. Its treasures include masterpieces (cleverly hung on hinged panels which go flat to the wall to save space) by Turner, Canaletto and Hogarth (including the famous Rake’s Progress series), a sarcophagus from the Valley of the Kings, a bizarre Gothic folly entitled the ‘Monk’s Parlour’, plus sculptures and stone fragments galore.
Map Reference 17L 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields 020 7405 2107 Tue-Sat 10–5. Also first Tue of month 6–9. Closed all public hols Free (charge for exhibitions) Lamb Holborn Excellent guided tour Sat 11 (inexpensive)
TOWER BRIDGE
One of London’s best-known landmarks, Tower Bridge was built between 1886 and 1894 and hailed as one of the greatest engineering feats of its day. It is basically a classic Victorian iron and steel structure, clad in stone to match the medieval appearance of its neighbour, the Tower of London. Until quite recently it was the last road bridge across the Thames before the river reaches the North Sea, and it remains London’s only drawbridge. This function was to allow large ships to pass into the busy Upper Pool of London, which was a hive of warehouse activity in Victorian times. At its peak, its bascules (drawbridges) were like yo-yos, up and down 50 times a day. Today they open on average around 18 times a week to allow tall ships, cruise ships and naval vessels through.
The structure now houses the Tower Bridge Exhibition, an informative multimedia exhibition that explains the history of the bridge. You can also step right into the bowels of the building to see the original Victorian engine rooms which were used to raise the bascules from 1894 to 1976. The high-level walkways, 43m (141ft) above the river, were designed to allow pedestrians to cross when the drawbridges were raised, and the views are unbeatable. Even from ground level Tower Bridge is one of the city’s great vantage points.
Tower Bridge Exhibition
Tower Bridge 020 7403 3761 Apr–Sep daily 10–6:30; Oct–Mar 9:30–6. Last admission 1 hour before closing Moderate Butler’s Wharf Chop House (££) Tower Hill, London Bridge Bridge lift information line 020 7940 3984 or see website
TOWER OF LONDON
Best places to see.