London's Landmarks Part 1

London's Landmarks Part 1

American Embassy, Grosvenor Square

Having first moved to amount one Grosvenor square in 1938, the American Embassy. Then moved to the West side of the square and the Canadian Embassy moved into amount one Grosvenor Square. The building, which now houses the American Embassy, was designed by Eero Saarinen and was completed in 1960. While the Second World War the Chancery occupied one side of Grosvenor square and the headquarters of general Eisenhower were placed on the other side, this led Londoners to refer to Grosvenor square as 'Little America'. In 1989 a model by Robert Green of Eisenhower was unveiled and stood across from the buildings that the general resided in While the war years.

The Roosevelt memorial was funded entirely by the sale of a souvenir brochure to the British group in 1946, symbolising the affection for the Americans and appreciation of their aid While the war effort. More than 160,000 separate donations were proper for the memorial.
In May 1986 a memorial to the Eagle Squadron was erected, this Squadron being composed of roughly entirely American volunteers to the British Air Force.

In the centre of Grosvenor square is placed the September 11th memorial garden. Created and donated in remembrance of those who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. The diplomatic Gates in Grosvenor square were donated in recognition of the lasting quest for peace, so admirably sought by both the American and British governments alike.

Banqueting House, Whitehall

Located in Whitehall, near Horse Guards Parade, stands the magnificent Banqueting House. It is the only faultless construction of the Palace of Whitehall to still remain standing. The Palace was acquired from Cardinal Wolsey by Henry Viii and became the Royal house until the ascension of James I. The Banqueting House was purpose built for state occasions. After the installation of the grand ceiling panels, the purpose of the banquet hall was changed to a reception area for greeting foreign dignitaries.

A scaffold was built against the North of the Banqueting House in 1649 and thousands of spectators gathered to watch the beheading of Charles I with a commemorative aid is still held here every year on January 10th. Oliver Cromwell lived at the Palace from 1654 until his death in 1660. After the resumption of the monarchy with the ascension of Charles Ii, the palace once again became the Royal house and the Banqueting House once again was used for receiving guests. In 1698 a devastating fire burned Whitehall Palace to the ground and Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to change the Banqueting House into a chapel to replace the one that was destroyed in the fire.

The Banqueting House is now a museum, with it retention many fine paintings and the construction itself contribution an incomparable setting. There is wheelchair way and a gift shop on-site.

Barbican Art Gallery

The Barbican Art Gallery is situated on the third floor of the Barbican Centre on Silk Street, being named after a fortification that previously occupied the site and was built to attract people back to London after the devastation of World War 2. Work on the Centre began in 1962 and was not faultless for roughly twenty years. The Art Gallery itself is composed of two exhibition areas and due to its scale is often the preferred venue for temporary and touring exhibitions in virtually every type of artistic medium.

Recent modern exhibitions have included 'Game On' a look back over the history of video games and evolution, being an work on to one of the most favorite sectors of the modern society. 'Exodus', a up-to-date exhibit of more than 350 black and white photographs by the acclaimed Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado was a up-to-date success with the pictures winning admiration for their precise portrayal of the human cost of major political incidents.

The exhibitions held at the Barbican Art Gallery are among the best examples of modern and modern Art being seen in any place in Europe. The Barbican charges an admission fee based on any given set of collections. There is a gift shop and the facilities supply refreshments and seating areas.

Big Ben and The Palace of Westminster

The Palace was the house of the Kings of England from the eleventh to the sixteenth century and in Medieval England, Kings simply summoned their courts to wherever they happened to be, but by the fourteenth century the judicial and parliamentary courts resided in Westminster. Though the Lords resided in the Palace, they had no permanent meeting place until 1547 when the Royal Chapel of St. Stephen was given to the commons.

In 1834 roughly the entire Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire, with only Westminster hall, the Crypt of St. Stephens Chapel, the cloisters and Jewel Tower surviving the terrible blaze. Westminster Hall and the remains of St. Stephens where then incorporated into the new Houses of Parliament, a construction designed by Sir Charles Barry that took more than thirty years to construct.
The Houses of Parliament were hit by an air raid While the Second World War with the House of Commons room being destroyed. The room has since been rebuilt in the image of the original. The houses of Parliament comprise one thousand rooms, eleven court yards, eight bars and six restaurants, though none are opened to the public. Members of the group can watch a session of parliament by whether the Lords or the Commons from the group gallery.

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is the home and offices of Her Majesty Elizabeth Ii, the Queen of England. The Royal proper can be seen when the Queen is in house with
Buckingham Palace being the venue for ceremonial occasions. The Palace was built in 1702 and is the previous home of the Duke of Buckingham, it was bought from the Duke by George Iii.
In the nineteenth century George Iv commissioned John Nash to transform the house into a Palace who overspent hugely on the project and was removed from the upgrade.

Queen Victoria was the first Monarch to live in Buckingham Palace, the Palace has been the house of the monarchy ever since. Queen Victoria sold the Royal Pavilion in Brighton to fund a huge expansion While the mid eighteen-hundreds.

Every autumn, when the royal family are away from the Palace, the State Rooms are open to the public. The rooms were first opened in 1993 to raise funds for Windsor Castle after it was damaged by fire.

The Royal Throne room is lit by seven chandeliers and is used only for ceremonial purposes with Buckingham Palace being close to St. James Park, which offers spectacular views at night. Visitors may also wish to watch the changing of the guard- a musical, forces ceremony which takes place at 11:30am and lasts for roughly forty-five minutes.

Canary Wharf Tower

On the site of the previous West India Docks is Britain's tallest construction Canary Wharf. Completed in 1991, One Canada square stands eight hundred feet high and has more than fifty floors.

Canary Wharf covers a surface are of more than 400,000 square metres, production it not only the tallest but one of the largest buildings in Britain. The Wharf was designed by architects Cesar Pelli and company with Adamson connect Architects Ltd. The first cost to developers Olympia and York was more than eight hundred million pounds sterling. Canary Wharf is used as a industrial office construction for many businesses. This Steel constructed construction casts a dominating shape on the Thames waterfront and is determined with approval with most Londoners. Canary Wharf is named after the Canary Islands, the prime source of imports received While its time as a working dock.
There are more than 55,000 people who work in the construction itself. Situated within the Canary Wharf improvement are offices, a sell centre, a Dockland light Railway station and a London underground station.

Sadly the Canary Wharf construction is not open to the public- but views of the extraordinary construction can be seen from all over London and are especially spectacular from one of the Thames river rides.

Clarence House

Clarence House was built in the middle of 1825 and1827 and was designed by John Nash.
The construction is near St. James Palace and was built for the Duke of Clarence, who became King William Iv. So at home was William Iv that when he became king he did not move from the house into any of the Royal Palaces, after his death the Kings unmarried sister Augusta lived there for many years. Next, Queen Victoria's mom moved to Clarence house and lived happily there for many years until fire damage meant that the house was then unlived in for more than five years until Queen Victoria's second son- the Duke of Edinburgh moved in. The house underwent many changes through history, as each resident added their own character to the house.
At one time the ground floor became a chapel with a visiting minister. Clarence house is now the valid house of the Prince of Wales, and has been the house of both the Queen and the Queen Mother.

Between August and October some of the rooms in Clarence House are open to the public. Tickets must be pre-booked though this is an exquisite opening to view some of the Queens personal collection of Art.

Covent garden Piazza

Convent garden Piazza is the area where the world sublime Covent garden shop is held.
In the early seventeenth century Inigo Jones was commissioned by the Earl of Bedford to originate London's first residential square, Inigo Jones love of Italian neo-classicism architecture is confident in the make of the piazza.

The shop held here consists of over forty stalls selling a collection of potential goods including antiques, clothing and craft items.

The area was once the site of London's largest fruit and vegetable market, which has since moved to Bermondsey. The piazza is a favourite location for road performers; Peruvian and classical musicians can ordinarily be found in the courtyards amidst the stalls.

The London vehicle Museum is now housed in the Victorian Flower shop in the South West of the piazza. Other attractions near to the piazza comprise Jubilee Hall, the tuscan-style church of St. Paul and the Royal Opera House, which is associated to the Piazza via Bow Street.

This area is one of the few remaining large pedestrianised areas left in London and as such also attracts large numbers of visitors with many shops and restaurants now cater for the new brand of visitor.

Because of the numbers of visitors that the shop has attracted over the centuries, Covent garden Piazza had its own underground station, built to ferry these customers and visitors to and from the markets, something which is now appreciated by Londoners and tourists alike as they visit Covent garden and soak up the cheery atmosphere.

Fulham Palace

The land on which Fulham Palace stands can be traced back as far as 700Ad, when possession passed onto the Bishop of Waldhere. The land was passed on and remained with varied bishops until 1973. While the 17th century, Bishop Compton imported several new plant species to the gardens at Fulham Palace and cultivated some flora and fauna that is found in Britain today, including the Magnolia. Many of the trees in and colse to Fulham Palace remain from this time and visitors can still see the herb garden and wisteria, which survive in the Palace's walled gardens.
The grounds originally covered more than thirty acres but though only twelve acres remain asset of the Palace. The Palace also boasts the longest moat in England. Fulham Palace is secluded from the Thames by a thicket of trees and has remained an attraction that is unsullied by a huge influx of tourism, despite the sites thoughprovoking history.

Relatively up-to-date excavations by the Fulham Archaeological saving Group have revealed the remains of several previous large scale buildings and even evidence of Neolithic and Roman settlers. Part of the nineteenth century section of the Palace houses the Fulham Palace Museum which exhibits many paintings which adorned the walls of the palace. Visitors can also tour Bishop Howley's dining area and the Porteous Library. A nominal admission fee maintains the exhibits and grounds.

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace boasts more than five hundred years of Royal History with the 550 acres of gardens and deer-inhabited parkland being free of charge to enter and production a spectacular visit alone. The Palace itself was house to Archbishop of York Thomas Wolsey in 1514 and was later the house of King Henry Viii.

In 1604 James I presided over the Hampton Court argument which led to the James I version of the Bible, the most widely recognised version of the bible to this day. The Palace is a regular venue for exhibitions, the Globe Theatre company recently performed three of Shakespeare's most sublime plays for the public. Within the Palace is a permanent exhibition documenting the history of the house and grounds. Sir Christopher Wren designed a Baroque scenery with many lakes, the most impressive of which is the Pond Garden, a sunken water garden built from the designs of Henry Viii.

Running alongside the Thames is a spectacular man-made lake known as the Long Water. In the Victorian garden is the world sublime Hampton Court maze, an immaculate and vast maze featured in many television programmes and feature films. In 1786 potential Brown planted the Great Vine, the oldest grape vine in the world. The vine still produces grapes, which are sold to the group to this day.