Landmarks and Historic Buildings
Palaces, cathedrals, towers and bridges: London's great buildings, with what to see inside, how to book, how long to allow and the best free ways to enjoy them from outside.
London's skyline tells nearly two thousand years of history, from the Norman White Tower to the glass of the Shard. The buildings in this section are the ones most visitors come to see: royal palaces, great churches, bridges and viewpoints. Some can be visited inside, some only admired from the street, and a few offer free access if you know how to book.
Our guides explain what you can actually see at each place, how much time to allow, how to buy tickets and when to go to avoid the crowds. Among the most visited are the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and Big Ben.
118 guides in this section.
Royal London
The Tower of London
Crown Jewels, Yeoman Warders and nearly a thousand years of history.
Buckingham Palace
State Rooms in summer, and what you can see all year.
Changing of the Guard: Times and Best Spots
Where to stand, when to arrive and how to check the schedule.
Kensington Palace
State Apartments, royal history and the palace gardens.
Hampton Court Palace
Henry VIII's palace, the maze and the gardens by the river.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Westminster and the City
Big Ben and the Elizabeth Tower
The bell, the tower and where to see it best.
Houses of Parliament Tours
Tours, debates from the gallery and the security check.
Westminster Abbey
Coronations, royal tombs and Poets' Corner.
St Paul's Cathedral
Wren's dome, the galleries and the crypt.
Trafalgar Square
Nelson's Column, the Fourth Plinth and the lions.
Piccadilly Circus
The screens, the statue and the streets around it.
The Abbey Road Crossing
Getting there and taking the photo safely.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Bridges, towers and views
Tower Bridge
Glass floors, engine rooms and bridge lifts.
The London Eye
Tickets, timing and whether it is worth the price.
The Shard and The View from The Shard
Tickets, timing and cheaper ways up.
Sky Garden: Free Tickets and How to Book
When the free tickets are released, and what to do if they are gone.
The Best Free Viewpoints in London
Hills, terraces and rooftop gardens that cost nothing.
The Bridges of London: A Walking Guide
The Thames bridges and the walk that links them.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
More landmarks worth your time
The Monument to the Great Fire
311 steps, a view over the City, and a certificate to prove it.
Leadenhall Market
A painted Victorian arcade that plays Diagon Alley on screen.
The Royal Albert Hall
How to get inside, with or without a concert ticket.
The Barbican Centre
Concrete, a hidden conservatory, and how not to get lost.
Battersea Power Station
A glass lift up a chimney, and what else is actually there.
The Southbank Centre
Riverside terraces and free foyers to sit in when it rains.
Guildhall and the Roman Amphitheatre
A Roman arena under the yard, free, and the hall you must book.
The Royal Courts of Justice
Sit in on a real case, free, if you follow the rules.
The Old Royal Naval College
Twin domes, a painted ceiling, and free grounds to wander.
Eltham Palace
A medieval hall and an art deco mansion, in one building.
Banqueting House
A Rubens ceiling above the spot where a king was beheaded.
Apsley House and Wellington Arch
Number One, London, and the arch you can climb next door.
Little Venice and the Regent's Canal
A towpath, a waterbus and a way across London without traffic.
Highgate Cemetery
Victorian tombs on a hillside, both sides on one ticket.
St Dunstan in the East
A bombed-out church that became a free public garden.
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Neasden
Hand-carved marble in Neasden, free, with rules worth reading.
The Gherkin and the City's Skyscrapers
Which towers you can go up, and which are just for looking at.
London's Blue Plaques
Who earns a blue plaque, and a walk that strings a dozen together.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Parliament and the City explained
The Palace of Westminster
What the building is, and how to get inside for nothing.
The City of London Explained
Its own mayor, police and voting system - and not London.
The Old Bailey
The public gallery, and the long list of what you cannot bring.
The Royal Exchange and Bank Junction
Seven streets meeting under the grandest portico in the City.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Churches worth going inside
St Martin-in-the-Fields
Free choral services, paid concerts, and a cafe in the crypt.
Southwark Cathedral
Free, beside the market, and far older than it looks.
Westminster Cathedral
Not the Abbey - and the tower lift is the best value in town.
Temple Church and the Inns of Court
A Templar church in a legal quarter almost nobody walks into.
All Hallows by the Tower and the City Churches
Roman floors and Wren steeples, all free to walk into.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Houses and halls on the edge of town
Alexandra Palace
The view, the ice rink, and where television started.
Strawberry Hill House
A white Gothic fantasy, and the birthplace of the horror novel.
Ham House and Marble Hill
Two houses, two banks, and a small ferry between them.
Chiswick House and Gardens
Free gardens, a famous camellia house, and a villa worth the fee.
Fulham Palace and Lambeth Palace
One free and open daily, one you can barely get into at all.
Wilton's Music Hall
Saved from collapse, and deliberately left looking it.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Choosing between two, and how long they take
How Long Does the Tower of London Take?
Realistic timings, and the order that saves you an hour.
The Best Time of Day to Ride the London Eye
What you see at each hour, and when the queue is shortest.
The Best Time to Visit Westminster Abbey
When to arrive, and what the last hour of the day is like.
Tower of London or Windsor Castle?
Both royal, both busy, one of them forty minutes out of town.
St Paul's or Westminster Abbey?
Different buildings at similar prices. What each is actually for.
Hampton Court or Windsor Castle?
A Tudor palace by boat, or a castle the King still uses.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Buildings most guides leave out
The Thames Barrier
How often it closes, where to watch from, and the annual test.
St Bartholomew the Great
Norman, dark, free, and in half the films you have seen.
The Charterhouse in Clerkenwell
A monastery, a mansion, and still an almshouse today.
Crossness Pumping Station
Victorian ironwork at its most absurd, on open days only.
Roman London: What Is Still Standing
Wall, amphitheatre, bathhouse and temple, on one walk.
St Pancras Station: The Building Itself
A hotel, the largest single-span roof of its day, and no ticket needed.
St Pancras Old Church and Its Burial Ground
A very old church and a graveyard the railway cut in half.
Ely Place and St Etheldreda's Church
A gated private street, and a 13th-century chapel.
Art Deco London: What to Look For
Which are open, which are only a facade, and where they are.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Royal London beyond the palace gates
Horse Guards and Whitehall
Free, quiet and the mounted guard change nobody queues for.
The Royal Mews and The King's Gallery
The gold coach and a real gallery, open when the State Rooms are not.
St James's Palace and Spencer House
What you can see of St James's, and the one house that opens on Sundays.
Downing Street and the Cenotaph
The gates, the view you do get, and what the Cenotaph means.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Monuments people photograph without knowing what they are
Marble Arch and Park Lane
An arch on a traffic island, and the gallows that stood there.
Cleopatra's Needle and the Victoria Embankment
An obelisk older than the city, and the sewer the riverside hides.
The Albert Memorial
Gilded, enormous and free. What all those figures are meant to mean.
Temple Bar and the Boundary of the City
Where the City begins, and why the monarch waits at the line.
The OXO Tower and the South Bank Skyline
Advertising by window. The free view is next door, not at the top.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Churches, a synagogue and a mosque
St Bride's and the Churches of Fleet Street
The spire that shaped every wedding cake, and the newspaper church.
Christ Church Spitalfields and the Hawksmoor Churches
Six strange churches, one architect, and the walk that links the best three.
St Mary-le-Bow and the Bow Bells
The bells that define a Cockney, and whether anyone can still hear them.
St Stephen Walbrook
A Wren church with a Henry Moore altar and the first Samaritans phone.
The Brompton Oratory
Italian Baroque at full volume, a minute from the V&A, and free.
Bevis Marks Synagogue
Britain's oldest working synagogue - shut to visitors for now.
The London Central Mosque, Regent's Park
The golden dome by the park. Visitors are welcome outside prayer times.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
The city's odder structures
The BT Tower
Once a secret, once a revolving restaurant, soon a hotel.
Brutalist London: Concrete Worth Seeing
A route through the concrete, and which of it deserves the hate.
Smithfield Market and the New London Museum
Eight centuries of meat, and a museum opening in the hall next door.
The Greenwich Foot Tunnel
Under the river on foot, free, in ten minutes. Mind the lifts.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Great houses on the edge of London
Kenwood House, Hampstead
A Rembrandt and a Vermeer, free, at the top of the Heath.
Osterley Park and House
Adam interiors and grazing cattle, at the end of the Piccadilly line.
Syon House and Park
Adam rooms, a glass conservatory and a meadow facing Kew.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
One bridge at a time
The Millennium Bridge
It swayed, it shut, it was fixed. Still the best walk to St Paul's.
The Albert Bridge
Four thousand bulbs, and a sign telling soldiers to break step.
Hammersmith Bridge and Why It Is Shut
Shut to cars since 2019. What you can still cross, and the detour.
Richmond Bridge and the Upper Thames Crossings
London's oldest surviving Thames bridge, and the quiet crossings above it.
Blackfriars: The Station Built Across the Thames
A station with a door on each bank of the river, and a solar roof.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Statues nobody can name
Eros, Who Is Not Eros
It is not Eros, and the fountain is a memorial. What it really commemorates.
Boudica and the Statues of the Embankment
A chariot with no reins, a camel and an elephant, in one short walk.
The Fourth Plinth
The corner of Trafalgar Square that changes. What is up there now.
Paddington Bear and London's Fictional Statues
A bear, a detective and a boy who never grew up. Where to find them.
Peter Pan and the Sculptures of Kensington Gardens
A statue put up overnight without permission, and two more nearby.
The London Stone
A lump of limestone behind a grille, argued over for eight centuries.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
The City's closed doors, and when they open
The Livery Halls and When They Open
Forty halls, a handful of open days a year. Which ones and when.
Mansion House and the Ceremonies of the City
The Lord Mayor's house, and a calendar that is still medieval.
The Lloyd's Building
The building with its plumbing outside. How to read it from the pavement.
Armoury House and the Artillery Garden
A Georgian house and a cricket ground behind a City wall.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Great houses on the outer edge
Forty Hall, Enfield
Free, Jacobean, and a lost Tudor palace in the field behind.
Bruce Castle, Tottenham
A Tudor manor, free to enter, with Tottenham's history inside.
Charlton House
London's best Jacobean interior, free, with a library in the gallery.
Hall Place and Danson House, Bexley
A Tudor house of abbey rubble, and a Palladian villa a mile off.
The Red House, Bexleyheath
Where Arts and Crafts began. Small, and you need a timed ticket.
Down House: Darwin's Home
Where Origin was written, with the study and the Sandwalk intact.
Pitzhanger Manor, Ealing
Soane's own country house, restored, twenty minutes from Paddington.
Senate House and the Architecture of Bloomsbury
The tower the Ministry of Information used, and the streets around it.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Underground, and mostly forgotten
The Crystal Palace Subway
Brick vaulting under a road, open a few days a year. How to get in.
Tower Subway and London's Lost Tunnels
The world's first tube tunnel, and what is left of it above ground.
Wesley's Chapel and Nonconformist London
Wesley's own chapel and house, free, with Bunyan buried opposite.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.
Which one should we do?
The Shard or the Sky Garden?
The Sky Garden, and it is free. Three cases where the Shard wins.
The London Eye or the Shard?
One sits inside the view, the other above it. Which to book.
The Tower of London with a Toddler
Cobbles, spiral stairs, and three places a pushchair cannot go.
Photos in this list: photographer and licence for each image are listed on our image credits page.