In 1837 The Royal Opera house was the first ever theatre to use limelight. Limelight comes from the mixing of oxygen and hydrogen and then adding real burning lime to achieve a bright light.
Euston is London’s oldest intercity railway terminus, opening in 1837 with a connection to Birmingham. The grand old Victorian building was replaced with the modern monstrosity in 1968.
Part of the University of London, Senate House was the inspiration for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. During the 1936 construction the principle was killed by a trolley falling down a lift shaft.
The extraordinary Sir Henry Wellcome (d.1936) founded one of the great multinational pharmaceutical companies, and this museum is based on his amazing collection of medical artefacts.
The British Museum began from the collection of naturalist Sir Hans Sloane which he left to the nation on his death in 1753. Now it houses 7 million objects including more than 100 Egyptian mummies.
Until 1993 the location of Telecom Tower was an official secret, having or taking any photos of the tower was a breach of the Official Secrets Act, it was even omitted from all maps.
London’s oldest theatre is in its fourth incarnation. The third burned down in 1809. It is said to be one of the world’s most haunted theatres, so watch out for ‘The Man in Grey’!
The world’s largest museum of urban history documents the city’s development from Roman settlement to cosmopolitan metropolis. Attractions include the Lord Mayor’s State Coach.
The Theatre Royal Covent Garden opened on this site in 1732, and hosted the first public piano performance in 1767. It burned down in 1808, again in 1857, and became the Royal Opera House in 1892.
‘Soho’ is thought to come from the hunting and battle cry of the Duke of Monmouth, a local landlord. He used it at the Battle of Sedgemoor where he was defeated in 1685, and later executed.
The square here was laid out by Inigo Jones in 1630, on land once used by the monks of Westminster Abbey as a garden, but confiscated by Henry VIII during the Reformation.
This suave underground bar hosts cabaret and serves snuff, and was once ‘the most infamous gents in Theatreland’ – Oscar Wilde and Sir John Gielgud allegedly came ‘cruising’ here.
This is London’s oldest live music venue and jazz club. It opened during the war in 1942. Many of its earliest performers and patrons were American soldiers, including Glen Miller.
Built by the Duke of Somerset (executed in 1552 before the building was complete), it was later a residence for the queens of Charles I and II, and was regarded as a dangerous hotbed of Catholicism.
This 1633 Anglican church was designed by Inigo Jones and is known as the Actors’ Church through long association. Grinling Gibbons is buried here, beneath a wreath he carved himself.
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club opened on nearby Gerrard St in 1959, moved here in 1965 and is now the most famous jazz club in Britain. Jimi Hendrix’s played his last public performance here in 1970.
Soho is home to Europe’s largest Chinatown, which developed in the 1970s. Earlier generations of London’s Chinese population had centred around the docks of Limehouse.
The Coliseum opened in 1904 as a ‘people’s palace of entertainment’. During WW2 it became a canteen for air raid wardens, and Winston Churchill once addressed them from the theatre stage.
This area was named after Leicester House, the London mansion home of the Earl of Leicester built in 1635. But by 1800 it was a home of popular entertainment and theatres, and has never looked back.
One of the gallery’s most famous pictures is the Chandos portrait, which is said to be of William Shakespeare by his friend Richard Burbage. But some dispute its provenance.
The gallery opened in 1824 to exhibit 38 paintings purchased by the government. The UK national collection is relatively small because unlike in Europe, the monarch’s collection was not nationalised.
Piccadilly is named after a type of broad lace collar fashionable in the early 17th century, the ‘piccadil’. The best examples were sold by a local tailor whose shop became known as Piccadilly Hall.
The famous illuminated advertising of Piccadilly Circus began as early as 1893, before most of the city had electric street lighting.
Every year a Norway Spruce is erected here and decorated as part of the Christmas festivities. The tree is a gift of thanks from the Norwegians for Britain's support during the Second World War
London’s only post-war Grade I listed building was opened in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. The hall officially reopened after its renovation in 2007 with a performance by rock legends Motorhead.
The famous Metropolitan Police headquarters stood here between 1829 and 1890. The name is believed to derive from lodgings on this site used by visiting Kings of Scotland.
The Bankside Power Station was built as a ‘cathedral of power’ in 1963, but closed in 1981. It reopened as one of Europe’s finest modern art galleries in 2000. The Turbine Hall is 35m high.
This is the widest street in London. The black mark on the clock above the gateway to Horse Guards marks the time when Charles I was beheaded in this street in 1649.
The vision of American actor Sam Wanamaker, this replica of Shakespeare’s legendary theatre opened near the site of the original in 1997. It has the first thatched roof in London since the Great Fire.
