Museums and Galleries

S. Jonson

Study the text. As you read follow the map given on the previous page to find the landmarks and streets mentioned in the text.

THIS IS LONDON!

Every year, more than nine million people come from countries from all over the world to visit London. They go to the theatres and museums; they look at interesting old buildings, many of them hundreds of years old; they sit or walk in the beautiful parks, or have a drink in a pub.

They go to Oxford Street to look at the shops, or to Harrods. Two million visitors go to the Tower of London. A million more go to see St Paul's Cathedral.

Yes, London is a big and beautiful city with lots to see and do.

But how did it all begin …?

In the beginning

The name London comes from Romans. They were people living here before they came, but we do not know very much about them.

The Romans came to England in AD 43. They built houses and other buildings and made a town next to the river Thames. They called the town Londinium. They built a bridge over the river and ships came up to Londinium from the sea. The town got bigger and bigger. Important new buildings went up, and you can see some of the Roman city wall today, near the Museum of London.

It was a rich town with about 50, 000 people living in it. But soon after AD 400, the Romans left Londinium to go back to Rome, and nobody lived in the town for many hundreds of years. The buildings began to fall down.

Danish soldiers destroyed more buildings nearly five hundred years later. King Alfred was king of England then. He got the Danes to leave London and his men built the town again.

In 1066, William the Conqueror came to England from France to be king. Soon after, he began to build the Tower of London.

When Henry the Eighth was king in 1509, 50,000 people lived in London again. By the year 1600, there were 200,000, but a lot of them lived in old and dirty buildings. In 1665, 100,000 people died from an illness called the plague. This was called the year of "The Great Plague".

A year later, in 1666, there was a big fire – The Fire of London. It began in a house in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge. More than a quarter of a million Londoners lost their homes in the Fire. It destroyed St Paul's Cathedral and eighty-eight other churches. But the fire also destroyed most of the worst old buildings and the new houses that went up after this were better for people to live in.

A new St Paul's Cathedral was built between 1675 and 1711.

By 1881, more than three million people lived in London. Today, more than six million people live here. There were eight million in the 1960s, but in 1970s and 1980s, people moved out of the centre of London.

Visiting the city

A quick and easy way to get to different places in the city is to use an Underground train. The trains run all day and most of the night. It's better not to make the journey between eight o'clock and ten o'clock in the morning, or four o'clock and six o'clock in the evening. These are called the "rush" hours. Thousands of people are going to work or coming home again then, and it is difficult to move or to find a place to sit on the train.

You can see much more of London from one of its famous red buses. Some special visitors' buses take you to many of the interesting places in the city on one journey.

London taxis are called "black cabs". Most of them are black, but some are not. You can stop one if it has a "For Hire" sign on it. The drivers are usually friendly and helpful.

Why not take a boat trip along the river Thames? Boats leave Westminster Pier and Charing Cross Pier and Greenwich.

Some places to go

The Queen has her London home at Buckingham Palace. It is at the end of The Mall – a long road that begins at Trafalgar Square. At half past eleven most mornings the soldiers at Buckingham Palace "change the guard". It takes about thirty minutes, and hundreds of visitors come to watch.

And in August and September, you can usually visit some of the rooms in the palace. But there are always lots of people coming to see them, so be ready to wait.

You can visit the Royal Mews at the palace. This is the home of the Queen's horses and coaches.

The Queen's Gallery is also at the palace, and you can visit it at most times of the year. Here you can see pictures from all over the world.

The Tower of London is now a museum, and one of London's most famous buildings. More than two million people visit it every year. Yeoman Warders (also called Beefeaters) tell them all about the Tower.

You can see the Crown Jewels, and visit the Bloody Tower and the White Tower or take a walk round the wall and perhaps see one of Tower's famous black birds: the ravens.

Tower Bridge is near the Tower of London. It is one of the most famous bridges in the city and first opened in 1894.

St Paul's Cathedral is not far away, on Ludgate Hill. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Fire of London. Wren built more than fifty London churches. Visitors can go up to the Golden Gallery to look across London.

Westminster

Westminster Abbey is more than nine hundred years old, and is a very famous London church. After William the Conqueror, every King and Queen of England was crowned king or queen here.

The houses of Parliament are near Westminster Abbey. This is the home of the British government. The clock high up on the building is called Big Ben.

The Prime Minister – the head of the British government – lives at 10 Downing Street. Walk along Parliament Street to Whitehall, past the government buildings, and you can see the little street on your left.

Parks and Gardens

When you are tired of looking at buildings, you can sit or walk in one of London's beautiful parks.

Hyde Park has a lake in the middle called the Serpentine, and you can take a boat out on the water.

It is a good place to get away from the crowds and the noise of the city.

You can listen to the speakers at Speakers' Corner near Marble Arch. People from all over the world come and speak here. You can ask a speaker some difficult questions if you like. Or you can stand on a box and speak to some of the listeners. Kensington Gardens is next to Hyde Park. Here you can see the Statue of Peter Pan, the famous boy in the children's story Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.

Regent's Park is the home of London Zoo. The Zoo has thousands of birds and animals from all over the world. There is also a theatre in the park. On a summer's evening, you can sit out under the night sky and watch a play by William Shakespeare, England's most famous writer.

St James' Park is next to the Mall. It is smaller, but many people think it is more beautiful.

Shops

The most famous shop in London – some people say the most famous in the world – is Harrods, in Knightsbridge. It opened in 1849.

Oxford Street has many big shops – Selfridges, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Debenhams. There are always lots of people looking at the shops here, but at Christmas thousands more people come to see the wonderful Christmas lights – and to buy things for their friends and family for Christmas.

Charing Cross Road is famous for its bookshops. There are lots of them, and they sell old and new books. One of the oldest and most famous is Foyles. It has thousands of books – but it can sometimes be very difficult to find the book you want!

Covent Garden was once a big food market, but now it has lots of small shops and cafes – there are street performances to watch.

Eating

You can find food from nearly every country in the world in London. In Soho in the West End of London, you can eat food from Italy, India, China, Japan, Greece and lots more places.

There are also thousands of pubs in the city. In many pubs you can eat as well as drink.

Or why not have some English fish and chips? They are cheap and good to eat.

Or you can have "tea" at the Ritz in Piccadilly. Or at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand.

Theatres and Music

London's West End has some of the best theatres in the world, so the tickets can be expensive. Go in the afternoon; it is often cheaper. There is something for everybody – from a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre, to Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap(this play began in 1952 and thousands of visitors see it every year).

There are a lot of cinemas to visit. The most expensive are in the West End, but you can sometimes get cheap tickets on Mondays.

You can hear wonderful music and singing from all over the world at the Royal opera House in Covent Garden, the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gore, the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane and the Barbican Centre, Silk Street.

For ballet, go to the Sadler's Well Theatre in Rosebery Avenue, or to the Royal Opera House.

To get cheap tickets, buy them an hour or two before it begins.

Do you like to listen to jazz musicians? You can hear some of the best at Ronnie Scott's Club in Frith Street, or at Bull's Head, Barnes at Barnes Bridge, or at 100 Club at 100 Oxford Street.

Museums and Galleries

The British Museum in Great Russel Street is the biggest museum in Britain. Tickets are free.

The Museum of London at 150, London Wall is one of the most interesting museums in the city. It tells the story of London and its people.

One more museum that tells a story is the Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), on the South bank (under Waterloo Bridge). This tells the story of cinema and television, and there are many things for visitors to see and do. You can act with actors on a film "set". Or you can read the news on TV!

Four million people visit the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square every year. They come to look at more than two million pictures. Tickets are free.

At the National Portrait Gallery in St Martin's Square, you can see pictures of famous people. Tickets are free here too.

The London Dungeon in Tooley Street is a "Museum of Horror". Half a million people visit it every year, but they don't always stay to see it all.

Madame Tussaud's in Marylebone Road is famous for its people made from wax. You can see famous people from the past and famous people of today –Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Pavarotti, Sylvester Stallone. And in the "Chamber of Horror" you can see some very bad people.

Places and Parades

The City

Londoners often talk about the City. They are talking about the oldest part of London, the home of the Bank of England, and many other big offices.

About five thousand people live in the City, and at weekends it feels empty. But between Monday and Friday, nearly half a million people come here to work in the banks and offices. Look for the city men with their dark suits and umbrellas.

St Paul's Cathedral is in the middle of the City, and the Bank of England has an interesting museum that you can visit.

Also in the City is a very tall building – 60.0 metres high called the Monument, Christopher Wren built this, too, and it stands on the place where the Fire of London began in 1666.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1201