Damian Harper - Lonely Planet Pocket London

Millennium Bridge ()

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London has something for everyone, from art to grand museums, dazzling architecture, royalty, diversity, glorious parks and irrepressible pizazz. Its immersed in history, but London is also a tireless innovator of culture and creative talent, while a cosmopolitan dynamism makes it quite possibly the worlds most international city, yet one that remains somehow intrinsically British.

London Top Sights

British Museum ()

With five million visitors annually, the British Museum is Londons most popular tourist attraction a vast and hallowed collection of artefacts, art and antiquity. You could spend a lifetime here and still make discoveries.

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London Top Sights

National Gallery ()

This superlative collection of (largely pre-modern) art is one of the worlds largest; with some of the most outstanding artistic talent, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Turner, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh and more.

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London Top Sights

Tower of London ()

With a palpable sense of ancient history at every turn, few parts of the UK are as steeped in myth or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of this fabulous fortress.

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London Top Sights

Tate Modern ()

Housed in a former power station, this modern art collection enjoys a triumphant position right on the Thames. The Tate Modern is a vigorous statement of modernity and architectural renewal.

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ARTWORK THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL
ARTS, INC/ARS. LICENSED BY VISCOPY, 2012

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Victoria & Albert Museum ()

You could virtually spend your entire trip in this magnificent South Kensington museum dedicated to the decorative arts and still be astounded by its variety and depth.

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London Top Sights

Natural History Museum ()

With its animatronic T. rex, towering diplodocus skeleton, Wildlife Garden and Gothic fairy tale architecture, this museum is a work of great curatorial imagination.

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Westminster Abbey ()

Adorers of medieval ecclesiastic architecture will be in seventh heaven at this sublime abbey and sacred place of coronation for Englands sovereigns. Get in the queue early.

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Houses of Parliament ()

There's nothing as magnificent or more London than the sublime view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from the River Thames, especially when the sun is shining on its fabulous facade.

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London Top Sights

St Pauls Cathedral ()

This astonishing church is renowned, but a visit to its consecrated ground promises a full appreciation. The climb up into the dome is rewarded with some truly majestic views at the top.

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Buckingham Palace ()

That the hoi polloi is able to breach this imperious, blue- blooded bastion is remarkable enough in itself. For royal enthusiasts, the palace is a superlative highlight of London.

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London Top Sights

Kew Gardens ()

Where else in London can you size up an 18th-century ten-storey Chinese pagoda and a Japanese gateway while finding yourself among one of the worlds most outstanding botanical collections?