Whitehall and Westminster

These areas have been the centre of political and religious power in England for a thousand years.

Sites to visit:

• Houses of Parliament
• Big Ben (it is the bell, not the clock!)
  
• Jewel Tower (this and Westminster Hall are the only remains of the old Palace of Westminster)
  
• Westminster Abbey
• Dean's Yard (Dryden and Ben Johnson -the writer, not the athlete- used to walk around it)
  
• Saint Margaret's church (Margaret, not Margarit; we're ogres in my family, not saints)
• Parliament Square
• Cenotaph (monument to the dead of World War I)
• Downing Street (the Prime Minister's residence; you need important contacts to visit it)
• Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum (World War II cabinet rooms)
• Banqueting House (First building to adopt the Paladian architectural style from Italy in London)
• House Guards Parade
• Trafalgar Studios
• Queen Ann's Gate (big elegant houses from 1704. The M15, the British Secret Service, is supposed to have organised its activities in here until recently)
• Guards Museum
• Saint James's Park Station (it holds the London Transport Company and has works of Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore)
• Blewcoat School
• Westminster Cathedral
• Saint John en Smith Square (English baroque masterpiece, today an auditorium)
• Tate Britain