LONDON - The 2014 Guide

LONDON THE 2014 GUiDE BROUGHT TO YOU BY BRiTain – THE OFFiCiaL MaGaZinE

Greater London

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The sTory of

ondinium This is the story of a city. Once the epicentre of a great empire, it has been a capital longer, almost, than any other. This is the story of London WoRdS Chris FauTley

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Greater London

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hen Aulus Plautius invaded Britain in AD43, his army made rapid progress north to the Thames, although precisely where it was crossed is unknown. The river then was very different. It was wide, shallow, fordable in places, and largely surrounded by marshland - with the exception of two gravel hillocks on its north bank where Cornhill and St. Paul’s Cathedral stand today. It was on these hillocks that the Romans chose to build their new city: Londinium. And thereby, so early in this great city’s history, presenting us with its most enduring mystery: why did they name it thus? A best guess is that it was a derivation of a Celtic name.

Within a few years they had built a bridge across the river, close to the present London Bridge. By AD100, most

crypt of St. Bride’s church in Fleet Street, for example, contains the remains of a tessellated pavement. Had it not been for the devastation caused by a wartime bomb, it may never have been found. Similarly, the crypt museum of All Hallows by-the-Tower has part of a domestic building’s tessellated floor.

But the most spectacular of all Roman finds is one of the most recent: an amphitheatre discovered in 1988 when the Guildhall Art Gallery was being built. It had long been known that Londinium had such a building, but nobody knew where. Now the mystery had been solved, the discovery being so significant that the gallery was redesigned to incorporate the Roman remains that are now proudly displayed there.

Considering almost 2,000 years of habitation mean that Roman London lies 20ft beneath the surface, a surprising number of remains have been found – the most spectacular being an amphitheatre For the most part, Londinium was built on the north bank of the river, although there was limited development on the south side. This was demonstrated by the discovery, in September 2011, of a bath house just to the south of Southwark Bridge. London’s Roman story is still far from complete, and parts still lie waiting to be found.

When the Romans left for good, the city’s growth ground to a halt – one of the few subsequent notable events being the building, in AD604, of the first St. Paul’s Cathedral. Indeed, for 400 years or more there was little expansion, London remaining true to its Roman form.

The spread of London was restarted by Edward the Confessor, when he chose to forsake his City residence for a new home adjacent to an abbey being built on Thorney

Facing page: The majesty of st Paul's Cathedral. Below, left: a roman map of london Below, right: roman city wall in st alphage gardens

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of the buildings associated with a modern Roman city had been built; and by AD200, it had been walled. The city then was remarkably similar in size and shape to the present City of London, or Square Mile.

Sections of the wall remain, one of the best stretches, albeit with Tudor additions, being in the vicinity of St. Alphage churchyard - near the street that is aptly named London Wall. Another is at Tower Hill, close to the Underground station, overlooking the Tower of London.

Considering almost 2,000 years of continuous habitation mean that Roman London lies 20ft beneath the surface, a surprising number of remains have been found.

Of necessity, many that have been excavated have had to be infilled; however, there are notable exceptions. The

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Greater London Island. Barely three miles away, it was surrounded by marshes to the north, the Thames to the south and the River Tyburn and its tributary to the west and east. It was known as a “terrible, uncultivated” place, taking its name from the scrubby terrain. The abbey became known as West Minster (St. Paul’s being East Minster). Building continued piecemeal for several hundred years, and with it came people. And with people came traders. London’s great march west had begun.

Edward died just days after the abbey was consecrated in 1065, meaning that the soon-to-invade William the Conqueror would be crowned there a year later. William wasted little time in stamping his authority on the capital, this time to the east. And so was born one of London’s most iconic landmarks, the Tower of London – not so much a defensive structure, but more intended to dominate London’s citizens.

The years that followed were a period of consolidation for the capital. In 1123, one of its oldest churches – St. Bartholomew-the-Great, in West Smithfield, was founded as a priory; in 1176 a new, stone, London Bridge was started; and in 1200, Lambeth Palace was built on the

south bank. Proceedings, meanwhile, were jollied along by an earthquake in 1247.

During the late 13th century, the first of several palaces was built away from the centre, south of the river. Eltham is now well-established as part of Greater London; then, though, it was the height of rurality - its palace being adapted from a manor house that was gifted to Edward, Prince of Wales – later to be Edward II. Popular with Henry VIII during the early years of his reign, it fell into a state of ruin as Greenwich Palace became more favoured by monarchs. Although Eltham’s Great Hall served a somewhat ignominious time as a barn, it was not yet done for. During the 1930s, a fine private residence was built adjoining the ruins. Now in the care of English Heritage, it is one of London’s best examples of art-deco architecture.

Meanwhile, Westminster’s importance continued to grow. Not only was it the home of parliament, but in 1476 William Caxton set up England’s first printing press there.

To the east, the established city was fast becoming a centre of commerce – a development that brought success to a great number of individuals. Among these was a merchant named Richard Whittington – four times Lord Mayor of London (not three, as legend insists). He was one of the city’s greatest benefactors, his legacy surviving in the form of St. Michael Paternoster Royal (which he rebuilt), in College Hill. He lived next to it, and is buried there.

As Britain became a maritime force with which to be reckoned, development spread downstream. Deptford, a few miles from the centre of London, was still only a fishing village. That, however, was to change when, in

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Left, top to bottom: The domed hall of eltham Palace; Westminster Bridge and houses of Parliament, 1909; clockface of Big Ben. Opposite page: The Tower of london with the Gherkin in the background

photos: © alamy/mike booth/gl archive/bl images ltd/jl images

The building of West Minster continued for several hundred years, and with it came people. And with people came traders.

London’s great march west had begun

Greater London

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Above: The gardens at hampton Court Palace. Left: Monument to commemorate the Great Fire of london, 1666. Facing page: evening view of The City and the O2

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1513, Henry VIII established a naval dockyard there – popularly known as King’s Yard. Here, Francis Drake was knighted in 1581. The dockyard was closed in 1869.

At about the same time as Deptford opened, Henry also established a second dockyard, further downstream at Woolwich. It, too, survived until 1869, but by then it had become famous for military matters of a different kind. The Royal Arsenal had moved to Woolwich in 1717; it was Britain’s principal munitions manufacturing centre and covered over 1,500 acres. The military finally left during the early 1990s, many of the old ordnance buildings now being turned over to fashionable apartments.

Firepower! – the museum of the Royal Artillery, is housed in a former factory building.

As London developed, royalty felt the need to escape what was, on occasion, becoming a rather unpleasant place. (In 1333, for example, a ban had been imposed prohibiting the slaughter of animals on the city’s streets.)

When the monarchy went to the rural outskirts, London effectively went too.

Greenwich Palace was already well-established when Henry VIII was born there in 1491. As he particularly

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enjoyed the hunting in Greenwich Park, it rapidly became one of his favourite homes. It was also the main summer home of Elizabeth I (where Raleigh famously covered a puddle with his cloak to prevent her feet getting wet); and was eventually gifted by James I to his queen, Anne of Denmark. She is best-remembered for having Queen’s House built, although she died before it was finished. It’s a building that is something of a geometric Utopia: the galleried Great Hall is a perfect 40ft cube, and the ceiling is a mirror image of the finely patterned floor. The palace was then demolished to make way for the Royal Naval College in 1694.

Other monarchs chose different out-of-town residences, Edward III and Henry VII preferring Richmond Palace, for example. The gatehouse is all that remains. Richmond Park has fared rather better.

Extending to almost 2,500 acres, it was enclosed by Charles I – his intention being to make it a royal hunting ground. Now a nature reserve, it is London’s largest park.

Charles’s plan was that it should serve Hampton Court Palace – much loved, later, by William and Mary.

London, meanwhile, continued to head south. A notable leap came during the reign of Elizabeth I, when several

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Greater London

Greater London

theatres were built in Southwark. The first, the Rose, appeared on Bankside in 1587, the most famous being the Globe of 1598 – now handsomely rebuilt.

The Great Fire in 1666 served only to demonstrate how compact London still was. (Although not so compact as to prevent Samuel Pepys burying his Parmesan cheese in his garden before fleeing.) The upside, for us at least, is the fine legacy of architecture that the rebuilding produced: not just Wren’s St. Paul’s, but also his churches (St. Stephen Wallbrook being a dummy run for the cathedral).

The Monument famously marks where the fire started.

Almost. Layed flat in an easterly direction, its tip would mark the precise point. A second memorial is on a building at the corner of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane.

This marks the point where the fire stopped.

London continued to expand, a fact reflected by an act of 1711 authorising the building of fifty churches to serve the burgeoning population. But in terms of architecture, one monarch had more influence than any: the Prince Regent, George IV. He was a particular supporter of the architect John Nash, who gave us Regent Street (sadly now in plan only), and the 487-acre Regent’s Park. The park is still extant, as are the fine terraced villas with which he encircled it.

Meanwhile, London had been creeping east - a process accelerated by the passing, in 1799, of the West India Dock Act. Hitherto, London’s docking facilities had been largely inefficient – dependant on the tides, and particularly prone to pilferage. The act allowed West India Dock Company to build West India Docks, the capital’s first fully enclosed, warehoused docks.

The principle caught on, and over the next eighty years London’s docks expanded ever further east. This, was the great era of Victorian industrial enterprise - dock building culminating with the construction of the Royal Docks.

The Royal Victoria opened in 1855; the Royal Albert in 1880. Combined, they stretched more than two miles – their water area alone covering 175 acres.

With the docks came industry. The area rapidly developed – not always with pleasant consequences.

Silvertown, an area south of the Royal Docks, gained a reputation for being particularly unpleasant. The Victorians might not especially be remembered for environmental legislation, but they did pass an act during the earlier years of Victoria’s reign that severely restricted industrial development in central London. Silvertown fell just outside the restricted area, its riverside setting attracting an odd combination of chemical industries and food processors

Queen’s House is a geometric Utopia: the Great Hall is a perfect 40ft cube, the ceiling a mirror image of the floor

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Clockwise from top left: engraving of aldgate Metropolitan underground railway, 1876; detail of mosaics by sir eduardo Paolozzi at Tottenham Court road underground station in london; Metro land london underground 1914 poster for the Metropolitan line railway

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(including Abram Lyle of golden syrup fame, and Henry Tate, the sugar refiner).

The docks are now silent, and much industry is gone; Docklands is greatly changed. It conjures up images of Canary Wharf, but even that only occupies 2% of the 8.5 square miles taken over by the (now defunct), London Docklands Development Corporation in 1981. Cleared and landscaped, much of the rest remains a brown field site – paradoxically one of Britain’s greenest.

But it was the breaking of another new dawn that had the greatest influence on the capital’s growth. In 1836, London & Greenwich Railway arrived. Initially, it ran from Bermondsey to Deptford, but by 1838 the railway connected London Bridge with Greenwich.

Soon, having to work in London did not necessarily mean having to live there. One company stamped its mark on London more than any other: the Metropolitan Railway. It started off modestly in 1863, running 3.5 miles from Paddington to Farringdon. By 1868 it had reached Swiss Cottage, and by 1880 Harrow-on-the-Hill. The Met, as it became known, was heading northwest towards the Chilterns, arriving at Pinner in 1885, Rickmansworth in 1887 and Chesham in 1889.

As was customary in the railway industry, the Met purchased more land than required – in case of unforeseen deviations to the route. It used this surplus to build housing and estates, an ingenious move. Those attracted to such developments invariably had a need to travel and they used the Met. The first estate was built at the end of the

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19th century in the vicinity of Willesden Green station, with others following. Building continued for forty years, the railway even introducing the term Metro-land to describe its developments. Between 1915 and 1932, an annual guidebook was produced extolling Metro-land’s delights: the publicity department even had “Live in Metro-land” engraved on carriage door handles. This was the Metroland beloved of Sir John Betjeman, a land of “leafy lanes in Pinner,” of “green fields and misty sky.”

While the Met’s house building activities were almost unique, the principle of the railway attracting development was anything but. One developer in particular, William Willett, developed large areas in Chislehurst and Petts Wood with his trademark mock-Tudor housing.

Nor was it his only contribution to Britain’s social development, for it was Willett who “invented” daylightsaving time. It was a notion that came to him while riding in Chislehurst woods early one morning. A memorial to his achievement stands in the woods today, a green lung in suburbia. Much is now in the care of the National Trust.

London’s parks, gardens and greenery are now more treasured than ever. Perhaps the capital will continue to expand, absorbing – but still fiercely preserving – more of them. Yet exactly when it might reach its limits is hard to know. And if that sounds a little nebulous, it is merely because there is a second enduring mystery about London.

Quite where does it end now?

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Greater London

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Theatreland

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Theatreland

LONDON

in lights

From its origins in the 16th century to today’s bustling hub of commercialism and creativity, London’s West End is the largest theatre district in the world

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hen Kevin Spacey was criticised in the British press after Resurrection Blues flopped at the Old Vic, one thing was clear. An award-winning Hollywood resume and a tremendous acting talent wasn’t enough for an artistic director of a major West End theatre. To bring in the crowds and keep the critics happy, Spacey would have to do the same as every other London stage boss since James Burbage built his laconically named theatre, known simply as ‘The Theatre’, in Shoreditch, way back in 1576.

To achieve his West End stripes, Spacey would have to embrace British tradition, but also to renew and reinvigorate that tradition with his own creative vision and dynamism. .

Brits are fiercely proud of London’s West End, rebranded as ‘Theatreland’

by Westminster Council a few years back. But as is the British way, we expect a lot from our artists, directors and producers. Anything but the very best isn’t just a sub-standard performance; it’s a slight on a noble tradition and an insult to past greats.

Olivier, Gielgud, Coward, Hurt, Mirren and Anthony Hopkins are just a few of Britain’s finest to tread those famous stages. And from the USA:

Sinatra, Crosby, Charlton Heston, Judy Garland and Sammy Davis Junior. More recently, Hollywood actors including Christian Slater, Nicole Kidman, Orlando Bloom and Spacey himself have been keen to add West End credits to their resumes.

Throughout history, leading performers have fallen over themselves to make it to the West End. Shakespeare himself is said to have been a part of an acting troupe called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men who played in Burbage’s original theatre. “It’s every performer’s dream to get to the West End, but not everyone makes it,” says actor and singer Tom Solomon who has performed in Chicago, Les Miserables and many other London shows, “there’s so much talent on show here every night, and whatever you give on stage you get a hundred times back from the audiences.”

Take a walk down Shaftesbury Avenue, across Leicester Square and through Piccadilly. There’s a household name in lights on every street corner. The shows are pretty famous, too. Phantom of the Opera, Hamlet, The Woman in Black, Scrooge, The Lion King, Billy Elliot and the longest running show of all

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Shakespeare is said to have been a part of an acting troupe called the Lord Chamberlain’s men who played in Burbage’s theatre

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national treasures, without really changing them that much.

In the age of Peter Mandelson, New Labour and spin doctoring, specialist colleges and academies replaced state secondary schools and London’s Holborn, St Giles and Bloomsbury districts were turned into something called ‘Midtown’. So too did the West End became Theatreland, in the eyes of marketing departments at least. For theatre lovers, nothing much changed.

“We still have the same mixture of modernity and tradition,” says Paul

Clockwise from above: John Gielgud in a 1952 production of Much Ado About Nothing; a West end production of The Phantom of the Opera; Singing in the Rain; Phantom of the Opera; Shaftesbury Avenue, the heart of Theatreland

London Theatre’s beginnings, on the south bank of the Thames, tell of a country where the ruling elite did not tolerate opposition and wouldn’t risk disaffection. The first Queen Elizabeth was still on the throne and a play could mean 2,000 people in one place. With no censorship laws or police to keep order, it was much easier to just ban plays, as the Mayor and Corporation of London did in 1572. In 1575 the authorities formally ejected all players from the city, too.

Burbage set up his theatre in Shoreditch, outside the city

London’s Theatreland has always ref lected the British way, that unique and never-ending dialogue between continuity and change that makes us who we are Ibell from the Society of London Theatre. Geoff Marsh adds that most of the theatres were built before the 1930s, and retain their traditional look. “Some theatres do still get public subsidies,” he says, “so people can try out some new ideas that might not really be commercially successful, immediately.”

authorities’ remit. Newington Butts theatre in Surrey, followed, as did a third, not far from the Clink, a notorious medieval prison in Southwark. Outside London, the authorities didn’t seem as bothered if people got up to no good. Until the nineteenth century London had only three licensed playhouses.

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– Agatha Christie’s timeless whodunit – The Mousetrap. All the classics are there, not to mention a whole host of stunning new shows such as War Horse, a story of the First World War told through the use of spectacularly lifelike puppets.

Whether you like musicals, drama, comedy or opera, there’s something for everyone. And that’s on top of the West End’s array of restaurants, cinemas and shops. “It’s like everyone is fighting for space here,” says Geoff Marsh, curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s theatre collection.

Marsh, who organises tours of London’s Theatreland, adds, “We have the largest concentration of theatres in the world, wonderful diversity, an extraordinary concentration of talent and so much else to support the entertainment.”

London’s Theatreland has always reflected the British way, that unique and never-ending dialogue between continuity and change that makes us who we are. Even the ‘Theatreland’ concept itself was an attempt, common in 21st-century Britain, to repackage and modernise the image of

Theatreland

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Today there are forty-two commercial West End theatres and many more not-for-profit organisations and producing houses.

Like the Old Vic, some of these lie outside the geographical boundaries of Theatreland, but are every bit a part of its tradition.

In 1660, Charles II came to the throne needing to raise money after nine years of exile and Puritanical Parliamentarism. And what better way to make a fast buck than to set up patents. This meant wealthy individuals paid the Royal house vast sums of money for the right to stage theatre. “Back then, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the Covent Garden, now the Royal Opera House, were the only legal theatres,” says Geoff Marsh.

Charles II also overturned a ban preventing women from performing on stage, although it’s more likely he did this to please his mistress, Nell Gwyn, than out of any feminist sympathies. Gwyn was on stage regularly, despite the fact that she couldn’t read or write. Before the King’s intervention, female roles like Juliet and Lady Macbeth were played by teenage boys. In subsequent years, female talent flourished.

Lavinia Fenton, who played at Haymarket in the 1720s, Frances Abington and Anna Maria Crouch, who performed in the West End during the second part of the 19th century, star in a collection of Britain’s first actresses, currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery.

So too, does Sarah Siddons.

That era’s definitive Lady Macbeth, Siddons was so popular that in her

“Until then performances tended to be very mannered, more like reciting poetry,” says Paul Ibell whose book, Theatreland, was published in 2009.

“Garrick made things more natural.”

He also introduced set design, costumes and special effects, and adapted classic plays for more modern audiences.

Smaller music halls sprang up in the early nineteenth century, but it

Above: umbatha, a Zulu version of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Facing page: The Grand Boxes at the Coliseum Theatre

Charles II also overturned a ban preventing women from performaing on stage, although it’s more likely he did this to please his mistress than out of any feminist sympathies farewell performance, the Covent Garden audience refused to allow the play to go on past the famous sleepwalking scene, until their favourite heroine came out to make one final speech. It was around this time that David Garrick revolutionised London theatre. Whilst in residence at Drury Lane, Garrick turned his hand to realistic acting.

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wasn’t until the 1843 Theatres Act loosened government restrictions that the West End as we know it began to take shape. In 1877 Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue were built to open up central London.

“Many properties in these areas had been bought by European émigrés, fleeing the continent after the failed 1848 revolutions,” says Geoff Marsh.

Between 1870 and the beginning of the First World War, theatres also sprang up around Piccadilly Circus, The Strand and Leicester Square.

Paul Ibell explains that these theatres reflected Victorian values.

“The rich sat in the best seats and used entrances on the main street,” he says, “the poor had to make do with cheap seats and back-alley entrances.”

In the 20th century, Britain’s changing political culture continued to influence London’s theatre district.

In 1956, John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger showed the world through the eyes of a post-war generation of angry young men who had lived through conflict, austerity and rationing. The play was Osborne’s response to the restrictive formality of British theatre and, in 1968, a new Theatres Act abolished government censorship of the stage. The day after abolition, the musical Hair saw nudity on a West End stage for the first time. A few years later, Andrew Lloyd Webber opened Jesus Christ Superstar, much to the chagrin of the For a key to symbols please see page xx

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Theatreland

Theatreland

religious diehards who couldn’t get it banned no matter how much they jumped up and down outside the Palace Theatre.

The 1980s brought musicals to the West End. Reactionary blowhard Mary Whitehouse brought a private prosecution against National Theatre director Michael Bogdanov, for obscenity. It failed – a sign of the changing times. The late nineties saw plays about serious contemporary issues such as AIDS. More recently, the West End has withstood couch potato culture. More than 14 million people went to West End theatres in 2010. Geoff Marsh estimates 50,000 theatre seats are sold every night.

Throughout all the changes, one thing has stayed the same: the West End atmosphere.

So whether it’s Shakespeare waxing lyrical; Siddons, Olivier and Spacey’s updating of the classics; or Nicole Kidman stripping in The Blue Room: one thing is sure. There’s nothing like a night in Theatreland. www.britain-magazine.com

EDItoR’s pICK J Rock of Ages, shaftesbury theatre,

booking to october 2012 – a simple love story set to a soundtrack of classic 80s rock tunes J Matilda the Musical, Cambridge theatre, booking to september 2012 – Roald Dahl’s much-loved tale of an extraordinary child with hideous parents J Backbeat: the story of the Beatles, Duke of Yorks theatre, booking to March 2012 J Crazy For You, Novello theatre, booking to July 2012 – the classic musical direct from a sell-out run at Regent’s park open Air theatre J singin’ In the Rain, palace theatre, booking to september 2012 – vintage charm and style J hamlet, Young Vic, until 21 January 2012 – Michael sheen swops Downing street and Elland Road for Elsinore J Chicago, Garrick theatre, booking to May 2012 – pizzazz and razzmatazz J Ghost the Musical, piccadilly theatre,

booking to october 2012 J Les Misérables, Queens theatre,

booking to May 2012 – phantom star Ramin Karimloo takes on the role of Jean Valjean J Disney’s the Lion King, Lyceum theatre, booking to April 2012 J Mamma Mia!, prince of Wales theatre, booking to september 2012 – Abba classics J the Mousetrap, st Martin’s theatre, booking to December 2012 – Classic murder mystery J Death and the Maiden, harold pointer theatre, until 21 January 2012 – explosive moral thriller J stomp, Ambassadors theatre, booking to December 2012 – pure stage magic J thriller Live, Lyric theatre, booking to september 2012 – a glitzy night of song and dance J War horse, New London theatre, booking to February 2013 – First World War drama with a difference

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Westminster Bridge

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here are few places with the same dynamism, adaptability, diversity and history that characterise Britain’s great capital city. Here, you can watch the pomp and ceremony of Horse Guards Parade; stroll past the skaters, artists and booksellers on the Southbank; immerse yourself for hours in the priceless treasures of world-class museums and galleries; or shop till you drop in the glorious palaces of luxury goods – Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Liberty.

When it comes to attractions, London offers some of the country’s very best, from the superb Golden Hinde that can be reached through the maze of cobbled streets from Borough Market, to the imposing Houses of Parliament with its dramatic façade rising up from the River Thames.

The capital’s great historic landmarks – the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and so on – are all iconic favourites, but every Londoner will tell you of their own highlight. The best way to discover all this thriving metropolis has to offer is to set out and explore, tracking down your own personal top spots across the city.

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London

Local perspective Painter Ken Howard OBE, RA Professor Ken Howard was born in London in 1932 and is one of Britain’s best-loved and most accomplished painters, famous for his oil paintings of cluttered studios and bustling London streets. He studied at the Royal College of Art, was elected Royal Academician in 1991 and served as president of the prestigious New English Art Club between 1998 and 2003. He lives and works in Chelsea. history is what makes it so “London’s special. No matter where you go,

Other places I would recommend visiting are both Tate Britain and Tate Modern for the art collections. I would also suggest going to the Royal Academy of Arts, which is very interesting both in terms of the exhibitions and architecturally.

I like to go to Covent Garden because of my love of opera, and also the old market there is just a wonderful place.

My favorite thing to do in London is, of course, drawing and painting. The area in the City around the Royal Exchange is just fantastic for artists. Mansion House, Guildhall, Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square – they are all wonderful to look at.

A walk I’d suggest going on would be taking in three main London parks. Start in Hyde Park near Kensington Palace and walk past the Serpentine to Hyde Park Corner, and on into Green Park, coming out at Buckingham Palace. Then to finish, I’d wander through St James’s Park.

I am a Freeman of the City of London, a status I attained through being a Liveryman of the Painter-Stainers. It means I have the right to herd sheep or cattle across London Bridge. I could also carry an unsheathed sword if I so wished. These extraordinary rules just add to the great history of ritual in the city.”

“The wonderful pomp and ritual that goes on in London really sets it apart from any other city”

brilliant bits of the past are sure to come up and the wonderful pomp and ritual that goes on in London really sets it apart from any other city.

The Changing of the Guard, for example. That just doesn’t go on anywhere else. I also think the Thames is a more exciting and interesting river than any other.

My favourite building in London is Westminster Abbey. I love the outside, but the interior is unique too, with beautiful fan-vaulted ceilings and Poet’s Corner. Most people who come to London make Westminster Abbey their priority and I’d agree that it should be.

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Clockwise from top left: Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge; regiment of the Coldstream Guards during The Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace; The National Gallery seen from Trafalgar Square; crowds of people enjoying London's hyde Park on a sunny summers day

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