Kakoudi ZoeKarabini KaterinaKyriakou Annamaria

• Big Ben• London Eye• House of Parliament• Tate Modern• Tower Bridge• Tower of London• Buckingham Palace• St. Paul’s Cathedral• Gherkin• Westminster Abbey• National Gallery

• Kensington Palace• St. James Palace• Royal Albert Hall• Westminster Cathedral• Guildhall• Royal Opera House• National Portrait

Gallery• Somerset House• Banqueting House• Tate Britain

The clock inside the tower was the world's largest when it was installed in the middle of the 19th century. The name Big Ben actually refers to the clock's hour bell, the largest of the clock's five bells. The other four are used as quarter bells. The clock was the largest in the world and is still the largest in Great-Britain. The clock faces have a diameter of almost 25ft (7.5m). The tower was constructed between 1843 and 1858 as the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster.

Construction of the observation wheel took more than a year and a half to complete. In the process over 1700 tones of steel were used for the structure and more than 3000 tones of concrete were used for the foundations. The observation wheel turns slow enough for people to embark while it is moving. A complete turn takes about 30 minutes. Thanks to the construction of the glass capsules on the outer side of the rim, the passengers have a great 360° view over London.

In the middle of the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor had moved his court to the Palace of Westminster, situated on a central site near the river Thames.In 1265 a parliament was created with two houses: the Lords and the Commons. The House of Lords met at the Palace of Westminster while the House of Commons did not have a permanent location. In 1834 a fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster , leaving only the Jewel Tower, the crypt and cloister of St. Stephens and Westminster Hall intact. After the fire, a competition was organized to create a new building for the two houses of parliament.

The galleries of Tate Modern are housed in an enormous brick building that was once the home of the Bank side Power Station. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, it was built between 1947 and 1963. Its striking tower is 99 meters tall; regulations stipulated that it was not allowed to be taller than the dome of the St. Paul’s Cathedral just across the river Thames.

Plans for the Tower Bridge were devised around 1876 when the east of London became extremely crowded and a bridge across the Thames in that area of the city seemed a necessity. It would take another eight years - and lots of discussions about the design - before construction of the bridge started.The bridge, designed by city architect Horace Jones in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, would eventually be completed in 1894. Five contractors and nearly 450 workers were involved in the construction of the 265 meter long bridge. It took 11,000 tons of steel to build the framework. At the time many people disliked its Victorian Gothic design, but over time the bridge became one of London's most famous symbols.

Construction of the Tower of London was initiated in 1070 by William the Conqueror, shortly after his victory at Hastings in 1066. The Tower was built to enforce the power of the king over the newly conquered region. Today the Tower of London is best known for its Crown Jewels, but it used to be notorious for the many political opponents of the kings that were locked, tortured and killed in the Tower. The Tower was also a royal residence: several kings lived here, especially during turbulent times when the donjon seemed a lot safer than the palace in Westminster.

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence and principal workplace of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focus for the British people at times of national rejoicing and crisis.

The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognizable sights of London, with its dome, framed by the spires of Wren's City churches, dominating the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world. In terms of area, St Paul's is the second largest church building in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.

30 St Mary Axe (informally also known as "the Gherkin" and previously the Swiss Re Building) is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004. With 41 floors, the tower is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, and stands on the site of the former Baltic Exchange, which was extensively damaged in 1992 by the explosion of a bomb placed by the Provisional IRA.

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English, later British and later still (and currently) monarchs of the Commonwealth realms. The abbey is a Royal Peculiar and briefly held the status of a cathedral from 1540 to 1550.

The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The Gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection is free of charge. It is the fourth most visited art museum in the world, after the Muse du Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.

Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century, and is the official London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, while the Duke and Duchess of Kent reside at Wren House. Kensington Palace is also used on an unofficial basis by Prince Harry, as well as his cousin Zara Phillips.

Long the home of many of the most famous kings and queens of England, St. James's Palace was built by King Henry VIII between 1531 and 1536. Even today, the palace is still actively used by the British royals. This magnificent brick palace became the principal royal residence in 1702 when Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire and Queen Anne moved to St. James. Even St. James's Palace today, it's still the "official" residence of the sovereign, even though Buckingham Palace became the new chief residence after Queen Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837. Many ceremonial court functions continue to be held here.

The red brick Royal Albert Hall was built in the 19th century as a multifunctional music and entertainment hall. Today it is one of London's most recognizable landmarks and a top European performing arts venue.

The primary Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales, Westminster Cathedral is one of London's few buildings in Byzantine style. The cathedral is decorated with beautiful friezes and mosaics.

Ever since it was built in the early 15th century, the Guildhall has been the home of the Corporation of London, the governing body of the Livery Companies - guilds - in the City of London.

Even today the Corporation of London, presided by the lord mayor, governs the City of London (with the City referring to London's historic heart, Guildhall

also known as the Square Mile and not Greater London). The lord mayor is assisted by 24 aldermen who govern one of the 24 districts in the City, known as wards.

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history

The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London, England, housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin's Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery. It has been expanded twice since then. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) also has three regional outposts at Beningbroch Hall, Bodelwyddan Castle and Montacute House.

Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The building, originally the site of a Tudor palace, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, and further extended with Victorian wings to the north and south

The Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, is the grandest and best known survivor of the architectural genre of banqueting house, and the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall. The building is important in the history of English architecture as the first building to be completed in the neo-classical style which was to transform English architecture.

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Milbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.

• Madame Tussauds• British Museum• Natural History Museum• Victoria and Albert

Museum• Museum Of London• Sir John Soane's Museum• Science Museum

Madame Tussauds London is a major tourist attraction located in Central London, housed in the former London Planetarium. It is famous for recreating famous people and celebrities, in wax. It is the original Madame Tussauds attraction, having been situated on Marylebone Road since 1884. It was set up by wax sculptor Marie Tussauds. It is operated by Merlin Entertainments.

The British Museum is a museum in London dedicated to human history and culture. Its permanent collection, numbering some eight million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It is here where the visitor can admire the amazing “Marbles of the Parthenon”.

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Paleontology and Zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research, specializing in taxonomy, identification and conservation.

The Victoria and Albert Museum , London, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Prince Consort. The V&A is located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in an area that has become known as "Albertopolis" because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated.

The Museum of London documents the history of London from the Prehistoric to the present day. The museum is located close to the Barbican Centre, as part of the striking Barbican complex of buildings created in the 1960s and 70s as an innovative approach to re-development within a bomb damaged area of the City. The museum is jointly controlled and funded by the City of London Corporation and the Greater London Authority.

Sir John Soane's Museum was formerly the home of the neo-classical architect Sir John Soane. It holds many drawings and models of his projects and the collections of paintings, drawings and antiquities that he assembled. The Museum is in the Holborn district of central London, England, on Lincoln's Inn Fields. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The museum is a major London tourist attraction, attracting 2.7 million visitors annually. The Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy etc.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org www.aviewoncities.com