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| City of London tips and photos posted by real travelers and London locals. • 288 Photos
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 | London City of London Reviews | 11 - 20 of 206 |  |
The Guildhall is the adminstrative centre for London. The buildings on this site have had this purpose for over 800 years (it is linked in with the Mayor of Londons role, which was 800 years old in 1989).
For many hundreds of years, the hall here was used to try some of the more notorius crimes in London. Probably one of the most famous of which was the trial which condemned to death one of the Gunpowder Plot gang (the Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament by Guy Fawkes in 1605. 36 barrels of gunpowder were smuggled in to the Houses of Parliament, but before they could be blown up, the men involved were caught and sentenced to death). Leave a Comment Address: Guildhall Yard, EC2Directions: St Pauls Underground
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The Mansion Houseis the Official Residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It was built in 1753 and is a famous London landmark.
There are some very impressive state rooms inside, including one built to an Egyptian theme.
Originally there were 11 prison cells inside and a magistrates court as the mayor was the chief magistrate in London! Emmeline Pankhurst who campaigned for women to get the vote was imprisoned in this building.
It is only possible to visit in a group, and this must be prebooked. Leave a Comment Address: Walbrook EC4Directions: Bank or Mansion House Underground Stations (it's right next to Bank)
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The Old Bailey is on a Street of the same name in the City of London. The street itself is very short, you can walk along the length of it in a coule of minutes. The Old Bailey Building is on one end of the street.
This building is also referred to as the new Central Criminal Courts, and the building you see here opened in 1907. It is on the site of the old Newgate prison that was famous for being both extremely rough and also extremely smelly.
In rememberance of the smell, there are some special occasions when judges carry in a small posie of flowers to help mask the foul odour that used to be present at the site. Leave a Comment Address: Old Bailey, EC4Phone: 020-7248-3277Directions: St Pauls Underground Station
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The Barbican is Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue. The Barbican presents a year-round programme of art, music, film theatre and education.
This place is really huge check out there website and get an idea of where you're going because you can get lost up there. I went to see Madredeus and it was great !!!! Leave a Comment Address: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DSPhone: 020 7638 4141Directions: Nearest tubes: Barbican, Moorgate, Liverpool St.Website: http://www.barbican.org.uk/
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Known locally as The Erotic Gerkin the Swiss RE Building has won 11 awards including the Sitling Prize. Opened in May 2004, the buildings official name is St. Mary Axe and was designed by Fosters & Partners. It really is a lovely building with its stunning black glass & glimmering steel. The public are not permitted in the building but the plaza is open for your enjoyment with shops bars & cafes but they are so expensive & more suited to the city folk who work in this building. Leave a Comment Address: St. Mary AxeDirections: In the heart of the financial district
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I am very much grateful to Andrew Duncan for having devoted one chapter of his “Secret London” book to the livery companies in London, which made me want to spend an entire day in The City and look for as many of their buildings as possible (together with a visit at the Museum of London).
Livery Companies are very unique to London, to the City of London to be precise. This is the London (Great Britain?) specific term for guilds and from what I have read it is more of a fraternity, as it involves a high degree of social commitment for their members. But that’s something I shall describe in the local customs section. Here I want to concentrate on and motivate you to walk around the City in search of the magnificent livery buildings.
According to Andrew Duncan, London has 108 livery companies, of which 36 still have the traditional halls, huge rooms, originally meant to feed their members, but still in use now for banquets and gatherings. Almost every livery building is not accessible for the usual visitor, however there are exceptions. But already the buildings are well worth to admire them from the outside. And it is fun to look at the coat of arms at the outside and try to find out how it came into being.
Andrew Duncan’s book has a map with exact location of the 36 halls, and I highly recommend to buy his book, but if you cannot get hold of it before you go to London, Wikipedia has also a list of all 108 and you might take note of their adresses already.
I found eight but my most favourite was the Cutlers’ Hall (photo 1 and 5) with a magnificent terracotta frieze on the façade. Leave a Comment
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The Gherkin as it is commonly known amongst Londoners, it one of the most recent addition to the London skyline.
It got built after the IRA exploded a large bomb outside the Baltic Exchange (an insurance company) in the heart of London. So much damage was done, that a site was effectively cleared and was now prime real estate.
Sir Norman Foster originally proposed a 400m high tower, but after this was rejected for being too tall, he built a tower that was based on the dome of the Duomo (Cathedral) in Florence, Italy. The design is revolutionary because it is egg shaped and therefore is narrower than the middle at both the top and the bottom which brought quite a few architectural challenges!
Apologies for the photo on this one, the weather was extremely grey and overcast when I took this, making it difficut to get a reasonable image. Leave a Comment Address: 30 St. Mary's AxeDirections: Bank or Mansion House Underground Stations - then just look upwards!
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This gate is one of the original eight London city gates and is the only one remaining. It dates back to a wooden structure from the 13th century which was rebuilt several times. The current gate was erected after the great fire of 1666 by Sir Christopher Wren. In the 18th and 19th century, the other sven gates were demolished while the Temple Bar Gate remained until 1878 when it was carefully dismantled and its stones were stored. It was bought by a rich brewer and erected as a gateyway at his house in Hertfortshire. In 1984 it was bought back by an organization called "Temple Bar Trust" and erected again at its current place. It serves now as an entrance to Paternoster Square.
The original location of this gate was at the border between the City of London and the City of Westminster, just at the place where "Strand" becomes "Fleet Street". Leave a Comment Address: Paternoster Square, City of LondonDirections: The gate is located close to St. Paul's Cathedral at Paternoster Square. The nearest tube station is St. Paul's
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The Monument was erected to commemorate the Great Fire of London which began in a bakers house in Pudding Lane on Sunday 2 September 1666 & extinguished 3 days later, after destroying the greater part of the city due to strong winds, athough there was little loss of life about a dozen people. The Great fire did suceed in wiping the plague out. The inhabitants of London took refuge on the south side of the river whilst the city was rebuilt, which was known as the infamous red light district.
The Monument is 202 feet high the exact distance between it & the site in Pudding lane where the fire began. Sir Christopher Wren provided the design for the column containing a stone spiral staircase of 311 steps leading to a viewing platform. A drum & copper urn from which flames emerge symbolising the Great Fire is above the viewing platform
I would suggest to anyone to climb the steps as you get a great view of London from the top & its exercise with rewards. Take binoculars & some water with you. You get a certificate afterwards as well. Only costs a mere GBP3 Leave a Comment
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Affectionately known amongst Londoners as the GHERKIN (fancy word for pickle) was designed by Sir Norman Foster, who got his inspiration from the Duomo (Cathedral) in Florence Italy.
It was built after the IRA exploded a large bomb outside the Baltic Exchange, leaving a large area of prime real estate, just aching for development. Leave a Comment Address: 30 St. Mary's Axe
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