HALPI dot com

‘London’

No matter your tastes – whether modern or classical art, monuments and museums, zoos and gardens, nightclubs, theater, music, and on and on - London provides it in abundance. Read the rest of this entry »

Buckingham Palace may be one of London’s most popular tourist attractions but it is also the official residence of Britain’s monarchy, as it has been since Queen Victoria’s designation in 1837. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps best known as Princess Diana’s residence until her death, Kensington Palace has been home to royalty long before Queen Victoria’s birth in 1819. Read the rest of this entry »

Church, burial ground, coronation site and much more, Westminster Abbey continues to attract visitors over 900 years after its founding. Read the rest of this entry »

Is there any other prison that has been popular (for various reasons) as long as the Tower of London? It has been an attraction for over 900 years, with twenty towers filled with an ancient tradition of royal blood, armor and jewels and the history to match. Read the rest of this entry »

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre is long gone – closed by Puritans in 1642 and taken down 2 years later. Fortunately for fans of the bard, there’s a faithful reproduction housed only a few hundred meters from the original site. Read the rest of this entry »

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum is one of the very few attractions in London that is both centuries old and completely modern. Read the rest of this entry »

Visitors to London usually come for the history and to view the things that man has built over the centuries such as the great churches, monuments, art and history museums. But there’s more to experience since London is home to one of the oldest zoos in existence and one of the newest aquariums. Read the rest of this entry »

Trafalgar Square is the center of England in more ways than one. At its south end lies what used to be Charing Cross, the point from which all distances to London are measured. Read the rest of this entry »

For three hundred years St Paul’s Cathedral has served as one of the enduring symbols of London, a role it richly deserves. Completed in 1708, Sir Christopher Wren’s masterwork is recognized the world over by its large dome and classical architecture. Read the rest of this entry »

The British Museum, like most of London’s museums, is free of admission though some events and special exhibitions have an admission charge. But even if it was the most expensive of London’s attractions, it would be worth the price. Read the rest of this entry »

For the London traveler looking for variety, the West End is the place to be. Piccadilly Circus is next door, where antique book shops mix with the latest restaurants and Covent Garden is not far. And, then of course, there’s the world-renowned theater. Read the rest of this entry »

Founded in the mid-19th century, the Natural History Museum offers one of the largest, most diverse collections in the world. The dinosaur exhibits are world-renowned, but there are dozens of others equally deserving of a visit. Read the rest of this entry »

It may have had a troubled history, but the National Gallery in London has persevered to maintain one of the greatest art collections in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

The London Eye can only approximately be described as an enormous Ferris Wheel. The designers, beginning with the originators Julia Barfield and David Marks, have produced an engineering marvel. Read the rest of this entry »

There are no clowns performing under a circus tent at the junction of Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue near London’s West End known to the world as Piccadilly Circus. Read the rest of this entry »

Kew Palace, known as Dutch House until 1827, was built in 1631 for the Dutch merchant Samuel Fortrey. Mr. Fortrey’s descendants leased the Jacobean mansion to Queen Caroline in 1728 for 99 years for ‘the rent of £100 and a fat doe’. It was an excellent bargain for the Queen. Read the rest of this entry »

The name ‘Whitehall’ evokes ‘British Government’. And, indeed, the Houses of Parliament are at one end of the road running north from Parliament Square. But there’s much more along this major London artery than the Palace of Westminster, home to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible for something so common as a department store to qualify as a national or historical landmark? It is if it’s Harrods, the department store that got its start over 150 years ago but is as up-to-date as the latest computer. Read the rest of this entry »

Hyde Park may be most famous for the Speaker’s Corner, where citizens stand atop a soapbox and shout their views to the crowd, but there’s much more to see and do here than just listen to political opinions. Read the rest of this entry »

Time is what’s important at Greenwich’s Royal Observatory and time has been extremely important since 1675 for the men and women who have worked at the observatory through the centuries. Read the rest of this entry »