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CHAPTER ONE
This is London!
Every year, more than nine million people come from
countries all over the world to visit London. They go to the
theatres and museums; they look at interesting old buildings,
many of them hundreds of years old; they sit or walk in the
beautiful parks, or have a drink in a pub.
They go to Oxford Street to look at the shops, or to
Harrods. Two million visitors go to the Tower of London. A
million more go to see St Paul's Cathedral.
Yes, London is a big and beautiful city with lots to see
and do.
But how did it all begin...?
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CHAPTER TWO
In the beginning
The name London comes from the Romans. There were
people living here before they came, but we do not know very
much about them.
The Romans came to England in AD 43. They built
houses and other buildings and made a town next to the River
Thames. They called the town Londinium. They built a bridge
over the river, and ships came up to Londinium from the sea.
The town got bigger and bigger. Important new buildings went
up, and you can see some of the Roman city wall today, near
the Museum of London.
It was a rich town with about 50,000 people living in it.
But soon after AD 400, the Romans left Londinium to go back
to Rome, and nobody lived in the town for many hundreds of
years. The buildings began to fall down.
Danish soldiers destroyed more buildings nearly five
hundred years later. King Alfred was king of England then. He
got the Danes to leave London and his men built the town
again.
In 1066, William the Conqueror came to England from
France to be king. Soon after, he began to build the Tower of
London.
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When Henry the Eighth was king in 1509, 50,000 people

lived in London again. By the year 1600, there were 200,000,
but a lot of them lived in old and dirty buildings. In 1665,
100,000 people died from an illness called the plague. This was
called the year of 'The Great Plague'.
A year later, in 1666, there was a big fire - The Fire of
London. It began in a house in Pudding Lane, near London
Bridge. More than a quarter of a million Londoners lost their
homes in the fire. It destroyed St Paul's Cathedral and eighty -
eight other churches. But the fire also destroyed most of the
worst old buildings, and the new houses that went up after this
were better for people to live in.
A new St Paul's Cathedral was built between 1675 and
1711.
By 1881, more than three million people lived in London.
Today, more than six million people live here. There were eight
million in the 1960s, but in the 1970s and 1980s, people moved
out of the centre of London.
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CHAPTER THREE
Visiting the city
A quick and easy way to get to different places in the city
is to use an Underground train. The trains run all day and most
of the night. Buy your ticket before you get on the train. It's
better not to make your journey between eight o'clock and ten
o'clock in the morning, or four o'clock and six o'clock in the
evening. These are called the 'rush' hours. Thousands of people
are going to work or coming home again then, and it is difficult
to move or to find a place to sit on the train.
You can see much more of London from one of its
famous red buses. Some special visitors' buses take you too
many of the interesting places in the city on one journey. It
takes about one and a half hours, but you can break your
journey and get off (and on again) at the different places you
want to visit.
London taxis are called 'black cabs'. Most of them are
black, but some are not. You can stop one if it has a 'For Hire'
sign on it. The drivers are usually friendly and helpful.
Why not take a boat trip along the River Thames? Boats
leave Westminster Pier and Charing Cross Pier, and they go to
Tower Pier and Greenwich.
Between April and October, you can take a longer boat
trip to Hampton Count (about four hours) - a beautiful park.
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CHAPTER FOUR
Some places to go
The Queen has her London home at Buckingham Palace.
It is at the end of The Mall - a long road that begins at Trafalgar
Square. At half past eleven most mornings, the soldiers at
Buckingham Palace 'change the guard'. It takes about thirty
minutes, and hundreds of visitors come to watch.
And in August and September, you can usually visit some
of the rooms in the palace. But there are always lots of people
coming to see them, so be ready to wait.
You can also visit the Royal Mews at the palace. This is
the home of the Queen's horses and coaches.
The Queen's Gallery is also at the palace, and you can
visit it at most times of the year. Here you can see pictures
from all over the world.
The Tower of London is now a museum, and one of
London's most famous buildings. More than two million people
visit it every year. Yeoman Warders (also called Beefeaters) tell
them all about the Tower.
You can see the Crown jewels, and visit the Bloody
Tower and the White Tower. Or take a walk round the wall and
perhaps see one of the Tower's famous black birds: the ravens.
Tower Bridge is near the Tower of London. It is one of
the most famous bridges in the city and first opened in 1894.
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St Paul's Cathedral is not far away, on Ludgate Hill. It

was built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Fire of London.
Wren built more than fifty London churches. Visitors can go up
to the Golden Gallery to look across London.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Westminster
Westminster Abbey is more than nine hundred years old,
and is a very famous London church.
After William the Conqueror, every King and Queen of
England was crowned king or queen here.
The Houses of Parliament are near Westminster Abbey.
This is the home of the British government.
The clock high up on the building is called Big Ben.
The Prime Minister - the head of the British government -
lives at 10 Downing Street. Walk along Parliament Street to
Whitehall, past the government buildings, and you can see the
little street on your left.

Parks and gardens

When you are tired of looking at buildings, yon can sit or
walk in one of London's beautiful parks.
Hyde Park has a lake in the middle called the Serpentine,
and you can take a boat out on the water.
It is a good place to get away from the crowds and the
noise of the city.
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You can listen to the speakers at Speakers' Corner near

Marble Arch. People from all over the world come and speak
here. You can ask a speaker some difficult questions if you like.
Or you can stand on a box and speak to some of the listeners!
Kensington Gardens is next to Hyde Park. Here you can
see the statue of Peter Pan, the famous boy in the children's
story, Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie.
Regent's Park is the home of London Zoo. The zoo has
thousands of birds and animals from all over the world. There
is also a theatre in the park. On a summer's evening, you can sit
out under the night sky and watch a play by William
Shakespeare, England's most famous writer.
St James' Park is next to The Mall. It is smaller, but many
people think it is more beautiful.
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CHAPTER SIX
Shops...
The most famous shop in London - some people say the
most famous in the world - is Harrods, in Knightsbridge. It
opened in 1849.
Oxford Street has many big shops - Selfridges, Marks and
Spencer, John Lewis, Debenhams. There are always lots of
people looking at the shops here, but at Christmas thousands
more people come to see the wonderful Christmas lights - and
to buy things for their friends and family for Christmas.
Charing Cross Road is famous for its bookshops. There
are lots of them, and they sell old and new books. One of the
oldest and most famous is Foyles. It has thousands of books -
but it can sometimes be very difficult to find the book you
want!
Covent Garden was once a big food market, but now it
has lots of small shops and cafes - and there art street
performers to watch.
There are two very famous markets in London. Petticoat
Lane market (open on Sundays) is in Middlesex Street, and is a
good place to buy cheap clothes and things for the home. At the
market in Portobello Road (open on Saturdays), you can buy
old clocks, old chairs and tables, and hundreds of other things.
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You can find food from nearly every country in the world
in London. In Soho, in the West End of London, you can eat
food from Italy, India, China, Japan, Greece, and lots more
places.
There are also thousands of pubs in the city. In many
pubs, you can cat as well as drink.
Or why not have some English fish and chips? They are
cheap, and good to eat.
Or you can have 'tea' at the Ritz in Piccadilly, or at the
Savoy Hotel in the Strand.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Going out
Theatres and music
London's West End has some of the best theatres in the
world, so tickets can be expensive. Go in the afternoon; it is
often cheaper.
There is something for everybody - from a play by the
Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre, to
Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap (this play began in 1952 and
thousands of visitors see it every year).
There are lots of cinemas to visit. The most expensive are
in the West End, but you can sometimes get cheap tickets on
Mondays.
You can hear wonderful music and singing from all over
the world at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the
Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gore, the London Coliseum in
St Martin's Lane, and the Barbican Centre, Silk Street.
For ballet, go to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in Rosebery
Avenue, or to the Royal Opera House.
To get cheap tickets, buy them an hour or two before it
begins.
Do you like to listen to jazz musicians? You can hear
some of the best at Ronnie Scott's Club in Frith Street, or at the
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Bull's Head, Barnes at Barnes Bridge, or at 100 Club at 100,

Oxford Street.

Sport
Some of the most famous English football clubs are in
London. You can see Arsenal play at Arsenal Stadium, Avenell
Road, N5. Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road,
SW6, and Tottenham Hotspur play at White Hart Lane, High
Road, N17.
To watch the very English game of cricket, go to Lord's
Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, NW8. This is the 'home of
cricket' for most English people.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Museums and galleries
The British Museum in Great Russell Street is the biggest
museum in Britain. Tickets are free.
The Museum of London at 150, London Wall is one of
the most interesting museums in the city. It tells the story of
London and its people.
One more museum that tells a story is the Museum of the
Moving Image (MOMI), on the South Bank (under Waterloo
Bridge). This tells the story of cinema and television, and there
are many things for visitors to see and do. You can act with
actors on a film 'set'. Or you can read the news on TV!
Four million people visit the National Gallery in Trafalgar
Square every year. They come to look at more than two
thousand pictures. Tickets are free.
At the National Portrait Gallery in St Martin's Place, you
can see pictures of famous people. Tickets are free here, too.
The London Dungeon in Tooley Street is a 'Museum of
Horror'.
Half a million people visit it every year, but they don't
always stay to see it all!
Madame Tussaud's in Marvlebone Road is famous for its
people made from wax. You can see famous people from the
past and famous people of today - Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma
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Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Pavarotti, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie

Chaplin, Sylvester Stallone. And in the 'Chamber of Horrors'
you can see some very bad people!
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CHAPTER NINE
Places and parades
The City.
Londoners often talk about 'The City'. They are talking
about the oldest part of London, the home of the Bank of
England, and many other big offices.
About five thousand people live in The City, and at
weekends, it feels empty. But between Monday and Friday,
nearly half a million people come here to work in the banks
and offices. Look for the City men with their dark suits and
umbrellas!
St Paul's Cathedral is in the middle of The City, and the
Bank of England has an interesting museum that you can visit.
Also in The City is a very tall building - 60.6 metres high
- called The Monument. Christopher Wren built this, too, and it
stands on the place where the Fire of London began in 1666.

Some interesting and exciting days

Every year on a Saturday morning in June, 'foot guards'
and 'horse guards' have a parade for the Queen. This is called
'Trooping the Colour'. The 'colour' is the flag that the soldiers
carry. Thousands of people stand in The Mall to see the Queen
and the soldiers go past.
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The exciting Netting Hill Carnival is on the last Sunday

and Monday in August. There are two wonderful parades to
watch, one on Sunday and one on Monday, and you can see
them going through, the streets near Portobello Road and
Ladbroke Grove.
On the second Saturday in November, Londoners can see
their new Lord Mayor in the Lord Mayor's Show - a parade
from Mansion House, the Lord Mayor's home, to the Strand.
The Lord Mayor is the most important person in The City after
the Queen. The first Mayor of London was Henry Fitzailwin, in
1189. They were not called Lord Mayors until the time of King
Henry the Eighth.
Big red buses... London policemen... Buckingham
Palace... Speakers' Corner... Big Ben... Netting Hill Carnival -
these are some of the things you can find in London.
But there are many, many more.
Come and see!

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