Famous England Landmarks: London and Nearby

Getting to London to See Famous England Landmarks

London has several airports to get to London, depending on where you are coming from. Together, they create the busiest airport cluster in the world. The biggest airport and the one you are most likely to be arriving at, coming from the United States, is Heathrow. Heathrow, like the other airports, is a fair way out of town. Therefore, unless you have a big checkbook and want to take a cab or private transfer, taking an hour or more into the city, we recommend taking the Heathrow Express.

The Heathrow Express is as the name says, an express train into London, leaving Heathrow from the central station between Terminals, 2 and 3, and from Terminal 5. It is a fifteen-minute ride into the city and leaves you at Paddington Station. Click here for the Heathrow Express.

When to Visit London

London is a perfect place to visit almost anytime of the year. However, we prefer the summer months. Generally speaking, England is not as hot as other places in Europe. The days are longer and you can see more of the most famous landmarks. It will be crowded, as London is a popular destination and a beautiful city. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed both our 2024 visit in late June as well as both of the 2022 visits in April and early July.

Our Visit 2024

While both Cos and Robin have been to London before (Cos many times), our June 2024, 5-day visit was special. While we did some great museum visits including the British Museum and The Portrait Gallery, and we had some great meals and pub visits, perhaps the highlight was our trip to Wembley the same day that Taylor Swift was performing. Oh, we didn’t have tickets to the show, but we had tickets to a new theatre that was been recently built in Wembley, It is called the Starlight Auditorium at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. It was built specifically for the revival performance of Alfred Lloyd Weber’s play Starlight Express. It is performed on a stage built especially for the actors who are all on roller skates. We sat right in the middle of the action. For more information about the theatre and theaters in general please see our Theaters Post.

During our visit we also set out to see some areas of London that we had not previous visited. This included the upscale neighborhood of Chelsea and the latest up and coming area of Spitalfields and Shoreditch.

What are the Most Famous Landmarks in London?

As the Capital and largest city in England, London is the obvious jumping off place to explore a wonderful country. As such it is the heart of a whole country of iconic landmarks. One of the best places that you probably won’t see on too many lists is the London Underground. The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world; put it on your list, as it is an important landmark and an remarkably easy way to get around the city.  

London is also home to the most 5-star hotels of any city in the world. We stayed at the Hilton Conrad Hotel during our 2024 visit and it is outstanding with its location, staff service and overall experience, as are any of the other high-end hotels.

London is also well known for it’s theatre district in the West End; London has four World Heritage Sites: The Tower of London, Kew Gardens, Westminster Palace including the famous Westminster Abbey and the Town of Greenwich. Other well known sites include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge (not London Bridge as it is wrongly called), and Trafalgar Square.

England Landmarks: Westminster and Buckingham Palace

Westminster and Buckingham Palace to a large degree are at the heart of what makes London such a landmark of English heritage. The list of famous landmarks is this small area of London is enormous including the following:

• Westminster Abbey
• Westminster Cathedral
• Big Ben
• Buckingham Palace
• The Eye
• Churchill’s War Rooms
• Houses of Parliament
• Trafalgar Square

England Landmarks: Outstanding Museums

During our trips to London we have visited many of the outstanding museums in the city. Our favorites are the British Museum, The Victoria and Alpert Museum, The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Following is information about all four museums, but there is also much more in our post on Museums for All.

British Museum

The British Museum is truly one of the world’s greatest museums. It may be our favorite museum in London as the permanent collection contains many famous artifacts from historic sites in both Greece and Egypt. There is great controversy about many of the pieces which, in the case of Greece, were taken from the Parthenon. During our 2024 European Tour we visited the Acropolis Museum in Athens as well as the British Museum and heard both sides of the issue.

The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington is a magical place. It is so vast, so full of treasures, so educational. Many of the art pieces are replicas of some of the most famous artifacts from around the world. There is a surprise around every corner; no wonder it is classed as one of the best museum experiences in the world.

The National Gallery

The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings in 1824.

The National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is located next to the National Gallery off of Trafalgar Square. It has an amazing collection of famous British citizens representing Britain’s long history, We were particularly impressed by portraits of the royal family including the current Royals as well as Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth.

England Landmarks: Beautiful Gardens

One landmark that you will note where ever you go in London, are the beautiful gardens. For some reason, perhaps with all the rain and the cooler temperatures, gardens do very well in England. Take some time and “smell the roses”.

England Landmarks: West End – London Theatre

One of the more popular things to do in the West End is to see the spellbinding play Harry Potter & the Cursed Child. It is currently playing at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End.

During our 2024 visit to London, in addition to our trip to Wembley to see Starlight Express, we also saw Back to the Future in the West End. Both were great shows and truly worth the ticket cost.

For more theatre information, (London and other places) please visit Our Favorite Theaters post.

England Landmarks: Pubs – That is What London is Really Known For

At most of the pubs, food is served in the traditional way. Unfortunately, this generally speaking doesn’t stand up very well to the more epicurean tastes. Nevertheless, you would be foolish to pass up on a really good meat pie. We had one at The Punch Tavern, near St. Paul’s Cathedral, or fish and chips which are great where-ever you go. Surprisingly, some of the pubs have even earned a Michelin Star or two.

Traditionally English Pubs were the places that men hung out after work. However, most of the of the pubs today are catering to a much broader crowd. Checkout the Soho Pub in the photos below, on the left. It obviously won an award for reaching out to the LBGTQ crowd.

The pub in the middle is where we had lunch while we were in Greenwich. Like most pubs it served a nice fish and chips. However, in the evenings, it hosts a drag show a few nights a week.

The pub on the right, is clearly going for the more sophisticated “Gin Crowd”. Gin is clearly gaining focus in London and other Pubs throughout Great Britain. We found one pub, in the old Bank of England building, matching brands of gin with specific flavors of Fever Tree tonic. This made some really great cocktails.

What makes London Pubs Special?

What is it about English Pubs that makes them so inviting? To tell you the truth, we don’t know. They serve warm beer, you have to beg to get ice with your whisky, and they are usually crowded. Nevertheless, there is a certain charm that simply doesn’t exist in most American bars. Yet one pub website said the friendliness at the pubs is more like “Cheers”. Which of course is in Boston, New England, USA. Who knew the Brits would build pubs in the style of something from America? For more about New England see our post New England – DIY Travel.

Our Pub Visits

Our very first pub visit was located in Covent Garden was the former haunt of Charles Dickens. It is possible that it is London’s oldest pub, The Coopers Arms (which was mentioned in 1772), changed its name to The Lamb & Flag in 1833 making this the oldest pub in London. Whether it holds this honor, we can say that it’s charming and quite old.

While Dickens wrote “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” we can say there is a distinct difference between the somewhat rowdy crowd downstairs and the civility of the upstairs dining area. The food was quite delicious, especially known for (not surprisingly) fish and chips, fisherman’s pie and Sunday roast.

London’s Southbank

Beside the River Thames, the South Bank is a dynamic area at the heart of London’s cultural scene. The Southbank Centre, National Theatre, and BFI film theatre are all world-class arts venues. You might want to see a Shakespeare Play at the reconstructed Globe Theatre. The riverside walkway is lined with trees, restaurants and historic pubs, and is the site of frequent fairs and events. Sightseers admire iconic landmarks like Big Ben and St. Paul’s Cathedral from the London Eye Ferris wheel.  Given our love of good street art, we had planned to see the Graffiti Art Tunnel, but will need to schedule for out next visit.

London’s Latest Landmark: Shoreditch

During our 2024 visit we decided to check out London’s latest and currently very popular neighborhood, Shoreditch. Shoreditch has recently become popular as it borders the Financial District and money has flowed over the border to increase the price of everything. We did a nice guided tour thru Shoreditch and Spitalfields to get the feel of the place and to see some of the famous street art. Unfortunately, our tour guide explained that the quality of the street art had gone down in recent years. He was right, but we still managed to get a few good pictures including one or two from the famous artist Banksy.

For more great street art please see our Love Graffiti Art post.

England Landmarks: Short Trips from London

One of the great benefits of visiting and staying in London is the ability to visit some other great places all within a short ride away. There are many historic sites, just a short day trip away. Here are some of our favorites:

Center of World Time – Greenwich

After a short river cruise up the Thames River, you will get to Greenwich, England. The river tour starts in Westminster and makes a brief stop at The Tower of London. You then continue under the Tower Bridge, and pass by the fastest growing area of London, Canary Wharf. (See picture below). Greenwich is known for its Royal Observatory, the zero-longitude prime meridian and Greenwich Meantime. Greenwich was also popular as a Maritime base and it hosts the National Maritime Museum. It was the birthplace of many of the Tudors, most notably Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Wembley – The World’s Most Famous Stadium?

If you are a sports fan or a concert fan then Wembley is a place you might want to visit. Wembley claims to be the world’s most famous stadium. I won’t debate that claim, however I prefer Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York City. Nevertheless, it is an easy train ride from the center of London and hosts some amazing events.

William Shakespeare

If you’re interested in experiencing Shakespeare’s works firsthand, consider visiting visiting his hometown in Stratford-On-Avon or Shakespeare’s Globe on the South Bank  in London.  It’s a true-to-history replica of the original Globe Theatre, where many of his plays were staged.

Windsor Castle – Home to the King of England

During our 2022 stay in London, we decided to take a tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. It is an all-day guided tour, one that we booked thru viator.com. We highly recommend it.

Having never been to Windsor Castle or Stonehenge, we found the tour to be quite informative. What is particularly interesting about Windsor Castle is that people actually live here. Yes, it is a royal residence and the home of the royal family. Buckingham Palace in London is where they hold important meetings, but Windsor Castle is where the mostly prefer to live. the size of it is so enormous, that it makes you realize that while the monarchy is a nice source of tourism pounds for the British economy, it is slowly getting out of line with most people’s lifestyles, and perhaps is in its final days.

Stonehenge -England’s Cultural Icon

Stonehenge certainly deserves its place as a British cultural icon and as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a lot more than just a stone circle. The massive stone structure was built more than 5000 years ago. Surprisingly, it is actually owned by the Crown. Most of the stones are thirteen feet high. Stonehenge is thought to have been a pre-historic burial ground.

Bath, England

The third stop on the tour was in Bath. To be honest we were tired at that point. We found Bath to be okay but not our favorite tour stop. Nevertheless, if you are interested in the Roman influence in England, than you might want to visit Bath. The Roman Baths are an important landmark. a beautiful place and representative of an early roman settlement.

Other English Cities

There are so many other cities and important landmarks in England that Cos has visited. This includes the Cambridge University, in Cambridge, Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Southampton, Brighton, Manchester and York. However, it has been many years, his memory is strained, and his old pre-digital 35 mm photos are not in very good shape. A return trip to some of these areas is planned in either 2025 or 2026. Please wait for more in-depth reporting.

In fact, one of the the great historic sites of English History is where the world’s first iron bridge was erected near Manchester over the River Severn at Coalbrookdale in 1779. This now world-famous industrial monument gave its name to the town that grew around it and to the spectacular wooded gorge that was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

Finally, you might just want to take a trip over to the English Channel. There you can see the famous White Cliffs of Dover.

What Was London Not Known For – Famous Restaurants

Well, while that might be true historically, it is changing. Here is a list of our recommended restaurants from our trips to London. If you wish to see which of these restaurants made our highly rated top-50 list, please go to Top 50 Restaurants.

Neighborhood	Restaurant	Overview	Our Review
Piccadilly	Brasserie Zedel	Located in the heart of Piccadilly, this is a grand and bustling Parisian brasserie.	Excellent food and value; lively atmosphere. Has some entertainment.
Marylebone	Bentley’s Oyster Bar	The best of the sea and land, Bentley’s Oyster Bar serves only the finest sustainable seafood delights, and seasonal game favourites.	When you really know fish, the result is heavenly. Paul’s fish pie was masterful and Robin’s baked scallop with wild garlic and lemon butter was extraordinary.
Covent Garden	Lamb and Flag	Traditional Georgian pub, former haunt of Charles Dickens	We had to navigate the crowd outside and downstairs as they enjoyed their pints and their company.  We were escorted upstairs which was much more sane.
Soho	Bob Bob Ricard	French inspired & modern British fare in cool art deco surrounds. “Press for champagne”, all booth luxury.	This is not only great food (Filet mignon) but also great surroundings .
Chelsea	La Mia Mamma	This Chelsea location features Mammas imported from Italy, all working their magic in the restaurant window kitchen.	Chelsea was perfect for this homey Italian feast where the Mammas wait on you, cook for you and take your picture. Fun and delicious too!
Covent Garden	Fumo	Marble feature bar and elegant dining room for Italian cooking from the Milan region	The bar is extraordinary, by far the best part of the experience.
North West London	Trullo	Rustic Italian, split level restaurant with neighborhood feels. Bib Gourmand	We ate downstairs; cozy.  This is a little out of the way, but the food was excellent Italian.