Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament
The Elizabeth Tower's Great Bell and the Gothic Revival Palace of Westminster — Britain's seat of government, viewable free from outside, or climbed on a rare, popular guided tour.
St Paul's Cathedral
Christopher Wren's Baroque masterpiece and dome, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, offering a Whispering Gallery, a crypt with Nelson's and Wellington's tombs, and 360-degree city views from the top.
Westminster Abbey
The coronation church of English and British monarchs since 1066, and the burial place of kings, scientists and poets — still a working church, with weekday sightseeing hours and a Sunday services-only schedule.
Shakespeare's Globe
A faithful reconstruction of Shakespeare's original open-air Bankside playhouse, 230 metres from the 1599 original, staging plays much as Elizabethan audiences saw them.
Hampstead Heath & Kenwood House
320 hectares of genuinely wild-feeling parkland in north London, with the city's best free panoramic view from Parliament Hill and a free Old Masters collection at Kenwood House.
Tower of London
A nearly 1,000-year-old fortress on the Thames holding the Crown Jewels, the White Tower's medieval armouries, and a history of executions, imprisonments and royal intrigue.
Tower Bridge
London's iconic Victorian bascule bridge, free to cross on foot, with a paid glass-floor walkway 42 metres above the Thames and Victorian engine rooms below.
Trafalgar Square
London's grand ceremonial square, watched over by Nelson's Column and four bronze lions, fronted by the National Gallery — free, open 24/7, and the geographic heart of the city.
Somerset House
A grand neoclassical courtyard on the Strand that hosts a summer fountain display, a winter ice rink and year-round free exhibitions, alongside the Courtauld Gallery.
Old Royal Naval College & Painted Hall
Christopher Wren's riverside masterpiece in Greenwich, its Painted Hall — dubbed "Britain's Sistine Chapel" — covered floor to ceiling in a vast baroque ceiling painting.
Buckingham Palace
The monarch's official London residence, watched over daily by the Changing of the Guard, with its lavish State Rooms opening to visitors only during a short summer window.
Kensington Palace
A working royal residence and the childhood home of Queen Victoria and Princess Diana, its State Apartments now open to the public alongside a museum of royal fashion.
Apsley House
The Duke of Wellington's former Piccadilly mansion, known as "Number One, London," its gilded rooms still hung with the art collection he won at the Battle of Vitoria.
Household Cavalry Museum & Horse Guards
A working cavalry barracks on Whitehall where you can watch mounted soldiers and their horses through a glass wall, plus the twice-daily Changing of the King's Life Guard.
Piccadilly Circus
A famously chaotic junction of five major streets, its giant illuminated advertising screens and the winged Shaftesbury Memorial fountain making it one of London's most photographed corners.
Monument to the Great Fire of London
A 61-metre Doric column by Christopher Wren, exactly as tall as its distance from where the Great Fire of 1666 began, with 311 steps to a viewing platform over the City.