A brisk walk

  St Paul's  

On this site (in the "Walks" menu) there are a number of routes to walk along. But if you're in London for the first time and you only have one day, you won't be able to see everything. Here I offer one route so that you can visit "everything" places in a hurry.

We start at St Paul's tube station (Central Line). The cathedral that gave the station its name is also nearby, towards the South. The cathedral was built according to the project of Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London (1666) in place of the old church of the same name that was destroyed by fire. Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married here. The architect himself is also buried in the basement. In front of the church there is a statue of Queen Anne, also the second one in this place. The first one just fell apart. And don't be upset that the pigeons have polluted the statue, the author of the statue was also called Bird. :-) If you can enter the church at the moment, you can visit the architect's tomb in the basement and climb up to the dome. But it's quite tiring, because of course there is no lift (Am: elevator)... A more convenient way to admire the church is to go past it to the east to the One New Change mall. There you can take the lift up to the roof for free and there is much more to see.

Next, we go from the cathedral to the side of the pedestrian bridge Millennium Bridge. An interesting technical solution, even so interesting that the day after the grand opening of the bridge, it was repaired for a year. :-) Some also know it as the Harry Potter Bridge, after the film. Passing the bridge, we reach the Tate Modern art gallery. The gallery is built in the building of an old power station. From here we start to go along the river bank to the left. The next interesting building is a theatre called Shakespeare's Globe. Unfortunately, it is not genuine, but has been built relatively recently in an attempt to do it in the same way as it was built in the past. The original theatre of that name was located a hundred meters to the Southeast (Place is marked on the ground.). Going further, we reach one rather unremarkable bridge - London Bridge. South of that right here is Borough Market. This is a food market that has been operating here for centuries. You can buy food to take away and also eat on site. Next, we move again in a South-easterly direction along Tooley Street. Soon it will be possible to turn closer to the river from there.

We reach Tower Bridge. It is certainly the most famous of London's bridges. We cross the bridge, but in the middle it is worth looking back in the direction we came. From here you can see Britain's tallest building The Shard, the warship-museum HMS Belfast and the former Town Hall in the shape of a melted Darth Vader's helmet. :-) Ahead we can also see the Tower of London, the fortress that gave the name to the bridge. Tower has been standing here for a thousand years. Many people have been stuck in it and often lost their lives, some of the most famous being certainly the two wives of Henry VIII, as well as the politician, philosopher and writer Thomas More. North of the fortress, we find the Tower Hill Underground station, from where we should go to the new place (but there is also a souvenir shop right there). We take the Circle Line to Westminster station. The line is marked in yellow both on the map above and actually in the station and trains (select "westbound" from the signs).

As soon as you exit the station, it is not difficult at all to see the mighty parliament building and its tower. It is called the Elizabeth Tower and inside it is a bell called Big Ben. Only recently, the tower was freed from the scaffolding after a long repair. Behind the Houses of Parliament is Westminster Abbey, let's take a look at that too. There are also many statues of great men nearby, from whom we probably know Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Now we cross the bridge. At the other end of the bridge is a statue of a lion, which is not marble, but ceramic. Here it is good to photograph objects on the other shore.

Now we walk north along the river bank. We pass the giant London Eye, which we probably noticed earlier. There are usually a lot of people here and nice street musicians. On the other side of the Ferris wheel, we notice a flagpole that weighs five and a half tons. We walk along the river to the railway bridge Hungerford Bridge. On either side of it are pedestrian bridges (Golden Jubilee Bridges), which were built for the 50th anniversary of the Queen's reign. The construction of the bridge was complicated because at the bottom of the river there were unexploded aircraft bombs from the WWII era. Therefore, a lot of excavation work was done by hand. We could choose the bridge on the left because the one on the right goes into Charing Cross station.

Now straight ahead is Trafalgar Square. Famous fountains, bronze lions and a statue of Admiral Nelson. On the other side, behind the terrace, there is an art gallery. The square is named after the naval battle in 1805, where Nelson was killed, but the battle against Napoleon's fleet was won. We could also briefly enter the church of St Martin in the Fields on the right side of the gallery to admire the stained-glass window there. On the left side of the church is the entrance to the Cafe in the Crypt (in the basement of the church). The prices there are not as high as one might think from the prestigious location.

The large gates, Admiralty Arch, can be seen Southwest of the square. We will continue from there. It is worth noting that one of the pillars has a bronze nose. The straight long red road that opens before us is called The Mall. This road leads directly to the King's castle, Buckingham Palace. But we will go around. We turn left and pass Horse Guard Parade and reach the other side of St James's Park. In good weather, there are many walkers there, and the park also has a beautiful body of water with waterfowl. We can return to The Mall by crossing the bridge. In front is the Royal Palace, which makes a really powerful impression.

We will now pass through another park - Green Park. This park is famous for not having a single flower planted there. If we use the eastern footpath to cross the park, we are actually walking over an underground river. This is the Tyburn River, which also gave its name to the former execution site to the North. In ancient times, this river split into two before reaching the Thames, and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Palace, were located on an island. We reach Piccadilly Street (But before that we can fill a drinking water bottle in the North-east corner of the park). We move on this street to the right, i.e. in a Northeasterly direction and, oh surprise, we arrive at the legendary square Piccadilly Circus. But before we get there, we pass the gates on the left with a red flag with the words Burlington House. We could peek between the gates on the right. There is a telephone box, the very first famous red box (Am: booth) ever made. But now we are at Piccadilly Circus. It is as symbolic a place as Times Square in New York. Not large, but the goal of every tourist. By the way, this square and street are named after the old ring collar. On the square there is a statue of a boy shooting a bow, which is mostly thought to be Eros, but is actually his half-brother. Who knows...

Half a kilometer further east (choose Coventry Street) there are two more "must-see" objects - Leicester Square (pronounced: lester) and Covent Garden Market. The first one does not leave a special impression, of course there are many shops with very high prices, but the goods are far from worth the price... There is a park in the middle of the square. The Southwest entrance is named after Isaac Newton. There are many statues in the park: William Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Poppins, Mr Bean and Batman.

But Covent Garden market is really worth a visit. It's up to you whether to buy, but it's certainly interesting to see what people can sell on the market.

There is an Underground station North of the market.