London - The City and The Tower

The BT Museum offers hands-on exhibits tracing the 200-year history of telecommunications from telegraphy to optical fiber to the latest video phones.

Bishopsgate Library is situated opposite Liverpool Street Station.

Brick Lane Market offers a wide variety of both new and second-hand clothes, and articles of all kinds.

Visitors can experience London during the Second World War "Blitz" including a London Underground air raid shelter. Enter a BBC Radio Studio to hear messages from Churchill, Chamberlain, Roosevelt and Hitler. Other exhibits include rare documents, ration books and gas masks.

The City Business Library is one of the leading business information libraries in the UK.
It houses a large collection of journals and newspapers.

Columbia Road Market offers an extensive range of flowers.

Doggett's Coat and Badge Race upstream from London Bridge to Chelsea Bridge takes place in July. The custom was begun in the 18th century by the Irish comedian Thomas Doggett when he could not find anyone to take him home. Finally he came upon a young man who rowed him upstream against the tide.

Built in 1700, this is the house of the writer and critic Dr Samuel Johnson. Exhibits include a first edition dictionary, paintings, engravings, furniture and books.

Leadenhall Market offers meat, poultry, fish and cheese.
This market area provides a fascinating look at London's Victorian architecture. The covered market was built in 1881.

Pierced tracery lines the girders and columns of this cathedral-like station.

Lombard Street (named after the moneylenders from Lombardy who had their houses here in the 13th century) has been London's banking and financial center since medieval times. The street is of interest not so much for its 19th and 20th century buildings, as for the bank signs hanging above the pavement - continuing a tradition dating from the Middle Ages, when illiteracy was rife and the bankers' customers were able to identify them only by their heraldic emblems.

The Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, was built by George Dance the Elder between 1739 and 1753 but has undergone a number of later alterations. The imposing Corinthian colonnade serves a ceremonial as well as a decorative function, for it is here that the Lord Mayor appears on the occasion of royal and other official processions. The principal reception room is the Egyptian Hall. Visitors are also shown the Conference Room, with a fine stucco ceiling; the Saloon, with beautiful tapestries and a Waterford glass chandelier; the Drawing Rooms; and the tiny Court of Justice, with cells beneath.

Visitors can see a 19th C surgical operating theater.
The theatre is found in the roof space of an English Baroque Church. Students from the neighboring hospital would come in to watch the surgeries.

Petticoat Lane is London's most famous market, busy and noisy and full of interesting characters. In this market, it is possible to buy almost anything and at a reasonable price.

Smithfield Market is one of the largest meat markets in the world.

The St Bride Printing Library is concerned with the history and technique of printing.

St. Giles's Church Cripplegate is the burial place of John Milton and John Foxe. The church is overlooked by the Barbican Centre.

The fabulous church of St Magnus is described as one of Wren's finest pieces of architecture. It holds a beautifully decorated interior.

The church was also home to Miles Cloverdale, publisher of the first English translation of the Bible.

The City church of St Mary-le-Bow, with its famous bells, occupies a special place in the affections of Londoners. To be a genuine Cockney, it is said, you must have been born within the sound of Bow Bells. The church, originally a Norman foundation and one of London's oldest stone churches, was rebuilt by Wren between 1670 and 1683. It suffered heavy damage during World War II and was re-dedicated after extensive restoration in 1964. Its most notable feature is the 73m/221ft high steeple containing the bells which is topped by a weathervane nearly 3m/9ft high. Bricks dating from the Roman occupation of Britain may be seen in the 11th century crypt.

The Telecom Tower, built in 1964, and still popularly known by its original name - the Post Office Tower - rises to a height of 189m/620ft above the surrounding streets. Once Britain's tallest building, it has since been overtaken by the NatWest Tower. It houses both a television transmitter and receiver and a radio-telephone relay and is crowned by an aerial mast. The tower is not open to the public.

Originally founded in the 12th century, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the starting point for the Crusaders en route to Jerusalem. This particular church was built in 1450, during the reign of Henry VI.