London - Westminster

Blewcoat School was built in 1709 as a school for the poor. It served as a school until 1926, but now acts as the London Gift Shop and Information Centre for the National Trust.

Harrod's, possibly the most famous store in the world, attracts shoppers like a magnet.
The first store opened in 1849 and Harrod's has maintained its commitment to excellent customer service and fine quality merchandise.

The former Middlesex Guildhall, a Renaissance-style building erected in 1913, now houses Middlesex Crown Court, with seven courtrooms. Memorial panels in the entrance hall, with the signatures of King George of Greece, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and King Haakon of Norway, commemorate the fact that the courtrooms were used by the maritime courts of the Allies during the last war. The public is admitted to court sittings.

The site was once occupied by a tower marking the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, within which the oppressed were safe from their pursuers. Thus Edward V was born in the sanctuary, in which his mother had sought refuge. The existence of the sanctuary is reflected in local street names (Broad Sanctuary, Little Sanctuary).

The Roman Bath is a National Trust property in London's Westminster district. This Roman bath is believed to have been restored in the 17th century.

St Margaret's, the parish church of the House of Commons and the scene of many fashionable weddings, was founded in the 11th or 12th century, rebuilt in 1523 by Robert Stowell, master-mason of Westminster Abbey, refaced in 1735 and restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1878. The church is notable particularly for the Flemish stained glass in the east window, presented by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain on the occasion of the marriage of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother, to Catherine of Aragon. Before the glass arrived in London Arthur had died and Henry had married his widow: whereupon the glass was sent to Waltham Abbey, coming to St Margaret's only in 1758. Other features of interest are the altarpiece, the center panel of which is a carving of the Supper at Emmaus, copied from Titian's picture; 16th and 17th century memorial brasses (including one to Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of Virginia); and Elizabethan and Jacobean monuments.

Westminster Bridge, constructed in 1854-62 from the designs of Thomas Page to replace an older stone bridge, was the second bridge over the Thames after London Bridge. The 353 m/810ft long bridge is one of the most elegant of the London bridges and commands a fine view of the Houses of Parliament. On the Westminster side of the bridge stands a huge bronze group of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni. Victoria Embankment extends below the bridge and above the Albert Embankment with St Thomas's Hospital.

Westminster School, one of the country's leading public schools, began life in the 12th century as a monastic school, and was refounded after the Reformation by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Former pupils include Ben Jonson, Dryden, Wren, Locke, John Gielgud and Andrew Lloyd-Webber. Its buildings include College Hall, the 14th century Abbot's Dining Hall, and Ashburnham House, a Palladian mansion of the 17th century. There are 40 Queen's Scholars, who have the traditional right to acclaim the sovereign at coronations and to attend debates in Parliament. The school, the only great London school to remain on its traditional site, still sings prayers in Latin, and on Shrove Tuesday holds the ancient Pancake Greaze, at which boys scramble for a pancake thrown over an iron bar in the School Hall, formerly the dormitory of the Benedictine monks.