Our
Virtual Tour of
London's Landmarks
Which is the way to London Town,
To see the King in his golden crown?
One foot up and one foot down,
That’s the way to London Town.
Which is the way to London Town?
Over the hills, across the down;
Over the ridges and over the bridges,
That is the way to London Town.
And what shall I see in London Town?
Many a building old and brown.
Many a real, old-fashioned street
You’ll be sure to see in London Town.
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the official home of the Queen.
She and Prince Philip live there during the week (you can tell she is
there because her flag is flown in the middle of the building if she is in
residence). View photos of Buckingham Palace here.
They’re changing
Guard at Buckingham Palace
Christopher Robin went down with Alice
Alice is marrying one of the Guard
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard”, said Alice.
A.
A. Milne
The Changing of the Guard
The Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace is one of the
biggest tourist attractions in England today. It is the ceremony which
takes place outside the palace when the soldiers who have been mounting
guard (part of the Queen’s Household Division) go off duty and are
replaced by the new “guard”.
You can see some of the distinctive uniforms of the
five different regiments who form the Household Division, and learn more
about the ceremony here.
Enjoy a selection of photos of the Guards here.
Don't forget to print out our colouring
page of a Guard!
Westminster Abbey
Westminster
Abbey was founded in 1065, and the vast majority of English monarchs
have been crowned there. You can take a virtual tour of the Abbey at its
website. Our favourite section is Poet’s Corner, where you can find
memorials to many great English writers and poets.
The English Royal Family
The Royal Family – official
website
Here you can take a tour of the official residences, viewing
photos of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Palace of Holyroodhouse,
Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House (although the pictures are small!)
There is also a wealth of information about today’s Royal Family with
hundred of pictures and details of their duties, hobbies and much more.
There is also a section on Princess Diana.
The Prince of Wales – official
website
This site will be popular with younger readers for its pictures
and information about Prince William and Prince Harry.
Historic Royal Palaces
http://www.hrp.org.uk/index2.htm
The Tower of London
Take a tour
around the Tower of London with Rascal, one of the Tower’s ravens!
This site is especially for kids and is fun! You will learn lots about the
Tower and about London in general too.
The official Tower
of London website is truly fantastic and you could well be here for
hours. Older children will love exploring, reading the ghost stories, and
playing “Shoot for Your Life”. There is so much to learn and do here.
Don't forget our colouring pages of the
Tower and a Beefeater!
Houses of Parliament
The Houses of Parliament were rebuilt in 1834 after a
fire destroyed the original buildings. There are over 1,000 rooms in it,
but it is apparently still very crowded at times!
Junior
Parliament is a website designed to educate the under-12s about
Parliament
Big Ben
All
through this hour,
Lord be my guide,
That by thy power,
No foot shall slide.
Many
people think of The Clock Tower as Big Ben, but Big Ben is actually the
name of the biggest bell within The Clock Tower (320ft tall) of the Houses
of Parliament.
To
give you an idea of the size of the clocks on The Clock Tower, each face
has a diameter of 23ft. The numerals are 2ft high, and the minute hands
are 14ft long.
The
bell, when built in 1858, was the heaviest bell ever made in Britain, and
was named after a Sir Benjamin Hall, who was the man who decided that it
would be cast.
There
are something like 400 steps within the tower, but it is not open to the
public. Within the tower is a cell in which political prisoners have at
times been incarcerated.
Every
quarter hour, the clock plays the first line of its famous music (taken
from Handel’s Messiah and worded as above). At the half hour it plays
the first two lines. At a quarter to the hour it plays three lines, and at
the hour the full chime is played.
You
can listen to the chimes by clicking here: Westminster
Chimes
Learn
more about Big Ben’s history at this interesting
website.
Don't
forget our colouring page here!
Kensington Gardens (Peter Pan)
I want always to be a little boy and to
have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time
among the fairies.
—from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Kensington Gardens is one of London's Royal parks,
and in it you can find a statue dedicated to Peter Pan, the boy who never
grew up. The author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, lived near Kensington
Gardens and used it as inspiration in his books.
You can read “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens” here.
See a photo of the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens here.
Learn all about J.M. Barrie here.
“When
the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand
pieces and they went skipping about and that was the beginning of
fairies."
Enjoy some Peter
Pan games with Disney, and play Captain Hook’s Treasure Chest here.
Scroll down for some colouring pages from Disney’s Peter Pan here.
London Zoo
http://www.londonzoo.co.uk/londonzoo/
There is not much to do at this website but it does have the latest
news.
London Buses
There is a museum devoted just to London buses! You can see lots of
photos of them here
We have our own
colouring picture of a London bus.
Why not make your own London buses? You can download a number of paper
models of real buses here!
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