London (11)
THE PLACES TO VISIT.
London is the capital of England. It is its political and business centre. The heart of London is the City. It is the oldest part of London. Many people work in the City but very few live there. There are a lot of banks and other offices there are too. You can visit some interesting places in the City or near it. One of them is the Tower of London. The Tower of London was a fortress, a palace, a prison and the King's Zoo.
Now it is a museum. You can see a lot of interesting things in the rooms of the White Tower. Its square walls are white and very tall.
William the Conqueror built it in the 11th century. There are always black ravens in the Tower of London. People keep them in the Tower of London and look after them very well as they believe that London will be rich while ravens live there.
One of the greatest English churches, St Paul's Cathedral, is not far from the Tower of London. The famous English architect Sir Christopher Wren built it in the 17th century after the Great Fire. It took Sir Christopher Wren 35 years. It is a beautiful building with many columns and towers. In one of its towers there is one of the largest bells in the world.
Trafalgar Square is in the centre of London. Some people say it is the most beautiful place in London. In the middle of the square stands a tall column. It is a monument to Admiral Nelson. Four bronze lions look at the square from the monument. There are two beautiful fountains in the square. They are in front of the National Gallery which is one of the best picture galleries in the world. Every day a lot of tourists visit this fine building with its tall columns.
WESTMINSTER.
The political centre of London is Westminster. It is that part of London where there are a lot of offices . If you go down Whitehall from Trafalgar Square on the right you will see a small street where the British Prime Minister lives. He lives at number 10 Downing Street. Whitehall is a wide street leading to Parliament Square. This square is very large. On the left you can see a long grey building with towers which is the Houses of Parliament.
The large clock in one of the towers is Big Ben. Big Ben is the name of the clock and the bell in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. You can hear the sound of Big Ben every hour in London. The clock and the bell got their names after Sir Benjamin Hall. He was a tall man, whose nickname was Big Ben. So people know the clock as Big Ben.
The Thames is behind the Houses of Parliament and the bridge across it is Westminster Bridge.
On the other side of Parliament Square is Westminster Abbey. It is one of the most famous and beautiful churches in London. It is very old too. It is more than nine hundred years old. There are so many monuments and statues there. Many English kings and queens are buried there. Westminster Abbey is famous for its Poets' Corner too. Many great writers are buried there: for example Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling. The Abbey with its two tall towers is really wonderful.
The Queen of England lives in Buckingham Palace. It is a wonderful building with a monument in front of it which is the Queen Victoria Memorial. It takes people ten to twenty minutes to get from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, in the centre of London.
There are so many other places to see and visit in London, but you can't do all during one short trip.