An urban myth, which began shortly after WWII, suggests that an ancient Roman battleground is located here and the body of Iceni Warrior Queen Boudica is buried somewhere beneath platform 9 and 10.
The iconic bridge (opened 1894) still gives priority to river traffic, and is raised on average 3 times a day. In 1997 it split the motorcade of US President Bill Clinton, causing some alarm.
London Bridge was once crowded with buildings and prone to fires. It survived the 1666 Great Fire because an earlier fire had destroyed houses at the north end, creating a fire break!
This area was named after Leicester House, the London mansion home of the Earl of Leicester built in 1635. But by 1800 it was a home of popular entertainment and theatres, and has never looked back.
175-9 Oxford St, now a retail and office development, was in 1912 the site of the world’s first ever motor museum, and included Britain’s first ever petrol-engined car, the 1894 Bremer.
Built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham, George III acquired it in 1762 as a private house. It became an official royal residence in the reign of Queen Victoria, when it was greatly enlarged.
A hidden statue of ‘the boy who never grew up’ can be found in Kensington Gardens, where Peter Pan used to come to play with the fairies and sail the Serpentine with a nest for a boat.
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain was opened in 2004, and is made from 545 pieces of Cornish granite. The design is intended to reflect the Princess’s openness.
Big Ben refers to the 13 ton bell in the clock tower of Westminster Palace. Opinion is divided as to whether it was named after the then Commissioner of Works, or a famous prize-fighter of the time.
This iron replica of Big Ben dates from 1892. Its refurbishment in 1981 was sponsored by the French company Elf Aquitaine, hence the insription ‘my heart beats true for England as for France’.
The largest dome in the world and the largest single-roofed structure in the world was built amid some controversy for £789 million just in time for the millennium, completed in June 1999.
The famous illuminated advertising of Piccadilly Circus began as early as 1893, before most of the city had electric street lighting.
The market began life in 1974 as a weekly crafts market, and now has about 100,000 visitors each weekend. The Stables Market is where the horses used to be kept for towing canal barges.
‘Paddington Bear’ was written by Michael Bond in 1958. His bear arrived here somehow from ‘deepest, darkest Peru’ and was named after the station. You can find a statue of him near the escalators.
The square here was laid out by Inigo Jones in 1630, on land once used by the monks of Westminster Abbey as a garden, but confiscated by Henry VIII during the Reformation.
Located between platforms 9 & 10 is the magical platform 9 3/4, reached only by those travelling to the Hogwarts Academy, such as Harry and his friends in 2001's "Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone." Leggi tutto.
