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Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus is a famous traffic intersection and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster.
Built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly (the "circus" refers to "circular open space at a street junction"), it now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue as well as the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street. Its proximity to major shopping and entertainment areas, its central location at the heart of the West End, and its status as a major traffic intersection have made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting point and a tourist attraction in its own right.
It is renowned for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue known as Eros (strictly, The Angel of Christian Charity which would be better translated as 'Agape'). It is surrounded by several noted buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre. Directly underneath the plaza is the London Underground station Piccadilly Circus.
South Bank
The South Bank is the area in London on the southern bank of the River Thames near Waterloo station that houses a number of important cultural buildings/institutions. It was the site of the 1951 Festival of Britain, for which the Royal Festival Hall, now part of the South Bank Centre arts complex, was built. The area is split between the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark. |
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Since then, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room were opened in 1967, the Hayward Gallery in 1968, and the National Theatre in 1976. Nearby are the National Film Theatre (NFT), and the British Film Institute which also has opened an IMAX cinema.
Theatreland
The majority of London 's "theatreland" theatres are around Shaftesbury Avenue , The Strand and nearby streets in the West End . See the article " West End theatre".
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a bascule bridge in London, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, which gives it its name. It is occasionally incorrectly referred to as London Bridge, which is the next bridge upstream. The bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the Corporation of London. |
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Tower of London
The Tower of London is officially Her Majesty's Palace and Fortress, The Tower of London, although the last ruler to reside in it as a palace was King James I (1566-1625). The White Tower, the square building with turrets on each corner that gave it its name, is actually in the middle of a complex of several buildings along the River Thames in London, which have served as fortress, armoury, treasury, mint, palace, place of execution, public records office, observatory, refuge, and prison, particularly for upper class prisoners. This last use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower" meaning "imprisoned." Elizabeth I was imprisoned for a time in the Tower during her sister Mary's reign; the last use of the Tower as a prison was during World War II, for Rudolf Hess. |
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Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a square in central London that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".
The area had been the site of the King's Mews since the time of Edward I. In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845. |
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Camden Town
Camden Town is a place in the London Borough of Camden. It is an inner-city district located 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north north-west of Charing Cross .
The area popular with overseas students who come to Camden to learn English in schools such as Camden College of English, located at the Chalk Farm side of the market. The area has a reputation for readily available drugs. |
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