Central London
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Trafalgar Square is one of London's greatest architectural sites. Nelson's Column stands in the centre commemorating his great victory over Napoleon's navy in 1805. Charles I's equestrian statue stands on the very spot where his executioners were buried.The National Gallery houses one of the world's greatest art collections. It has over 2300 pictures and covers every European school of painting from 1260 to 1900.
The principal artists are from Spain, Italy, France and Holland - Giotto, Uccello, Botticelli, Bosch, Titian, El Greco, Holbein, Bruegel, Poussin, Rubens, Renoir, Leonardo da Vinci, Velazquez, Monet, Jan van Eyck, Van Dyck, van Gogh, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt are just a few of the great painters on display.
If London has a heart it must be Leicester Square, standing between Piccadilly and Covent Garden it is traversed by 22m people a year. Cinemas, cheap restaurants, night clubs and outdoor entertainers strive to catch the attention of the passing public.
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Rock Circus at Piccadilly Circus features 20 years of Rock stars using the latest animated techniques to bring yesterday's and today's performers 'alive' before their audience.Virgin Superstore in Piccadilly Circus sells hundreds of thousands of CDs to teenagers every year.
Brass Rubbing at St James' Church Hall, Piccadilly; or in the Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square; or in the North Cloister of Westminster Abbey.
Covent Garden is London's oldest planned square. Built in 1614 as a luxurious neighbourhood it soon plunged into an area of drink, vice and scandal. It later became an important vegetable market until 1974. It is now transformed with modern shops, stalls, cafés and enlivened by young musicians, buskers and comedy street performers.
Websites: www.madame-tussauds.com, www.nationalgallery.org.uk, www.coventgarden.uk.com