The trip, in order
Follow the route day by day. Times and prices can change, so check official information before you travel.
Westminster institutions
Westminster
- 1
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey is worth allowing time for because it combines architecture, worship spaces, monuments and the changing use of a long-lived religious site. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are nave, choir and principal architectural details and memorials, chapels and historic fittings. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 90 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
- 2
National Gallery
National Gallery is worth allowing time for because it combines well-presented collections that connect objects and evidence with wider British and international history. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are permanent collection galleries and objects and displays linked to the site’s central story. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 150 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
- 3
Palace of Westminster and Big Ben
Palace of Westminster and Big Ben is worth allowing time for because it combines a structure whose engineering, design and relationship with its surroundings can be read on site. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are key structural details and the building’s relationship with the surrounding streetscape or landscape. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 120 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
Tower and cathedral
City of London
- 1
Tower of London
Tower of London is worth allowing time for because it combines fortified architecture and the way successive periods remain visible in walls, towers and domestic ranges. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are principal towers and defensive walls and historic residential or service ranges. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 150 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
- 2
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is worth allowing time for because it combines architecture, worship spaces, monuments and the changing use of a long-lived religious site. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are nave, choir and principal architectural details and memorials, chapels and historic fittings. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 90 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
Collections and design
South Kensington
- 1
British Museum
British Museum is worth allowing time for because it combines surviving archaeological evidence that makes an otherwise distant period unusually tangible. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are permanent collection galleries, objects and displays linked to the site’s central story, surviving structures and excavated features and site interpretation connecting remains with their period. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 150 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
- 2
Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum is worth allowing time for because it combines well-presented collections that connect objects and evidence with wider British and international history. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are permanent collection galleries and objects and displays linked to the site’s central story. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 150 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
Science and gardens
Greenwich / Kew
- 1
Royal Observatory Greenwich
Royal Observatory Greenwich is worth allowing time for because it combines well-presented collections that connect objects and evidence with wider British and international history. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are permanent collection galleries and objects and displays linked to the site’s central story. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 150 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
- 2
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is worth allowing time for because it combines designed planting and landscape that reflects changing ideas about science, horticulture or estate design. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are main landscape viewpoints, geological, coastal, moorland or mountain features, formal or botanical planting and contrasting garden and parkland areas. Its position in or near London also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 120 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.
- 3
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is worth allowing time for because it combines state rooms, architecture and the political or social history attached to a major residence. The site is more useful than a quick photograph: its surviving features give clear evidence of how the place developed and how people used it. Key things to concentrate on are principal state or historic rooms, exterior architecture and landscaped setting, formal or botanical planting and contrasting garden and parkland areas. Its position in or near East Molesey also makes it a practical anchor for exploring the surrounding region without reducing the visit to a simple landmark stop.
- Duration
- 150 minutes suggested
- Price
- Check current official information
- Start time
- Choose a start time that suits your day.