Whena man Is tired of London he is tired of life, for there is in London all thatLife can afford
Samuel Johnson
Today,more than 250 years later, Johnson’s words still ring true. There are fewplaces that offer such a variety of sights, entertainments, world-famousmuseums and superb shopping.
Thereis much in London which fascinates visitors and inspires the affection ofLondoners: the splendor of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, thedignity of St.Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
So,ladies and gentleman! Welcome to our London sightseeing tour. London issituated in the south-east of England on the River Thames, where the Romanslanded nearly 2000 years ago.It is 46 kilometres from the north to the south,and 58 kilometres from the east to the west. London is one of the most famouscapital cities of the world and every year it attracts crowds of visitors fromhome and abroad. This city has got a population of about 8 million people. Thatis 13% of all Britain’s population. London really consists of 3 cities: theCity of London, The City of Westminster, and the City of Southwark.
TodayI invite you to see the city of Westminster, its commercial and businessdistrict. The area of the City is about a square mile. The “City” does notrefer to the whole of central London but rather to a small area east of thecentre, including the site of the original Roman town. The city of London isone of the major banking centres of the world and one can find the banks ofmany nations. Here can also be found: the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange,and Lloyds, the most famous insurance company of the world. Only 5000 peoplelive in the city but more than a million come here to work.
Weare in Trafalgar Square. It was named so in commemoration of thevictorious naval battle of Trafalgar in 1805, in which Admiral Lord Nelson wasfatally wounded. The Nelson Colomn was erected in the 1840s. As you see, on thetop of the imposing colomn, a replica of one Corinthian colomns in the Templeof Mars at Rome, is a 17 feet-tall statue of Lord Nelson. The total hight ofthe monument is 184 feet. On the pedestal you can see bronze reliefs cast froma captured French cannon, representing Nelson’s famous victories. The fourbronze lions are the work of the English architect of Landseer.
Onthe north side of Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery and the NationalPortrait Gallery. The National Gallery was built in 1824. It contains one ofthe finest collections of pictures in the world. There are more than 850masterpieces of all European school of paintings.
Duringthe rush hours, when people go to and from their work, it is hardly possible tocross the streets. At that time the quickest transport is Underground railway.All other traffic is slowed down by the crowds of people and all kinds ofvehicles. Trafalgar Square is site of demonstrations and mass relies for piece,disarmament and for working people’s rights.
Nowwe are going to Buckingham Palace. The Palace was built by the Duke ofBuckingham in 1705, hence, the name of the building. Originally it was notintended to become the Royal residence. For centuries Monarch lived first inWestminster Palace and then in St.Jame’s Palace. In 1762, George III bought thePalace from the Duke and presented it to his wife. And only in the 19thcentury, when Queen Victoria was on the throne, Buckingham Palace was turnedinto the residence of the Monarch. As a matter of fact, it serves twofunctions. It is a family home and the place where presidents, kings andpoliticians come to meet the Queen. Buckingham Palace is like a small town withits own police station, two post offices, a bar, two sports clubs, a disco, acinema and a swimming pool. There are 600 rooms and 3 miles of red carpet.Every day at Buckingham Palace there is a famous ceremony the Changing of theGuard, at 11 p.m. Every day a new Guard of 30 guardsmen marches to the Palaceand takes the place of the old guard. A large crowd of people gather to seethis famous and traditional ceremony.
TodayBuckingham Palace is a very busy place. Several hundreds of people help theMonarch to run the country. Lot’s of important meetings, ceremonies andreceptions take place here. In front of the palace you see a monument – this isThe Victoria Memorial, the statue of Queen Victoria.
Butlet’s speak about the building. First we see State rooms: they are furnishedwith the greatest treasure of the Royal collection – paintings by Rembrandt,Rubens, Vermeer; sculpture by Canova and Chantrey; exquisite examples ofporcelain; the finest English and French furniture in the world. AlthoughBuckingham Palace is furnished and decorated with priceless works of art in theworld today, it is not an art gallery. The state rooms are used regularly bythe Monarch and members of the Royal Family for various official ceremonies.
Andthis is the Throne room. In it the Monarch receives all important visitors suchas Heads of the foreign states. Actually this room is not used very often.
Nowwe are in the Ballroom that is 36m long, 18m wide and 13m high .It is thelargest room in Buckingham Palace which was opened in 1856 with a ball tocelebrate the end of the Crimean War. From the Ballroom we can go to the westGallery decorated with amazing frescoes and paintings. The Gallery overlooksthe gardens that surround the Palace. londonsightseeing tour
Wealso must see the State Dining Room. Many distinguished people have dined inthis room, including lots of presidents and prime ministers. A lot of banquetsare held here throughout the year.
Ourtour is not over yet. Now let’s visitWestminster Abbey.Thegreat glory of Westminster is, of course, the Abbey. Ancient tradition claimsthat St. Peter founded the first church here, but the Abbey's more than 900years of existence since the dedication go back to Edward the Confessor. HenryIII rebuilt the earlier church and the present building dates from his reign.
Westminster Abbey is the ancient churchwhere a lot of kings and queens have been crowned and buried for nearly 1,000years. The oldest part of the building dates back to the 18th century. The Chapelof King Henry VII was built in the 16th century.
There are 3,000 graves of statesmen,scientists, artists inside the Abbey. Some of the tombs are decorated with goldand precious stones.
Princess Diana, so much loved by almostof the peoples the world over, was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1997.
As the visitors of the Abbey, you areattracted to Poets' Corner, with its memorials to great men of letters. Manyoutstanding statesmen, painters, writers and poets are buried there. Among themare Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and others. Chaucer, who isburied in the Abbey, is remembered here. So are Spenser, Dryden, Ben Jonson,and Milton. There are also memorials to Shakespeare, Burns, Byron, WalterScott, Thackeray and to the American poet Longfellow. A full length statue ofShakespeare by Scheemakers was erected in 1741, and just opposite is a monumentto the actor David Garrick. He is aptly1 shown parting the curtains.Dr Johnson is represented with a magnificent bust by Nollekens, and there is aremarkable rendering of Blake's life-mask by Epstein.
Nearly all English kings and queens havebeen crowned in Westminster Abbey.
If you have never visited the Abbeybefore, try to go it through slowly and look about carefully. For the immediateeffect, as you follow the wonderfully vaulted roof along the length of thenave, is a startling and breathtaking beauty. There is an element of greatnesshere that is not just concerned with size and height.
Nowwe are driving down Whitehall. So let’s stop at 10, Downing Street. It isthe home of the Prime Minister. This building is 200 years old.But its interior has been brought up-to-date. It has got electric lights,central heating, and several bathrooms. But at the same time it is where theCabinet meets. As you know nowadays the Prime Minister is Gordon Brown. Fromhere you can see the Houses of Parliament.
The Palace ofWestminster is nearly 1000 years old though it was reconstructed,enlarged and redesigned many times and today's palace dates mostly from the 19th century.For long period of time thePalace of Westminster was the home of Monarch. It was in 1512 that a great fireseriously damaged Palace and the king Henry VIII decided to leave it and moveanother palace. To St. James's Palaceand then to Buckingham, but nowweare talking about Westminster. Since the 16th centurу -the palace has served asthe home of the British Parliament
So, this is where theHouse of Commons and the I house of Lords work.the British Parliament are here, all laws are passed andall important political and social questions are discussed in this building.This is where the Monarch of the UK reads her special speech to the Government andthe nation once a year.
The Palace of Westminster, together withVictoria Tower and the Clock Tower — which houses the most famous clock in theworld, Big Ben — form an unmistakable architectural complex. But the Towers andthe Houses of Parliament are not only associated architecturally, but also in thedemocratic spirit that rules the political life developed in the House ofCommons, for, if Parliament is sitting — British parliamentary debates constitute anexemplary political spectacle — the flag flies on top of Victoria Tower duringthe whole day. If the debates go on during the night — which quite oftenhappens in the dynamic parliamentary life of Great Britain, especially ifmatters highly important for the nation are being discussed — a light burnsabove Big Ben in the Clock Tower. This light at night and the flag during theday-time signal for the people of London that the members of Parliament, eachfrom his own political point of view, are watching over the nation's interests.
The Houses of Parliament are open to thepublic and we can enter it and see some very interesting historicrooms and halls..Now, when we are inside the building, look at the ceiling of the main hall. You seethe three colours of Parliament — gold that symbolizes the Monarchy, red — thesymbol of the House of Lords and green — the symbol of the House of Commons.The building is divided in three parts accordingtothese colours.
First, the Robing Hall. In this roomthe Monarch receive the Imperial State Crown which is placed on his/her headjust before he/she walks through the corridor to the House of Lords to readhis annual address. This Crown is usually kept in the Tower. It is used onlyonce a year. The Monarch wears it during the opening Parliament. This roomslead us to the Royal Gallery where there are Royal portraits. These are kingsand queens from the ancient times till nowadays. And these two large paintingsshow the scenes from the battles which were fought against the French in the19th century — the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Waterloo.
Now we are going to the House of Lords.
This part of the palace does not seemvery old.It is not very oldbecause in the Second World War the palace was bombed and this part of it wasrebuilt in the 1950s.
The Lords sit on the red benches and theLord Chancellor who is the head of the House sit at the end of the hall on thebig red divan, which is often called “the woolsack”. It is called so becausemany years ago, he really sat on the woolsack, it was used as the symbol ofthe prosperity of England but today it is just a divan.
And here is the House of Commons.The prevailing colour here is green.Asyou see the members of the Parliament sit on the green benches. Thehead of the House is the Speaker and he sits on the green chair.
I am sure, you have heard much about BIGBEN. The clock bell was called after Sir Benjamin Hall, who was given a job ofhaving the bell hoisted up. Sir Benjamin was a very tall and stout man, whosenickname was “Big Ben”. One day he said in Parliament: “Shall we call the bell St. Stephen’s because of the name of the tower?” But someone joked: “Why notcall it Big Ben?”. Now the bell is known all over the world by that name.
The bell is 7 feet 6 inches high, and 9feet 6 inches across the mouth. It weights 13.5 tons (about the same as twodouble-decker buses).
The bell is heard at every hour. It isthe big bell with a deep voice, and it counts the hours. Its deep voice isheard on the radio. You may hear, «This is the BBC. The time is sixo'clock». And you hear the deep BOOM of Big Ben six times.
But let’s go on. We have an interesting place to visit. We are going to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is a magnificent, unique building,one of the greatest churches in the world. Infact,there has been a Cathedral on this site since 604 AD but it was destroyed andrebuilt at least three times and he Cathedral you can see today dates back tothe 17th century, very day about 40,000 people come to St. Paul’s. When in 66the Cathedral was burnt down as a result of the Great Fire of London, the planswere made to build a new Cathedral at once. The construction finished only in1710. Many famous artists took part in the decorating of St. Paul’s: thebeautiful frescoes and glittering mosaics that the visitors adore today arethe perfect works of art.
Many contemporary artists continue toenrich the Cathedral. a lot of important events were celebrated at theCathedral: the Golden Jubilees of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II, famouspriests of the past and present preached here. The Cathedral is also the burialplace of many important and influential political and marital figures. They arecommemorated with beautiful monuments. Although the Cathedral is full oftreasures it is not a museum. St. Paul is a living place of worship. Theservices take place daily, so we will be allowed to enter the Cathedral onlywhen the sermon is over. And don’t forget to turn off your camera and a mobilephone. Tourists are not allowed to use them when at the Cathedral.
The Cathedral is enormous .And we shallsee the most exciting places of it. First the Nave — the central part of theCathedral where there is the altar and the imposing memorial to Wellington, itis the largest memorial in the Cathedral, it commemorates the famous Britishofficer. Wellington isdepicted riding his horse on the top of the monument. It is so big andfantastic. Several architect worked on it for more than 20 years.Ifwe go down the Nave we can view the statues of famous priests of the past, someof these statues are very old, and mosaics that show the symbols of theChristianity.
The staircase takes us up to the Dome —this part of the Cathedral is also often referred to as «TheGalleries». Perhaps you have heard about the Whispering Gallery. Itis called this because someone whispers close to the wall on one side, a personwith an ear close to the wall on the other side can hear what is said.itis 259 steps up. There is not only one gallery inthe Dome. 378 steps up is the Stone Gallery and if you climb 530 steps you willget to the Golden Gallery which offers panoramic view across London.
Now we are going to the Crypt.
The Crypt is the basement of theCathedral. Many important persons and national heroes are commemorated here:you will see the monuments to the army officers Nelson and Wellington,Lawrence of Arabia, the prime minister of the UK – Winston Churchil andFlorence Nightingale – the woman who founded the first nursing school inEngland. There is also the memorial to William Turner, one of the greatestpainters of the 19th century. I must say that Christopher Wren, thearchitect who designed the Cathedral, is also buried here. We will stop at hisgrave. It is very Simple. There is no monument but the plate on the gravestonesays: “If you look for a monument, just look around”. The whole Cathedral is atrue memorial to this talented architect.
Our excursion has come to the end. Thankyou. If you have questios, you may ask them.