Find places to visit in Britain by name, location, type of attraction, or other keyword.
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These can be found in ABAB’s Places.
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A Queen Anne house, situated on the south bank of the Thames between the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern, which has a plaque on the wall declaring that both Christopher Wren and Katherine of Aragon lived in it (not simultaneously). Both assertions are false. The plaque is of unknown date. The house is a private residence.
Southwark
From 1940 - 1946, 64 Baker Street was the world headquarters of the Special Operations Executive, SOE, a clandestine organisation ordered to be set up by Churchill with the instruction to 'set Europe ablaze' by helping local resistance movements and conducting espionage and sabotage in enemy-held territories. A plaque was unveiled on the building in May 2010 by Margaret Jackson MBE, who was PA to Brigadier, later Major-General, Colin Gubbins, head of SOE from 1943 known by the initial 'M'. Margaret Jackson, herself a remarkable woman, was just 23 years old in 1940; she died in Croydon on 2 June 2013.
All Hallows by the Tower was founded in 675AD - it is the oldest church in the City of London. An arch from this original church remains and, beneath that, a fragment of Roman pavement. The church has looked after the bodies of those beheaded on nearby tower hill, including Thomas More's and, from the tower of the church, Samuel Pepys watched London burn in 1666. The founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, was baptised here and notable weddings included those of John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the USA, and Judge Jeffries, famous for his 'bloody assizes' in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor of 1685. All Hallows survived the Great Fire, thanks to the efforts of Pepys' friend Admiral Penn, but was fairly comprehensively bombed during WW2 and rebuilt in the 1950s. A long-serving vicar of the church was 'Tubby' Clayton, founder of 'Toc H', the rest and recuperation centre for troops in Belgium during WW1.
The Anaesthesia Museum is part of the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre of the Association of Anaethatists and contains objects relating to the history of anaesthesia. The earliest object in the collection is a resuscitation set of 1774. The museum gives an insight into the history of anaesthesia, resuscitation and pain relief.
For years, Apsley House was simply known as 'No 1, London.' Famously the London home of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, victor of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and later politician, no other address details were needed. Inside are lots of grand rooms, fine art and over the top treasures, all situated adjacent to Hyde Park Corner, one of the busiest traffic islands in Britain. A highlight is Wellington's false teeth in a glass case.
The Bank of England was founded on 27 July 1694 by a group of merchants along the lines proposed by Scotsman William Paterson (1658-1719). It began as a private bank, primarily to fund war against France. The Bank opened for business on 1 August 1694 in the Mercers' Hall in Cheapside with a staff of seventeen clerks and two gatekeepers. It moved to the Grocers’ Hall on Poultry on 31 December 1694 and remained there until moving to its own premises in Threadneedle Street in 1734.
It has its own museum, allegedly sitting on top of an enormous gold vault. Discover the history of the Bank - the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street - what it does, the story of paper money - and pick up a gold bar. You can't keep it - sorry.
This is where the English Parliament executed the King of Great Britain and established a republic in England and Wales. It was also a place of extravagant Jacobean entertainment. Banqueting House is a surviving relic of the great Palace of Whitehall, which was originally the medieval London home of the Archbishops of York and known as York Place. When the once powerful Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, fell from grace, King Henry VIII grabbed his London home, enlarged it, renamed it Whitehall, and it became a favourite of subsequent Tudor, and Stuart, monarchs. The current, spectacular, Banqueting House (there were predecessors) was designed by Inigo Jones, completed in 1622 and provided a venue for excessive celebration. Underneath it is a vaulted drinking den, used by James I for decadent goings-on. Banqueting House has a breathtaking ceiling, probably commissioned by King Charles I in 1629-30 and the only surviving in-situ ceiling painting by Flemish artist, Sir Peter Paul Rubens. It would have been one of the King's final sights on 30 January 1649, before stepping outside to meet his end on a scaffold that had been specially erected so that everyone could see their king die.
London's monument to the Battle of Britain is on Victoria Embankment, between Westminster Bridge and the RAF Memorial. It was unveiled by Prince Charles in 2005, cost £1.65 million and was funded entirely by public subscription. Among the donors was the Czech Republic. The monument is more than 80 feet (25 metres) long and was the brainchild of the late Bill Bond MBE, founder of the Battle of Britain Historical Society. It honours ‘the Few’, the RAF pilots who were outnumbered and who saved Britain from invasion in 1940. At its centre is a near life-size sculpture depicting airmen scrambling – running to their aircraft in order to intercept the enemy. Around the monument are the names of the Few – 2,936 airmen from fifteen nations who took part in the battle on the Allied side. Other panels show some of the other participants and contributors to the Battle of Britain and ultimate victory – including civilians.
Do not confuse this monument with the Battle of Britain Memorial in Kent. The post code is approximate.
Westminster
There's a small section of the Berlin Wall, taken from the Leuschnerdamm in the Kreuzberg district of the city, outside the Imperial War Museum in London. On it, the main item of graffiti is the phrase 'CHANGE YOUR LIFE' by the graffiti artist 'Indiano'. The Berlin Wall was erected by the East German authorities from the 13 August 1961, dividing the city between east and west. It was breached by ordinary Berliners on 9 November 1989, an event seen by many as marking the end of the Cold War. It also paved the way for German reunification. The Wall was finally dismantled between 1990-94.
Lambeth
Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a work of art consisting of 888,246 ceramic red poppies placed in the moat of the Tower of London, between July and November 2014 to commemorate the centenary of World War I. Each poppy represented a lost life from Britain or one of its Dominions, killed in the war. It attracted a huge number of visitors. Members of the public could purchase a poppy and part of the installation then went on tour around the UK organised by 14-18 NOW until 2018, after which it was decided to have permanent displays at IWM London and North Museums. The work was created by artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper.
Address is IWM London.
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