Churches.
St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are the most famous churches in London. St. Paul's serves as the seat of the London diocese of the Church of England. The great English architect Sir Christopher Wren built the church between 1675 and 1710 to replace the original St. Paul's, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The church's huge dome towers 365 feet (111 meters) above the ground. Wren also rebuilt more than 50 other churches destroyed or damaged in the Great Fire.
The history of Westminster Abbey reaches back more than 900 years. In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned king there. Since then, almost all the country's monarchs have been crowned there. The church has been added to and remodeled over the centuries, but some of its present architecture dates from the 1200's.
London has many other famous churches. The oldest is the Chapel of St. John in the Tower of London. It dates from the late 1000's and still has some of its original architecture. Westminster Cathedral, a familiar landmark in the West End, is England's chief Roman Catholic church. It was completed in 1903.
The Palaces of London.
Over the centuries, the United Kingdom's rulers have lived in a number of splendid palaces in London. Few of these buildings survive in their original form. Most have been turned into museums or showplaces. For example, the superb royal dining hall called the Banqueting House is almost all that remains of Whitehall Palace. This magnificent palace, in Whitehall, was a residence of England's royal family from 1529 to 1698. The English architect Inigo Jones completed the Banqueting House for King James I in 1622. Today, it is preserved as a showplace.
St. James's Palace, between St. James's Park and Green Park in the West End, was the official royal residence from 1698 to 1837. The palace now provides office space for the staff of the royal household as well as apartments for certain members of the royal family.
Buckingham Palace has been the official royal residence since 1837. It was originally the home of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, who lived there in the early 1700's. Other famous London palaces include Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens and Hampton Court Palace by the Thames in the borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Other attractions
The Houses of Parliament, in Westminster, serve as the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two branches of the United Kingdom's legislature. The buildings are officially called the Palace of Westminster. They were constructed during the mid-1800's to replace earlier palace buildings that had burned down in 1834. A huge bell in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament has boomed out the hours since 1859. Londoners refer to the bell, the clock, and the clock tower as Big Ben. During World War II (1939-1945), German bombs destroyed part of the House of Commons. It was rebuilt after the war.
The chief building that survived the 1834 fire was Westminster Hall, an assembly hall completed in 1099 and remodeled during the late 1300's. It stands near the center of the Houses of Parliament. A terrorist bomb slightly damaged the hall in 1974.
The Tower of London, which borders the City, is London's oldest landmark. It lies on the north bank of the Thames in the East End, in the borough of Tower Hamlets. The White Tower dates from the late 1000's. The Tower of London has served as a fortress, a palace, and a prison. Two of King Henry VIII's six wives were beheaded on the site in the 1500's. Today, the Tower of London is a national monument and museum. The White Tower holds an armour collection that was started by King Henry VIII. The Crown Jewels are exhibited at the Jewel House.
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