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Welcome to the Inside Guide to London

Welcome to the InsideGuide to London. What's this site about? People who live and work in any city, are always closer to visiting tourists than you might think. If you're adventurous - why not try some of the places that tempt the locals? That's where the Inside Guide begins.

There are only two types of visitor, right? The global traveller who wants to see the authentic underbelly of every location, and the tacky tourist in a shell-suit. Wrong! Most people lie somewhere between. They’d like to see the best of the popular sights, and experience some real London flavour too. The Inside Guide offers that balance.

We're not listing everything in town here - that would take too long to read. We're sifting heavily for you, and our interest, is in presenting the best of what London has to offer. Consequently, there's an element of trust involved. To understand a traveller, you need to have been one, so we’ve included the best of what widely-travelled Londoners, think London does best. Subjective, yes, but we want you to leave London feeling like you've experienced its unique character. There are no renowned critics (so no biased red carpet is extended for reviewers), they see what you see. Rising stars get added, fading stars get pruned. No exhausting listings - just the cream of the crop. You can't buy a listing in the Inside Guide, you just have to be good at what you do - then you get listed for free.

Original photos, maps and videos are important, so you’ll find lots here. More importantly however – ‘less is more’. The Inside Guide is manageable and readable. You’re not studying for an examination on London restaurants, you just need to eat.

London Eye and River Bus Cruise

The London Eye, opposite the Houses of Parliament is usually one of the first attractions on visitors' itineraries. A 30 minute 'flight' offers clear views to the periphery of London and is a good way of establishing your bearings, since the entire city is laid out before you. A certain amount of time spent queuing is inevitable since The London Eye is very popular, though it is worth the wait. An unpopular proposal, the initial plan was to scap the wheel after five years, but it has proved so popular, both as an experience, but also as a part of the skyline, that those plans were shelved (the Eiffel Tower in Paris was due a similar fate in its day).

The Horniman Museum

The museum was founded by Victorian tea trader Frederick John Horniman and originally contained his collection of natural history, cultural artefacts and musical instruments. The Horniman Museum contains the CUE (Centre for Understanding the Environment) building which opened in 1996. The building has a grass roof, was constructed from sustainable materials and includes a passive ventilation system.

The Horniman specialises in anthropology, natural history and musical instruments and has a collection of 350,000 objects. The ethnography and music collections have Designated status. It is noted for its large collection of stuffed animals.
Part natural history museum, part musical instrument museum. Some highly original building design (Arts and Crafts movement) and acres of cultivated parkland, with menagerie, bandstand, banana plantations, Victorian conservatory and extensive views of the city.

Temple Church - founded by the Knights Templar

Over the road from the Royal Courts of Justice is a black gate with two smaller black doors, go through the ajar door and head down the road (Middle

Inner Temple: one of the four Inns of Court.

Temple Lane) behind the gate. The Temple Church is signposted, bearing to your left (east).

The Church was built by the Knights Templar, the order of crusading monks founded to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem in the 12th century. The Church is in two parts: the Round (nave) and the Chancel. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem. It was designed to recall the holiest place in the Crusaders' world: the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (the church built on the site where Christ was crucified).

The Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection is situated in Manchester Square, a few hundred yards from the hectic bustle of Oxford Street.

The Halt During the Chase - by Antoine Watteau is featured in one of the salons.

It displays a world-renowned range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries, arranged within 25 galleries. Curiously overlooked by many visitors, possibly because it's so rarely flagged for attention. Well worth the time to investigate, however - its intimacy could well propel it into your own personal-favourites list.

Formation

The collection was bequeathed to Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890) -the illegitimate son of Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford (1800-1870). It was then passed to the nation, upon death, by his widow. The museum opened to the public in 1900 in Hertford House, Manchester Square, and remains in this stunning building, to this day. A condition of the bequest was that no object ever leave the collection, even for loan exhibitions. Meaning, the only possibility of seeing these globally important works, is to visit.

Buckingham Palace - Cabinet War Rooms - Houses of Parliament

Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House, the building which forms the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703. It was enlarged over the next 100 years, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, forming three wings around a central courtyard.

Buckingham Palace became the official royal palace of the British monarch after the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The palace chapel was destroyed by a German bomb in World War II and the Queen's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.

The original early 19th-century interior designs, many of which still survive, included widespread use of scagliola and blue and pink lapis, King Edward VII oversaw a partial redecoration in a Belle epoque cream and gold colour scheme.

The Buckingham Palace Garden is the largest private garden in London, originally landscaped by Capability Brown, the artificial lake was completed in 1828 and is supplied with water from the Serpentine, the river which runs through Hyde Park.

The state rooms form the nucleus of the working Palace and are used regularly by Queen Elizabeth II and members of the royal family for official and state entertaining.

Hampton Court Palace - Richmond

Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, in south west London; it has not been lived in by the British royal family since the 18th century. The palace is located 11.7 miles (18.8 km) south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames. It was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII, circa 1514; in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was acquired by the King, who enlarged it.

The following century, William III's extensive rebuilding and expansion project intended to rival Versailles was begun. Work halted in 1694, leaving the palace in two distinct contrasting architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. While the palace's styles are an accident of fate, a unity exists due to the use of pink bricks and an, albeit vague, symmetrical balancing of successive low wings.

The Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research, specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Darwin.

Originating from collections within the British Museum, the Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections.

Richard Owen was appointed Superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum in 1856. He set about formalising and controlling the classification of collections after earlier carelessness and blunders resulted in losses of both specimens and accompanying notation.