Architektura Londynu

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch. The Palace is a setting for state occasions and royal entertaining, a base for all officially visiting Heads of State, and a major tourist attraction. The palace, originally known as Buckingham House (and still nicknamed \"Buck House\" by the royal family), was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 and acquired by King George III in 1762 as a private residence. It was enlarged over the next 75 years, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, forming three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace finally became the official royal palace of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th Century, with the addition of the large wing facing east towards The Mall, and the removal of the former state entrance, Marble Arch, to its present position near Speakers\' Corner in Hyde Park. The east front was refaced in Portland stone in 1913 as a backdrop to the Victoria Memorial, creating the present-day \'public face\' of Buckingham Palace, including the famous balcony.
The Tower of London is a landmark in central London—in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets—just outside the City of London. Its true foundation was in 1078 when William the Conqueror ordered the White Tower to be built, as much to protect the Normans from the people of the City of London as to protect London from outside invaders.
The White Tower, the square building with turrets on each corner that gave it its name, is actually in the middle of a complex of several buildings along the River Thames in London, which have served as fortresses, armories, treasuries, zoos/menageries, mints, palaces, places of execution, public records offices, observatories, shelters, and prisons (particularly for upper class prisoners). This last use has led to the phrase \"sent to the Tower\" meaning \"imprisoned\". One widely known example was that Elizabeth I was imprisoned for a time in the Tower during her sister Mary\'s reign.
The Palace of Westminster, known also as the Houses of Parliament, is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) meet to conduct their business. The Palace lies on the north bank of the River Thames in the London borough of the City of Westminster, close by other government buildings in Whitehall. The oldest part of the Palace still in existence, Westminster Hall, dates from 1097. The palace originally served as a royal residence but no monarch has lived in it since the 16th century. Most of the present structure dates from the 19th century, when the Palace was rebuilt after it was almost entirely destroyed by a fire in 1834. The architect responsible for rebuilding the Palace was Sir Charles Barry with Augustus Welby Pugin. The building is an example of Gothic revival. One of the Palace\'s most famous features is the clock tower, a tourist attraction that houses the famous bell Big Ben. The latter name is often used, erroneously, for the clock itself. The Palace contains over 1,000 rooms, the most important of which are the Chambers of the House of Lords and of the House of Commons. The Palace also includes committee rooms, libraries, lobbies, dining-rooms, bars and gymnasiums. It is the site of important state ceremonies, most notably the State Opening of Parliament. The Palace is very closely associated with the two Houses, as shown by the use of \"Westminster\" as a metonym for \"Parliament\". Parliamentary offices overspill into nearby buildings such as Portcullis House, and Norman Shaw Buildings.
Trafalgar Square is a square in central London that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been \"King William the Fourth\'s Square\", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name \"Trafalgar Square\". The area had been the site of the King\'s Mews since the time of Edward I. In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845. The square is a popular site for political demonstrations, is the site of Nelson\'s Column, and related sculptures of note.
The British Airways London Eye, sometimes called the Millennium Wheel (Coordinates: 5130′12″N, 0007′11″W), is the first-built and largest observation wheel in the world (a type of Ferris wheel), and has been the only one since its opening at the end of 1999. It stands 135 metres (443 feet) high on the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames in Lambeth, London, England, between Westminster and Hungerford Bridges. It is adjacent to London\'s County Hall, and stands opposite the offices of the Ministry of Defence. Designed by architects David Marks, Julia Barfield, Malcolm Cook, Mark Sparrowhawk, Steven Chilton, and Nic Bailey, the wheel carries 32 sealed and air conditioned passenger capsules attached to its external circumference. It rotates at a rate of 0.26 metres per second (about 0.9 km/h or 0.6 mph) so that one revolution takes about 30 minutes to complete. The wheel does not usually stop to take on passengers; the rotation rate is so slow that passengers can easily walk on and off the moving capsules at ground level. It is, however, stopped on occasion to allow disabled or elderly passenger
Themillennium dome is a large dome shaped building on the Greenwich peninsula in south-east London, the United Kingdom, at grid reference TQ391801. From its construction in 1999 up until May 2005, the structure was know as the Millennium Dome. The renaming to The O2 marks the sponsorship of the venue by the phone company of the same name.s time to disembark safely. It can easily be seen on aerial photographs of London, including the title sequence of the popular soap opera EastEnders. Its exterior is reminiscent of the Dome of Discovery built for the Festival of Britain in 1951. The architect was Richard Rogers. The building structure was engineered by Buro Happold, and the entire roof structure actually weighs less than the air contained within the building. Although called a dome it is not strictly one as it is not self supporting but is a mast-supported, dome-shaped cable network.
City Hall in London is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London. It stands on the south bank of the River Thames, in the More London development by Tower Bridge. Designed by Norman Foster it opened in July 2002. The building has an unusual bulbous shape, intended to reduce the building\'s surface area and thus improve energy efficiency. It has been compared variously to Darth Vader\'s helmet, a misshapen egg, a woodlouse or a motorcycle helmet. It forms part of a larger development called More London, with a sunken amphitheatre called The Scoop dividing it from more conventional office buildings a short distance to the west. The Scoop can seat 1000 people and is used in the summer months for open-air performances. It is not, however, part of the GLA\'s jurisdiction. A 500 metre (1,640 foot) spiral walkway, reminiscent of that in New York\'s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ascends the full height of the building. At the top of the ten-story building is an exhibition and meeting space called \"London\'s Living Room,\" with an open viewing deck which is occasionally open to the public. The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt Reichstag in Germany. City Hall is not in the City of London, whose headquarters is in the Guildhall north of the Thames.
The London Millennium Footbridge is a pedestrian-only steel suspension bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England, between the existing Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, linking Bankside with the City. It was the first new bridge across the Thames in London since Tower Bridge in 1894 and it is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the Corporation of London. The south end of the bridge is near Globe Theatre, the Bankside Gallery and Tate Modern, the north end next to the City of London School below St Paul\'s Cathedral. The design of the bridge was the subject of a competition organised in 1996 by Southwark council. The winning entry was an innovative \"blade of light\" effort from Arup, Foster and Partners and Sir Anthony Caro. Due to height restrictions, and to improve the view, the bridge\'s suspension design had the supporting cables below the deck level, giving a very shallow profile. The bridge has two river piers and is made of three main sections of 81m, 144m and 108m (North to South) with a total structure length of 325m; the aluminium deck is 4m wide. The eight suspension cables are tensioned to pull with a force of 2,000 tons against the piers set into each bank — enough to support a working load of 5,000 people on the bridge at one time.
Tate Modern is Britain\'s national museum of modern art in London and, with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives, a part of the Tate Gallery. The galleries are housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station, and built in two stages between 1947 and 1963. The power station closed in 1981. The building was converted by architects Herzog & de Meuron and stands at 99 m tall. Since its opening on May 12, 2000, it has become a very popular destination for Londoners and tourists. Entry is free.