chapter 1 this is London every year more than 9 million people come from countries all over the world to visit London they go to the theaters and museums they look at interesting old buildings many of them hundreds of years old they sit or walk in the beautiful Parks or have a drink in a pub they go to Oxford Street to look at the shops or to herod's 2 million visitors go to the Tower of London a million more go to see St Paul's Cathedral yes London is a big and beautiful city with lots to see
and do but how did it all begin chapter 2 in the beginning the name London comes from the Romans there were people living here before they came but we do not know very much about them the Romans came to England in a 43 they built houses and other buildings and made a town next to the river temps they called The Town londinium they built a bridge over the river and ships came up to londonium from the sea the town got bigger and bigger important new buildings went up and you can see some of the Roman
city wall today near the Museum of London it was a rich town with about 50,000 people living in it but soon after ad400 the Romans left londonium to go back to Rome and nobody lived in the town for many hundreds of years the buildings began to fall down Danish soldiers destroyed more buildings nearly 500 years later King Alfred was King of England then he got the Danes to leave London and his men built the town again in 1066 William the Conqueror came to England from France to be king soon after he began to build the
Tower of London when Henry VII was King in 1509 50,000 people lived in London Again by the year 1600 there were 200,000 but a lot of them lived in old and dirty buildings in 1665 100,000 people died from an ill illness called the plague this was called the year of the Great Plague a year later in 1666 there was a big fire the Fire of London it began in a house in Pudding Lane near London Bridge more than a quarter of a million londoners lost their homes in the fire it destroyed St Paul's Cathedral and
88 other churches but the fire also destroyed most of the worst old buildings and the new houses that went up after this were better for people to live in a new St Paul's Cathedral was built between 1675 and 1711 by 1881 more than 3 million people lived in London today more than 6 million people live here there were 8 million in the 1960s but in the 1970s and 1980s people moved out of the center of London chapter 3 visiting the city a quick and easy way to get to different places in the city is to
use an underground train the trains run all day and most of the night buy your ticket before you get on the train it's better not to make your journey between 8:00 and 10:00 in the morning or 4:00 and 6:00 in the evening these are called the rush hours thousands of people are going to work or coming home again then and it is difficult to move or to find a place to sit on the train you can see much more of London from one of its famous red buses some special visitors buses take you to many
of the interesting places in the city on one Journey it takes about 1 and 1 half hours but you can break your journey and get off and on again at the different places you want to visit London taxis are called black cabs most of them are black but some are not you can stop one if it has a four higher sign on it the drivers are usually friendly and helpful why not take a boat trip along the river temps boats leave Westminster pier and chering cross pier and they go to Tower Pier and Greenwich between
April and October you can take a longer boat trip to Hampton Court about 4 hours a beautiful palace in a big Park chapter 4 some places to go the queen has her London home at Buckingham Palace it is at the end of the mall a long road that begins at Trafalga Square at 11:30 most mornings the soldiers at Buckingham Palace changed the guard it takes about 30 minutes and hundreds of visitors come to watch and in August and September you can usually visit some of the rooms in the palace but there are always lots of
people coming to see them so be ready to wait you can also visit the Royal m news at the palace this is the home of the Queen's horses and coaches the Queen's Gallery is also at the palace and you can visit it at most times of the year here you can see pictures from all over the world the Tower of London is now a museum and one of London's most famous buildings more than 2 million people visit visited every year yman Waters also called beef eaters tell them all about the tower you can see the
crown jewels and visit the bloody Tower and the White Tower or take a walk around the wall and perhaps see one of the towers famous black birds the Ravens Tower Bridge is near the Tower of London it is one of the most famous bridges in the city and first opened in 1894 St Paul's Cathedral is not far away on late Hill it was built by Sir Christopher Ren After the Fire of London Ren built more than 50 London churches visitors can go up to the golden gallery to look across London chapter 5 Westminster Westminster ABY
is more than 900 years old and is a very famous London church after William the Conqueror every king and queen of England was crowned king or queen here the houses of Parliament are near Westminster Abbey this is the home of the British government the CL loock high up on the building is called Big Ben the Prime Minister the head of the British government lives at 10 Downing Street walk along Parliament street to whiteall past the government buildings and you can see the little Street on your left parks and Gardens when you are tired of looking
at buildings you can sit or walk in one of London's beautiful Parks Hyde Park has a lake in the middle called the serpentine and you can take a boat out on the water it is a good place to get away from the crowds and the noise of the city you can listen to the speakers at Speakers Corner near Marble Arch people from all over the world come and speak here you can ask a speaker some difficult questions if you like or you can stand on a box and speak to some of the listeners Kensington Gardens
is next to Hyde Park here you can see the statue of Peter Pan the famous boy in the children's story Peter Pan by JM Barry Regent Park is the home of London Zoo the zoo has thousands of birds and animals from all over the world there is also a theater in the park on a summer's evening you can sit out under the night sky and watch a play by William Shakespeare England's most famous writer St James Park is next to the mall it is smaller but many people think it is more beautiful chapter six shops
and eating the most famous shop in London some people say the most famous in the world is herod's in nightsbridge it opened in 1849 Oxford Street has many big shops selfridges marks and Spencer John Lewis deams there are always lots of people looking at the shops here but at Christmas thousands more people come to see the wonderful Christmas lights and to buy things for their friends and family for Christmas chering cross is famous for its bookshops there are lots of them and they sell old and new books one of the oldest and most famous is
foils it has thousands of books but it can sometimes be very difficult to find the book you want Covent Garden was once a big food market but now it has lots of small shops and cafes and there are street performers to watch there are two very famous markets in London Petticoat Lane Market open on Sundays is in midc Street it is a good place to buy cheap clothes and things for the home at the market in portabello Road open on Saturdays you can buy old clocks old chairs and tables and hundreds of other things you
can find food from nearly every country in the world in London in SoHo in the West End of London you can eat food from Italy China Japan and lots more places there are also thousands of pubs in the city in many pubs you can eat as well as drink or why not have some English fish and chips they are cheap and good to eat or you can have tea at the Ritz in Picadilly or at the seavoy hotel in the Strand chapter 7 going out theaters and music London's West End has some of the best
best theaters in the world so tickets can be expensive go in the afternoon it is often cheaper there is something for everybody from a play by the Royal Shakespeare company at the barbin theater to Agatha Christy's the mouse trap this play began in 1952 and thou of visitors see it every year there are lots of Cinemas to visit the most expensive are in the west end but you can sometimes get cheap tickets on Mondays you can hear wonderful music and singing from all over the world at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden the Royal
Albert Hall in Kensington Gore the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane and the barbin center silk Street for ballet go to the saddler's Wells theater in Roseberry Avenue or to the Royal opera house to get cheap tickets buy them an hour or two before it begins do you like to listen to Jazz musicians you can hear some of the best at Ronnie Scott's Club in fith Street or at the Bulls head Barnes at Barnes Bridge or at 100 Club at 100 Oxford Street sport some of the most famous English football clubs are in London you
can see Arsenal play at Arsenal Stadium avenol Road N5 chelsy play at Stamford Bridge Fulham Road sw6 and Tottenham hot spur play at whiteart Lane High Road N7 to watch the very English game of cricket go to Lord's cricket ground in St John's Wood Northwest 8 this is the home of cricket for most English people chapter 8 museums and galleries the British museum in great Russell Street is the biggest Museum in Britain tickets are free the Museum of London at 150 London Wall is one of the most interesting museums in the city it tells the
story of London and its people one more mum that tells a story is the Museum of the moving image on the South Bank under waterl bridge this tells the story of Cinema and television and there are many things for visitors to see and do you can act with actors on a film set or you can read the news on TV 4 million people visit the National Gallery in Trafalga Square every year they come to look at more than 2,000 pictures tickets are free at the National Portrait Gallery in St Martin's Place you can see pictures
of famous people tickets are free here too the London dungeon in Tuli street is a museum of horror half a million people visited every year but they don't always stay to see it all Madame to swords in Marlin Road is famous for its people made from wax you can see famous people from the past and famous people of today Abraham Lincoln Mahatma Gandhi Nelson Mandela Charlie Chaplain Silvester Stallone and in the chamber of Horrors you can see some some very bad people chapter 9 places and parades the city londoners often talk about the city they
are talking about the oldest part of London the home of the bank of England and many other big offices about 5,000 people live in the city and at week it feels empty but between Monday and Friday nearly half a million people come here to work in the banks and offices look for the city men with their dark suits and umbrellas St Paul's Cathedral is in the middle of the city and the bank of England has an interesting Museum that you can visit also in the city is a very tall building 60.6 M High called The
Monument Christopher Ren built this too and it stands on the place where the Fire of London began in 1666 some interesting and exciting days every year on a Saturday morning in June foot guards and horse guards have a parade for the queen this is called trooping the color the color is the flag that the soldiers carry thousands of people stand in to see the queen and the soldiers go past the exciting nodding Hill Carnival is on the last Sunday and Monday in August there are two wonderful raids to watch one on Sunday and one on
Monday and you can see them going through the streets near portabello Road and ladbrook Grove on the second Saturday in November londoners can see their new Lord mayor in the Lord mayor's show a parade from mansion house the Lord mayor's home to the Strand the Lord mayor is the most important person in the city after the Queen the first mayor of London was Henry fitzalan in 1189 they were not called lord Mayors until the time of King Henry the 8th big red buses London policemen Buckingham Palace Speaker's Corner Big Ben nodding Hill Carnival these are
some of the things you can find in London but there are many many more come and see up the voice over in this video is given by English 5 days copying or re-uploading is totally forbidden
