Sightseeing in London City

Continuing on with London tourism - my next neighborhood to tour is the oldest part of London, known as "The City of London". This is the part of the city just north of the river and to the east of the West End, where all the other major attractions are.  It is the oldest part of the city, with borders set by the old roman wall that used to encircle the town. There were just three sights I really wanted to see in this part of town - the cathedral, the tower, and the London Museum.

downtown neighborhoods for reference

my three stops

Museum of London

First stop in this part of town was a museum that's dedicated entirely to the history of London. It's sort of B-list attraction, not a major tourist destination, which meant I had it all to myself on a nice fall afternoon. It also means that it didn't have any huge attractions to see - (so no pictures) - but it was interesting and generally worth the couple of hours I stayed there. It starts with London's history as a Roman city, which interestingly - was abandoned, not sacked when the Romans left. Then it moves into medieval history, the plague, and the famous fire of 1666 that destroyed most of the city. Then as the city rebuilt as a major marketplace, there was a Victorian main street full of shops as well as the cell of a debtor's prison, the result of all the abundant shops and things to buy was that a massive portion of the city's inhabitants were broke and imprisoned. I don't think I would go back for a second trip, but it was generally worth one trip to help put some British history in context.

St. Paul's
Westminster Abbey is the church for the monarchs, but St. Paul's is the church for the English people. It is massive and towers above the city, even with some more modern buildings popping up recently around it. It's quite stately and lovely and the most iconic part of the skyline, so I wanted to pop inside. (It's also where the bird lady would feed the birds in Mary Poppins, fyi). So while my Dad was in town, we stopped in. I usually object to paying an entrance fee for a church, but this was totally worth it. The audio guide had just oodles of info, and we could've easily stayed a couple more hours. One thing I found interesting was that the inside is pretty sparse - which was apparently a political decision to ensure that it looked appropriately Anglican and not at all Catholic. Apparently even Victoria complained about it being so dreary and boring. So now I feel like I need to read up more on the Anglican church, which I don't know much about.

St Paul's - looking a lot like the US Capitol

center of the skyline from across the river

my only shot of the inside - pretty sparse

Tower of London
Lastly, the Tower is one of the biggest, most famous tourist destinations in the city - so we purposefully held off on visiting it until the summer and main tourist season were over. One cold and rainy fall weekend, we finally went for it. It was still pretty crowded, and we still ended up waiting in some long lines - but managed to see about half of the place before the kiddo crashed. This really is the oldest part of the city - going all the way back to William the Conqueror. It was an early medieval palace, a prison and execution sight, but also current home for the crown jewels. The center structure is now an exhibit on armor and weapons, which was both interesting and gorey - so I was happy to move right along.

the White Tower and part of the old Roman walls

the armor exhibit

Henry VIII's suit of armor

practicing our growls in front of a huge dragon

long lines, rainy day, generally good spirits. 

So that's about the end of my London sightseeing, for now at least. There were a few more sights I wanted to hit before the winter is fully upon us, but I think they'll have to wait until the spring. I'm pretty pleased in general though, I think I've managed to hit all of the top 20 or so major attractions. I also got a great sense of the city and how to get around town.