2. Entertainment in london

Life in London is fascinating not only for what you can see, but also for what you can do during your free time.

In London you can find a great number of theatres and cinemas, leisure centres, restaurants, pubs, art laborato­ries where you can spend your time watching or listening to anything you like. Have you ever heard of a famous showbusiness personality who has not done at least one performance in London ?

"When one is tired of London, one is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford." Doctor Johnson's words are very appropriate to the tremendous variety of entertainment available in the capital of Great Britain.

In all parts of London there are theatres, cinemas and discotheques. Yon can find music concerts on the South Bank, at the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall or in the summer months, by the lake in the open-air at Kenwood.

For sporting enthusiasts there is a choice of football, tennis, ice-skating, fishing, boating, sailing, swimming, bowling (indoor and outdoor), skiing on artificial slopes, greyhound racing, riding and lots more.

There are many reviews and publications which give weekly information on so many events that often the real problem is how to decide what to see and where to go.

Every age has its own place to spend leisure time, so you can choose among classical theatre and opera, or fun­fairs and pop-group performances, folk music and tradi­tional plays or music.

But there are also places where one can dance or learn to be an actor.

London offers an extraordinary range of theatrical enter­tainment. It is one of the world's greatest stages, and at its best, standards are extremely high.

Some London Theatres put on plays also for very young people. ^!

The Molecule Theatre, for example, which help to explain simple scientific principles in a fun way; and The Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, which run backstage trips to see rehearsal rooms, scenery work­shops and backstage equipment. The majority of the places of entertainment in London are in the West End. That's to say that starting from Piccadilly you can find theatres, cinemas, concert halls, discos, pubs with music and art laboratories for all tastes.

St. Martins Theatre is shown in the poster where for more than 42 years the same Agatha Christie play "The Mousetrap" has been running. This play is the world's longest running show. It's a thriller. There have been more than 15,000 performances. When the show starts, the actors make you promise that you will not tell anyone who the murderer is.

A little bit farther away from the West End, on the opposite side of Hyde Park, you can find the Royal Albert Hall, an enormous building which can contain more than 6,000 people and is used for concerts, boxing contests, exhibitions and meetings. It was opened in 1871 as a memorial to the Prince Consort. Its organ, with 9,000 pipes, is one of the largest in the world. It is home for the popular annual Promenade concerts also called The Proms, that last seven weeks.

London is home to five world-class orchestras and a veritable host to smaller music companies and contempo­rary music ensembles. It also houses three permanent opera companies and numerous smaller opera groups and leads the world with its period orchestras.

The inner London boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Lambeth, and Wandsworth occupy the south bank of the Thames as far as six miles (9.5 km) inland, but the term South Bank refers above all to the music and arts complex begun in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. It begins just downstream from London County Hall. The first permanent building on the South Bank site was the 3,000-seat Royal Festival Hall, which hosts the world's great orchestras and ballet troupes in about 450 performances a year.

The National Film Theatre shows classic films from all nations. The National Theatre, which was lodged for years at the Old Vie Theatre (built in 1816), behind Waterloo Station, moved into its new home just east of Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank in 1975. Next to it, on space originally designated for residential use, are the studios and offices of an independent television station. Bankside, as the riverfront between Blackfriars and London bridges is called, is where Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and its rivals stood.

‘’If you are a music fan, Britain is the right country for you". Every night, there are pop, rock, jazz and folk con­certs in all kinds of venues from small clubs to huge sta­diums like Wembley, in London.

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