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Each London district has places of interest that are of historical and cultural significance. The City

The City of London is the principal financial district not only of London, but of the UK and Europe and one can find banks of many nations in the famous Threadneedle Street and the surrounding areas. Here, too, the Bank of England is situated. Nearby is the Stock Exchange. A little further along in Leadenhall Street is Lloyds, the most famous insurance company in the world.

Fleet Street is famous as the home of the nation’s newspapers but, in fact, only two of them – The Daily Express and The Daily Telegraph – are still in Fleet Street. However, people still say “Fleet Street” when they mean “the press”.

Historic buildings in the City:

St Paul’s Cathedral – an Anglican cathedral and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present St Paul’s Cathedral was designed by the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren, after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married there in July 1981.

The Tower of London, first built by William the Conqueror more than 900 years ago. The tower’s primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase “sent to the Tower” (meaning “imprisoned”). It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, the Royal Mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

The West End

The West End occupies the area of central London north from The Mall to Oxford Street. It includes Trafalgar Square, the main shopping areas of Oxford Street and Bond Street, and the entertainment centers of Soho, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Shaftesbury.

Trafalgar Square was built in the early 20th century to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar. There is a statue of Admiral Lord Nelson standing on top of a column in the middle of Trafalgar Square. It is a famous meeting place in London

Soho is an entertainment district which for much of the later part of the 20th century had a reputation for its night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s the area has undergone considerable transformation and is now a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices.

Piccadilly Circus – at the junction of five busy streets – is a famous London landmark. It is full of colorful electric displays. At its heart is a bronze fountain topped by a figure of a winged archer. The statue is popularly called Eros, the pagan god of love, but it was in fact designed in the 19th century as a symbol of Christian charity – a monument to Lord Shaftesbury, a philanthropist.

The East End

The East End has many places of interest including many of London’s markets (for example Columbia Road Flower Market, Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market, Petticoat Lane Market).

Docklands in the East End is a thriving and vibrant area with a wide range of shops, restaurants, pubs and wine bars. Canary Warf in the Docklands is a new popular office area, called Manhattan on the Thames for the large number of newly-built sky-scrapers.

        1. Westminster

Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster. It has a large concentration of London’s historic and prestigious landmarks and visitor attractions, including Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and much of the West End of London.

It is also the area of royal parks – St James’s Park, Hyde Park with its Speaker’s Corner, Regent’s Park – present home of London Zoo.

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (the House of Lords and the House of Commons) meet. At the north end of the Palace rises the most famous of the towers, the Clock Tower, commonly known as Big Ben. It houses the Great Clock of Westminster, the world’s largest, four-faced, chiming clock and the third largest, free-standing clock tower in the world.

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch.

Westminster Abbey (whose formal name is the Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster) is a Gothic monastery church that is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English monarchs.

Glossary

arable (of farmland)

capable of being farmed productively

banner

a long strip of cloth bearing a slogan or design, hung up or carried on poles

Coat of Arms

the distinctive heraldic bearings or shield of a person, family, corporation, or country

county

a region created by territorial division for the purpose of local government

demographics

characteristics and statistics of human population: the characteristics of a human population or part of it, especially its size, growth, density, distribution, etc

dexter

(heraldry) on or towards the bearer’s right-hand side and the observer’s left of a coat of arms. The opposite of sinister.

fervour

feelings of great warmth and intensity

fleury-counter-fleury

= flory counter flory: the terms fleury (fr. fleur), flory, and similar variations, signify adorned with, or ending in, fleurs-de-lis.

GDP

gross domestic product: measure of the a United States economy adopted in 1991; the total market values of goods and services by produced by workers and capital within the United States borders during a given period (usually 1 year)

guardant

full face: describes an animal on a coat of arms that has its face turned toward the observer

Holy Trinity

the union of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost in one Godhead

hop (n)

twining perennials having cordate leaves and flowers arranged in conelike spikes; the dried flowers of this plant are used in brewing to add the characteristic bitter taste to beer

investiture

the ceremonial act of clothing someone in the insignia of an office; the formal promotion of a person to an office or rank; the ceremony of installing a new monarch

lance

a long pointed rod used as a weapon

latitude

an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator

limestone

a sedimentary rock consisting mainly of calcium that was deposited by the remains of marine animals

natural hazards

natural disasters (such as tornadoes, floods, etc.)

Order of the Garter

the highest British order of knighthood

overcast

the state of the sky when it is covered by clouds

passant

walking: said of any animal on an escutcheon, which is represented as walking with the dexter paw raised

rampant

(heraldry) on hind legs: describes a heraldic beast depicted rearing up, in profile, and with its forelegs raised, the right one above the left

silica

a white or colorless vitreous insoluble solid (SiO2); various forms occur widely in the earth’s crust as quartz or cristobalite or tridymite or lechartelierite

sinister

(heraldry) on or towards the left-hand side and the observer’s right of a coat of arms. The opposite of dexter.

temperate (of weather or climate)

free from extremes; mild; or characteristic of such weather or climate

terrain

a piece of ground having specific characteristics or military potential

tressure

an inner border with ornamental fleur-de-lis on a heraldic shield

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