Mayfair

Mayfair is the most fashionable area in London. It began to develop in the late 17th century. Eastern Mayfair has long been famous for its smart shops. Grosvenor Square, the largest of the Mayfair squares, was laid out by Sir Richard Grosvenor about 1725. John Adams, first American minister to Britain and second U.S. President, lived here in 1788. The U.S. Embassy on Grosvenor Square was designed by the American architect in 1960, and the statue of Franklin D.Roosevelt was erected in the Square in 1948.

Mayfair is the playground of the titled and glamorous. A place where Old Masters and Rolls Royces, fur and champaigne are the norm. Mayfair has been home to Admiral Nelson, Disraeli, Handel, Florence Nightingale, Peter Sellers, to name but a few.

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square was so named in 1830 in honour of Nelson's great naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars. The square is dominated by the Nelson Monument (Nelson's Column), standing at a total height of 170 feet 2 inches and completed in 1843. Nelson died in 1805, immediately after his victory at Trafalgar. The column was conceived and designed 34 years later, in 1839 and on November 3 and 4, 1843 the crowning statue of the admiral was hoisted into place.

Picadilly Circus

Picadilly Circus is one of the busiest traffic junctions in London. It is surrounded by many distinguished 19th and 20th century buildings. In the middle of Picadilly Circus is cast aluminum Angel of Christian Charity (1893; popularly called "Eros").¹ There is also a large underground station here.

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace was a red brick country mansion built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1705 and bought by George III in 1762. When John Nash reshaped the Hyde Park he enlarged and remodeled the palace and designed Marble Arch, which' served as an enterway until 1851, when it was removed to the northeast corner of the park. Since 1837, and the reign of Queen Victoria, it has been the British royal residence in London. When, the monarch is in residence, the Royal Standard¹ flies from the roof. The guard is changed in the forecourt every morning from April to September and every other morning the rest of the year whether or not the monarch is in residence.

Whitehall

Whitehall is the successor of a 16th century thoroughfare that ran through the Palace of Whitehall to Westminster. Its present association with government has its origin in Henry VIII's buildings here in the 1530's. To the south is the Horse Guards building, and, passing under an arch beneath the clock tower, is Horse Guards Parade,² the scene of the popular annual military ceremony of "Trooping the Colour".³ It is a ceremony in which the colors (regimental flags) are carried and are accompanied by a military band escort. The soldiers march slowly in single file, and usually in a hollow square. Each year on the second Saturday in June at about 11.15 a.m. the ceremony is held on the "official" birthday of the Queen.

Farther along, beyond the Treasury Building⁴ is Downing Street, where No. 10 has been the official residence of the prime minister from the time of its occupation by Sir Robert Walpole in 1735.

The Palace of Westminster was the residence of English kings from the early 12th century until Henry VIII built St. James's Palace for a royal residence. Westminster Hall, the oldest survival of the medieval palace, was built by William II in 1099 and rebuilt from 1394 to 1402. It is said to be the largest of its age and kind in Europe. It was the main English law court from the 13th to the early 19th century.