The Natural History Museum in London is a museum exhibiting a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature—both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the vaulted central hall. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only. Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was actually officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge is a patron of the museum. The Museum is organized into four different zones spread out over four floors. Each zone can range a few different floors. The exhibits in each zone are listed below. Red Zone Earth Lab Earth's Treasures Lasting Impressions Restless Surface Earth Today and Tomorrow From the Beginning The Power Within Visions of Earth Green zone Birds Creepy Crawlies Ecology Fossil Marine Reptiles Giant Sequoia and Central Hall Minerals The Vault Our Place in Evolution Plant Power Primates Investigate Blue zone Dinosaurs Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles Human Biology Jerwood Marine Invertebrates Mammals Mammals (Blue whale) Nature Live Orange zone Wildlife Garden Darwin Centre Tourist Information
The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD Phone: +44 (0)20 7942 5000 Museum Hours 7 Days a Week- 10:00am- 5:50pm ADMISSION IS FREE! There is a separate charge for special exhibitions! For more information on the museum including: current events and exhibitions, floor plans, research information, etc. check out the official website below! Cheers!
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Cool Britannia are the biggest and by far the coolest souvenir stores in London and the UK. They have the largest and best range of British souvenirs, novelty goods and fashion so that you can do all of your gift shopping for loved ones in one great location. Their flagship store is on the world famous Piccadilly Circus, steps away from Eros! Check out the official website for a wide variety of souvenirs in store and for ordering online, as well as ticket offers, tours, sports, and gifts. Store Information
(Piccadilly Store) 225 – 229 Piccadilly, London W1J 9HR Phone: 0207 839 7200 Store Hours: 9am to Midnight 7 Days a Week This is I believe the best invention for the London traveler. It is a way to save money as well as give you an upper hand to London sights. Whether you want a 1 day, 2 day, 3 day, or 6 day pass, you will have the closest thing to the key to the city of London! Established in 1999, The London Pass is a sightseeing city card helping visitors make the most of their trip, saving them both time and money. The London Pass gives you entry to a choice of over 60 popular tourist attractions in the city. Available for either 1, 2, 3 or 6 days, it makes sightseeing easy and affordable by giving you access to top sights in the city with one card. Save time, save money, save stress. Sightseeing Made Easy With the London Pass you don’t have to queue to buy tickets, or stand in line to get into the attraction. The London Pass acts as your ticket into every one of the 60 attractions included. It saves the hassle of carrying around cash for tickets and allows you to budget your spending as you’ve already made the one-off payment. As well as this, you can feel like a VIP with the London Pass as you are granted Fast Track Entry into a handful of London’s most popular attractions. How do you activate The London Pass? The London Pass is available for 1, 2, 3 or 6 days – so choose the duration of Pass that best matches your trip. Your London Pass is valid for use on consecutive days for the duration you have selected and is activated upon entry at your first attraction, through a bar code recognition system. So if you have bought your pass and selected an estimated start date, the pass won’t actually be activated until you scan it through at an attraction. This benefit allows you to purchase up to 12 months in advance – giving you plenty of time to plan your trip before you arrive! Note: if you have a London Pass with Travel the travelcard will be activated from the date selected at purchase.* When does The London Pass expire? Your pass will automatically expire at the end of your validity period, after your pass duration (i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 6 days) has lapsed. Once your pass duration has expired the card will stop working and will not allow you access to attractions. The London Pass is also subject to a “purse value” of maximum gate prices related to the number of days. For example, with a one day adult pass you can visit up to £90 worth of attractions. Once you have reached your “purse value” for the total duration of your pass, the pass will also expire. Note: Passes can only be used at each attraction once. Here is a complete breakdown of purse values. For example; with a 6 day adult London Pass (online price: £108) you get a whopping £540 worth of attraction entry! Fast Track Entry Want that VIP feel? Another great benefit of the London Pass is that it allows you to skip frustrating queues at a number of attractions. Simply look for the London Pass signs and show the attendant your London Pass. Add on a Travelcard… For the complete sightseeing package opt for The London Pass with Travel. This includes free and unlimited travel across zones 1 – 6 and if you get a 6 day pass you get an extra day travel for free and can use the ticket at any time of the day! Your Travelcard will be stamped with the start date that you specify at purchase. Just like your London Pass, the Travelcard is valid for consecutive calendar days only. *Be aware that your travelcard will start working from the date pre-selected, but your London Pass will only become activated at an attraction for the first time. If you get your London Pass and Travelcard sent to your home address before you fly, you can even use the Travelcard to get from the airport into the city centre on the tube from Heathrow or City airport. It couldn’t be more easy… When you order your London Pass, you have the option to have the Pass shipped to you or you can pick it up at the collection center when you get to London (pictured right). For more info about the London Pass including: Prices, the sights and destinations covered, and for all of the information on using it efficiently, check out the official website below! Also below you can download the free London Pass Guidebook below, which outlines all of the destinations available and how to get there and so on! Happy Travels! As a major Harry Potter fanatic, this is one of the stops on my seven day trip to London. As many fans will know, King's Cross Station is the home to the Hogwarts Express, caught at Platform 9 3/4. To celebrate this wonderful phenomenon, King's Cross station opened this store adjacent to Platform 9 3/4. On December 15, 2013, the store was opened by actor Warwick Davis, who portrayed both the choir directing Charms Teacher, Professor Filius Flitwick, and the Gringotts goblin, Griphook in the film series. The shop carries a wide variety of Harry Potter and Platform 9 3/4 collectibles. The apparel section contains t-shirts, sweaters, ties, scarves, and costumes. The Souvenirs collection includes mugs, keychains, stationery, toys, phone cases, etc. The Collectibles include wands, prop replicas, jewelry,and other treasures. They also carry the books and DVDs, as well as the different sweets as seen in the movies and books. After you have finished shopping you can walk just outside of the shop to have a picture with the trolley disappearing into the wall at Platform 9 3/4, as seen below with Prince Charles and Camilla! Store Information
The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 3/4 Kings Cross Station London • N1 9AP Phone: 0207 803 0500 Store Hours Monday-Saturday 8am - 10pm Sunday 9am - 9pm For more information about products, delivery charges, and even online ordering, check out the official website below! Cheers! The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Profits from the Exhibition were used to establish the Museum of Manufactures, as it was initially known, and exhibits were purchased to form the basis of its collections. The Museum moved to its present site in 1857 and was renamed the South Kensington Museum. Its collections expanded rapidly as it set out to acquire the best examples of metalwork, furniture, textiles and all other forms of decorative art from all periods. It also acquired fine art - paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture - in order to tell a more complete history of art and design. In 1899, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new building designed to give the Museum a grand façade and main entrance. To mark the occasion, it was renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in memory of the enthusiastic support Prince Albert had given to its foundation. Throughout the 20th century, the collections continued to grow. While expanding its historical collections, the V&A also maintained its acquisition of contemporary objects, starting with a collection of Art Nouveau furniture in 1900. The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewelry, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day. Tourist Information
V&A Museum South Kensington Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL Phone: +44 (0)20 7942 2000 Opening Times 10:00am to 5:45pm daily 10:00am to 10:00pm Fridays (selected galleries remain open after 6:00 - please see Gallery Closures for further information) Closing commences 10 minutes before time stated Closed 24, 25 and 26 December The tunnel entrance to the V&A is open from 10:00am - 5:40pm Saturday to Thursday and 10:00am - 8:00pm on Fridays but may be closed on occasion on the advice of London Underground. Admission to the V&A is free! Some exhibitions and events carry a separate charge. For more information including current exhibitions, events, maps, and all other information, check out the official website below! Cheers! This is one of the more recent museums in London. Rick Steves really promotes this site in his tours and talks for one reason...it is really interesting. It tells the stories of the dark days of the Blitz of WWII and tells the story of Britain's greatest war leader, Sir Winston Churchill! The Cabinet War Rooms provided the secret underground headquarters for the core of the British government throughout the Second World War. The fear that London would be the target of aerial bombardment had troubled the government since the First World War and in 1938 the basement of a Whitehall building was chosen as the site for the Cabinet War Rooms. From 1940 – 1945 hundreds of men and women would spend thousands of vital hours here and it soon became the inner sanctum of British government. Following the surrender of the Japanese Forces the doors to the Cabinet War Rooms were locked on 16 August 1945 and the complex was left undisturbed until Parliament ensured its preservation as a historic site in 1948. Knowledge of the site and access to it remained highly restricted until the late 1970s when the Imperial War Museum began the task of preserving the site and its contents, making them accessible to as wide an audience as possible. In 1984 the main war rooms opened to the public. In 2003 further restoration work opened the ‘Courtyard Rooms’, the rooms where staff would eat, sleep and work in safety. As part of a renovation in 2005, they added the only museum in the world dedicated to Winston Churchill. It gives an in depth look at the life of Mr. Churchill. Tourist Information
Churchill War Rooms Clive Steps King Charles Street London SW1A 2AQ Phone: 020 7930 6961 Opening Times Open daily 9:30am - 6pm Last admission 5pm Closed 24, 25 and 26 December *Please check the official website or call the museum for unexpected closures or events. Tickets Adults £17.50 Child (under 16) Free Concessions (Senior, Student, Disabled) £14.00 *Churchill War Rooms is part of Imperial War Museums, which is a registered charity. Your ticket price includes a voluntary donation. By making a donation, you will be making a valuable contribution to the care and conservation of this historic site. You can purchase tickets on-site or it is preferred to buy them online! As a soon-to-be chef, food is not the only side of the culinary arts I want to explore whilst in London. As Borough Market will be my food haven, Berry Bros. & Rudd will be my wine and spirits hub. Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain's oldest wine and spirit merchant, having traded from the same shop since 1698. Today the company also has offices in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, a Wine School and an exclusive fine wine & dining venue in London's St James's. With over 315 years of history, Berry Bros. & Rudd is justly proud of its past. In 1698, the Widow Bourne established a shop at No. 3 St James’s Street. Over three centuries later, with two Royal Warrants and eight Masters of Wine, the family business continues to flourish, with its heart still very much at No. 3. The company’s colourful history encompasses wines on board the Titanic, supplying smugglers running alcohol into Prohibition-era America, and sheltering Napoleon III in cellars beneath the shop. Nowadays, Berry Bros. & Rudd continue to supply wines and spirits to royalty, have a successful presence in Asia, and lead the world of wine with a philosophy of constant innovation. In 1998, two years before the start of a new century, Berry Bros. & Rudd celebrated 300 years in business. The run-up to the 300th anniversary celebrations was marked in 1997 with the award of Berry Bros. & Rudd’s second Royal Warrant by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. If the second half of the 20th century had been characterised by expansion of the traditional business, the 21st saw new sides of the business established. The beautiful historic cellars below the shop and rooms in Pickering Place were gradually renovated to facilitate private wine events and the highly-respected wine school. Berry Bros. & Rudd’s business in Asia continued to flourish, with new websites and physical presence in Japan and Hong Kong. In 2013 Berry Bros. & Rudd was the first major UK retailer to give the wines from China a permanent place on its shelves. Today, with two Royal Warrants, 300 years of history and eight Masters of Wine, Berry Bros. & Rudd is Britain’s original wine and spirit merchant. While the firm embraces progress, traditions are also valued. Everyone is welcome to the Widow Bourne's shop by the Palace, whether they want one bottle or a cellar full. It is run by members of the Berry and Rudd families and they continue to supply the British Royal Family, as we have done since the reign of King George III. Just because they serve the royal family does not mean that they are so ridiculously expensive that the wealthy cannot afford them. They have a wide variety of wines, spirits, and other drinks that can vary in price, for example from some as low as £6.95, up to even £220,000.00. So whether you want a nice little bottle of wine to go with your dinner, or a magnum of champagne for a wedding or celebration, you can find it all at Berry Bros. & Rudd Winesellers. Store Information
3 St. James's Street, London, SW1A 1EG Phone: 0800 280 2440 (from within the UK) +44 20 7022 8973(from outside the UK) Shop Hours Mon - Fri: 10am to 6pm Sat: 10am to 5pm Sun / Public Holidays: Closed For more info including a detailed history of the shop, shop deals, and even online ordering, check out the official website below! |
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