London, United Kingdom
Self-guided audio walking tour of London
50 hand-checked places and 2 walking routes. aiGuide notices where you are and tells you each place's story as you walk past, so you can keep your phone in your pocket.
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Westminster to St Paul's
The most rewarding 90 minutes in central London, tracing the ceremonial spine from Westminster Abbey along Whitehall and the Strand to Wren's great dome at St Paul's.
1.Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey is a vast Gothic church in central London where English and British monarchs have been crowned since 1066, and where many kings, queens, poets, and scientists are buried.
2.Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster houses the UK Parliament beside the Thames, a vast Gothic Revival complex with over 1,100 rooms designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin after the 1834 fire.
3.Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower)
Elizabeth Tower, popularly known as Big Ben after its 13.5-tonne great bell, is the iconic 96-metre clock tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, completed in 1859.
4.The Cenotaph, Whitehall
The Cenotaph is the United Kingdom's national war memorial, a Portland stone pylon designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled on Whitehall by King George V on Armistice Day, 11 November 1920.
5.Banqueting House, Whitehall
Banqueting House is the only major surviving fragment of the Palace of Whitehall, designed by Inigo Jones in 1622 in pure Palladian style and ceilinged with Rubens paintings glorifying James I.
6.Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a vast public square in central London laid out by Charles Barry in the 1840s to commemorate Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
7.St Martin-in-the-Fields
Anglican parish church at the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square, rebuilt 1722-1726 to James Gibbs's design, famous for its neoclassical portico, candlelit concerts and homeless ministry.
8.Somerset House
Sir William Chambers's monumental neoclassical quadrangle on the Strand, completed 1796, originally housing government offices and now an arts venue with a famous fountain courtyard.
9.Royal Courts of Justice
George Edmund Street's monumental Victorian Gothic law courts on the Strand, opened 1882 by Queen Victoria, housing the Court of Appeal and High Court of England and Wales.
10.St Paul's Cathedral
Sir Christopher Wren's English Baroque masterpiece on Ludgate Hill, rebuilt 1675-1710 after the Great Fire, whose vast lead-covered dome dominated the City skyline for 260 years.
City Spine to the Tower
A 75-minute walk through the historic financial quarter from St Paul's to Tower Bridge, taking in Wren churches, the Bank junction, Leadenhall Market and the Norman fortress.
1.St Paul's Cathedral
Sir Christopher Wren's English Baroque masterpiece on Ludgate Hill, rebuilt 1675-1710 after the Great Fire, whose vast lead-covered dome dominated the City skyline for 260 years.
2.St Mary-le-Bow
Wren City church on Cheapside, rebuilt 1671-1680 after the Great Fire, famous for the Bow Bells whose audible range defines a true Cockney Londoner.
3.Guildhall
Civic heart of the City of London since around 1128, with a Great Hall begun 1411, still the seat of the Corporation of London and venue for ceremonial banquets and elections.
4.Bank of England
Britain's central bank, founded 1694, occupying a 1.4-hectare block on Threadneedle Street behind Sir John Soane's windowless curtain wall; its free museum tells 330 years of monetary history.
5.Royal Exchange
Neoclassical commercial building at Bank junction, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1565 as London's first specialist trading floor, twice rebuilt after fires; current structure dates from 1844.
6.Leadenhall Market
Ornate Victorian covered market by Sir Horace Jones, built 1881 in maroon and cream wrought iron on the site of London's Roman forum, today a Grade II listed City landmark.
7.Monument to the Great Fire of London
A 62-metre fluted Doric column by Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, completed 1677, marking the spot where the Great Fire of London began on 2 September 1666.
8.St Dunstan-in-the-East
Ruined medieval church between London Bridge and the Tower, gutted in the Blitz 1941, its surviving Wren steeple and walls left open as a quiet public garden since 1971.
9.Tower of London
Norman fortress beside the Thames, founded by William the Conqueror in 1066, serving across nine centuries as royal palace, prison, mint, armoury, and home of the Crown Jewels.
10.Tower Bridge
Victorian bascule and suspension bridge spanning the Thames beside the Tower of London, opened 1894, with twin Gothic-revival towers and a roadway that still lifts for tall ships.
More must-see places in London
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the London residence and administrative headquarters of the British monarch, with 775 rooms behind Aston Webb's 1913 East Front facade, set in the largest private garden in London.
British Museum
World-spanning collection of human history and culture in a vast Bloomsbury complex, founded 1753 as the first national public museum, with a famous glass-roofed Great Court.
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