Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace has served as the official London residence of Britain's sovereigns since 1837 and today is the administrative headquarters of the Monarch. The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace are open to visitors every year. For visitor information, please visit the Royal Collection website.
The Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, or the Houses of Parliament as it is also known, has changed dramatically over the course of nearly a thousand years of history. Transformed from royal residence to the home of a modern democracy, the architecture and cultural collections of the Palace and the wider Parliamentary Estate have continually evolved, sometimes by design, sometimes through accident or attack.
London's West End
Taking a fairly broad definition of the West End, the area contains the main concentrations of most of London's metropolitan activities apart from financial services, which are concentrated primarily in the City of London.
The following can all be found in the West End:
- Art galleries and museums
- Educational institutions
- Embassies
- Government buildings
- Hotels
- Institutes, learned societies and think tanks
- Legal institutions
- Media establishments
Places of entertainment:
- Theatres
- Cinemas
- Nightclubs
- Bars
- Restaurants
- Shops
London's Theatreland
Rebranded by Westminster council and the Society of London Theatre as "Theatreland", London's main theatre district, which contains approximately forty venues, is located in the heart of the West End of central London, and is traditionally defined by The Strand to the south, Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the west, and Kingsway to the east. Prominent theatre streets include Drury Lane, Shaftesbury Avenue, and The Strand. The works staged are predominantly musicals, classic or middle-brow plays, and comedy performances.