Anachronistic Hearts

All things start at Westminster, where there is as much history in a few acres as in many entire cities. Ancient Westminster Abbey, crammed with memorials and monuments to the great and the good, can blind you to the spectacular surrounding Gothic splendor. Whitehall is both an avenue and the heartbeat of the British government; here is the Queen's prime minister's official residence, No. 10 Downing Street, and the Horse Guards, where two mounted sentries of the Queen's guard provide a memorable image. Whitehall leads to Trafalgar Square and the incomparable National Gallery, with the National Portrait Gallery just next door. From the grand Admiralty Arch, the Mall runs alongside the elegant St. James's Park, leading straight to Buckingham Palace, as unprepossessing on the outside as it is sumptuous inside. The streets are wide and the vistas long -- the perfect backdrop for the pomp and pageantry of royal occasions.
Just a short carriage ride from Buckingham Palace is London's most splendidly aristocratic enclave, with block after block of grand, porticoed mansions. Built in the mid-1800s, it is residential, with an authentic vintage patina. Most of its streets are lined with terraced row houses, all painted Wedgwood-china white (to signify they remain the property of the Duke of Westminster). Pedigree-proud locations include Belgrave Square, Grosvenor Crescent, and Belgrave Place. Also check out the alleyways, called "mews."
The literary set that made the name Bloomsbury world famous has left hardly a trace, but this remains the heart of learned London. The University of London is here; so are the Law Courts and the British Museum. With the British Library parked just north at St. Pancras, a greater number of books can probably be found in Bloomsbury than in all the rest of London. Please note that some of London's most beautiful domestic architecture, elegant houses still line the area's prim squares. At one, Charles Dickens worked on Oliver Twist at a tall upright clerk's desk.
Chelsea has always beckoned to freethinkers -- from Sir Thomas More to Isadora Duncan (she couldn't find a place to stay her first night, so she decamped to the graveyard at Chelsea Old Church, which natives still insist is a lovely place to stay). Major sights include the magisterial Royal Hospital and the beauty of the King's Road.
Known as "the Square Mile," it was the site of the Celtic settlement the Romans called Londinium, the oldest part of London. Within and around the "City" are some of London's most memorable attractions, including St. Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge. The Bridge links St. Paul's with the South Bank. St. Giles Without Cripplegate, and St. Mary-le-Bow, and the infamous and historic Tower of London is at the east border of the City.
Just east of Soho, Covent Garden is one of the busiest parts of the city. Warehouses, cavernous and grim, give way to a network of narrow streets, alleys, and shops. The area is dominated by the Piazza, the scene of a food market in the 1830s and a flower market in the 1870s.
The epicenter of London's modern growth is the Isle of Dogs, once a neighborhood fit only for canines. Now waterways from the old docks, linking buildings to wharves. The Thames Barrier strides across the river, between the east end on the north bank and Greenwich on the south bank, and its visitor center and pedestrian walkway presents an exciting panorama.
The 19th-century slums, immortalized by Charles Dickens and the evocative etchings of Gustave Doré, are of the past. It has also become the fashionable epicenter of London's contemporary art scene, centering on the White Cube gallery in Hoxton and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, as well as, Spitalfields Market and Petticoat Lane. Brick Lane has another market straggling through old warehouses and side streets, as well as a profusion of some of the city's most popular curry houses and bagel bakeries. Nearby Columbia Road, in season, has a much-loved flower market. Down by the river, sprawling eastward from Tower Bridge, the docks are filled with ships and barges.
Down the Thames will bring you past the Greenwich Old Royal Observatory, where, if time stood still, all the world's timepieces would be off. When you tire of straddling the hemispheres at the Greenwich Meridian, take a stroll through the acres of parkland or, on weekends, the crafts and antiques markets. Royal Naval College and Queen House both scale architectural heights, while the Millennium Dome encapsulates modern style, for better or worse. The pretty streets of Greenwich house numerous bookstores and shops.
One of the great glories of Great Britain is the English village, and on the northern outskirts of London you'll find Hampstead. The classic Georgian houses, picturesque streets, cafés, and delis attract arts and media types and the plain wealthy. An amble along Church Row -- possibly the finest terrace of 18th-century houses in London -- will prove the pulling power of the area. London's most beautiful Vermeer painting is on view at Kenwood House (whose park hosts grand concerts and fireworks in summer). You can visit the Freud Museum and the Keats House, where the poet penned his immortal "Ode to a Nightingale." Or go bird-watching in the 800-plus emerald acres of Hampstead Heath.
Together with St. James's Park and Green Park, these beautiful, leafy, breathing spaces run to almost 600 acres. The handsome trees and quiet walks will refresh you as thoroughly as these grounds refreshed Henry VIII centuries ago after a hard day's shenanigans. In the Regency era, splendid horseflesh and equipages were the grand attraction; today, the soapbox orators at Hyde Park Corner remain grand entertainment. Sooner or later everyone heads to the Long Water in Kensington Gardens for one of London's most beloved sights: the Peter Pan statue. Then circumnavigate the Round Pond or swim in the Serpentine Lido.
Within the district's cavalcade of streets lined with decorous houses are small, sleepy squares; delightful pubs nestled away in back lanes; and shops, their windows aglow with the luminous colors of oil paintings. Next to the most delightful are two homes: Leighton House, Lord Leighton's stunning Persian extravaganza, and the Linley Sambourne House, whose elegant Edwardian interiors are featured in publications. Kensington Palace with its state rooms and royal dress collections is next -- then repair to the elegant Orangery for a pot of Earl Grey.
These are two of London's most fashionable and coveted residential areas. Notting Hill, around Portobello Road, is a square mile of galleries, exciting shops, and restaurants, with nearby musicians, novelists, and fashion plates. If Notting Hill is for the young, neighboring Holland Park is entirely the opposite -- the area's leafy streets are full of expensive white-stucco Victorians and lead to bucolic Holland Park itself.
Helping to frame the northern border of the city, Regent's Park is home to the Regent's Park and Theatre. A walk around the perimeter of the park is a must for devotees of classical architecture; the payoff is a view of John Nash's Terraces, a grandiose series of white-stucco terraced houses, built around 1810 for the "People of Quality" who demanded London homes as nearly as possible resembling their grand country estates. In summer be sure to take in the rose-bedecked Queen Mary's Gardens. Next, head over to the theater for, perhaps, a picture-perfect performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
St. James's and Mayfair form the core of the West End, the city's most desirable central area, where there is no shortage of history and gorgeous architecture, custom-built for ogling the lifestyles of London's rich and famous. Although many will say Mayfair is only a state of mind, the heart of Mayfair is Park Lane and Mount Street. Of course, the shops of New and Old Bond streets lure the wealthy, but the shopping is freely available. Mayfair is primarily residential, with two public grand houses to see: Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington's home, and, on elegant Manchester Square, situated in a palatial town house filled with old master paintings and fine French furniture. The district of St. James's -- named after the centuries-old palace that lies at its center -- remains the ultimate enclave of the old-fashioned gentleman's London. Here you'll find Pall Mall, with its many noted clubs, including the Reform Club, and Jermyn Street, where you can shop like the Duke of Windsor.
Soho is known infamously as London's seedy district. The area is not especially rich architecturally, but it is nonetheless intriguing. Shaftesbury Road cuts through the southern part of Soho; this is Theatreland, where the line of West End theaters cohabit. It's beloved of those who admire Shakespeare, and his constituents. To the south lie Leicester Square business district, and Charing Cross Road, the librarian's row of bookstores and small libraries.
Southwark has the Bishop of Winchester's Palace and Globe Theatre. This side of the Thames, one shall walk across the Footbridges from Charing Cross and along the riverside embankment for great views of the city. The Bridge is a picturesque pedestrian walkway to St. Paul's Cathedral. Nearby is the Royal National Theatre and Royal Festival Hall.
The most powerful palaces -- Chiswick, Kew Palace and Gardens, Osterley Park, Richmond, and Putney -- are linked closely to London by the river. Old Father Thames is enveloped with serenity and rolling greenery, making an idyllic retreat from the city on a sweltering summer day. Stroll around and just enjoy the rural air or find your way out of the famous maze at Hampton Court Palace, England's version of Versailles.