Walking around...

Europe’s largest city offers the visitor a huge variety of things to do and a quick scan of the weekly events magazine “Time Out” will make you wish that your visit was much longer. Just within short reach of the Baglioni Hotel alone there is extensive choice.
Shoppers will head for Knightsbridge, famous for stores like Harrods and Harvey Nichols as well as many smaller shops, or to King’s Road or Kensington Church Street.

On a sunny day there are few things more agreeable than a stroll across Kensington Gardens, perhaps to Kensington Palace or the Serpentine Lake where there is well-known contemporary art gallery.
The Albert Hall is just a five minute walk away and you are also close to famous museums like the Victoria and Albert or the Natural History Museum. A river trip along the Thames is an excellent introduction to the city taking in the famous sights such as the Millennium Wheel, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster as well as the South Bank, the City skyline and the famous bridges you pass under on the journey to Greenwich, known for its maritime associations as well as the Observatory.

Many have commented that London is an ensemble of villages and it is true that there are dozens of smaller parts of town that all have there own distinct identity and charm: places like Chelsea, Kensington, Notting Hill, Islington, Mayfair, Hampstead, Covent Garden and Soho are all familiar names and well worth visiting along with the financial district where the origins of the city lie.

London was founded by the Romans in the first century and its position, together with the deep water of the Thames assured its development as a major centre for shipping and trade with the rest of the Empire.
The Romans built the first bridge across the Thames close the site of the present day London Bridge as well as a system of roads through England that converged on the main city.

However, Roman power faded and Saxons began to settle there but by the end of the 10th century London had established itself as the centre of the monarchy as well as an emerging centre for banking and commerce.
There are traces of Saxon London still visible but the earliest complete example of architecture that can still be seen today is Norman, the Tower of London built by William the Conqueror in the eleventh century.

The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed much of the city but many of the great churches were rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren who also designed St Paul’s Cathedral. Following this rebuilding, London gradually spread out from its centre around what is now known as the City, and the wealth generated by eighteenth and nineteenth century industry and commerce created a prosperous urban middle class as well as a large working class population who were often forced to live in squalid slums on the eastern side of town.

Over the centuries a succession of kings and queens have presided over the development of what is now the largest city in Europe, valued as much for its historical buildings as its modern architecture, its ethnic diversity and its reputation as a major centre of contemporary culture.