london tourist attractions
When you visit London tourist attractions, you have many things to see.
London Eye
London’s most prominent recent landmark is the London Eye, the magnificently graceful observation wheel which spins slowly and silently over the Thames. Standing 443ft high,
the wheel is the largest ever built, and it’s constantly in slow motion – a full-circle “flight” in one of its 32 pods takes around thirty minutes, and lifts you high above the city. At the top,you’re at one of the few places (apart from a plane window) from which London looks a manageable size, as you can see right out to where the suburbs slip into the countryside.Ticket
prices are outrageously high,though the engineering and the views are awesome; queues can also be very bad at the weekend, so book in advance over the phone or online.But there are much more london tourist attractions to visit
County Hall
The colonnaded crescent of County Hall is the only truly monumental building on the
South Bank. Designed to house the now defunct London County Council, it was
completed in 1933 and enjoyed its greatest moment of fame as headquarters of the GLC
(Greater London Council),which was abolished by Margaret Thatcher in 1986
leaving London as the only European city without an elected authority. In 2000, the
former GLC leader Ken Livingstone was elected as Mayor of London, and moved
into the new GLA (Greater London Authority) building further downstream.
County Hall, meanwhile, is now in the hands of a Japanese property company, and currently
houses several hotels, restaurants,an amusement arcade and a bizarre clutch of tourist
attractions.
London Aquarium
The most popular attraction in County Hall is the London Aquarium,laid out across three floors of the
basement.With some superlarge,multi-floor tanks, and everything from dog-face puffers
to piranhas, it’s pretty much guaranteed to please younger kids.The “Beach”, where
children can actually stroke the (non-sting) rays, is particularly popular.Though impressive in
scale, the aquarium is fairly conservative in design, with no walk-through tanks and only the
very briefest of information on any of the fish.
Saatchi Gallery
The Saatchi Gallery of contemporary art occupies the incongruously imposing former council
chamber of County Hall.Charles Saatchi, the collector behind the gallery, was, in fact,
the man whose advertising for the Conservative government helped topple County Hall’s
previous incumbents, the GLC.Saatchi’s extravagant wallet also helped promote the Young
British Artists of the 1980s and 1990s, as he snapped up headline-grabbing works such as
Damien Hirst’s pickled shark and Tracey Emin’s soiled and crumpled bed.The gallery puts
on changing exhibitions drawn primarily from Saatchi’s vast collection.
Dalí Universe
Three giant surrealist sculptures on the river-facing side of County Hall herald the Dalí
Universe.Yet while Dalí was undoubtedly an accomplished and prolific artist, you’ll be
disappointed if you’re expecting to see his “greatest hits” here – those are scattered across the
globe. Most of the works on display are little-known bronze and glass sculptures, as well as drawings from the many illustrated books which he published, ranging from Ovid to the Marquis de Sade. Aside from these, there’s one of the numerous Lobster Telephones,which Edward James commissioned for his London home, a copy of his famous Mae West lips sofa, and the oil painting from the dream sequence in Hitchcock’s movie Spellbound.
There plenty more london tourist attractions to visit , in the next week we will show you more.