Bridget's London Tours

Your first visit to London?

Experience the best of London with your own personal driver guide. Your day might include a private tour of the Tower of London (Crown Jewels), Westminster Abbey (the coronation site of British monarchs) or Christopher Wren’s masterpiece- St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Other sites on our tour will include Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben (House of Parliament), the London Eye, Covent Garden, River Thames, Kensington Palace, Soho, Mayfair and more.

More Information:

Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. These include 19 State rooms, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. In measurements, the building is 108 metres long across the front, 120 metres deep (including the central quadrangle) and 24 metres high.

St Paul’s Cathedral, The area immediately surrounding the Cathedral to include a walk across the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern. (the views of London are fantastic)

The current Cathedral – the fourth to occupy this site – was designed by the court architect Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710 after its predecessor was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.

Its architectural and artistic importance reflect the determination of the five monarchs who oversaw its building that London’s leading church should be as beautiful and imposing as their private palaces.

Since the first service was held here in 1697, Wren’s masterpiece has been where people and events of overwhelming importance to the country have been celebrated, mourned and commemorated. Important services have included the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill; Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the launch of the Festival of Britain; the Service of Remembrance and Commemoration for the 11th September 2001: the 80th and 100th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother; the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer and, most recently, the thanksgiving services for both the Golden Jubilee and 80th Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen.

Westminster Abbey, Westminster Abbey is steeped in more than a thousand years of history. Benedictine monks first came to this site in the middle of the tenth century, establishing a tradition of daily worship which continues to this day. The Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final resting place of seventeen monarchs. The present church, begun by Henry III in 1245, is one of the most important Gothic buildings in the country, with the medieval shrine of an Anglo-Saxon saint still at its heart.

Big Ben, The name Big Ben is often used to describe the tower, the clock and the bell but the name was first given to the Great Bell. 1859 was the beginning for all three elements when the Clock Tower was completed, the Great Clock started on 31 May and the Great Bell’s chimes were heard for the first time on 11 July.

The Houses of Parliament, The origins of Parliament go back to the 12th century, when King’s councils were held involving barons and archbishops. They discussed politics and were involved in taxation and judgments. Over time, these councils took a more formal role and saw knights representing each county. This was the beginning of a Commons element in Parliament. The word ‘Parliament’ was used to describe these meetings by the early 13th century.

The River Thames, There is evidence of human habitation living off the river along its length dating back to Neolithic times. The British Museum has a decorated bowl (3300-2700 BC), found in the River at Hedsor, Buckinghamshire and a considerable amount of material was discovered during the excavations of Dorney Lake. A number of Bronze Age sites and artifacts have been discovered along the banks of the River including settlements at Lechlade, Cookham and Sunbury-on-Thames. Some of the earliest written accounts of the Thames occur in Julius Caesar’s account of his second expedition to Britain in 54BC when the Thames presented a major obstacle and he encountered the Iron Age Belgic tribes the Catuvellauni and the Atrebates along the river.

Trafalgar Square, From the 14th to the late 17th century, much of the area occupied by Trafalgar Square was the courtyard of the Great Mews stabling, which served Whitehall Palace. In the early 18th century, the mews was put out of use by the Royal Household and the area was cleared. In 1812 the architect John Nash set about developing a new concept for the space as part of his improvement plans for London. He wanted to develop ‘a new street from Charing Cross to Portland Place … forming an open square in the Kings Mews opposite Charing Cross’. He wanted the space to be a cultural space, open to the public. In 1830, it was officially named Trafalgar Square.

Picadilly Circus, Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly, a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Pickadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to one Robert Baker, a tailor famous for selling piccadills or piccadillies, a term used for various kinds of collars. The street was known as Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza, the queen consort of King Charles II of England, but was known as Piccadilly by 1743. Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton. The circus lost its circular form in 1886 with the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue.

The Horse Guards, Founded August 1650 in Newcastle Upon Tyne by Sir Arthur Hesselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cromwell as the Regiment of Cuirassiers, the regiment became the Earl of Oxford’s Regiment during the reign of King Charles II. As the regiment’s uniform was blue in colour at the time, it was nicknamed “the Oxford Blues”, from which was derived the nickname the “Blues.” In 1750 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards Blue and eventually, in 1877, the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues).

The Changing of the Guard, The Guard which mounts at Buckingham Palace is called The Queen’s Guard and is divided into two Detachments: the Buckingham Palace Detachment (which is responsible for guarding Buckingham Palace), and the St. James’s Palace Detachment, (which guards St. James’s Palace). These guard duties are normally provided by a battalion of the Household Division and occasionally by other infantry battalions or other units.

Tower Bridge, Originally, London Bridge was the only crossing over the Thames. As London grew, so more bridges were added, but these were all to the west of London Bridge, since the area east of London Bridge had become a busy port. In the 19th century, the east end of London became so densely populated that public pressure mounted for a bridge to the east of London Bridge, as journeys for pedestrians and vehicles were being delayed literally by hours.

The Tower of London, In the early 1080s, William the Conqueror began to build a massive stone tower at the centre of his London fortress. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Through the centuries that followed, successive monarchs added to the fortifications. This short history charts the different stages of its construction and explains its role as fortress, palace and prison.

The Crown Jewels, The Crown Jewels, which are part of the Royal Collection, are displayed to millions of visitors every year, guarded by Yeomen Warders (‘Beefeaters’) in the Tower of London. The Jewel House at the Tower has been used for the secure storage of the precious ceremonial objects, commonly known as the ‘Crown Jewels’, since the early 14th century, when Westminster Abbey (the alternative store) was found to be unsafe. Although attempts have been made to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower, notably by Colonel Blood in 1671, none have succeeded. The present display of the Crown Jewels was opened by Her Majesty The Queen in 1994.

The City with the Bank of England, The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to act as the Government’s banker and debt-manager. Since then its role has developed and evolved, centred on the management of the nation’s currency and its position at the centre of the UK’s financial system.

Guildhall, The original Library at Guildhall was founded in the 1420s under the terms of the will of Richard Whittington. Today, it is a major public reference library which specialises in the history of London, especially the City, as well as having other significant collections.

London revisited:

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, In 1949, when Sam Wanamaker came to London for the first time, he looked for the site of the original Globe and was disappointed not to find a more lasting memorial to Shakespeare and his theatre. In 1970 Sam founded what was to become the Shakespeare Globe Trust, and in 1987 building work began on site when the six-metre deep foundations were laid. In 1993, the construction of the Globe Theatre itself began.

British Museum, The origins of the British Museum lie in the will of the physician, naturalist and collector, Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). Sloane wanted his collection of more than 71,000 objects, library and herbarium to be preserved intact after his death. He bequeathed it to King George II for the nation in return for payment of £20,000 to his heirs. If refused, the collection was to be offered to centres of learning abroad. A large and influential group of Trustees was charged with overseeing the disposition of his estate.

Tate Modern, Built in two phases between 1947 and 1963, Bankside Power Station was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. He was also the architect of Battersea Power Station, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, University libraries in Oxford and Cambridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the designer of the famous British red telephone box.

Regents Park, Known as the ‘jewel in the crown’ The Regent’s Park (including Primrose Hill) covers 197 hectares. Like most of the other Royal Parks, Regent’s Park formed part of the vast chase appropriated by Henry VIII.

Bloomsbury, The Bloomsbury Group was an English collectivity of friends and relatives who lived in or near London during the first half of the twentieth century. Their work deeply influenced literature, aesthetics, criticism, and economics as well as modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality. Its best known members were Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey.

Sir John Sloane Museum, The architect Sir John Soane’s house, museum and library at No. 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields has been a public museum since the early 19th century. Soane demolished and rebuilt three houses in succession on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, beginning with No. 12 between 1792 and 1794, moving on to No. 13, re-built in two phases in 1808-9 and 1812, and concluding with No. 14, rebuilt in 1823-24.

Chelsea Embankment, Part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea; the eastern end, including Grosvenor Road and Millbank, is in the City of Westminster. Beneath the road lies the main low-level interceptor sewer taking waste water from west London eastwards towards Beckton.

Cabinet War Rooms, The First World War unleashed a new threat to mankind: the aerial bombardment of cities. The bombing of undefended cities was practised during the First World War and the Spanish Civil War, causing many civilian casualties and threatening governmental stability. The fear that cities, particularly London, would be the first targets of an enemy conducting a war against Great Britain troubled successive British governments in the 1920s and 1930s.

Guild Hall, Guildhall has been the City powerhouse since the twelfth century. In an era when the Lord Mayor of London rivalled the monarch for influence and prestige, this was where he and the ruling merchant class held court, fine-tuned the laws and trading regulations that helped create London’s wealth.

Banqueting House, Originally the property of the Archbishops of York. The Banqueting House was used to provide entertainment for Charles I, and was later the scene of his execution. After the fire that destroyed Whitehall Palace in 1698, it was used as a chapel until 1890. From 1896 until 1962 the Banquteing House was occupied by the Royal United Services Institute and used as a museum.

Spitalfields, Spitalfields takes its name from the hospital and priory, St. Mary’s Spittel that was founded in 1197. Lying in the heart of the East End, it is an area known for its spirit and strong sense of community. It was in a field next to the priory where the now famous market first started in the thirteenth century.

Bermondsey, The parish of St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, is bounded by Southwark on the west, by Rotherhithe on the east and by Camberwell on the south. The river frontage extends only from St. Saviour’s Dock, of which it comprehends the eastern half, to Cherry Garden Pier. It comprises an area of 620 acres.