London Attractions

221B Baker Street, London

This month, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows will hit the theaters.

There are few characters most closely associated with London than Sherlock Holmes. Given the amount of Holmes’ sites in London, you wouldn’t know he was a fictional creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Upon arriving at the Baker Street Tube station, the Metropolitan Line walls are covered in scenes from Holmes stories and if you exit on Marylebone Road, you’ll come upon a 9-foot statue of Holmes in his famous deerstalker hat.

Just around the corner on Baker Street is perhaps the most famous address in London, 221B Baker Street. And although Holmes may be fiction, the address is real. There sits the Sherlock Holmes Museum, a faithful recreation of what Holmes’ and Watson’s flat rented from Mrs. Hudson would have looked like as described in the books, complete with a blue historical marker denoting the years Holmes’ would have spent in the home. Upton entering the building and walking up the 17 steps (as mentioned in “A Scandal in Bohemia”) you are surrounded with ‘artifacts,’ wax figures of characters, and other potential belongings of Holmes. Usually an actor playing Holmes or Mrs. Hudson will greet you in the museum as well. Below is a gift shop complete with deerstalker hats and pipes you could imagine Holmes using himself. Read the entire story here…»

Abbey Road Photo

As Beatles fans surely know, Paul McCartney is touring North America this summer. But while not everyone will be able to see the legend perform, they can all see places in London he made famous.

The most popular Beatles site in London is certainly Abbey Road. The mythic road is located in the St-John’s Wood and Regent Park areas.  While you can’t get access to the recording studio, you can get a great look at it from the outside. But the Beatles are probably more known for their iconic “Abbey Road” album cover where the four Beatles are walking across the zebra stripes outside the studio. It should be warned that Abbey Road is a busy London street and the drivers aren’t always happy to stop for tourists posing in the middle of the road. But that said, it’s possible to recreate the famous shot. Whether you do this barefoot as Paul did or not is up to you (you can leave your shoes on the sidewalk, you probably won’t be the only one doing so). Are you afraid to have your shoes stolen and want to walk all the way barefoot to Abbey Road, check out accommodations in the St-John’s Wood and Regent Park areas. Read the entire story here…»

View from the London Eye

Despite being one of the major cities in the world, London doesn’t really have a single skyline that comes to mind when you think of it. In fact, with much of London’s building being a hundreds of years old, many of the buildings aren’t very tall like in a city as New York.

But the relative shortness of London has some advantages. Namely, it creates some great views from above, giving you the chance to see across a great deal of London.

Here are the three best places to see London from above.

1.St. Paul’s Cathedral – Built after the Fire of 1666, St. Paul’s is a landmark in itself, the masterpiece of Christopher Wren. The church sits imposingly on Ludgate Hill, the tallest part of The City and is visible from all over London.

After climbing some 250 steps, you stand around the upper ring in the giant dome and can look down over the church below. This is not for the faint of heart, but it lets you appreciate the three-century old building even more. Read the entire story here…»