London is full of famous attractions but it also has hidden gems that are only discovered by the most curious and persevering. Here are my favourite, the well-known and the not so famous, all treasured for their historical and aesthetic value:

The well known

 

Westminster Abbey and Jewel Tower
Tower of London
Tower Bridge opening for a boat
St. Paul's Cathedral
Houses of Parliament
British Museum, Russell Square
Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington
Science Museum
Natural History Museum
Museum of London
Imperial War Museum, Waterloo
Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court
National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery
Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
Trafalgar Square
St. James' Park
Regent's Park
Hyde Park Corner and Speaker's Corner
Kew Gardens
Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner
Monument to the Great Fire of London
Whitehall Banqueting House, Whitehall
Cabinet War Rooms
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Horse Guards Building
Globe Theatre, South Bank
Clink Prison Museum
The London Dungeon
Kensington Palace and Gardens
Tate Modern
Tate Britain
The Golden Hinde

The Less Famous

Museums

-Bank of England Museum
-Horniman Museum
-Queen's House, Greenwich
-Royal Observatory and Meridian Line, Greenwich
-National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
-RAF Museum
-Museum of Garden History, Lambeth
-London's Transport Museum
-Geffrye Museum of Furniture, Hackney
-Hackney Museum, Hackney Central
-Museum in Docklands
-Alexander Fleming Museum
-Richmond Museum
-Dorking Museum with 5-toed rooster
-Sir John Soane Museum
-HMS Belfast
-Museum of Freemasonry
-St. Bart's Hospital Museum, Smithfields
-Fan Museum, Greenwich
-National Army Museum, Chelsea

Houses

-Osterley Park and House, Osterley
-Syon House, Hounslow
-Chiswick House, Chiswick
-Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner
-Somerset House, Strand
-Down House, Darwin's residence
-Kenwood House, Hampstead
-Wallace Collection
-Ham House and Richmond Park
-Marble Hill House, Marble Hill
-Fenton House, Hampstead
-Sutton House, Hackney
-2 Willow Road, Hampstead
-Hogarth's House, Chiswick
-Carlyle House, South Kensington
-Rangers House, Greenwich
-Dr. Johnson's House

Other

-British Library with many treasures like Magna Carta
-Royal Courts of Justice
-Royal Exchange
-Southwark Cathedral
-Cleopatra's Needle along the Embankment
-Thames Barrier, Woolwich
-Biggin Hill Airfield, Biggin Hill
-Prince Henry's Rooms, Fleet Street
-Greenwich Park
-Battersea Park
-Morden Hall Park, Morden
-Old Opearting Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, 9a St. Thomas' Street
-Temple of Mithras, south side of Queen Victoria Street
-St. John's Gate, St. John's Lane
-Statues on Natwest Building next to the Bank of England
-Plaques under Southwark Bridge commemorating the frost fairs
-Fountain near the Guildhall on Basinghall Street
-Shakespeare Garden in remains of St. Mary's Aldermanbury, off Love Lane
-St. Alphage Gardens, off Wood Street
-Crofton Roman Villa, Orpington

 

 

The hidden gems

Guildhall Art Gallery with Roman Amphitheatre
Ruins of Winchester Palace with Rose Window
Fake facade at 23-24 Leinster Gardens
Holland Park House
Barber Surgeons' Garden and Roman Bastion near the London Wall and Wood Place
Abbey Wood
Roman Ruins at the Barbican and the Barbican Highwalk
Moor Park House

Plaque commemorating William Wallace near St. Bart's the Great