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00:00And I will be your tour guide for tonight. And your bus driver is Godfrey. Sorry, Mike. Godfrey is one
00:11of the best in the business. He'll be keeping you safe tonight.
00:14Just a few little safety notices before we start. Please stay seated at all times. Please do not drop your
00:23cameras over the side of the bus because we won't stop to go get them. And please be aware of
00:30trees overhead. Getting you in the face. It's happened to me. It's not fun.
00:37And let's get started, shall we? Up ahead, we will see Trafalgar Square. And there's a big column in the
00:47middle of the square. And on top of this column is a man. His name is Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson.
00:56He's a national hero. And he only had one eye, one arm, and he couldn't swim.
01:04But this didn't stop him. He led the greatest navy in the world to victory over the French and the
01:11Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.
01:15So, just goes to show you can do anything if you put your mind to it.
01:20And at the base of Nelson's column there are four lions called Landseer's Lions.
01:28Named after the artist, Edwin Landseer, and it's said, if Big Ben ever strikes 13, then the lions will come
01:37to life.
01:40And ahead, in front of the bus, is Charing Cross roundabouts.
01:45And in the middle of that roundabout is a man on a horse.
01:49This is King Charles I.
01:52And he was a very naughty boy.
01:55He started the English Civil War.
01:59And this raged for seven years, between 1642 and 1649.
02:06And at the end of this war, he lost.
02:10And he is pointing towards the site of his execution down the road.
02:17This is Whitehall.
02:20This is the centre of the UK government.
02:25And there are lots of important buildings up and down the street.
02:29The Foreign Office, the Treasury, and number 10 Downing Street are all along here.
02:37And it used to be home to the Whitehall Palace until it all burnt down in 1698.
02:44And the only building that remains is the Banqueting House just down the road.
02:50And that's coming up on our left.
02:54And it was here at the Banqueting House that King Charles I was executed on a cold January morning in
03:021649.
03:05And there was a crowd of thousands all around.
03:10And they brought with them handkerchiefs in the hope of absorbing some of the king's blood as a souvenir.
03:19Better than a postcard.
03:22And you can see the Banqueting Hall there.
03:25It's up ahead on your left.
03:27There's a brown bit of wall there.
03:29And if you look to the left, just above the door, you'll see a circle with a head inside, just
03:36to the left there.
03:37That is the head of King Charles I, and that is the exact spot where he lost his head in
03:441649.
03:48And up ahead on the right, you'll see some black railings.
03:53And there's some police officers with machine guns in front of them.
03:57And this is the front of number 10 Downing Street.
04:03This is where our Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, lives and works.
04:08And it is also home to Larry the Cat, the famous Larry the Cat.
04:14And he's outlasted the last six Prime Ministers.
04:19And who knows, maybe he'll outlast seven.
04:26And we're going to head towards Parliament Square.
04:30That's in front of us.
04:32To the right.
04:33This is the oldest roundabout in Britain.
04:39Dating back to the 1920s.
04:44And there, on the corner of Parliament Square, is a statue of famous alcoholic and Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
04:54Just to the right there.
04:58Winston Churchill never wanted a statue of him erected in London,
05:02because he was worried that birds would land on his head and pull on it.
05:07So he honoured his memory by building a statue of him there.
05:10On the left, you have the Palace of Westminster.
05:14The home to our Houses of Parliament.
05:20The front part is Westminster Hall.
05:22It's lit up there.
05:23It's much older than the rest of the building.
05:26It had been burned down in 1834.
05:30Everything in London is always burning down throughout the history.
05:35And on the left here is Westminster Abbey.
05:40This is where you will have seen all of the Royal Weddings and the Royal Funerals.
05:45And it's where 3,300 dead British people are buried.
05:52Including Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, all three of the Bronte sisters, and Sir Isaac Newton.
06:05Parliament Square on the right here has 12 statues, and they're mostly all white men.
06:12They've also got Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and the only woman in Parliament Square, Millicent Fawcett.
06:22She was a suffragist, and she campaigned for the rights for women to vote.
06:29And they did so in 1918.
06:35And in front of us is the beautiful Big Ben.
06:41Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the clock tower.
06:48The name of the tower is actually called the Elizabeth Tower.
06:52At the other end you've got the Victoria Tower.
06:55Liz and Vic.
07:01And inside the Houses of Parliament there are 1,100 rooms.
07:07And amongst these rooms are 8 pubs, 6 restaurants, a private gym, and also a shooting gallery, where you can
07:19practice shooting your gun.
07:23And the last person to be shot in the Houses of Parliament was our Prime Minister, Spencer Percival, in 1812.
07:34And he's the only Prime Minister who has been assassinated in our country's history.
07:41They tried to grow up Margaret Thatcher twice, but they missed.
07:49And up ahead we have Westminster Bridge.
07:52This is the second bridge ever to be built over the Thames, after London Bridge.
08:01And you'll see there the London Eye.
08:06You can get married at the top of the London Eye.
08:09You get into one of the pods, you go away to the top, you say I do, and then it's
08:15all downhill from there.
08:18And don't forget to look behind the bus, ladies and gents.
08:22If you look behind the bus, you'll get a great view of the Houses of Parliament.
08:28From behind.
08:30From the derriere.
08:33This lovely rainbow building to the left is the old County Hall.
08:38This is where the London County Council used to sit.
08:42And is now home to the greatest show in London.
08:45Shrek's Adventure.
08:50And on your right there is St. Thomas' Hospital.
08:54One of the oldest hospitals in London.
08:57It dates back to the 1100s.
09:05Florence Nightingale School of Nursing.
09:09Florence Nightingale was a hero of the Crimean War.
09:14And she got doctors to start doing very clever things like washing their hands before surgery.
09:21And painting the hospital walls white so that you could tell if they were clean or not.
09:31She also used a series of pie charts to show to the government that more men were dying in the
09:38hospitals than they were on the battlefield from disease.
09:43And there's a lovely view of the London Eye coming up on your left.
09:46If you look to your left in three, two, one, you will see the London Eye.
09:57There are 32 pods around the outside of the London Eye.
10:01But the number on the pods goes up to 33.
10:07Sorry, I got feedback there.
10:10This is because there is no pod 13.
10:1714 is too spooky a number, of course.
10:25And if you look to your left there, you'll see a lovely mural of Paddington Bear, just behind those columns
10:33on your left.
10:38And on this mural it says, in London, everyone is different.
10:43And that means that anyone can fit in.
10:46So you're left.
10:51And in front of us is a big cylinder of Rolex written on the front.
10:57That is the BFI IMAX Cinema.
11:02And it is the largest cinema screen in all of Europe.
11:08Just in that tube in front of us.
11:11And if you get a ticket there, don't sit at the front.
11:14Unless you want a neck ache for the rest of your life.
11:20And this blue cube, which you can see in front of us,
11:24is officially the ugliest building in London.
11:29That's right, it was voted number one in a pile of the ugliest buildings in London.
11:35It is the National Theatre.
11:39And our king, Charles III, once said that the finest place to see London is standing on top of the
11:46National Theatre.
11:47Because then, you don't have to look at the National Theatre.
11:53And now we're going to head over Waterloo Bridge.
11:59And you'll see some excellent views of London as we cross the bridge.
12:06Over to your right, you have St. Paul's Cathedral and the city.
12:12And to your left, you'll see Big Ben at the Adelphi Theatre and the Savoy Hotel.
12:23Across the water to the left, you'll see a big clock face.
12:29This is the Schellbeck's building, and this clock is called Big Benzine.
12:34And it's actually the largest clock in all of London.
12:41And to the writing of Somerset House.
12:46This used to be a royal palace, and is now home to the Courtauld Art Gallery.
12:58And it was once home to Britain's oldest office block, back in 1776.
13:08And in front of us is Covent Garden, also known as Theatre Land.
13:16There are 40 different theatres in Covent Garden, and some of them are 150 years old.
13:24You have the Lyceum Theatre there, in front of you.
13:27And that's been showing The Lion King for the last 27 years.
13:38The longest-running show in all of London is Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.
13:43And that's been going for the last 75 years.
14:07And if you look to your left, down the road, past Mamma Mia, you'll see the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
14:14This is the oldest theatre in London, and it is the most haunted theatre in London as well.
14:23It was haunted by the ghost of Joseph Grimaldi, a pantomime clown, and he wrote.
14:34It's said that when people are performing on stage, they can feel ghostly hands on their shoulders and arms,
14:41moving their limbs into the right positions to get the crowd to start according.
14:50And if you look to your right, high in the sky, if you look up to the right, you'll see
14:55a statue of two men holding hands.
14:59And this is Bush House, and it says, to the friendship of English-speaking peoples.
15:07And this was designed to celebrate the love between England and the United States of America.
15:16We love you, America. Never change.
15:20And on the left here, you will see the London School of Economics.
15:25This is one of the top three universities in the country, next to Oxford and Cambridge University.
15:33And on the right, you will see Australia House, which is the Australia Embassy.
15:42And it is where they filmed all of the Gringotts scenes in Harry Potter.
15:48Right down there.
16:02And this church in front of us is St Clement's Dame's Church, from the nursery wine.
16:10Orangens and lemons at the bells of St Clement's.
16:14And that's that church right there.
16:16And on the left here is the Royal Court of Justice.
16:21It looks like a witch's house.
16:24But it is where justice is served.
16:27All the highest civil trials in the land.
16:31And in front of us is a dragon high in the sky there.
16:34And if you see a dragon in London, it means you are headed into the city of London.
16:41London is confusingly two cities.
16:44You have the city of Westminster to the west, and the city of London to the east.
16:51And the city of London is the far older part of the city.
16:55It is where the Romans first established Londinium 2,000 years ago.
17:05And if you look to your left there, between the church and the brick building,
17:10you'll see a statue of Queen Elizabeth I.
17:15There she is.
17:16This is the only statue that we know of, of Queen Elizabeth.
17:20And it's one of the oldest statues in London.
17:25She was our successful Tudor Queen and daughter of Henry VIII.
17:39And this building with the bricks, just to your left here,
17:42that says Dundee Courier, is 186 Cleachers.
17:47This was home to the demon barber on Fleet Streets, Mr. Sweeney Todd.
17:53And he used to sit people down in his barber chair and slit their throats.
18:02It wasn't a real story.
18:04It was a made-up story.
18:07In a book known as a penny driftful.
18:13Dating back to Victorian times.
18:16And these were sold for a penny.
18:18Horror stories for a penny.
18:23And of course, in front of you, you have the glorious St. Paul's Cathedral.
18:32This version of St. Paul's, you see in front of you, is version number four.
18:37It's burned down three times in its history.
18:41And it is the masterpiece of Christopher Wren.
18:47He was a very famous architect.
18:49And he built everything in this area.
18:54After it all burned down in the great fire of 1666.
19:03There are many dead British people buried at St. Paul's.
19:08Including Lord Nelson, who was on top of the column.
19:13Edwin Landseer, who sculpted the lions.
19:19Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin.
19:22And Joshua Reynolds, the 18th century painter.
19:35Christopher Wren, himself, is also buried under St. Paul's.
19:42It is an excellent building.
19:48You will see, high on top of the tower there, of St. Paul's,
19:52there is a mysterious golden object.
19:54Right at the very tippy top.
19:58This is a pineapple.
20:01Which is a very weird thing to have on a church.
20:06But pineapples were a symbol of wealth and hospitality in the 18th century.
20:14And they cost many thousands of pounds to buy.
20:18And Christopher Wren wanted to put an even bigger pineapple on the dome in the middle of St. Paul's.
20:25A 60 foot tall pineapple.
20:29But he got talked out of it.
20:32Which I think is a bit of a shame.
20:34Because it would have been really funny.
20:53St. Paul's burned down in 66, but it survived World War II, because there was a special fire brigade assigned
21:03to look after the cathedral.
21:06And once again, don't forget to look behind the bus.
21:09If you look behind the bus, you'll see a great view of St. Paul's there as well.
21:22If you want to visit St. Paul's, you can pay £30 for a ticket during the day, or you can
21:28go back at 7.30 in the morning.
21:32And go for free.
21:33Go to one of the church services there.
21:37Top tip.
21:38But you can't take any photos, I'm afraid.
21:47And we're headed towards the banking district in the centre of the city of London.
22:03And in a minute, we will see on our left, the central bank, the Bank of England.
22:18And that's on your left, past the traffic lights, the end of the road here.
22:24The Bank of England, just down the road there.
22:28A lovely building.
22:35And Cannon Street, this big, long street that we're going down, is a favourite place where bankers like to drink.
22:43And there are more pubs on Cannon Street than any street in all of London.
22:48There are 12 different pubs to the left and the right.
22:57And on the right here, you have Cannon Street Station.
23:01And buried underneath this station, there's an ancient Roman palace.
23:07It's over 2,000 years old.
23:10This was the headquarters of the Romans in Britannia.
23:15We are in the heart of Roman Britain.
23:24And Cannon Street was where the Great Fire of 1666 broke out.
23:30And it started in a small bakery just down the road, on Pulling Lane, Thomas Fariner's Bakery.
23:41And it quickly raged out of control.
23:44And it burned for five days and five nights.
23:49And it destroyed 85% of the city.
23:54About 13,000 buildings and 84 churches.
24:01And after the fire was over, they built a monument to remember the dead.
24:10And this is the only monument in the world that has killed more people than it remembers.
24:19So, with all the destruction of the Great Fire, there was only six dead.
24:26But the monument has had 12 people fall from the top of it.
24:34To their deaths.
24:35And you will see the monument in just a moment.
24:40A monument, if you will.
24:44And it's coming up.
24:47As we turn the corner.
24:55Here we go, on the left-hand side.
24:58I will count you down in three, two, one.
25:03And then, on the left, the monument.
25:07Very tall.
25:08Very scary.
25:11And in front of us is a pretty boring looking bridge.
25:15This is London Bridge.
25:17And I know you're thinking, ugh, what a lovely bridge.
25:20Well, fear not, my friends.
25:22Well, if you look to your left, you will see the beautiful Tower Bridge.
25:28There it is.
25:36And across the river, in front of us, is a big pointy thing, up and to the left there.
25:43That is the Shard.
25:45This is the tallest skyscraper in the UK.
25:52But it is not the tallest building in Europe.
25:55It's actually shorter than the Eiffel Tower.
25:59About 30 feet.
26:06And as we head over London Bridge, you'll see, on your left there, there is a silver dragon.
26:13Another dragon.
26:15Just to the left of the bus there.
26:17That is another symbol of the city of London.
26:20It means we are leaving the city of London.
26:22But don't worry, we will be back.
26:29In 2019, a crazy kid climbed up the side of the Shard with no ropes.
26:36And he did it in 45 minutes flat.
26:40And he got himself six months in prison as a reward.
26:52And London Bridge used to be a lot more busy.
26:55There was lots of shops and markets on the bridge.
26:59And about 800 people lived on the bridge as well.
27:04And it used to be so busy that they made people move and pass on the left.
27:11And it's one of the first places that we started driving on the left-hand side.
27:23Oh dear.
27:28That's unlucky.
27:31Someone getting arrested in real time.
27:36And London Bridge Station was the only station in London for a long time.
27:43It was simply called London Station.
27:46Until the rail network grew in the mid-19th century.
28:13And they needed to rebuild London Bridge in the 1960s.
28:19And they didn't have enough money.
28:21So they auctioned off the old bridge.
28:26To raise money.
28:28And they sold it for $2 million.
28:36And it was sold to a wealthy man from the USA.
28:43And the story goes that he thought he was buying the much more beautiful Tower Bridge.
28:48So he was very disappointed when London Bridge turned up.
28:56And it is the largest antique ever sold.
29:00And he rebuilt it in his home in Lake Havasu, Arizona.
29:06And you can go and visit it.
29:08So let's go.
29:25And in a moment we're going to go over Tower Bridge.
29:30Tower Bridge was built in 1894.
29:34To help out the growing population of East London.
29:41You've got a lovely pub on your right here.
29:43This is the Shipwright's Arms.
29:45One of 7,000 pubs in London.
29:52It's Tower Bridge completed in 1894.
30:00And back then there was a lot more ships coming in and out of the city to the east.
30:06And so they needed a bridge that could open to allow the ships to run.
30:15And it's the only bridge on the Thames that opens.
30:21And it's the only attraction in the world that is closed when it's open and open when it's closed.
30:36And in 1952, there was a young bus driver called Albert Gunther.
30:43And he was driving over Tower Bridge.
30:48He was driving his bus.
30:50And he noticed to his horror that the bridge started to open.
30:56And so he had a decision to make.
30:59Did he try and jump the gap in the bridge?
31:04Or did he stop and risk his bus falling into the river?
31:13Well, I think you know what he might have done.
31:15He put his foot down and he went for it.
31:18And he jumped over Tower Bridge.
31:21The gap.
31:23And luckily, nobody on board was killed.
31:27And they gave him £10 as a reward for his bravery.
31:32And he gave £5 to his wife.
31:35And they went on holiday together.
31:38They had a lot more money back then.
31:41Pre-COVID.
31:54And to celebrate that stunt, our bus driver, Godfrey, is going to recreate that jump for you right now.
32:01As we jump over Tower Bridge.
32:04Here we go.
32:21Here we go.
33:04Here we go.
33:05It's name from the Tower of London, which you can see to the left there.
33:10The Terrifying Tower of London.
33:12This was built by William the Conqueror.
33:16In 1074.
33:19And it was designed to scare everyone in the city.
33:23and they would often cut people's heads off
33:26and put them on spikes outside the tower.
33:30There's been lots of prisoners here over the years.
33:33William Wallace, Guy Fawkes
33:36and two of Henry VIII's wives
33:41Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard
33:44before they got the chop.
33:48It wasn't all bad in the Tower of London.
33:51It used to be home to the first London Zoo
33:57and we used to keep animals in there
33:59lots of exotic animals
34:01like elephants and giraffes and tigers
34:06and also a polar bear
34:08which was a gift from the King of Norway.
34:14Sorry.
34:18And this neighbourhood to our right here
34:21is Whitechapel.
34:23This is where in 1888
34:26Jack the Ripper carried out his horrible murders
34:31and nobody knows who he was to this day.
34:39Some people think he might have been
34:41Queen Victoria's grandson
34:43Prince Albert Victoria
34:49and that there was a cover-up
34:51by the Freemasons
34:54one of which was a young Winston Churchill
34:58but we'll never know.
35:03And on the right here
35:04is the old Roman Wall
35:06back when London was Lundinian
35:08there was a big wall
35:09around the outside.
35:13You can still see a lot of it to this day.
35:16And you have the Port Authority building
35:19to your right here
35:20lit up beautifully.
35:21This is where they used to count
35:24the ships and the cargo
35:25coming in and out of the city.
35:28And it is now a Four Seasons Hotel.
35:33And this church in front of us
35:35lit up with a paddle ball court
35:38is the oldest church
35:40in the city of London.
35:42This is All Hallows by the Tower
35:44and it dates back to 675 AD
35:49and it's one of the only churches here
35:51that did not burn down
35:53in the Great Fire.
35:58And we're going to head through
36:01the neighbourhood
36:02known as Blackfriars now.
36:05This takes its name
36:06from a group of monks
36:08who lived here
36:09and they wore black robes
36:11hence the name
36:13Blackfriars.
36:15And they had lots of churches
36:17and land
36:19until they were all stolen
36:21by Henry VIII
36:22in 1533.
36:29Henry wanted a divorce
36:31from his wife
36:32Catherine of Aragon
36:33so he turned
36:34the country Protestant
36:38and he got his divorce
36:42and he stole
36:44all of the churches
36:45and land
36:45from the monks
36:47and then later on
36:49in the Great Fire
36:49they all burned down.
36:52And one of those churches
36:53was here on the left.
36:55This is St. Magnus
36:57the Martyr Church
36:59and it was redesigned
37:01by Christopher Wren
37:03and in that church
37:05there is a scale model
37:06of the old London Bridge.
37:17Blackfriars
37:18and Blackfriars was also
37:18home to the Blackfriars
37:20hat factory
37:21back in the mid-19th century
37:27and one year
37:28all of the workers
37:29in the hat factory
37:30went crazy
37:33and they figured out
37:35this was because
37:36the glue
37:36they were using
37:37to make the hats
37:39contained mercury
37:40and it was poisoning
37:42all of their brains.
37:44That's where we get
37:45the term
37:45Mad Hatter from
37:47and inspired
37:49the character
37:50the Mad Hatter
37:51in Lewis Carroll's
37:52Alice in Wonderland.
38:03Alice in Wonderland.
38:29And up ahead
38:31on the right
38:32behind the trees
38:33you will see
38:34another Christopher Wren Church.
38:36This is St. Michael
38:37Pastor Noster Church
38:40and buried there
38:41is the real
38:42Dick Whittington
38:43very famous mayor of London
38:45and he had a very famous cat.
38:48And one more
38:49Christopher Wren Church
38:50here on the right
38:51this is St. James
38:53Garlick Hyde Church
38:55also known as
38:56Wren's Lantern
38:57because it heats up
38:59like a lantern.
39:12and we're going to go through
39:15Blackfriars Underpass
39:15now.
39:17We're supposed to need
39:17good luck.
39:18So you hold your breath
39:19through the hole
39:20of this tunnel
39:22so I invite you
39:23to join me
39:24as we try and get
39:25some good luck
39:26all together.
39:27Ready?
39:29Ready?
39:29Hmm?
40:03That's a good look there.
40:07And we're going to head along the embankment trail as we go along.
40:57Well, what about me?
41:11Sorry guys, bit of microphone trouble there.
41:15The embankment was created to clean up the smell of the city.
41:24The city used to be quite disgusting.
41:26It got the name of the Great Stink in 1858 and they built the embankment as a way to clean
41:36the river.
41:37They brought the edge of the river inwards and made the Thames one-third narrower and this
41:43meant that the water flowed through quicker and it cleaned quicker.
41:52They planted all of these lovely trees and built lots of sewer pipes to clean the city
41:58up.
42:02And it's a lot nicer now.
42:06This lovely colourful bridge you see in front of you is Waterloo Bridge.
42:10We went over it earlier.
42:13The Waterloo Bridge is also known as the Ladies' Bridge.
42:18It needed to be rebuilt in the 1940s.
42:22And they got...
42:24All of the men were off fighting at war.
42:27So they got a team of 100 women and they settled to work.
42:33And it is the only bridge in London to have been completed on time and on budget.
42:38So there you go.
42:44And there's lots of lovely trees along the embankments.
42:49London is the greenest capital city on earth.
42:56And it is technically a forest according to a UN definition because more than one-fifth of
43:04its surface is covered in trees.
43:09And we have Henry VIII to thank that.
43:12He created seven beautiful royal parks in the city.
43:21And he did this because he liked to go hunting.
43:27And before he would hunt, he would often shout out, SOHO.
43:34And that's where we get the name SOHO from.
43:38The area in central London.
43:41And if you want some great food in London, head on over to Chinatown in SOHO.
43:47There's lots of lovely Asian restaurants that you can eat at.
43:56And if you want to try some of the best British food that we have, then head on over to
44:02Brick
44:02Brick Lane in East London and try a curry in one of the curry houses there.
44:10There are dozens of Indian restaurants up and down the street on Brick Lane.
44:17And you can shop around and get some good deals.
44:27And if you want a good fish and chips in town, then head on over to Hobson's on Vidya Street.
44:35That's not far away from the bus stop.
44:46And there's some lovely pubs in the area as well.
44:49You've got the Sherlock Holmes, which is right next to the bus stop.
44:52There's a museum of Sherlock Holmes in the upper levels of that pub where they've recreated his flat.
45:02You can also check out the Mel Gwynne, which is a great pub on the Strand about a five minute
45:09walk from here.
45:15And that is the end of our tour tonight, ladies and gents.
45:20Thank you very much for listening. You've been a lovely audience.
45:23If you've enjoyed the tour today, then please do leave us a five star review on Get Your Guide or
45:29Trip Advisor.
45:30And that helps us to boost the profile of the tour.
45:33And if you'd like to leave us a cash tip, that would be much appreciated.
45:37And I will split those tips with our driver, Godfrey.
45:40But of course, please don't feel that you have to.
45:43Your presence is present enough.
45:46And thank you very much and have a lovely evening and good night.