London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [25]
Household Cavalry Museum.
Horse lovers can see working horses belonging to the British Army’s two senior regiments, the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals, being tended to in their stable block behind a glass wall. Located in the cavalry’s original 17th-century stables, the museum has displays of uniforms and weapons going back to 1661 as well as interactive exhibits on the regiments’ current operational roles. In the tack room you can handle saddles and bridles, and try on a trooper’s uniform, including its distinctive brass helmet with horsehair plume. | Horse Guards, Whitehall | SW1A 2AQ | 020/7930–3070 | www.householdcavalrymuseum.org.uk | £6 | Mar.–Sept., daily 10–6; Oct.–Feb., daily 10–5 | Charing Cross, Westminster.
Horse Guards Parade.
Once the tiltyard of Whitehall Palace, where jousting tournaments were held, the Horse Guards Parade is now notable mainly for the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony, in which the Queen takes the salute, her official birthday tribute, on the second Saturday in June. (Like Paddington Bear, the Queen has two birthdays; her real one is on April 21.) There is pageantry galore, with marching bands and throngs of onlookers. Covering the vast expanse of the square that faces Horse Guards Road, opposite St. James’s Park at one end and Whitehall at the other, the ceremony is televised. At the Whitehall facade of Horse Guards, the changing of two mounted sentries known as the Queen’s Life Guard provides what may be London’s most popular photo opportunity. The ceremony last about half an hour. | Whitehall, Whitehall | SW1A 2AX | 020/7930–4832 | Changing of the Queen’s Life Guard at 11 am Mon.–Sat. and 10 am Sun.; inspection of the Queen’s Life Guard daily at 4 pm | Westminster.
QUICK BITES: The Wesley Café (Storey’s Gate, Westminster | SW1H 9NH | 020/7222–8010) is a popular budget haunt for office workers around Westminster, and a good stopping point if you don’t want to go farther along Victoria Street in search of food. It’s almost opposite Westminster Abbey, in the crypt of Methodist Central Hall.
Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).
Behind its incongruous white-stucco facade on the Mall next to the Duke of York steps, the ICA has provided a stage for the avant-garde in performance, theater, dance, visual art, and music since it was established in 1947. There are two cinemas, a theater, three galleries, a cerebral bookshop, reading room, a café, a hip bar, and adventurous curators. | The Mall, St. James’s | SW1Y 5AH | 020/7930–3647 | www.ica.org.uk | Free; £9 for cinema screenings | Galleries daily noon–7, Thurs. until 9 | Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus.
QUICK BITES: The ICA Bar and Café has a Modern British menu and windows overlooking the Mall—it’s popular at lunchtime, so come early. Open daily from noon.
The Mall.
This stately, 115-foot-wide processional route sweeping from Admiralty Arch to the Queen Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace is an updated 1904 version of the traditional rambling promenade that was used for centuries. The street was originally laid out around 1660 for the game of paille-maille (a type of croquet crossed with golf), which also gave the parallel road Pall Mall its name, and it quickly became the place to be seen. The Duke of York Memorial up the steps toward Carlton House Terrace is a towering column dedicated to George III’s second son, further immortalized in the English nursery rhyme “The Grand old Duke of York.” Sadly the internal spiral steps are inaccessible. TIP Be sure to stroll along the Mall on Sunday when the road is closed to traffic, or catch the bands and troops of the Household Division on their way from St. James’s Palace to Buckingham Palace for the Changing the Guard. | The Mall, St. James’s | SW1A 2WH | Charing Cross, Green Park.
Royal Mews.
Fairy-tale gold-and-glass coaches and sleek Rolls-Royce state cars emanate from the Royal Mews,