• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1345 0

attention to the music.) The crypt is a hive of activity, with a café and shop, plus the London Brass-Rubbing Centre, where you can make your own life-size souvenir knight, lady, or monarch from replica tomb brasses, with metallic waxes, paper, and instructions from about £4.50. St. Martin’s is often called the royal parish church, partly because Charles II was christened here: the small medieval chapel that once stood here, probably used by the monks of Westminster Abbey, gave way to a grand rebuilding, completed in 1726, and James Gibbs’s classical temple-with-spire design also became a familiar pattern for churches in early colonial America. Though it has to compete for attention with Trafalgar Square’s many prominent structures, its spire is slightly taller than Nelson’s Column. | Trafalgar Sq., Covent Garden | WC2N 4CC | 020/7766–1100, 020/7839–8362 brass rubbings; 020/7766–1122 evening-concert credit-card bookings | www.smitf.org | Concerts £6–£22; Church audio tour £3.50 | Mon.–Sat. 8–6, Sun. 8–6 for worship; café Mon. and Tues. 8–8, Wed. 8–7, Thurs.–Sat. 8–9, Sun. 11–6 | Charing Cross, Leicester Sq.

QUICK BITES: The atmospheric St. Martin’s Café in the Crypt, with its magnificent high-arched brick vault and gravestone floor, serves full English and Continental breakfasts, sandwiches, salads, snacks, afternoon tea, and wine. Lunch and dinner options include vegetarian meals and the setting, at the heart of London, is superb.

Wellington Barracks.

These are the headquarters of the Guards Division, the Queen’s five regiments of elite foot guards (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh) who protect the sovereign and patrol her palaces dressed in tunics of gold-purled scarlet and tall bearskin caps. Guardsmen alternate these ceremonial postings with serving in current conflicts, for which they wear more practical uniforms. If you want to learn more about the guards, visit the Guards Museum, which has displays on all aspects of a guardsman’s life in conflicts dating back to 1642; the entrance is next to the Guards Chapel. Next door is the Guards Toy Soldier Centre, a great place for a souvenir. | Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, Westminster | SW1E 6HQ | 020/7414–3428 | www.theguardsmuseum.com | £4 | Daily 10–4; last admission 3:30 | St. James’s Park.

Westminster Cathedral.

Amid the concrete jungle of Victoria Street lies this remarkable neo-Byzantine find, seat of the Archbishop of Westminster, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain, and consequently of London’s principal Roman Catholic church. Faced with the daunting proximity of Westminster Abbey, the architect, John Francis Bentley, flew in the face of fashion by rejecting neo-Gothic in favor of the Byzantine idiom, which still provides maximum contrast today. The asymmetrical redbrick Byzantine edifice, dating from 1903, is banded with stripes of Portland stone and abutted by a 273-foot-high bell tower containing Big Edward at the northwest corner, ascendable by elevator for sterling views. The interior remains incomplete and is unusual for the unfinished overhead brickwork of the ceiling, which lends the church a dark, brooding intensity. An optimistic watercolor from 1950 hangs from one of the internal pillars, revealing the church interior in an imagined state of resplendent completion. Several side chapels—such as the eastern-Roman styled Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Souls Chapel—are beautifully finished in glittering mosaics. The lovely Lady Chapel—dedicated to the Virgin Mary—is also sumptuously decorated. In front of the chapel, a small stone statue of Jesus’ mother attracts particular veneration. Look out for the Stations of the Cross (stopping points for prayer or contemplation) by Eric Gill and the striking baldachin—the enormous stone canopy standing over the altar and giant cross suspended in front of it. Since his conversion to Catholicism, and a clearer calendar, ex–prime minister Tony Blair has been seen at the church on Sunday mornings. The nave is the widest in the country and is constructed in green marble, which