Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Southwest London
Chelsea Physic Garden
GARDEN Founded in 1673 by the Worshipful Soci-
ety of Apothecaries, this is the second-oldest surviving botanical garden in England.
Sir Hans Sloane, doctor to King George II, required the apothecaries of the Empire
to develop 50 plant species a year for presentation to the Royal Society. The objective
was to grow plants for medicinal study. Plant specimens and even trees arrived at the
gardens by barge from all over the world, many to grow in English soil for the first
time. Some 7,000 plants still grow here, including everything from pomegranate to
exotic cork oak, and the garden also houses England's earliest rock garden.
66 Royal Hospital Rd., SW3.
&
020/7352-5646.
www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk. Admission £8
adults, £5 children 5-15 and students. Apr-Oct Wed-Fri noon-5pm, Sun and bank holiday Mon noon-
6pm. Tube: Sloane Sq.
Churchill War Rooms
MUSEUM/WWII SITE These cramped subterranean
rooms were the nerve center of the British war effort during the final years of World
War II, where Winston Churchill and his advisors planned what they hoped would be
an Allied victory. In August 1945, with the conflict finally won, the rooms were aban-
doned exactly as they were, creating a time capsule of the moment of victory.
You can see the
Map Room
with its huge wall maps; the Atlantic map is a mass of
pinholes (each hole represents at least one convoy). Next door is Churchill's bedroom-
cum-office, which has a bed and a desk with two BBC microphones on it, via which he
tried to rally the nation. Other rooms include Churchill's kitchen and dining room, and
the Transatlantic Telephone Room that is little more than a broom closet housing the
special scrambler phone with which Churchill conferred with U.S. President Roosevelt.
Also in the war rooms is the
Churchill Museum,
the world's first major museum
dedicated to the life of Sir Winston Churchill.
Clive Steps, at end of King Charles St., SW1.
&
020/7930-6961.
http://cwr.iwm.org.uk. Admission
£14.95 adults, £12 seniors and students, free for children 15 and under. Daily 9:30am-6pm (last admis-
sion 5pm). Tube: Westminster or St. James's Park.
Horse Guards
HISTORIC SITE North of Downing Street, on the site of the guard
house of Whitehall Palace (which burned down in 1698) stands the 18th-century
Horse Guards building, the headquarters of the
Household Cavalry Mounted
Regiment,
a combination of the oldest and most senior regiments in the British
Army—the
Life Guards,
and the
Blues and Royals.
Today these regiments have two
principal duties: To protect the sovereign and to provide photo opportunities for tour-
ists—their dandy uniforms of red tunics and white plumed helmets for the Life Guards,
blue tunics and red plumed helmets for the Blues and Royals, take a great shot.
The
ceremony
for changing the two mounted guards here is a good deal more
accessible than the more famous one just down the road at Buckingham Palace. It
takes place at 11am and 4pm from Monday to Saturday, and at 10am and 4pm on
Sunday, and lasts around 30 minutes.
If you pass through the arch at Horse Guards, you'll find yourself at
Horse Guards
Parade,
formerly the tiltyard (jousting area) of Whitehall Palace, which leads onto St.
James's Park. It is here that the Household Cavalry help celebrate the Queen's birth-
day in June with a military pageant known as
“Trooping the Colour”
(p. 42).
Most of the building is usually closed to visitors, although a small section has
been turned into the
Household Cavalry Museum
(
&
020/7930-3070;
www.
householdcavalrymuseum.co.uk); admission costs £6 for adults, £4 for children.
Whitehall, SW1.
&
020/7414-2479.
Free admission. Tube: Charing Cross, Westminster, or Embankment.
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