Immortalised on the cover of one of the most famous albums in popular music, the zebra crossing on Abbey Road in the St John's Wood area of north-west London has become an unlikely place of pilgrimage for fans from across the world. The photograph that made it famous was taken in August 1969 and shows the four members of the Beatles striding across the road in single file, a deceptively simple image that became the sleeve of the album that took the street's name. Ever since, visitors have come t.....

Abbey Road Studios, housed in a Georgian townhouse in the St John's Wood district of London, is among the most famous recording facilities in the world, its reputation forged by the extraordinary roster of musicians who have worked within its walls. Opened in 1931 by the Gramophone Company, the studios were originally a centre for classical recording, and the composer Edward Elgar conducted at the opening session. Their global fame, however, rests above all on their association with the Beatles.....

Housed in the restored Passmore Edwards Old Library on Acton High Street, ActOne is an independent, non-profit community cinema run by a Community Interest Company. The historic building, gifted to the people of Acton and left empty for years, was brought back into use by a group of residents who campaigned to keep developers out and return it to its original role as a community hub. After the lease was signed with the London Borough of Ealing in 2021, a team of more than a hundred volunteers c.....

Opened on 15 October 1930 as the New Victoria, this West End theatre on Wilton Road began life as a lavish super cinema during the great age of the picture palace. It was designed by Ernest Wamsley Lewis and W. E. Trent for Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, with an Art Deco interior themed around an undersea world of shell-shaped lights and wave-like plasterwork. The building occupies an awkward triangular site between Wilton Road and Vauxhall Bridge Road, which gave it two almost identical fr.....

Standing in isolated grandeur at Hyde Park Corner, Apsley House was once so prominently the first building travellers reached on entering London from the west that it earned the simple address Number One London. Built in the 1770s to designs by Robert Adam and later remodelled and faced in Bath stone, the mansion is famous as the London home of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, the soldier and statesman who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and twice served as prime minister. The hous.....

Forever linked with the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street runs through the Marylebone district of central London. Arthur Conan Doyle gave Holmes the address of 221B Baker Street, a number that did not exist when the stories were written but has since become one of the most famous addresses in literature. The street was laid out in the 18th century and named after the builder William Baker. It developed as a smart residential address, and over time grew into a busy commercial str.....

Dedicated to the work of the anonymous street artist who has become one of the most talked-about figures in contemporary art, this immersive exhibition gathers reproductions, prints, installations and audiovisual displays to trace the career and themes of Banksy. The mysterious artist, whose true identity remains a closely guarded secret, rose from the graffiti scene to international fame through stencilled images that combine sharp wit with biting commentary on war, consumerism, surveillance an.....

Two hundred acres of riverside green space reclaimed from marshland on the south bank of the Thames, this Victorian park opened to the public in 1858 after a decade of earth-moving and planting directed by designer James Pennethorne. The site had previously been the Battersea Fields, a swampy common associated with duelling, market gardening, and the Red House tavern, whose rowdy reputation eventually prompted Parliament to authorise its transformation into a public park. A boating lake, subtro.....

When it opened in 1923, the Bluebird Garage at 330-350 King's Road was claimed to be the largest garage in Europe: 50,000 square feet designed by architect Robert Sharp for the Bluebird Motor Company, with room for 300 cars, 7,000 square feet of workshops and separate lounges for ladies, owners and chauffeurs. Land-speed legend Sir Malcolm Campbell was connected with the operation, holding franchises for Itala, Ballot and later Chrysler cars, and the Art Deco complex is now Grade II listed. The.....

Buckingham Palace, the official London residence and administrative headquarters of the British monarch, is among the most recognised buildings in the world and a focal point for national celebration and ceremony. The palace began as a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in the early eighteenth century, was acquired by the crown and progressively enlarged, and became the principal royal residence in London on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. Its famous east front, the facade.....