Going to the theatre has always been an important part of any trip to London. Not only does the city boast some of the great theatres but ticket prices are usually reasonable. It is also home to the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The story has been at St Martin’s Theatre for over seventy years. London also hosts the world’s two longest-running musicals. Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera have been running on the London stage for nearly forty years. Les Mis, as it is commonly known, celebrates its fortieth birthday in October 2025, and Phantom passes the forty-year mark a year later.

Are you looking for somewhere special to eat when you come to London? The Michelin star system is considered the gold standard by which eateries are judged. All Michelin inspectors are anonymous and many are unknown even to the company’s directors. They are not allowed to tell their parents what they do in case these parents boast about it and the secret is revealed. They are anonymous and thorough, paying for their own meals and claiming the cost back from the company later so they are completely unbribable.

St Paul’s Cathedral is often second choice when it comes to competing against Westminster Abbey. Visitors to London, inquisitive to know about the traditions of royalty, are not going to want to see celebrities of earlier times unless it is Churchill, Lady Diana’s wedding or Margaret Thatcher. For most Americans, the American Chapel is the draw – they are patriotic and that is the bait on the hook!

The Linnean Society is one of a number of learned societies that have made Burlington House their home. It was founded in 1788 by the amateur botanist Sir James Edward Smith who, spurred on by the President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, purchased the natural history collection of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who is known as the father of taxonomy – the classification and naming of biological organisms based on shared characteristics.

The Royal Family of the United Kingdom is financed in a number of different ways. Its main source of income is the Sovereign Grant (the Civil List until 2012), which currently costs £86.3 million a year. This comes in the form of a grant from the government that meets the costs of the royal residences, staffing, travel and state visits, public engagements, and official entertainment.

Since its introduction in 1993, the Buckingham Palace Summer Opening allows visitors a rare opportunity to explore the State Rooms of the monarch’s official London residence. 2024 was a record-breaking year for Buckingham Palace, which welcomed the most visitors in the history of its summer opening.