From the West End to Westminster
From Covent Garden through Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to Buckingham Palace: theatre-land squares, Parliament, the Abbey and the War Rooms. A flat 5.5 km walk on pavements and park paths, about 2.5 hours with breaks.
Route
Covent Garden
Historic piazza where street performers, market traders, and Mr. Punch's first English show have drawn crowds since 1630.
Leicester Square
Bustling West End plaza at the heart of London's cinema district, famous for film premieres and red-carpet events.
Piccadilly Circus
Victorian junction where a misnamed aluminium statue, built on a sculptor's ruin, watches over London's most electric crossroads.
The National Gallery
Free art museum on Trafalgar Square housing over two thousand Western European masterworks from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries.
Trafalgar Square
Grand civic square anchored by Nelson's Column, four bronze lions, and fountains at the heart of the capital.
Horse Guards Parade
Historic parade ground and ceremonial heart of royal London, hosting daily cavalry guard changes since sixteen sixty.
Palace of Westminster
Neo-Gothic seat of the UK Parliament, rebuilt after a catastrophic fire destroyed most of the medieval palace in eighteen thirty-four.
Westminster Abbey
Gothic abbey hosting every English coronation since ten sixty-six and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
Churchill War Rooms
Underground WWII command bunker where Churchill's war cabinet met and the Map Room ran without pause for six years.
St James's Park
Royal park with a curving lake, resident pelicans since sixteen sixty-four, and views of Buckingham Palace.
Buckingham Palace
Royal residence with 775 rooms, opulent state rooms open to visitors, and the world's most-watched changing of the guard.