21St century: Royal use and public access

Every year some 50,000 invited guests are entertained at garden parties, receptions, audiences,

and banquets. The Garden Parties, usually three, are held in the summer, usually in July. The Forecourt of Buckingham Palace is used for Changing of the Guard, a major ceremony and tourist attraction (daily during the summer months; every other day during the winter).

The palace, like Windsor Castle, is owned by the British state. It is not the monarch's personal property, unlike Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle. Many of the contents from

Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace and St. James's Palace are known collectively as the Royal Collection; owned by the Sovereign, they can, on occasions, be viewed by the public at the Queen's Gallery, near the Royal Mews. Unlike the palace and the castle, the gallery is open continually and displays a changing selection of items from the collection. The rooms containing the Queen's Gallery are on the site of the former chapel, which was damaged by one of the seven bombs to fall on the palace during World War II. The palace's state rooms have been open to the public during August and September since 1993. The money raised in entry fees was originally put towards the rebuilding of Windsor Castle following the 1992 fire which destroyed many of its state rooms.

In May 2009, in response to a request from the Royal Family to the government for money for a backlog of repairs to the palace, a group of MPs on the Public Accounts Committee proposed that in return for the extra Ј4 million in annual funds requested, the palace should be open to the public more than the 60 days it is now, as well as when members of the Royal Family are in residence. The British Government currently provides Ј15 million yearly for the palace's upkeep.

Thus, Buckingham Palace is a symbol and home of the British monarchy, an art gallery and tourist attraction. Behind the gilded railings and gates which were made by the Bromsgrove Guildand Webb's famous facade which has been described as looking "like everybody's idea of a palace" ;is not only the weekday home of the Queen and Prince Philip but also the London residence of the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex. The palace also houses the offices of the Royal Household and is the workplace of 450 people.

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, England, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English, later British and later still (and currently) monarchs of the Commonwealth Realms. It briefly held the status of a cathedral from 1546-1556, and is a Royal Peculiar.

Westminster Abbey is governed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, as established by Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I in 1560, which created it as the Collegiate Church of St Peter Westminster and a Royal Peculiar under the personal jurisdiction of the Sovereign. The members of the Chapter are the Dean and four residentiary Canons, assisted by the Receiver General and Chapter Clerk. One of the Canons is also Rector of St Margaret's Church Westminster Abbey (who also holds the post of Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons). In addition to the Dean and Canons there are at present two full time minor canons, one precentor the other succentor. The office of Priest Vicar was created in the 1970s for those who assist the minor canons. Together with the Clergy and Receiver General and Chapter Clerk various Lay Officers constitute the College, including the Organist and Master of the Choristers, the Registrar, the Auditor, the Legal Secretary, the Surveyor of the Fabric, the Head Master of the Choir School, the Keeper of the Muniments and the Clerk of the Works, as well as twelve Lay Vicars and ten of the choristers and the High Steward and High Bailiff. There are also forty Queen's Scholars who are pupils at Westminster School (the School has its own Governing Body). Those most directly concerned with liturgical and ceremonial matters are the two Minor Canons and the Organist and Master of the Choristers.

History

According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, the Abbey was first founded in the time of Mellitus (d. 624), Bishop of London, on the present site, then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island); based on a late "tradition" that a fisherman called "Aldrich" on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon from Thames fishermen that the Abbey received in later years. The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, installed a community of Benedictine monks here. A stone abbey was built around 1045-1050 by Edward the Confessor as part of his palace there: it was consecrated on December 28, 1065, only a week before the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral and burial. It was the site of the last coronation prior to the Norman conquest of England, that of his successor Harold II. It was later rebuilt by Henry HI from 1245, who had selected the site for his burial.

The only extant depiction of the original abbey, in the Romanesque style that is called Norman in England, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry. Increased endowments supported a community increased from a dozen monks in Dunstan's original foundation, to about eighty monks.

The abbot and learned monks, in close proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the seat of government from the later twelfth century, became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest: the abbot often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. Released from the burdens of spiritual leadership, which passed to the reformed Cluniac movement after the mid-tenth century, and occupied with the administration of great landed properties, some of which lay far from Westminster, "the Benedictines achieved a remarkable degree of identification with the secular life of their times, and particularly with upper-class life", Barbara Harvey concludes, to the extent that her depiction of daily life provides a wider view of the concerns of the English gentry in the High and Late Middle Ages. The proximity of the Palace of Westminster did not extend to providing monks or abbots with high royal connections; in social origin the Benedictines of Westminster were as modest as most of the order. The abbot remained Lord of the Manor of Westminster as a town of two to three thousand persons grew around it: as a consumer and employer on a grand scale the monastery helped fuel the town economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter was issued during the Middle Ages. The Abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary.

The Abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings, but none were buried there until Henry III, intensely devoted to the cult of the Confessor, rebuilt the Abbey in Anglo-French Gothic style as a shrine to honour Saint Edward the Confessor and as a suitably regal setting for Henry's own tomb, under the highest Gothic nave in England. The Confessor's shrine subsequently played a great part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was largely finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503 (known as the Henry VII Chapel). Much of the stone came from Caen, in France (Caen stone), the Isle of Portland (Portland stone) and the Loire Valley region of France (tuffeau limestone).

Flag of Westminster Abbey, featuring the Tudor arms between Tudor Roses above the supposed arms of Edward the Confessor.

In 1535, the Abbey's annual income of £2400-2800 (980,000 to £1,140,000 as of 2010), during the assessment attendant on the Dissolution of the Monasteries rendered it second in wealth only to Glastonbury Abbey. Henry VIE had assumed direct royal control in 1539 and granted the Abbey cathedral status by charter in 1540, simultaneously issuing letters patent establishing the Diocese of Westminster. By granting the Abbey cathedral status Henry VIII gained an excuse to spare it from the destruction or dissolution which he inflicted on most English abbeys during this period. Westminster was a cathedral only until 1550. The expression "robbing Peter to pay Paul" may arise from this period when money meant for the Abbey, which is dedicated to Saint Peter, was diverted to the treasury of St Paul's Cathedral.

The Abbey was restored to the Benedictines under the Roman Catholic Mary I of England, but they were again ejected under Elizabeth I in 1559. In 1579, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop—and made it the Collegiate Church of St Peter (that is, a church with an attached chapter of canons, headed by a dean). The last Abbot was made the first Dean. It suffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by Puritan iconoclasts, but was again protected by its close ties to the state during the Commonwealth period. Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a nearby gibbet.

The Abbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland stone to an early example of a Gothic Revival design. Purbeck marble was used for the walls and the floors of Westminster Abbey, even though the various tombstones are made of different types of marble. Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th century under Sir George Gilbert Scott. A narthex for the west front was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the mid 20th century but was not executed. Images of the Abbey prior to the construction of the towers are scarce, though the Abbey's official webiste states that the building was without towers following Yevele's renovation, with just the lower segments beneath the roof level of the Nave completed.

Until the 19th century, Westminster was the third seat of learning in England, after Oxford and Cambridge. It was here that the first third of the King James Bible Old Testament and the last half of the New Testament were translated. The New English Bible was also put together here in the 20th century. Westminster suffered minor damage during the Blitz on November 15, 1940.

Coronations

Since the coronations in 1066 of both King Harold and William the Conqueror, coronations of English and British monarchs were held in the Abbey. Henry III was unable to be crowned in London when he first came to the throne because the French prince Louis had taken control of the city, and so the king was crowned in Gloucester Cathedral. However, this coronation was deemed by the Pope to be improper, and a further coronation was held in the Abbey on 17 May 1220. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the traditional cleric in the coronation ceremony.

King Edward's Chair (or St Edward's Chair), the throne on which British sovereigns are seated at the moment of coronation, is housed within the Abbey and has been used at every coronation since 1308. From 1301 to 1996 (except for a short time in 1950 when it was temporarily stolen by Scottish nationalists), the chair also housed the Stone of Scone upon which the kings of Scotland are crowned; but the Stone is now being kept in Scotland.

Burials and memorials

Henry III rebuilt the Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint Edward the Confessor whose relics were placed in a shrine in the sanctuary and now lie in a burial vault beneath the 1268 Cosmati mosaic pavement, in front of the High Altar. Henry III himself was interred nearby in a superb chest tomb with effigial monument, as were many of the Plantagenet kings of England, their wives and other relatives. Subsequently, most Kings and Queens of England were buried here, although Henry VIII and Charles I are buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, as are most monarchs and royals after George II (Queen Victoria and some other members of the Royal Family are buried at Frogmore).

Aristocrats were buried inside chapels and monks and people associated with the Abbey were buried in the Cloisters and other areas. One of these was Geoffrey Chaucer, who was buried here as he had apartments in the Abbey where he was employed as master of the Kings Works. Other poets were buried or memorialized around Chaucer in what became known as Poets' Corner. These include: William Blake, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot, Thomas Gray, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Samuel Johnson, John Keats, the Bronte sisters, Rudyard Kipling, John Masefield, John Milton, Laurence Olivier, Alexander Pope, Nicholas Rowe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Jane Austen, Thomas Shadwell, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth.

Abbey musicians such as Henry Purcell were also buried in their place of work. Subsequently, it became one of Britain's most significant honours to be buried or commemorated here. The practice spread from aristocrats and poets to generals, admirals, politicians, doctors and scientists such as Isaac Newton, buried on 4 April 1727.

Schools Westminster School and Westminster Abbey Choir School are also in the precincts of the Abbey. It was natural for the learned and literate monks to be entrusted with education, and Benedictine monks were required by the Pope to maintain a charity school in 1179.

Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, and is often extended to refer to the clock or the clock tower as well. Big Ben is the largest four-faced chiming clock and the third-tallest free-standing clock tower in the world. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in May 2009 (the clock itself first ticking on 31 May 1859), during which celebratory events took place.

Tower A clock tower was built at Westminster in 1288, with the fine-money of Ralph Hengham Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

The present tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of 16 October 1834.

The new Parliament was built in a Neo-gothic style. Although Barry was the chief architect of the Palace, he turned to Augustus Pugin for the design of the clock tower, which resembles earlier Pugin designs, including one for Scarisbrick Hall. The design for the Clock Tower was Pugin's last design before his final descent into madness and death, and Pugin himself wrote, at the time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings: "I never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful." The tower is designed in Pugin's celebrated Gothic Revival style, and is 96.3 metres (315.9 ft) high (roughly 16 stories).

The bottom 61 metres (200 ft) of the Clock Tower's structure consists of brickwork with sand coloured Anston limestone cladding. The remainder of the tower's height is a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 15-metre (49 ft) square raft, made of 3-metre (9.8 ft) thick concrete, at a depth of 4 metres (13 ft) below ground level. The four clock faces are 55 metres (180 ft) above ground. The interior volume of the tower is 4,650 cubic metres (164,200 cubic feet).

Despite being one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, the interior of the tower is not open to overseas visitors, though United Kingdom residents are able to arrange tours (well in advance) through their Member of Parliament. However, the tower has no elevator, so those escorted must climb the 334 limestone stairs to the top.

Because of changes in ground conditions since construction (notably tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension), the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 millimetres (8.66 in) at the clock face, giving an inclination of approximately 1/250. Due to thermal effects it oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west.

Clock Faces The clock faces are large enough that the Clock Tower was once the largest four-faced clock in the world, but this has since been outdone by the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. However, the builders of the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower did not add chimes to the clock, so the Great Clock of Westminster still holds the title of the "world's largest four-faced chiming clock".

The clock and dials were designed by Augustus Pugin. The clock faces are set in an iron frame 7 metres (23 ft) in diameter, supporting 312 pieces of opal glass, rather like a stained-glass window. Some of the glass pieces may be removed for inspection of the hands. The surround of the dials is gilded. At the base of each clock face in gilt letters is the Latin inscription: Which means O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First.

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square is a square in central London, England. With its position in the heart of London, it is a tourist attraction, and one of the most famous squares in the United Kingdom and the world. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. Statues and sculptures are on display in the square, including a fourth plinth displaying changing pieces of contemporary art. The square is also used as a location for political demonstrations and community gatherings, such as the celebration of New Year's Eve in London.

The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".

The northern area of the square had been the site of the King's Mews since the time of Edward I, while the southern end was the original Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City met Whitehall, coming north from Westminster. As the midpoint between these twin cities, Charing Cross is to this day considered the heart of London, from which all distances are measured.

In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845.

Trafalgar Square is owned by the Queen in Right of the Crown, and managed by the Greater London Authority

Trafalgar Square ranks as the fourth most popular tourist attraction on Earth with more than fifteen million visitors a year.

Overview The square consists of a large central area surrounded by roadways on three sides, and stairs leading to the National Gallery on the other. The roads which cross the square form part of the A4 road, and prior to 2003, the square was surrounded by a one-way traffic system. Underpasses attached to Charing Cross tube station allow pedestrians to avoid traffic. Recent works have reduced the width of the roads and closed the northern side of the square to traffic.

Nelson's Column is in the centre of the square, surrounded by fountains designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1939 (replacing two earlier fountains of Peterhead granite, now at the Wascana Centre and Confederation Park in Canada) and four huge bronze lions sculpted by Sir Edwin Landseer; the metal used is said to have been recycled from the cannon of the French fleet. The column is topped by a statue of Horatio Nelson, the admiral who commanded the British Fleet at Trafalgar,

Ten frames of Trafalgar Square shot by Wordsworth Donisthorpe in 1890

The fountains are memorials to Lord Jellicoe (western side) and Lord Beatty (eastern side), Jellicoe being the Senior Officer.

On the north side of the square is the National Gallery and to its east St Martin-in-the-Fields church. The square adjoins The Mall via Admiralty Arch to the southwest. To the south is Whitehall, to the east Strand and South Africa House, to the north Charing Cross Road and on the west side Canada House.

At the corners of the square are four plinths; the two northern ones were intended for equestrian statues, and thus are wider than the two southern. Three of them hold statues: George IV (northeast, 1840s), Henry Havelock (southeast, 1861, by William Behnes), and Sir Charles James Napier (southwest, 1855). Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone controversially expressed a desire to see the two generals replaced with statues "ordinary Londoners would know".

On the lawn in front of the National Gallery are two statues, James II to the west of the entrance portico and George Washington to the east. The latter statue, a gift from the state of Virginia, stands on soil imported from the United States. This was done in order to honour Washington's declaration he would never again set foot on British soil.

In 1888 the statue of General Charles George Gordon was erected. In 1943 the statue was removed and, in 1953, re-sited on the Victoria Embankment. A bust of the Second World War First Sea Lord Admiral Cunningham by Franta Belsky was unveiled in Trafalgar Square on 2 April 1967 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The square has become a social and political location for visitors and Londoners alike, developing over its history from "an esplanade peopled with figures of national heroes, into the country's foremost place politique", as historian Rodney Mace has written. Its symbolic importance was demonstrated in 1940 when the Nazi SS developed secret plans to transfer Nelson’s Column to Berlin following an expected German invasion, as related by Norman Longmate in If Britian Had Fallen (1972)

The square used to be famous for its feral pigeons, and feeding them was a popular activity with Londoners and tourists. The National Portrait Gallery displays a 1948 photograph of Elizabeth

Taylor posing there with bird seed so as to be mobbed by birds. The desirability of the birds' presence has long been contentious: their droppings look ugly on buildings and damage the stonework, and the flock, estimated at its peak to be 35,000, was considered to be a health hazard. In 1996, police arrested one man who was estimated to have trapped 1,500 birds for sale to a middleman; it is assumed that the birds were being trapped to be eaten 2000, the sale of bird seed in the square was controversially terminated and other measures were introduced to discourage the pigeons, including the use of trained falcons. Supporters of the birds - including Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeons - as well as some tourists continued to feed the birds, but in 2003 the then-Mayor, Ken Livingstone, enacted byelaws to ban the feeding of pigeons within the square. Due to frequent circumvention of these byelaws, on 10 September 2007 further byelaws were passed by the Westminster City Council to ban the feeding of birds on the square's pedestrianised North Terrace, the entire perimeter of the square, the area around St Martin-in- the-Fields Church, the space directly in front of the National Gallery, Canada House, South Africa House and parts of The Mall, Charing Cross Road and The Strand. There are now few birds in Trafalgar Square and it is used for festivals and hired out to film companies in a way that was not feasible in the 1990s.

The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree on 23 December 2006

There has been a Christmas ceremony at Trafalgar Square every year since 1947. A Norway Spruce (or sometimes a fir) is given by Norway's capital Oslo and presented as London's Christmas tree, as a token of gratitude for Britain's support during World War II. (Besides the general war support, Norway's Prince Olav, as well as the country's government, lived in exile in London throughout the war.) As part of the tradition, the Lord Mayor of Westminster visits Oslo in the late autumn to take part in the felling of the tree, and the Mayor of Oslo then comes to London to light the tree at the Christmas ceremony.

Christmas ceremony Since its construction, Trafalgar Square has been a venue for political demonstrations, though the authorities have often attempted to ban them. The 1939 fountains were allegedlyded on their current scale to reduce the possibility of crowds gathering in the square as they were not in the original plans.

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.

The park is divided in two by the Serpentine. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park covers 142 hectares (350 acres) and Kensington Gardens covers 111 hectares (275 acres), giving an overall area of 253 hectares (625 acres), making the combined area larger than the Principality of Monaco (196 ha/484 acres), though smaller than New York City's Central Park (341 ha/843 acres). To the southeast, outside of the park, is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.

The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.

The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park.

On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses.

History In 1536, Henry VIII acquired the manor of Hyde from the canons of Westminster Abbey, who had held it since before the Norman Conquest; it was enclosed as a deer park and remained a private hunting ground until James I permitted limited access to gentlefolk, appointing a ranger to take charge. Charles I created the Ring (north of the present Serpentine boathouses), and in 1637 he opened the park to the general public.

In 1689, when William III moved his habitation to Kensington Palace on the far side of Hyde Park, he had a drive laid out across its south edge, formerly known as "The King's Private Road", which still exists as a wide straight gravelled carriage track leading west from Hyde Park Corner across the south boundary of Hyde Park to St. James's Palace. The drive is now known as Rotten Row, possibly a corruption of rotteran (to muster), Ratten Row (roundabout way), Route du roi or rotten (the soft material with which the road is covered). Public transport entering London from the west paralleled the King's private road along Kensington Gore, just outside the park. In the late 1800s, the row was used by the wealthy for horseback rides.

Sites of interest in the park include Speakers' Corner (located in the northeast corner near Marble Arch), close to the former site of the Tyburn gallows, and Rotten Row, which is the northern boundary of the site of the Crystal Palace. South of the Serpentine is the Diana, Princess of Wales memorial, an oval stone ring fountain opened on 6 July 2004. To the east of the Serpentine, just beyond the dam, is London's Holocaust Memorial. A magnificent specimen of a botanical curiosity is the Weeping Beech, Fagus sylvatica pendula, cherished as "the upside-down tree". Opposite Hyde Park Corner stands one of the grandest hotels in London, The Lanesborough.

Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster, built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly. In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a circular open space at a street junction.

Piccadilly now links directly to the theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, as well as the Haymarket Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square), and Glasshouse Street. The Circus is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the heart of the West End. Its status as a major traffic intersection has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right.

The Circus is particularly known for its video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building on the northern side, as well as the Shaftesbury memorial fountain and statue of an archer popularly known as Eros (sometimes called The Angel of Christian Charity, but intended to be Anteros). It is surrounded by several noted buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre. Directly underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus London Underground station.

History Piccadilly Circus connects to Piccadilly, a thoroughfare whose name first appeared in 1626 as Piccadilly Hall, named after a house belonging to one Robert Baker, a tailor famous for selling piccadills, or piccadillies, a term used for various kinds of collars. The street was known as Portugal Street in 1692 in honour of Catherine of Braganza the queen consort of King Charles II of England but was known as Piccadilly by 1743. Piccadilly Circus was created in 1819, at the junction with Regent Street, which was then being built under the planning of John Nash on the site of a house and garden belonging to a Lady Hutton. The circus lost its circular form in 1886 with the construction of Shaftesbury Avenue.

The junction has been a very busy traffic interchange since construction, as it lies at the centre of Theatreland and handles exit traffic from Piccadilly, which Charles Dickens, Jr (Charles C. B. Dickens, son of Charles Dickens) described in 1879: "Piccadilly, the great thoroughfare leading from the Haymarket and Regent-street westward to Hyde Park-corner, is the nearest approach to the Parisian boulevard of which London can boast."

The Piccadilly Circus tube station was opened March 10, 1906, on the Bakerloo Line, and on the Piccadilly Line in December of that year. In 1928, the station was extensively rebuilt to handle an increase in traffic.

The intersection's first electric advertisements appeared in 1910, and, from 1923, electric billboards were set up on the facade of the London Pavilion. Traffic lights were first installed on August 3, 1926, at the junction.

At the start of the 1960s, it was determined that the Circus needed to be redeveloped to allow for greater traffic flow. In 1962, Lord Holford presented a plan which would have created a "double-decker" Piccadilly Circus, with a new pedestrian concourse above the ground-level traffic. This concept was kept alive throughout the rest of 1960s, before eventually being killed off by Sir Keith Joseph and Ernest Marples in 1972; the key reason given was that Holford's scheme only allowed for a 20% increase in traffic, and the Government required 50%.

The Holford plan is referenced in the short-form documentary film "Goodbye, Piccadilly", produced by the Rank Organisation in 1967. Piccadilly Circus has since escaped major redevelopment, apart from extensive ground-level pedestrianisation around its south side in the 1980s.

The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus was erected in 1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. During the Second World War, the statue atop the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain was removed and was replaced by advertising hoardings. It was returned in 1948. When the Circus underwent reconstruction work in the late 1980s, the entire fountain was moved from the centre of the junction at the beginning of Shaftesbury Avenue to its present position at the southwestern corner.

Shaftesbury Memorial and the Statue of Anteros Piccadilly Circus memorial fountain with Anteros, popularly referred to as Eros or sometimes The Angel of Christian Charity, one of the first statues to be cast in aluminium

At the southwestern side of the Circus, moved after World War II from its original position in the centre, stands the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain, erected in 1892-1893 to commemorate the philanthropic works of Lord Shaftesbury, who was a famous Victorian politician and philanthropist.

The monument is topped by Alfred Gilbert's winged nude statue of an archer, sometimes referred to as The Angel of Christian Charity and popularly known as Eros after the mythical Greek god of love. The statue has become a London icon: a graphical illustration of it is used as the symbol of the Evening Standard newspaper and appears on its masthead.

The use of a nude figure on a public monument was controversial at the time of its construction, but it was generally well received by the public. The Magazine of Art described it as "...a striking contrast to the dull ugliness of the generality of our street sculpture, ... a work which, while beautifying one of our hitherto desolate open spaces, should do much towards the elevation of public taste in the direction of decorative sculpture, and serve freedom for the metropolis from any further additions of the old order of monumental monstrosities."

The statue was the first in the world to be cast in aluminium and is set on a bronze fountain, which itself inspired the marine motifs that Gilbert carved on the statue.

The statue is generally believed to depict Eros but was intended to be an image of his twin brother, Anteros, as confirmed by the contemporary records of Westminster City Council. The sculptor Alfred Gilbert had already sculpted a statue of Anteros and, when commissioned for the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain, chose to reproduce the same subject, who, as "The God of Selfless Love" was deemed to represent the philanthropic 7th Earl of Shaftesbury suitably. Gilbert described Anteros as portraying "reflective and mature love, as opposed to Eros or Cupid, the frivolous tyrant." The model for the sculpture was Gilbert's studio assistant, a 16-year-old Italian, Angelo Colarossi (born 1875).

Where Anteros originally pointed his bow is the subject of two urban myths. The first is that the archer is aiming up Shaftesbury Avenue. Sometimes, the story goes that this was a visual pun to commemorate the great philanthropist. If the archer were to release his arrow, its shaft would bury itself in Shaftesbury Avenue. The other is that the arrow is pointing to the Earl's country seat in Wimborne Saint Giles, Dorset. However, the 1896 photographs (on this page) of the circus taken only three years after the statue's erection clearly shows the arrow pointing in a different direction, down Lower Regent Street aptly towards Parliament. This is proven by the position relative to the statue of Shaftesbury Avenue, the London Pavilion and the Criterion Theatre.

When the memorial was unveiled, there were numerous complaints. Some felt it was sited in a vulgar part of town (the theatre district), and others felt that it was too sensual as a memorial for a famously sober and respectable Earl. Some of the objections were tempered by renaming the statue as The Angel of Christian Charity which was the nearest approximation that could be invented in Christian terms for the role Anteros played in the Greek pantheon. However, the name never became widely known, and the original name came back, erroneously under the shortened form Eros, signifying the god of sensual love; quite inappropriate to commemorate the Earl, but just right to signify the carnal neighbourhood of London, into which Soho had developed.

The phrase it's like Piccadilly Circus is commonly used in the UK to refer to a place or situation which is extremely busy with people. It has been said that a person who stays long enough at Piccadilly Circus will eventually bump into everyone they know. Probably because of this connection, during World War II, "Piccadilly Circus" was the code name given to the Allies' D-Day invasion fleet's assembly location in the English Channel.

Royal Albert Hall

Building
Country	England
	Kensington Gore
Address	South Kensington London SW7 2AP
Construction
Inaugurated	29 March 1871
Main contractor	Lucas Brothers
Design team
Architect	Captain Francis Fowke and Major-General Henry Y.D. Scott of the Royal Engineers
Website	Official website

The Royal Albert Hall is an arts venue situated in the Knightsbridge area of the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941.

The Royal Albert Hall is one of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, recognisable the world over. Since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from every kind of performance genre have appeared on its stage. Each year it hosts more than 350 performances including classical concerts, rock and pop, ballet and opera, tennis, award ceremonies, school and community events, charity performances and lavish banquets.

The Hall was originally supposed to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed by Queen Victoria to Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences when laying the foundation stone as a dedication to her deceased husband and consort Prince Albert. It forms the practical part of a national memorial to the Prince Consort - the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by the heavy traffic along Kensington Gore.

As the best known building within the cultural complex known as Albertopolis, the Hall is commonly and erroneously thought to lie within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The Hall is actually within the area of the City of Westminster, although the postal address is Kensington Gore. The site was part of the former Kensington Gore estate which was historically part of Knightsbridge. However it is in the Westminster borough.

Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial is situated in Kensington Gardens. London. England, directly to the north of the Royal Albert Hall. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert who died of typhoid in 1861. The memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic revival style. Opened in 1872, with the statue of Albert ceremonially seated" in 1875, the memorial consists of an ornate canopy or pavilion containing a statue of Prince Albert facing south. The memorial is 176 feet tall, took over ten years to complete and cost £120,000.

Commissioning and design When Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861, at the age of 42, the thoughts of those in government and public life turned to the form and shape of a suitable memorial, with several possibilities, such as establishing a university or international scholarships, being mentioned. Queen Victoria, however, soon made it clear that she desired a memorial 'in the common sense of the word'. The initiative was taken by the Lord Mayor of London, William Cubitt, who, at a meeting on 14 January 1862, appointed a committee to raise funds for a design to be approved by the Queen. The control and future course of the project, though, moved away from Mansion House, and ended up being controlled by people close to the Queen, rather than the Mayor. Those who determined the overall direction from that point on were the Queen's secretary, General Charles Grey, and the keeper of the privy purse, Sir Charles Phipps. Later, following the deaths of Grey and Phipps, their roles were taken on by Sir Henry Ponsonby and Sir Thomas Biddulph. Eventually, a four-man steering committee was established, led by Sir Charles Lock Eastlake. Eastlake had overall control for the project until his death in 1865. An initial proposal for an obelisk memorial failed, and this was followed in May 1862 by the appointment of a seven-strong committee of architects. A range of designs were submitted and examined. Two of the designs (those by Philip Charles Hardwick and George Gilbert Scott) were passed to the Queen in February 1863 for a final decision to be made. Two months later, after lengthy deliberations and negotiations with the government over the costs of the memorial, Scott's design was formally approved in April 1863.

Statue of Albert

The central statue of Albert, by John Henry Foley, was ceremonially "seated" in 1875, three years after the memorial opened. The statue faces to the south, towards the Royal Albert Hall. Albert is holding a catalogue of The Great Exhibition, and is robed as a Knight of the Garter.

Frieze of Parnassus

The central part of the memorial is surrounded by the elaborate sculptural Frieze of Parnassus (named after Mount Parnassus, the favorite resting place for the Greek muses), which depicts 169 individual composers, architects, poets, painters, and sculptors. Musicians and poets were placed on the south side, with painters on the east side, sculptors on the west side, and architects on the north side. Henry Hugh Armstead carved the figures on the south and east side, the painters, musicians and poets (80 in total), and grouped them by national schools. John Birnie Philip carved the figures on the west and north side, the sculptors and architects, and arranged them in chronological order.

Allegorical sculptures

At the corners of the central area, and at the corners of the outer area, there are two allegorical sculpture programs: four groups depicting Victorian industrial arts and sciences (agriculture, commerce, engineering and manufacturing), and four more groups representing Europe, Asia, Africa and The Americas at the four corners, each continent-group including several ethnographic figures and a large animal. (A camel for Africa, a buffalo for the Americas, an elephant for Asia and a bull for Europe).

Canopy The mosaics for each side and beneath the canopy of the Memorial were designed by Clayton and Bell and manufactured by the firm of Salviati from Murano, Venice.

The memorial's canopy features several mosaics as external and internal decorative artworks. Each of the four external mosaics show a central allegorical figure of the four arts (poetry, painting, architecture and sculpture), supported by two historical figures either side. The historical figures are: King David and Homer (POESIS - poetry), Apelles and Raphael (painting), Solomon and Ictinus (architecture), and Phidias and Michelangelo (sculpture). Materials used in the mosaics include enamel, polished stone, agate, onyx, jasper, cornelian, crystal, marble, and granite.

Around the canopy, below its cornice, is a dedicatory legend split into four parts, one for each side. The legend reads: Queen Victoria And Her People • To The Memory Of Albert Prince Consort • As A Tribute Of Their Gratitude • For A Life Devoted To The Public Good.

The pillars and niches of the canopy feature eight statues representing the practical arts and sciences: Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, Geometry (on the four pillars) and Rhetoric, Medicine, Philosophy and Physiology (in the four niches).

Near the top of the canopy's tower are eight statues of the moral and Christian virtues, including the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues. The virtues are: Faith, Hope, Charity and Humility, and Fortitude, Prudence, Justice and Temperance. Humility is considered to be annexed to the virtue of temperance. Above these, towards the top of tower, are gilded angels raising their arms heavenwards. At the very top of the tower is a gold cross.

History Marie Tussaud, born Anna Maria Grosholtz (1761-1850) was born in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modelling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modelling.

Tussaud created her first wax figure, of Voltaire, in 1777. Other famous people she modelled at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin. During the French Revolution she modelled many prominent victims. In her memoirs she claims that she would search through corpses to find the decapitated heads of executed citizens, from which she would make death masks. Her death masks were held up as revolutionary flags and paraded through the streets of Paris. Following the doctors death in 1794, she inherited his vast collection of wax models and spent the next 33 years travelling around Europe. Her marriage to Franfois Tussaud in 1795 lent a new name to the show - Madame Tussauds. In 1802, she went to London. As a result of the Franco-British war, she was unable to return to France, so she travelled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. For a time, it was displayed at the Lyceum Theatre. From 1831 she took a series of short leases on the "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street between Dorset Street and King Street) - which featured in the Druce Portland Case sequence of trials of 1898-1907. This became Tussaud's first permanent home in 1836.

By 1835 Marie had settled down in Baker Street, London, and opened a museum.

One of the main attractions of her museum was the Chamber of Horrors. This part of the exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. The name is often credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845, but Marie appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843.

Other famous people were added to the exhibition, including Horatio Nelson, and Sir Walter Scott. Some of the sculptures done by Marie Tussaud herself still exist. The gallery originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925, coupled with German bombs in 1941, has rendered most of these older models defunct. The casts themselves have survived (allowing the historical waxworks to be remade) - and these can be seen in the museum^!s history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that of Madame du Barry. Other ancient faces from the time of Tussaud include Robespierre, George III and Benjamin Franklin. In 1842, she made a self portrait which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep on 15 April 1850.

By 1883 the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson (Joseph Randall) to commission the building at its current location on Marylebone Road. The new exhibition galleries were opened on 14 July 1884 and were a great success. However, the building costs, falling so soon after buying out his cousin Louisa's half share in the business in 1881, meant the business was under-funded. A limited company was formed in 1888 to attract fresh capital but had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders, and in February 1889 Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen lead by Edwin Josiah Poyser. Edward White, an artist dismissed by the new owners to save money, allegedly sent a parcel bomb to John Theodore Tussaud in June 1889 in revenge.

Madame Tussaud's wax museum has now grown to become a major tourist attraction in London, incorporating (until recently) the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded and will expand with branches in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Berlin, Dubai, Hamburg, Hollywood, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Moscow, New York City, Shanghai, Vienna and Washington, D.C.. Today's wax figures at Tussauds include historical and royal figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers.

Known as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are owned by a leisure company called Merlin Entertainments, following the acquisition of The Tussauds Group in May 2007. In 2010, Merlin Entertainments partnership with Tatweer will make a Madame Tussauds in Dubai.

In July 2008, Madame Tussauds Berlin branch became embroiled in controversy when a 41-year old German man brushed past two guards and decapitated a wax figure depicting Adolf Hitler. This was believed to be an act of protest against showing the ruthless dictator alongside sports heroes, movie stars, and other historical figures. However, the statue has since been repaired and the perpetrator has admitted he attacked the statue to win a bet. The original model of Hitler, unveiled in Madame Tussauds London in April 1933 was frequently vandalised and a replacement in 1936 had to be carefully guarded.

Blending History and Celebrity In the 20th century Madame Tussauds' role began to change. Thanks to the rapid growth of both popular tabloid press and public literacy, information about current events was easily acquired. The attraction gradually, therefore, became less a source of direct news, than a commentary on popular celebrity. It also came through some major upheavals, surviving near destruction by fire (1925), earthquake (1931) and World War II 'Blitz' bombing (1940.) Today, Madame Tussauds is bigger and better than ever, combining its diverse history with the relentless glamour, intrigue and infamy of 21st century celebrity.

Some of Madame Tussauds' original work and earliest relics are still on display in London, including the death masks she was forced to make during the French Revolution and the Guillotine that beheaded Marie Antoinette. Guests can also marvel at probably the earliest example of animatronics - Sleeping Beauty', a breathing likeness of Louis XVs sleeping mistress Madame du Barry sculpted in 1763, is the attraction's oldest figure on display.

And then there are the more contemporary, more interactive stars. From Brad Pitt, with his squeezable bum, to Kate Moss, alongside whom you can pose for the cover of a glossy fashion mag, the biggest names in entertainment, sport and politics are all dazzlingly represented; authentic down to the very last eye lash....

Finger On The Pulse Madame Tussauds continues regularly to add figures that reflect contemporary public opinion and celebrity popularity - Bollywood kings like Shah Rukh Khan; Hollywood sirens such as Nicole Kidman; pop idols Timberlake and Minogue. The attraction also continues to expand globally with established international branches in New York, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Amsterdam and Washington DC soon to be joined by new outlets in Berlin (July 2008) and Hollywood (2009) - all with the same rich mix of interaction, authenticity and local appeal.

A visit to Madame Tussauds is essential - where else can you savour two centuries of feme and notoriety, and tell the great and good exactly what you think of them? It'll be your most famous day out ever!

Early Years 1700 -1800 Madame Tussauds is born Marie Grosholtz and learns her skills from Dr Philippe Curtius in the years leading up to the French revolution

On Baker Street 1800-1900 Madame Tussauds takes her exhibition on tour and establishes a base at Baker Street in London. The attraction survives World War II and becomes an interactive experience in the 1990s.

New Millennium 2000 - present day New interactive areas of the attraction are launched, and the Planetarium is replaced by a new cinematic show created by Ardman's animations.

Early Years

1761: Madame Tussaud is born Marie Grosholtz in Strasbourg.

1777; Marie models the famous author and philosopher, Francois Voltaire.

1780: Marie becomes art tutor to King Louis XVI's sister and goes to live at the Royal Court in Versailles

1789: On the eve of The French Revolution, Marie returns to Paris

1793: Marie is imprisoned with her mother in the notorious Laforce Prison, Paris. On her release she is forced to prove her allegiance to the Revolution by making death masks of executed nobles and her former employers, the King and Queen.

1794: The French Revolution ends and Marie inherits Dr Philippe Curtius' wax exhibition.

1795: Marie marries Francois Tussaud

Madame Tussauds is established on Baker Street

1802: Madame Tussaud takes her exhibition on tour to the British Isles, leaving behind her husband.

1835: With her sons, Madame Tussaud establishes a base in London at The Baker Street Bazaar.'

1846: Punch Magazine coins the name Chamber Of Horrors for Madame Tussaud's 'Separate Room', where gruesome relics of the French Revolution are displayed.

1850: Madame Tussaud dies.

1884: Marie's grandsons move the attraction to its current site on Marylebone Road

1925: The attraction is devastated by fire.

1928: Restoration is completed with the addition of a cinema and restaurant.

1940: Madame Tussauds is struck by a German World War II bomb destroying 352 head moulds, and the cinema.

1958: Madame Tussauds opens the Commonwealth's first Planetarium.

1990-1993: The attraction undergoes extensive refurbishment, with the inclusion of new interactive, themed areas.

1993: The Spirit Of London, a spectacular animatronic ride, arrives at Madame Tussauds. The London Planetarium is

re-opened after a £4.5 million re-development, including the installation of the world's first Digistar II star projector.

1995: A new star show 'Planetary Quesf opens at Tussauds' Planetarium. Later, the Planetarium dome is transformed into the

biggest red nose in the universe for Comic Relief.

1996: Madame Tussauds opens a special display in conjunction with Time Magazine, portraying some of the publication's nominated Top 100 people of the 20th century.

1997: Madame Tussauds opens a special exhibition of wedding dresses made for its Diana, Princess Of Wales, Sarah, Duchess Of York and Sophie, Countess Of Wessex.

1999: Major new star show 'Wonders Of The Universe' opens at The London Planetarium

2000: Madame Tussauds introduces timed entry for visitors who prefer to book in advance

2001: A new area 'Premiere Night' opens showcasing Hollywood's hottest celebrities. The attraction also removes the ropes and poles surrounding figures - allowing guests to fully interact with the great and good.

2002: The first of a series of special temporary attractions opens. Goal! gives guests the chance to relive the moment England qualified for the 2002 World Cup finals. The infamous Marylebone Road queue disappears with the opening of a new 'pre show' area where guests are entertained in comfort whilst waiting to purchase tickets.

2003: Madame Tussauds unveils new 'Blush' area, taking guests behind the usually closed doors of an A-list party

2004: The Journey To Infinity' show opens At The London Planetarium.

2005: Reality TV phenomenon Big Brother comes to Madame Tussauds, offering guests a chance to sit in the fabled Diary Room and meet presenter Davina McCall.

2006: Prince Harry is unveiled as part of Madame Tussauds' popular royal attraction, and Johnny Depp, in character as Capt'n Jack Sparrow, arrives in a new Pirates Of The Caribbean experience. The London Planetarium closes, paving the way for an exciting new cinematic show created by Aardman Animations.

2007: Madame Tussauds introduces supermodel Kate Moss. Other A-listers to arrive include Justin Timberlake, Nicole Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio and a fourth version of Kylie Minogue. World Stage relaunches following an extensive, Ј1m refurbishment - guests can enjoy brand new, fully interactive Sports, Royal, Culture, Music and Political Zones. A special History Zone also opens, sharing some of the secrets behind figure-making with visitors and highlighting Madame Tussauds world famous 200-year heritage. Madame Tussauds wins the Bronze Award at Visit London's Awards for Marketing/PR Campaign of the Year.

2008: The first figure to be launched is Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan, followed by Hollywoods favourite girls, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz. Two European political heavyweights in the fom of Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy whilst Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, is voted out of the attraction by the public. Jim Carey is launched with a fully interactive set.

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, all having been built on the same site since AD 604. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognisable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.

Important services held at St. Paul's include the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill; Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the launch of the Festival of -Britain and the thanksgiving services for both the Jolden Jubilee and 80th Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. The Royal Family holds most of its important marriages, christenings and funerals at Westminster Abbey, but St Paul's was used for the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. St Paul's Cathedral is still a busy working church, with hourly prayer and daily services.

'Old St Paul's' The fourth St Paul's, known when architectural history arose in the 19th century as Old St Paul's, was begun by the Normans after the 1087 fire. Work took over 200 years, and a great deal was lost in a fire in 1136. The roof was once more built of wood, which was ultimately to doom the building. The church was consecrated in 1240, but a change of heart led to the commencement of an enlargement programme in 1256. When this 'New Work' was completed in 1314 — the cathedral had keen consecrated in 1300 — it was the third-longest church in Europe. Excavations by Francis Penrose in 1878 showed it was 585 feet (178 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide (290 feet or 87 m across the transepts and crossing), and had one of Europe's tallest spires, at some 489 feet (149 m).

By the 16th century the building was decaying. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Chantries Acts led to the destruction of interior ornamentation and the cloisters, charnels, crypts, chapels, shrines, chantries and other buildings in St Paul's Churchyard. Many of these former religious sites in the churchyard, having been seized by the Crown, were sold as shops and rental properties, especially to printers and booksellers, who were often Puritans. Buildings that were razed often supplied ready-dressed building material for construction projects, such as the Lord Protector's city palace, Somerset House.

Crowds were drawn to the northeast corner of the Churchyard, St Paul's Cross, where open-air preaching took place. In 1561 the spire was destroyed by lightning and it was not replaced; this event was taken by both Protestants and Catholics as a sign of God's displeasure at the other faction's actions.

England's first classical architect, Inigo Jones, added the cathedral's west front in the 1630s, but there was much defacing mistreatment of the building by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, when the old documents and charters were dispersed and destroyed (Kelly 2004). "Old St Paul's" was gutted in the Great Fire of London of 1666. While it might have been salvageable, albeit with almost complete reconstruction, a decision was taken to build a new cathedral in a modern style instead. Indeed this had been contemplated even before the fire.

Wren's St Paul's; Design and construction St, Paul's went through five general stages of design. Wren initially began surveying the property and drawing up designs before the Great Fire of 1666, and these drawings for the most part included the addition of a dome on the existing building to replace the dilapidated spire, and a restoration of the interiors that would complement the 1630 Inigo Jones-designed facade. After the fire, the ruins of the building were still thought to be workable, but ultimately the entire structure was demolished in the early 1670s to start afresh. Wren's second design, the first to be a completely new building, was a Greek cross, which was considered to be too radical by his critics because it lacked the programme necessary to conduct mass.

Wren's third proposal for the new St. Paul's used many of the same design concepts as his Greek cross design, though it had an extended nave. This design was embodied in his creation in 1673 of the "Great Model". The model, made of oak and plaster, cost over £500 (approximately £32,000 today) and was over 13' tall and 2 Г long. His critics, members of a committee commissioned to rebuild the church and members of the clergy, decried the design as being too dissimilar from churches that already existed in England at the time to suggest any continuity within the Church of England. Clergymen also preferred a Latin cross plan for services. Another problem was that the entire design would have to be completed all at once because of the eight central piers that supported the dome, instead of being completed in stages and opened for use before construction finished, as was customary. Wren considered the Great Model his favourite design, and thought it a reflection of Renaissance beauty.' After the Great Model, Wren resolved to make no more models or publicly expose his drawings, which he found to do nothing but "lose time, and subject his business many times, to incompetent judges".

Wren's fourth design, the Warrant design, sought to reconcile the Gothic, the predominant form of English churches, to a "better manner of architecture." Wren attempted to integrate the same concepts of Renaissance harmony into a much more Gothic style. This design was rotated slightly on its site so that it aligned not with true east, but with sunrise on Easter of the year construction began. This small change in configuration made by Wren was informed by his knowledge of astronomy. His design of the portico was influenced by Inigo Jones's addition to Old St. Paul's.

The final design as built differs largely in its ornamentation from the official Warrant design. Wren

received permission from the king to make "ornamental changes" to the submitted design, and Wren took great advantage of this. Many of these changes were made over the course of the thirty years as the church was constructed, and the most significant was to the dome: "He raised another structure over the first cupola, a cone of brick, so as to support a stone lantern of an elegant figure... And he covered and hid out of sight the brick cone with another cupola of timber and lead; and between this and the cone are easy stairs that ascend to the lantern" (Christopher Wren, son of Sir Christopher Wren). The final design was strongly rooted in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The saucer domes that were eventually added to the design were inspired by Francois Mansart's Val-de-Grace, which Wren had seen during a trip to Paris in 1665. The first stone of the cathedral was laid in 1677 by Thomas Strong, Wren's master stonemason.

On Thursday, 2 December 1697, thirty-two years and three months after a spark from Farryner's bakery had caused the Great Fire of London, St Paul's Cathedral came into use. The widower King William III had been scheduled to appear but, uncomfortable in crowds and public displays, had bowed out at the last minute. The crowd of both the great and the small was so big, and their attitude towards William so indifferent, that he was scarcely missed. The Right Reverend Henry Compton, Bishop of London, preached the sermon. It was based on the text of Psalm 122, "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go into the house of the LORD." The first regular service was held on the following Sunday.

The 'topping out' of the Cathedral (when the final stone was placed on the lantern) took place in October 1708 and the cathedral was declared officially complete by Parliament in 1710. It cost £736,750 (£87.5 million as of 2010).

The consensus was as it is with all such works: some loved it ("Without, within, below, above the eye. Is filled with unrestrained delight."); some hated it ("...There was an air of Popery about the gilded capitals, the heavy arches...They were unfamiliar, un-English..”); while most, once their curiosity was satisfied, didn't think about it one way or another.

Sir Christopher Wren

Said, "I am going to dine with some men.

If anyone calls,

Say I am designing St Paul's. "

A clerihew by Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Structural engineering The walls of the cathedral are particularly thick to avoid the need for large flying buttresses. The windows are set into deep recesses in the walls. The upper parts of the cathedral walls are reinforced with small flying buttresses, which were a relatively late design change to give extra strength. These are concealed behind a large curtain wall, which was added to keep the building's classical style intact.

The large crossing dome is composed of three layers. The inner and outer layers are catenary curves, but the structural integrity to support the heavy stone structure atop the dome is provided by a intermediary layer which is much steeper and more conical in shape. The dome is restrained round its base by a wrought iron chain to prevent it spreading and cracking.

Description The cathedral is built of Portland stone in a late Renaissance style that represents England's sober Baroque. Its impressive dome was inspired by St Peter's Basilica in Rome. It rises 365 feet (108 m) to the cross at its summit, making it a famous London landmark. Wren achieved a pleasing appearance by building three domes: the tall outer dome is non-structural but impressive to view, the lower inner dome provides an artistically balanced interior, and between the two is a structural cone that supports the apex structure and the outer dome. Wren was said to have been hauled up to the rafters in a basket during the building of its later stages to inspect progress.

The nave has three small chapels in the two adjoining aisles - The Chapel of All Souls and The Chapel of St Dunstan in the north aisle and the Chapel of St. Michael and St. George in the south aisle. The main space of the cathedral is centred under the inner dome, which rises 108.4 metres from the cathedral floor and holds three circular galleries - the internal Whispering Gallery, the external Stone Gallery, and the external Golden Gallery.

The Whispering Gallery runs around the inside of the dome 99 feet (30.2 m) above the cathedral floor. It is reached by 259 steps from ground level. It gets its name because, as with any dome, a whisper against its wall at any point is audible to a listener with an ear held to the wall at any other point around the gallery. A low murmur is equally audible.

The base of the inner dome is 173 feet (53.4 m) above the floor. Its top is about 65 m above the floor, making this the greatest height of the enclosed space. The cathedral is some 574 feet (175 m) in length (including the portico of the Great West Door), of which 223 feet (68 m) is the nave and 167 feet (51 m) is the choir. The width of the nave is 121 feet (37 m) and across the transepts is 246 feet (75 m). The cathedral is thus slightly shorter but somewhat wider than Old St Paul's.

The quire extends to the east of the dome and holds the stalls for the clergy and the choir and the organ. To the north and south of the dome are the transepts, here called the North Choir and the South Choir.

Details of the towers at the west end (illustration, left) and their dark voids are boldly scaled, in order to read well from the street below and from a distance, for the towers have always stood out in the urban skyline. They are composed of two complementary elements, a central cylinder rising through the tiers in a series of stacked drums, and paired Corinthian columns at the corners, with buttresses above them, which serve to unify the drum shape with the square block plinth containing the clock.

Post-Wren history This cathedral has survived despite being targeted during the Blitz- it was struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 1941. On 12 September 1940 a time-delayed bomb that had struck the cathedral was successfully defused and removed by a bomb disposal detachment of Royal Engineers under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Robert Davies. Had this bomb detonated, it would have totally destroyed the cathedral, as it left a 100-foot (30 m) crater when it was later remotely detonated in a secure location. As a result of this action, Davies was awarded the George Cross, along with Sapper George Cameron Wylie.

On 29 December 1940, the cathedral had another close call when an incendiary bomb became lodged in the lead shell of the dome but fell outwards onto the Stone Gallery and was put out before it could ignite the dome timbers. A photograph taken that day showing the cathedral shrouded in smoke became a famous image of the times.

Memorials The cathedral has a very substantial crypt, holding over 200 memorials, and serves as both the Order of the British Empire Chapel and the Treasury. The cathedral has very few treasures: many have been lost, and in 1810 a major robbery took almost all of the remaining precious artefacts. Christopher Wren was the first person to be interred, in 1723: on the wall above his tomb in the crypt is written, "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" (Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you).

St Paul's is home to other plaques, carvings, statues, memorials and tombs of famous British figures including:

• General Sir Isaac Brock

• Sir Edwin Lutyens

• John Donne, whose funeral effigy (portraying him in a shroud) but not his tomb survives from Old St Paul's.

• Lord Kitchener

• The Duke of Wellington

• Lord Horatio Nelson

• Henry Moore

• Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood

• Sir William Alexander Smith

• Sir Winston Churchill

• Т. E. Lawrence, whose bust faces Nelson's sarcophagus

• Sir Alexander Fleming

• Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley

• Sir Philip Vian

• John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe

• David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

• Sir Arthur Sullivan

• Sir Hubert Parry

• Florence Nightingale

• J.M.W. Turner

• Sir Joshua Reynolds

• Dr. Samuel Johnson

• Ivor Novello

• Charles Cornwallis

• Frederick George Jackson

• Mandell Creighton and Louise Creighton

• Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet

Most of the memorials commemorate the British military, including several lists of servicemen who died in action, the

most recent being the Gulf War. There are special monuments to Lord Nelson in the south transept and to the Duke of Wellington in the north aisle; both are buried here. Also remembered are poets, painters, clergy and residents of the local parish. There are lists of the Bishops and cathedral Deans for the last thousand years.

The apse of the cathedral is home to the American Memorial Chapel. It honours American servicemen

In 2007, the World Monuments Fund and American Express awarded St Paul's a grant as part of their Sustainable Tourism initiative. The project will open up rarely seen areas, relieve crowding in the nave - which suffers heavily from foot traffic and fluctuations in humidity - and fund a new Exploration Centre in the crypt. This centre will provide insight into a variety of topics relating to the cathedral, including architecture, history, science, music, and, of course, religion. A lapidarium of recovered medieval stones and the room containing Wren's "Great Model" (currently only seen by appointment) will also be opened to the public.

English holidays. Customs and traditions

Leisure; SPARE TIME British people now have more free time and holidays than they did twenty years ago. Nearly all British people in full-time jobs have at least four weeks' holiday a year, often in two or three separate periods. The normal working week is 35 — 40 hours, Monday to Friday.

Typical popular pastimes in the UK include, listening to pop music, going to pubs, playing and watching sport, going on holidays, doing outdoor activities, reading, and watching TV.

Pubs are an important part of British social life (more than restaurants) and more money is spent on drinking than on any other form of leisure activity. In a recent survey seven out of ten adults said they went to pubs, one third of them once a week or more often. Types of pubs vary considerably from quiet rural establishments with traditional games, such as skittles and dominoes, to city pubs where different sorts of entertainment such as drama or live music can often be found. Some pubs have become more welcoming to families with younger children than in the past, although children under fourteen are still not allowed in the bar.

Holidays is the next major leisure cost. If they have enough money, people travel more (the increase in private cars is an influence) and take more holidays.

The most obvious — and traditional — British holiday destination is the coast. No place in the country is more than three hours' journey from some part of it. The coast is full of variety, with good cliffs and rocks between the beaches, but the un­certain weather and cold sea are serious disadvantages. People who go for one or two weeks' holiday to the coast, or to a country place, tend now to take their caravans or tents to campsites, or rent static caravans, cottages or flats. Many town dwellers have bought old country cottages, to use for their own holidays and to let to others when they are working themselves. People on holiday or travelling around the country often stay at farms or other houses which provide "bed and breakfast". These are usually comfortable and better value than hotels. The number of people going abroad increased from 7 million in the early 1970s to 17 million in the mid-80s, with Spain, France and Greece still the most popular foreign destinations.

England is famous for its gardens, and most people like gardening This is probably one reason why so many people prefer to live in houses rather than in flats. Particularly in suburban areas it is possible to pass row after row of ordinary small houses, each one with its neatly kept patch of grass surrounded by a great variety of flowers and shrubs. Enthusiasts of gardening — or do-it-yourself activities — get ever growing help from radio programmes, magazines and patient shop-keepers. Although the task of keeping a garden is essentially individual, gardening can well become the foundation of social and competitive relationships. Flower shows and vegetable shows, with prizes for the best exhibits, are popular, and to many gardeners the process of growing the plants seems more important than the merely aesthetic pleasure of looking at the flowers or eating the vegetables.

Visitors to provincial England sometimes find the lack of public activities in the evenings depressing. There are, however, many activities which visitors do not see. Evening classes, each meeting once a week, are very popular, and not only those which prepare people for examinations leading to professional qualifications. Many people attend classes connected with their hobbies, such as photography, painting, folk dancing, dog training, cake decoration, archaeology, local history, car maintenance and other subjects. In these classes people find an agreeable social life as well as the means of persuing their hobbies.

Despite the increase in TV watching, reading is still an important leisure activity in Britain and there is a very large number of magazines and books published on a wide variety of subjects. The biggest-selling magazines in Britain (after the TV guides which sell over 3 million copies a week) are women's and pop-music publications. The best-selling books are not great works of literature but stories of mystery and romance which sell in huge quantities (Agatha Christie's novels, for example, have sold more than 300 million copies). It has been estimated that only about 3 per cent of the population read "classics" such as Charles Dickens or Jane Austen, whereas the figures for popular books sales can be enormous, particularly if the books are connected with TV shows or dramatisations.

SPORT The British are great lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or when they cannot do that, to think about them.

The game particularly associated with England is cricket. Many other games which are English in origin have been adopted with enthusiasm all over the world, but cricket has been seriously adopted only in the former British empire, particularly in Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and South Africa.

Cricket is played by men and boys, women and girls. There are two teams of eleven each. One team must bat, and the other team must field. When the first team finishes batting, the second team must begin. The batsman must all the time guard his "wicket", three pieces of wood which are pushed into the ground. The game is very slow.

Organised amateur cricket is played between club teams, mainly on Saturday afternoons from May to the end of September. Nearly every village except in the far North, has its cricket club. A first-class match between English counties lasts for up to three days, with six hours' play on each day. When England plays with one of the cricketing countries such as Australia or New Zealand it is called a test match and it lasts for five days.

For the great mass of the British public the eight months of the football season are more important than the four months of cricket. There are plenty of amateur association football (or soccer) clubs, and professional football is big business. The annual Cup Final match at Wembley, between the two teams which have defeated their opponents in each round of a knock-out contest, remains an event of national importance.

A team is composed of a goalkeeper, two backs, three half-backs and five forwards. A game usually lasts for one and a half hours. At half-time, the teams change ends. The referee controls the game. The aim of each team is obviously to score as many goals as possible. If both teams score the same number of goals, or if neither team scores any goals, the result is a draw.

Rugby football (or rugger) is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown (but not forward). If a player is carrying the ball he may be "tackled" and made to fall down. Each team has fifteen players, who spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of each other and become very ditry. There is some professional Rugby League in the North, but elsewhere rugby football is played by amateurs and favoured by the middle-class. It is also the game played at most "public schools", including Rugby itself, where it was invented.

Most secondary schools have playing fields, and boys normally play rugger or soccer in winter and cricket in summer; girls play tennis and rounders (similar to baseball) in summer and netball and hockey in winter. Hockey is also becoming more and more popular at boys' schools, and there are many men's amateur hockey clubs. Men's basketball is played by a tiny minority.

Golf courses are popular meeting places of the business community; it is, for example, very desirable for bank managers to play golf. There are plenty of tennis clubs, but most towns provide tennis courts in public parks, and anyone can play tennis cheaply on a municipal court. There are cheap municipal golf courses in Scotland but few in England. The ancient game of bowls is played mainly by mid- dle-aged people.

The biggest new development in sport has been with long-distance running. "Jogging", for healthy outdoor exercise, needing no skill or equipment, became popular in the 1970s, and soon more and more people took it seriously. Now the annual London Marathon is like a carnival, with a million people watching as the world's star runners are followed by 25,000 ordinary people trying to complete the course. Many thousands of people take part in local marathons all over Britain.

The first fully organised Olympic Games of the modern era were held in London in 1908, and every Olympic sport has its practitioners in Britain.

Rowing is one Olympic sport which has a great history in Britian, beginning in some schools and universities. Some regattas on the Thames have been spectacular social events for well over a hundred years, and today's best rowers have had international successes.

Cycling is a fairly popular pastime, but few people take it up as a serious sport, and it is not a very popular spectator sport. Sailing and horseriding are popular among those who can afford them.

Horse racing is big business. Every day of the year, except Sundays, there is a race meeting at least one of Britain's several dozen racecourses.

Greyhound racing has had a remarkable revival in the 1980s. Its staduims are near town centres, small enough to be floodlit in the evenings. Until recently the spectators were mostly male and poor, the surroundings shabby. The 1980s have changed all this, with the growth of commercial sponsorship for advertising. The elite of Britain’s dogs, and their trainers, mostly come from Ireland.

The most popular of all outdoor sports is fishing, from the banks of lakes or rivers or in the sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some British lakes and rivers are famous for their trout or salmon, and attract enthusiasts from all over the world. Gambling. Britain has nothing quite like the national lotteries of some other European countries. However, gambling is a popular activity with horse racing being one of the biggest attractions, particularly for famous races such as The Grand National and the Derby. Betting shops ("bookmakers") can be found in most high streets. Other forms of gambling include amusement arcades and pub games, casinos, bingo, and the weekly football pools where very large prizes of a million pounds or more can be won. It has been estimated that over 90% of adults gamble at some time or other with about 40%t gambling regularly.

Sport at School, Sport has for a long time been a very important part of a child's education in Britain, not just to develop physical abilities, but also to provide a certain kind of moral education! Team games in particular encourage such social qualities as enthusiasm, cooperation, loyalty, unselfishness. Above all, absolute fairness (no cheating!) and being able to lose without anger (being a "good looser") are considered important.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS There are eight public holidays a year in Great Britain, that is days on which people need not go to work. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday. In Scotland, as opposed to England and Wales, January 2nd is also a public holiday. Most of these holidays are of religious origin, though it would be true to say that for the greater part of the population they have long lost their religious significance and are simply days on which people relax, eat, drink and make merry. All the public holidays, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day observed on December 25th and 26th respectively, and New Year's Day, are movable, that is they do not fall on the same date each year. Good Friday and

Easter Monday depend on Easter Sunday which falls on the first Sunday after a full moon on or after March 21st. May Day (in Scotland called Spring Holiday) falls on the first Monday in May. The Spring Bank Holiday (May Day in Scotland) falls on the last Monday of May, while the Late Summer Bank Holiday comes on the last Monday in August.

Besides public holidays, there are other festivals, anniversaries and simply days, for example Pancake Day and Bonfire Night, on which certain traditions are observed, but unless they fall on a Sunday, they are ordinary working days.

The term bank holiday applies also to Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter Monday, New Year's Day and May Day and dates back to the 19th century when by the Bank Holiday Act of 1871 and a supplementary act of 1875 these days as well as the Monday in Whitweek and the first Monday in August, August Bank Holiday, were constituted bank holidays, i.e. days on which banks were to be closed. Bank holidays are not statutory public holidays, but their observance is no longer limited to banks. Since 1965 Whit Monday is no longer a bank holiday, its place was taken by Spring Bank Holiday, whereas the bank holiday formerly observed on the first Monday in August is now observed at the end of August and is called Late Summer Bank Holiday, or, as formerly, August Bank Holiday.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
1 Jan	New Year's Day Bank Holiday
2 Jan.	Bank Holiday (Scotland only)
17Mar	St. Patrick's Day (Northern Ireland Day)
1 Apr	Good Friday Holiday
4 Apr	Easter Monday Bank Holiday
4 May	May Bank Holiday (Scotland)
8 May	VE Day Bank Holiday (England, Wales, N. Ireland)
30May	Spring Bank Holiday
12 Jul	Orangeman's Day (Northern Ireland only)
2 Aug	Bank Holiday (Scotland only)
30 Aug	Summer Bank Holiday (ex Scotland)
25 Dec	Christmas Day
26 Dec	Boxing Day Bank Holiday

NEW YEAR IN ENGLAND In England the New Year is not as widely or as enthusiastically observed as Christmas. Some people ignore it completely and go to bed at the same time as usual on New Year's Eve. Many others, however, do celebrate it in one way or another, the type of celebration varying very much according to the local custom, family tradition and personal taste.

The most common type of celebration is a New Year party, either a family party or one arranged by a group of young people. This usually begins at about eight o'clock and goes on until the early hours of the morning. There is a lot of drinking, mainly beer, wine, gin and whisky; sometimes the hosts make a big bowl of punch which consists of wine, spirits, fruit juice and water in varying proportions. There is usually a buffet supper of cold meat, pies, sandwiches, savouries, cakes and biscuits. At midnight the radio is turned on, so that everyone can hear the chimes of Big Ben, and on the hour a toast is drunk to the New Year, and Auld Lang Syne is sung. Then the party goes on.

Another popular way of celebrating the New Year is to go to a New Year's dance. Most hotels and dance halls hold a special dance on New Year's Eve. The hall is decorated, there are several different bands and the atmosphere is very gay. The most famous celebration is in London round the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus where crowds gather and sing and welcome the New Year. In Trafalgar Square there is also a big crowd and someone usually falls into the fountain.

Those who have no desire or no opportunity to celebrate the New Year themselves can sit and watch other people celebrating on television. It is an indication of the relative unimportance of the New Year in England that the television producers seem unable to find any traditional English festivities for their programmes and usually show Scottish ones.

January 1st, New Year's Day, is now a public holiday, fortunately for those who like to celebrate most of the night. Some people send New Year cards and give presents but this is not a widespread custom. This is the traditional time for making "New Year resolutions", for example, to give up smoking, or to get up earlier. However, these are generally more talked about than put into practice.

Also on New Year's Day the "New Year Honours List" is published in the newspapers, i.e. a list of those who are to be given honours of various types - knighthoods, etc.

THE NIGHT OF HOGMANAY Nowhere else in Britain is the arrival of the New Year celebrated so wholeheartedly as in Scotland.

Throughout Scotland, the preparations for greeting the New Year start with a minor "spring-cleaning". Brass and silver must be glittering and fresh linen must

be put on the beds. No routine work may be left unfinished; stockings must be darned, tears mended, clocks wound up, musical instruments tuned, and pictures hung straight. In addition, all outstanding bills are paid, overdue letters written and borrowed books returned. At least, that is the idea!

Most important of all, there must be plenty of good things to eat. Innumerable homes "reek of a celestial grocery" - plum puddings and currant buns, spices and cordials, apples and lemons, tangerines and toffee. In mansion and farmhouse, in suburban villa and city tenement, the table is spread with festive fare. Essential to Hogmanay are "cakes and kebbuck (oatcakes and cheese), shortbread, and either black bun or currant loaf. These are flanked with bottles of wine and the "mountain dew" that is the poetic name for whisky.

Many families prefer to bring in the New Year at home, with music or dancing, cards or talk. As the evening advances, the fire is piled high - for the brighter the fire, the better the luck. The members of the household seat themselves round the hearth, and when the hands of the clock approach the hour, the head of the house rises, goes to the front door, opens it wide, and holds it thus until the last stroke of midnight has died away. Then he shuts it quietly and returns to the family circle. He has let the Old Year out and the New Year in. Now greetings and small gifts are exchanged, glasses are filled- and already the First-Footers are at the door. The First-Footer, on crossing the threshold, greets the family with "A Happy New Year!" and pours out a glass from the flask he carries. This must be drunk to the dregs by the head of the house, who, in turn, pours out a glass for each of his visitors. The glass handed to the First-Footer himself must also be drunk to the dregs. A popular toast is:

"Your good health!"

The First-Footers must take something to eat as well as to drink, and after an exchange of greetings they go off again on their rounds.

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY - FEBRUARY 14

I'll be your sweetheart, if you will be mine,

All of my life Г11 be your Valentine...

It's here again, the day when boys and girls, sweethearts and lovers, husbands and wives, friends and neighbours, and even the office staff will exchange greetings of affection, undying love or satirical comment. And the quick, slick, modern way to do it is with a Valentine card.

In the last century, sweethearts of both sexes would spend hours fashioning a home-made card or present. The results of some of those painstaking efforts are still preserved in museums. Lace, ribbon, wild flowers, coloured paper, feathers and shells, all were brought into use. If the aspiring (or perspiring) lover had difficulty in thinking up a message or rhyme there was help at hand. He could dip into The Quiver of Love or St. Valentine s Sentimental Writer, these books giving varied selections to suit everyone's choice.

The first Valentine of all was a bishop, a Christian martyr, who before he was put to death by the Romans sent a note of friendship to his jailer's blind daughter.

The Christian Church took for his saint's day February 14, the date of an old pagan festival when young Roman maidens threw decorated love missives into an urn to be drawn out by their boy friends.

Comic valentines are also traditional. The habit of sending gifts is dying out, which must be disappointing for the manufacturers, who nevertheless still hopefully dish out presents for Valentine's Day in an attempt to cash in. And the demand for valentines is increasing. According to one manufacturer, an estimated 30 million cards will have been sent by February, 14 - and not all cheap stuff, either.

There are all kinds:

The sick joke - reclining lady on the front, and inside she will "kick you in the ear".

The satirical «You are charming, witty, intelligent, etc.» and «if you believe all this you must be...»inside the card you find an animated cuckoo clock.

And the take-off of the sentimental - "Here's the key to my heart... use it before I change the lock."

And the attempts to send a serious message without being too sickly, ending with variations of "mine" and "thine" and "Valentine"

PANCAKE DAY Pancake Dау is the popular name for Shrove Tuesday, the day preceding the first day of Lent. In medieval times the day was characterized by merry-making and feasting, a relic of which is the eating of pancakes

PANCAKE BELL Ringing the Pancake Bell on Shrove Tuesday is an old and once widespread custom which still survives in a number of parishes. Originally, this bell had nothing to do with pancakes. It was the Shriving Bell, which rang to summon the faithful to church, there to confess their sins to be shriven in preparation for the holy season of Lent. After the Reformation, the bell continued to be rung although the religious reason for it had ceased, and came to be regarded as a signal for the holiday revels to begin. Now that Shrove Tuesday has lost much of its festival character, it is often supposed to ring as a warning for housewives to start preparing their pancakes. Usually it is sounded at about eleven o'clock in the morning, but the hour varies in different parishes, and may be earlier or later.

MOTHERING SUNDAY (MOTHER'S DAY) Mid-Lent Sunday, the fourth in Lent, has more than one name, but for English people the best-known of these names is Mothering Sunday. For at least three centuries this anniversary has been a day of small family reunions, when absent sons and daughters return to their homes, and gifts are made to mothers by their children of all ages. Evidently family gatherings and "going a-mothering" were already well established in the middle of the seventeenth century.

"Going a-mothering" never quite vanished from the English scene, but in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it gradually became less widespread.

But during the last twenty years or so, it has blossomed anew, and today it is again well known.

This is sudden re-flowering of an ancient custom is at least partly due to the American servicemen stationed in England during the Second World War. They confused our Mothering Sunday with their own Mother's Day, and by doing so helped to infuse new life into the former. In actual fact, the two festivals are quite unrelated, being totally different in origin and history, and falling on different dates. The English Mothering Sunday custom developed from a medieval ecclesiastical practice, and has never lost its connection with the Church calendar. The American Mother's Day is a modem secular anniversary which began only in 1907.

EASTER GOOD FRIDAY For centuries, Good Friday has been observed by Christians everywhere as the most solemn fast of the year, a day of penitence and mourning when the Crucifixion is commemorated. Good Friday is an official holiday in Britain, and for many it has come to mean chiefly the first opportunity in the year to escape from the town to the seaside or into the country. Yet, even among those who don't go to church on Good Friday, there's often a deep feeling that it is a special day.

This manifests itself in superstitious fear that to do one's customary work will somehow bring misfortune. Until recently, coalminers refused to work on Good Friday, believing that there would be a disaster in the mine if they did. Fishermen used to consider it both impious and ill-omened to put to sea on Good Friday. And there are still housewives who believe that to wash clothes on Good Friday is to provoke misfortune, perhaps a death in the family.

EASTER Both the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Churches expect their members to receive Holy Communion at Easter.

Easter is a time when certain old traditions are observed, whether it is celebrated as the start of spring or a religious festival. In England it is a time for the giving and receiving of presents which traditionally take the form of an Easter egg. Nowadays Easter eggs are usually made of chocolate, but the old custom of dyeing or painting egg-shells is still maintained in some country districts.

Wherever Easter is celebrated, there Easter eggs are usually to be found. In their modern form, they are frequently artificial, mere imitations of the real thing, made of chocolate or marzipan or sugar, or of two pieces of coloured and decorated cardboard fitted together to make an egg-shaped case containing some small gift. They are, however, comparative newcomers, hardly more than a hundred years old. Artificial eggs do not seem to have been used before the middle of last century, and popular as they are today, they have not yet entirely displaced the true Easter egg of tradition.

This is a real egg, hard-boiled, dyed in bright colours, and sometimes elaborately decorated. It still appears upon countless breakfast-tables on Easter Day, or is hidden about the house and garden for the children to find. It is one of the most widespread of Easter gifts, and it is also the oldest, with an ancestry running far back into pre-Christian times.

HOT GROSS BUNS Eating hot cross buns at breakfast on Good Friday morning is a custom which still flourishes in most English households. Formerly, these round, spiced cakes marked with a cross, eaten hot, were made at home by housewives who rose at dawn for the purpose, or by local bakers who worked through the night to have them ready for delivery to their customers in time for breakfast. In towns, and especially in London, street vendors used to come out early in the morning, carrying trays or baskets full of hot buns covered by a blanket and white cloth to preserve the heat, and crying as they went:

Hot Cross Buns!

One-a-penny, two-a-penny,

Hot Cross Buns!

Hot cross buns have a long ancestry, running backwards into pre-Christian times. Small cakes made of wheaten flour and marked with a cross were eaten in spring by the pagan Greeks and Romans, particularly at the festival of Diana. The early Saxons also seem to have eaten similar cakes round about the same March date. It is certain that hot cross buns were popular in England by the early eighteenth century, and they have remained so ever since.

APRIL FOOLS' DAY ALL FOOLS' DA The first day of April is known in England as All Fools Day, or April Fool's

Day or, in some northern districts as April Noddy Day.

One of the earliest known English examples of this last trick is recorded in Drake's News-Letter for April 2nd, 1698, where we read that a number of people received invitations to see the lions washed at the Tower of London on April 1 st, and duly went there for the purpose. Precisely the same trick was played with equal success by some unknown person in 1860.

On the stroke of noon, all ends. This rule is rigidly observed everywhere. If anyone attempts a trick after midday, the intended victim retorts,

April Fool's gone past,

You're the biggest fool at last,

or April Noddy's past and gone,

You're the fool and I'm none,

MAY DAY (MAY 1) May Day (May 1) festivities probably originated in the Roman Floralia, festival in honour of Flora, goddess of flowers. In England, flowers and boughs of hawthorn (may) were brought from the woods, the prettiest girl in the village was chosen queen of the may and crowned, with flowers, and maypoles were set up, around which dancers revolved, each holding a coloured ribbon attached to the top of the pole and plaiting and unplaiting those ribbons in the course of their evolutions. Maypole dancing was disapproved by the Puritans of the 16th and 17th centuries, as an idolatrous survival, and was forbidden under the Commonwealth. May Day was also the traditional holiday for chimney-sweeps. For the Celtic May Day festival, called Beltane, fires were kindled on the hilltops.

MAYPOLE The Maypole is an ancient fertility emblem belonging to the beginning of Summer, and it also represents a tree; indeed, at one time it was a tree, brought in from the woods with ceremony, and set up on the village green. In the darkness of the early morning, the young people went out on May Day and cut down a tall, young tree, lopped off most of its branches, leaving only a few at the top, and so brought it home, to be adorned with flowers and garlands, and to serve as a centre for their dances.

There are still a good many Maypoles today. Most schools have them, on May Day, or on some convenient day during the month, and some villages maintain the old tradition, especially in places where there are standing-poles.

MAY QUEEN In most modern revivals of the old May Day celebrations the central figure is commonly the May Queen, usually a schoolgirl elected by some local notability. Formerly, she was not a child, but a young woman, the prettiest girl in the area or the most popular, and she was not usually alone, as she is now. There was often a May King who reigned with her, or a Lord and Lady of the May.

SPRING BANK HOLIDAY LATE SUMMER BANK HOLIDAY On these bank holidays the townsfolk usually flock into the country and to the sea coast. If the weather is fine many families take a picnic-lunch or tea with them and enjoy their meal in the open. Others will go to a Safari, Wildlife or theme park, all offering family activities and entertainment.

In parks, large or small, visitors are encouraged to take part in various competitions and games. During bank holidays many people will be participating in all these sports, weather permitting, of course.

Bank Holiday is also an occasion for big sports meetings at places like the White City Stadium mainly all kinds of athletics. There are also horse race meetings all over the country, and most traditional of all, there are large fairs. It is at Hampstead Heath you will see the Pearly Kings, those Cockney costers (street traders), who wear suits or frocks with thousands of tiny pearl buttons stitched all over them, also over their caps and hats, in case of their Queens. There is also much boating activity on the Thames.

Halloween On October 31^st British people celebrate Halloween. It is undoubtedly the most colourful and exciting holiday of the year. Though it is not a public holiday, it is very dear to those who celebrate it, especially to children and teenagers. This day was originally called All Hallow's Eve because it fell on the eve of All Saints' Day. The name was later shortened to Halloween. According to old beliefs, Halloween is the time, when the veil between the living and the dead is partially lifted, and witches, ghosts and other super natural beings are about. Now children celebrate Halloween in unusual costumes and masks. It is a festival of merrymaking, superstitions spells, fortunetelling, traditional games and pranks. Halloween is a time for fun.

Few holidays tell us much of the past as Halloween. Its origins date back to a time, when people believed in devils, witches and ghosts. Many Halloween customs are based on beliefs of the ancient Celts, who lived more than 2,000 years ago in what is now Great Britain, Ireland, and northern France.

Every year the Celts celebrated the Druid festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead and Prince of Darkness. It fell on October 31, the eve of the Druid new year. The date marked the end of summer, or the time when the sun retreated before the powers of darkness and the reign of the Lord of Death began. The Dun god took part in the holiday and received thanks for the year's harvest.

It was believed that evil spirits sometimes played tricks on October 31. They could also do all kinds of damage to property. Some people tried to ward of the witches by painting magic signs on their barns. Others tried to frighten them away by nailing a piece of iron, such as a horseshoe, over the door.

Many fears and superstitions grew up about this day. An old Scotch superstition was that witches - those who had sold their souls to the devil - left in their beds on Halloween night a stick made by magic to look like themselves. Then they would fly up the chime attended by a black cat.

In Ireland, and some other parts of Great Britain, it was believed, that fairies spirited away young wives, whom they returned dazed and amnesic 366 days later.

When Halloween night fell, people in some places dressed up and tried to resemble the souls of the dead. They hoped that the ghosts would leave peacefully before midnight. They carried food to the edge of town or village and left it for the spirits.

In Wales, they believed that the devil appeared in the shape of a pig, a horse, or a dog. On that night, every person marked a stone and put it in a bonfire. If a person's stone was missing the next morning, he or she would die within a year.

Much later, when Christianity came to Great Britain and Ireland, the Church wisely let the people keep their old feast. But it gave it a new association when in the 9^th century a festival in honour of all saints (All Hallows) was fixed on November 1. In the 11^th century November 2 became All Souls' Day to honour the souls of the dead, particularly those who died during the year.

Christian tradition included the lighting of bonfires and earring blazing torches all around the fields. In some places masses of flaming stay were flung into the air. When these ceremonies were over, everyone returned home to feast on the new crop of apples and nuts, which are the traditional Halloween foods. On that night, people related their experience with strange noises and spooky shadows and played traditional games.

Halloween customs today follow many of the ancient traditions, though their significance has long since disappeared.

A favourite Halloween custom is to make a jack-o'-lantern. Children take out the middle of the pumpkin, cut hole holes for the eyes, nose and mouth in its side and, finally, they put a candle inside the pumpkin to scare their friends. The candle burning inside makes the orange face visible from far away on a dark night - and the pulp makes a delicious pumpkin-pie.

People in England and Ireland once carved out beets, potatoes, and turnips to make jack-o'-lanterns on Halloween. When the Scots and Irish came to the United States, they brought their customs with them. But they began to carve faces on pumpkins because they were more plentiful in autumn than turnips. Nowadays, British carve faces on pumpkins, too.

According to an Irish legend, jack-o'-lanterns were named for a man called Jack who was notorious for his drunkenness and being stingy. One evening at the local pub, the Devil appeared to take his soul. Clever Jack persuaded the Devil to "have one drink together before we go". To pay for his drink the Devil turned himself into a sixpence. Jack immediately put it into his wallet. The Devil couldn't escape from it because it had a catch in the form of a cross. Jack released the Devil only when the latter promised to leave him in peace for another year. Twelve months later, Jack played another practical joke on the Devil, letting him down from a tree only on the promise that he would never purse him again. Finally, Jack's body wore out. He could not enter heaven because he was a miser. He could not enter hell either, because he played jokes on the Devil. Jack was in despair. He begged the Devil for a live coal to light his way out of the dark. He put it into a turnip and, as the story goes, is still wandering around the earth with his lantern.

Halloween is something called Beggars' Night or Trick or Treat night. Some people celebrate Beggars' Night as Irish children did in the 17^th century. They dress up as ghosts and witches and go into the streets to beg. And children go from house to house and say: "Trick or treat!", meaning "Give me a treat or I'll play a trick on you". Some groups of "ghosts" chant Beggars' Night rhymes: Trick or treat, Smell our feet. We want something Good to eat.

In big cities Halloween celebrations often include special decorating contests. Young people are invited to soap shop-windows, and they get prizes for the best soap-drawings.

Midsummer's Day, June 24^th, is the longest day of the year. On that day you can see a very old custom at Stonohonge, in Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge is on of

Europe's biggest stone circles. A lot of the stones are ten or twelve metres high. It is also very old. The earliest part of Stonehenge is nearly 5,000 years old. But what was Stonehenge? A holy place? A market? Or was it a kind of calendar? Many people think that the Druids used it for a calendar. The Druids were the priests in Britain 2,000 years ago. They used the sun and the stones at Stonehenge to know the start of months and seasons. There are Druids in Britain today, too. And every June 24^th a lot of them go to Stonehenge. On that morning the sun shines on one famous stone - the Heel stone. For the Druids this is a very important moment in the year. But for a lot of British people it is just a strange old custom.

Londoners celebrate carnivals. And one of them is Europe's biggest street carnival. A lot of people in the Notting Hill area of London come from the West Indies - a group of islands in the Caribbean. And for two days in August, Nutting Hill is the West Indies. There is West Indian food and music in the streets. There is also a big parade and people dance day and night.

One of the most interesting competitions is the university boat race.

Oxford and Cambridge are Britain's two oldest universities. In the nineteenth century, rowing was a popular sport at both of them. In 1829 they agreed to have a race. They raced on the river Thames and the Oxford boat won. That started a tradition. Now, every Spring, the University Boat Race goes from Putney to Mortlake on the Thames. That is 6,7 kilometres. The Cambridge rowers wear light blue shirts and the Oxford rowers wear dark blue. There are eight men in each boat. There is also a "cox". The cox controls the boat. Traditionally coxes are men, but Susan Brown became the first woman cox in 1981. She was the cox for Oxford and they won.

An annual British tradition, which captures the imagination of the whole nation is the London to Brighton Car Rally in which a fleet of ancient cars indulges in a light hearted race from the Capital to the Coast.

When the veteran cars set out on the London - Brighton run each November, they are celebrating one of the great landmarks in the history of motoring in Britain - the abolition of the rule that every "horseless carriage" had to be preceded along the road by a pedestrian. This extremely irksome restriction, imposed by the Locomotives on Highways Act, was withdrawn in 1896, and on November of that year there was a rally of motor-cars on the London - Brighton highway to celebrate the first day of freedom - Emancipation Day, as it has known by motorists ever since.

Emancipation is still on the first Sunday of the month, but nowadays there is an important condition of entry - every car taking part must be at least 60 years old.

The Run is not a race. Entrants are limited to a maximum average speed of 20 miles per hour. The great thing is not speed but quality of performance, and the dedicated enthusiasts have a conversation all their own.

The Highland Games - this sporting tradition is Scottish. In the Highlands (the mountains of Scotland) families, or "clans", started the Games hundreds of years ago. Some of the sports are the Games are international: the high jump and the long jump, for example. But other sports happen only at the Highland Games. One is tossing the caber. "Tossing" means throwing, and a "caber" is a long, heavy piece of wood. In tossing the caber you lift the caber (it can be five or six metres tall). Then you throw it in front of you.

At the Highland Games a lot of men wear kilts. These are traditional Scottish skirts for men. But they are not all the same. Each clan has a different "tartan". That is the name for the pattern on the kilt. So at the Highland Games there are traditional sports and traditional instrument - the bagpipes. The bagpipes are very loud. They say Scots soldier played them before a battle. The noise frightened the soldiers on other side.

The world's most famous tennis tournament is Wimbledon. It started at a small club in south London in the nineteenth century. Now a lot of the nineteenth century traditions have changed. For example, the women players don't have to wear long skirts. And the men players do not have to wear long trousers. But other traditions have not changed at Wimbledon. The courts are still grass, and visitors still eat strawberries and cream. The language of tennis has not changed either.

There are some British traditions and customs concerning their private life. The British are considered to be the world's greatest tea drinkers. And so tea is Britain's favourite drink. The English know how to make tea and what it does for you. In England people say jokingly: The test of good tea is simple. If a spoon stands up in it, then it is strong enough; if the spoon starts to wobble, it is a feeble makeshift'.

Every country has its drinking habits, some of which are general and obvious, others most peculiar. Most countries also have a national drink. In England the national is beer, and the pub "pub", where people talk, eat, drink, meet their friends and relax.

The word "pub" is short for "public house". Pubs sell beer. (British beer is always warm). An important custom in pubs is "buying a round". In a group, one person buys all the others a drink. This is a "round". Then one by one all the people buy rounds, too. If they are with friends, British people sometimes lift their glasses before they drink and say: "Cheers". This means "Good luck".

In the pubs in south-west England there is another traditional drink-scrumpy.

Pub names often have a long tradition. Some come from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Every pub has a name and every pub has a sign above its door. The sign shows a picture of the pub's name.

And as you know, the British talk about the weather a lot. They talk about the weather because it changes so often. Wind, rain, sun, cloud, snow - they can all happen in a British winter - or a British summer.

Hundreds of years ago, soldiers began this custom. They shook hands to show that they did not have a sword. Now, shaking hands is a custom in most countries.

Frenchman shake hands every time they meet, and kiss each other on both cheeks as a ceremonial salute, like the Russians, while Englishmen shake hands only when they are introduced, or after a long absence.

Victorian England made nearly as many rules about hand shaking as the Chinese did about bowing. A man could not offer his hand first a lady; young ladies did not shake men's hands at all unless they were old friends; married ladies could offer their hands in a room, but not in public, where they would bow slightly.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT (BONFIRE NIGHT) - NOVEMBER 5 Guy Fawkes Night is one of the most popular festivals in Great Britain. It commemorates the discovery of the so-called Gunpowder Plot, and is widely celebrated throughout the country.

Gunpowder Plot. Conspiracy to destroy the English Houses of Parliament and King James I when the latter opened Parliament on Nov. 5,1605, Engineered by a group of Roman Catholics as a protest against anti-Papist measures. On November 4 a search was made of the parliament vaults, and the gunpowder was found, together with Guy Fawkes (1570-1606). Fawkes had been commissioned to set off the explosion. Arrested and tortured he revealed the names of the conspirators, some of whom were killed resisting arrest. Fawkes was hanged. Detection of the plot led to increased repression of English Roman Catholics. The Plot is still commemorated by an official ceremonial search of the vaults before the annual opening of Parliament, also by the burning of Fawkes's effigy and the explosion of fireworks every Nov.

Guy Fawkes must be one of the most popular villains in history. In the last century, many of these celebrations were wild indeed, with home-made fireworks, blazing barrels of tar and huge bonfires in the streets. There is an extremely well-organized celebration at Winchester, Hampshire. College students and many other organizations in the city prepare elaborate guys, for which prizes are awarded.

When November 5th comes, many people feel that they should give their dog a sedative, for some dogs get very nervous when they hear loud bangs, and the evening of Guy Fawkes Day is sure to be noisy if there are children living in the neighbourhood in England.

SEARCHING THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT The memory of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 is preserved by many cheerful customs in various parts of Great Britain, and by one dignified ceremony that takes place in London before the Opening of Parliament. This is the searching by a detachment of Yeomen of the Guard of the cellars under the Palace of Westminster, either on the evening before the Opening or, more usually, on the morning of the day itself The Yeomen, in their scarlet and gold uniforms, come from the Tower of London to the Princess Chamber in the House of Lords and there, in the presence of a number of the Palace officials, they are given old candle- lanterns for use during the ceremony. As soon as the order to search has been received, they set out on a prolonged tour of the basements, vaults, and cellars below the building. Carrying their lighted lanterns in their hafids, and firmly ignoring the existence of the very efficient electric lighting, they search every cranny and crevice, every corner and conceivable hiding-place, to satisfy themselves that no gunpowder barrels, bombs, or infernal machines have been anywhere concealed with intent to blow up Sovereign, Lords, and Commons. When they have proved by personal and most careful inspection that all is well, a message is sent to the Queen, the Yeomen are given some well earned refreshment and return whence they came, and Parliament is then free to assemble without fear of disaster.

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY After World War I Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, commemorating the fallen, was observed on 11 November, also called "Poppy Day" from the artificial poppies (recalling the poppies of Flanders fields). From 1945-1956 Remembrance Sunday was observed instead on the first or second Sunday of November (presumably whichever was nearest to 11th), commemorating the fallen of World War I and II. In 1956 it was fixed on the second Sunday in November.

Armistice Day, 11th November. BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY OF A BRITISH WARRIOR UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR'S GRAVE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY 11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V HIS MINISTERS OF STATE THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF FOR GOD FOR KING AND COUNTRY FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLDTHEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD HIS HOUSE

REMEMBRANCE DAY (POPPY DAY) Remembrance Day is observed throughout Britain. On that day special services are held in the churches and wreaths are laid at war memorials throughout the country and at London's Cenotaph, where a great number of people gather to observe the two-minute silence and to perform the annual Remembrance Day ceremony. The silence begins at the first stroke of Big Ben booming 11 o'clock, and is broken only by the crash of distant artillery and perhaps by the murmur of a passing jet. When the two-minute silence is over, members of the Royal Family or their representatives and political leaders come forward to lay wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph. Then comes the march past the memorial of ex-servicemen and women, followed by an endless line of ordinary citizens who have come here with their personal wreaths and their sad memories.

On that day artificial poppies, a symbol of mourning, are traditionally sold in the streets everywhere, and people wear them in their button-holes. The money collected in this way is later used to help the men who had been crippled during the war and their dependants.

CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS TIME

Christmas, or a similar festival, has been celebrated from the earliest days of recorded history.

Christmas is an annual festival, observed on December 25, in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Its observance as a Christian festival dates from the 4th century, when it gradually superseded Epyphany (January 6, still kept as Christmas in the Armenian Church).

CHRISTMAS EVE On Christmas Eve everything is rush and bustle. Offices and public buildings close at one o'clock, but the shops stay open late.

In the homes there is a great air of expectation. The children are decorating the tree with tinsel. The house is decorated with holly and a bunch of mistletoe under which the boys kiss the girls. Christmas cards - with the words A Merry Christmas to You or Wishing You a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year, or With the Compliments of the Season, etc. - are arranged on mantlepieces, shelves, tables, and sometimes attached to ribbon and hung round the walls. The Christmas bird, nowadays usually a turkey, is being prepared and stuffed, the pudding is inspected and the cake is got out of its tin and iced.

CHRISTMAS DAY (25th DECEMBER More people go to Church on Christmas Day than at any other time.

On returning from Church - or after a late breakfast - mother disappears into the kitchen to put the turkey in the oven, which has been prepared the day before, and the pudding on to boil, while the family gather round the Tree. The Tree is usually in a window and at night one can walk down streets and see these lights twinkling in the windows. When mother is ready, the great moment comes - the opening of the presents. Everyone has tried to keep their gifts a secret and if you know what you're getting you must show delight and gratitude - even for the sixth tie or the twentieth bar of soap! The parcels have been tied on the Tree or laid round it and each takes a turn at opening one. Everyone gets something - the dog a new collar - the cat a tin of sardines.

After the excitement has died down you have the long wait for the food. Some people go for walks to strengthen their appetite either taking the children with them or leaving them at home. The men may either stay at home or go to the pub for a Christmas drink with their friends.

The meal is really traditional - stuffed turkey, bread sauce, boiled ham, mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts to be followed by plum pudding, mince pies (perhaps jelly for the children), brandy butter and either tea or coffee.

After all that one sits down and digests and watches television. Later one has tea - that is tea and Christmas cake.

People travel from all parts of the country to be at home for Christmas.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS The giving of presents at Christmas-time has a long pre-Christian ancestry. Before Christianity was known in the world, gifts of various kinds used to be exchanged at some of the pagan religious festivals of midwinter.

In England, Father Christmas was certainly known as far back as the fifteenth century, for he is named in a carol of that period beginning "Hail, Father Christmas, hail to thee!" In the modern version of his legend, Father Christmas has become a very old but never-ageing man, dressed in red robes and furs, who comes from the Far North in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, and deposits his gifts by night in the houses, unseen and unheard.

CHRISTMAS CARDS Christmas cards are now so essential a part of the Christmas festivities that they can hardly be omitted from any list of established customs. Nevertheless, they are little more than a hundred years old, and were unknown before Victorian times. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was a pleasant universal, custom to send complimentary verses, often of the sender's own composition, to particular friends at Christmas, or on other great occasions. For this purpose, specially prepared sheets of paper were frequently used.

More than one person has claimed the honour of inventing the new form of greeting. Probably, the strongest claim to be the inventor is that of J. C. Horsley. In 1846, a pictorial card designed by him in 1843 was published by Summerly's Home Treasury Office, and about a thousand copies were sold. By about 1870, the Christmas card had become really popular in England.

THE CHRISTMAS ROBIN The origin of the robin as a Christmas bird dates back not more than 100 years, and is rather mundane. It is all the fault of the Post Office.

In the middle of the last century the Post Office dressed its postmen in bright red coats of a colour to match the official red of the pillar boxes. Because of this striking uniform, the postmen themselves came to be known colloquially as "redbreasts".

So it was inevitable, when the Christmas card first came into general favour around 1860, that robins should figure prominently in its decoration. Almost all the early cards showed a cheerful robin redbreast, often bringing the welcome Christmas mail in its beak, or sometimes actually knocking on the door, just like the postman himself.

The scarlet-clad postmen are now forgotten, and their present-day successors wear a sober bluish-grey, but they still carry vast loads of robin-adorned cards each festive season.

London has preserved its old ceremonies and traditions to a greater extent than any other city in England.

CHANGING THE GUARD One of the most impressive and popular displays of royal pageantry is hanging the Guard, which takes place at Buckingham Palace every day, including Sunday, at 11.30.

The troops who take part are selected from the five regiments of Foot Guards . Their numbers are dependent on whether the Queen is in residence or not.

The men of the duty guard march from either Wellington or Chelsea Barracks to Buckingham Palace with a band, which during the actual ceremony plays in the forecourt of the Palace.

The guard to be relieved forms at the southern end of the forecourt under the command of the Captain of the Queen's Guard. They are drawn up into two ranks. Before they are stood at ease, the colour is paraded by the ensign on duty. Each regiment has two colours - a royal one and a regimental one. The royal colour can be seen only when the Queen is at home. Sometimes the colour is decorated with a laurel wreath, signifying the anniversary of a battle in which the regiment was engaged.

The new guard enters the forecourt by the north gate. As it approaches, the old guard is called to attention. The new guard is then halted to be formed into files before it advances to position at a slow march. While this is taking place, the band plays. Later the band leads the old guard back to their barracks.

The Brigade of Guards serves as a personal body-guard to the Sovereign.

When the Queen is in residence at Buckingham Palace, there is a guard of four sentries. Only two are on duty when she is away from London.

MOUNTING THE GUARD The colourful spectacle of Mounting the Guard, at the Horse Guards, in Whitehall, always attracts London sightseers.

It can be seen at 11 a. m. every weekday and at 10 a.m. on Sundays.

The guard is provided by a detachment of the Household Cavalry and involves units of the Royal Horse Guards, known as the "Blues", and the Life Guards, sometimes referred to as "The Tins".

The Life Guards wear scarlet uniforms and white metal helmets with white horsehair plumes and have white sheepskin saddles. The Royal Horse Guards wear deep-blue tunics and white metal helmets with red horsehair plumes and have black sheepskin saddles.

Both wear steel cuirasses - body armour that reaches down to the waist and consists of a breastplate and a back-plate buckled or otherwise fastened together. The uniforms are completed with buckskin breeches, black jackboots and spurs.

The actual ceremony is dependent on whether or not the Queen is in residence in London. If she is, there is more to see. On these occasions the ceremony is performed by what has become known as the "long guard". The guard is commanded by an officer in charge of sixteen troopers, a corporal of horse, a corporal major, and a trumpeter. The trumpeter rides a grey horse; the others ride black chargers. A standard is carried, except when the Queen is not in London, when, also, there is no officer in command.

With the arrival of the new guard, the trumpeter sounds a call. The two officers salute and then stand their horses side by side while the guard is changed. The ceremony lasts for just over fifteen minutes, and ends with the old guard returning to its barracks.

THE CEREMONY OF THE KEY Every night at 9.53 p.m. the Chief Warder of the Yeomen Warders 28 (Beefeaters) of the Tower of London lights a candle lantern and then makes his way towards the Bloody Tower. In the Archway his Escort await his arrival. The Chief Warder, carrying the keys, then moves off with his Escort to the West Gate, which he locks, while the Escort "present arms". Then the Middle and Byward Towers are locked.

The party then return to the Bloody Tower Archway, and there they are halted by the challenge of the sentry. "Halt!" he commands. "Who goes there?" The Chief Warder answers, "The keys." The sentry demands, "Whose keys?" "Queen Elizabeth's keys," replies the Chief Warder. "Advance, Queen Elizabeth's keys; all's well," commands the sentry.

Having received permission to proceed through the Archway, the party then form up facing the Main Guard of the Tower. The order is given by the officer-in-charge to "Present Arms". The Chief Warder doffs his Tudor-style bonnet and cries, "God preserve Queen Elizabeth." "Amen," answer the Guard and Escort.

At 10 p.m. the bugler sounds the "Last Post". The Chief Warder proceeds to the Queen's House, where the keys are given into the custody of the Resident Governor and Major.

The Ceremony of the Keys dates back 700 years and has taken place every night during that period, even during the blitz of London in the last war.

THE SOVEREIGN'S ENTRY INTO THE CITY OF LONDON Whenever the Sovereign wishes to enter the City of London on state occasions, he or she is met by the Lord Mayor at the site of Temple Bar, which marks the City boundary. First the Sword and Mace are reversed; then the Lord Mayor surrenders the City's Pearl Sword as a symbol of the Sovereign's overriding authority.

The City Sword is held pointing downwards. The Sovereign then touches its hilt and returns it immediately. On receiving it back, the Lord Mayor bears it before the Sovereign, after which the royal party is allowed entry.

This custom dates back to 1588, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's drive to Old St.Paul's to give thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

ELECTING LONDON'S LORD MAJOR One of the most important functions of the City's eighty-four Livery Companies is the election of London's Lord Mayor at the Guildhall at 12 noon on Michaelmas Day (September 29th). The public are admitted to the ceremony. It provides one of the many impressive and colourful spectacles for which London is famed. The reigning Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, carrying posies, walk in procession to the Guildhall and take their places on the dais, which is strewn with sweet-smelling herbs. The Recorder announces that the representatives of the Livery

Companies have been called together to select two , Aldermen for the office of Lord Mayor of London. From the selected two, the Court of Aldermen will choose one. The Mayor, Aldermen and other senior officials then withdraw, and the Livery select their two nominations. Usually the choice is unanimous, and the Liverymen all hold up their hands and shout "All". The Sergeant-at-Arms takes the mace from the table and, accompanied by the Sheriffs , takes the two names to the Court of Aldermen, who then proceed to select the Mayor Elect. The bells of the City ring out as the Mayor and the Mayor Elect leave the Guildhall in the state coach for the Mansion House.

THE LORD MAYOR'S SHOW The splendid civic event known as the Lord Mayor's Show is watched by many thousands of people. Its origin dates back more than six hundred years. The Lord Mayor Elect is driven in state to the Royal Courts of Justice , where he takes the oath before the Lord Chief Justice and Judges of the Queen's Bench to perform his duties faithfully.

This final declaration was formerly made before the Barons of the Exchequer and originated in 1230 during the reign of Henry III.

Setting out from the Guildhall at about 11.30 a. m., the newly-elected Lord Mayor travels in a gilded coach which dates from the mid-eighteenth century.

Forming his body-guard is the company of Pikemen and Musketeers.

After the oath has been taken, the entire procession returns by way of the Embankment to the original point of departure.

During the evening there takes place at Guildhall the traditional Banquet, according to a custom going back two hundred and fifty years. The Banquet is attended by many of the most prominent people in the country, and is usually televised - at least in part. The Prime Minister delivers a major political speech, and the toast of the hosts on behalf of the guests is proposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The cost of the Show and Banquet is met by the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs, and one can imagine how high it is. In the late 1600s the cost of the Banquet is reputed to have amounted to nearly $700. It is interesting to note that the Lord Mayor today receives $l5,000 from the City's cash for his term in office. From this amount all his expenses must be met.

THE STATE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT Undoubtedly one of the most colourful and spectacular pageants that take place in London is that which surrounds the State Opening of Parliament.

Her Majesty the Queen, as the reigning monarch, travels in the resplendent Irish State Coach from her residence at Buckingham palace to the palace of Westminster, where she delivers her speech from the Throne of the House of Lords.

Her arrival at Victoria Tower is greeted by a salute fired by the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, wearing full-dress uniform.

At the ancient Palace of Westminster Her Majesty is received by the Great Officers of State - the two hereditary officers, the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain, and three non-hereditary Great Officers, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord Privy Seal, and the Lord President of the Council.

Accompanying Her Majesty would be H.R.H. the prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the Royal Family and Household such as the private Secretary, the Master of the Horse and the Keeper of the Privy Purse.

The Queen then enters the Robing Room, later to emerge wearing her royal robes and crown. Meanwhile the Great Officers of State, the Pursuivants, the Heralds, and others, all magnificently apparalled, take up their positions in the Royal Gallery.

The House, rich in colour with the splendid robes and costumes worn by peers, judges, bishops, ambassadors and peeresses, now await the appearance of Her Majesty.

As she emerges from the Robing Room, the hush is broken by the sound of trumpets as the Garter King of Arms signals to the Heralds, by the raising of his sceptre, the approach of the Queen's procession into the House of Lords.

The Queen then moves slowly towards the steps she will ascend to the Throne. Seated upon it, she commands Black Rod (one of the five officers of the Order of the Garter) to summon the Speaker and Members of the House of Commons.

The Lord Chancellor, kneeling before her, then hands her the Gracious Speech, which contains the Government's programme of legislation for the new session.

After the Speech, the procession moves slowly out of the chamber.