HMS Belfast

Tower Hill Memorial

Tower Hill · 0.1 miles

Located in Trinity Square Gardens on Tower Hill, London, the memorial complex commemorates civilian, merchant seafarers and fishermen who lost their lives to enemy action and have no known grave. Two principal monuments dominate the site: the First World War memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, and the Second World War memorial, by Sir Edward Maufe. Both feature bronze panels that list the missing, while the Lutyens structure presents a vaulted corridor reminiscent of a Doric temple. The Maufe garden is set below ground level, accessed by steps, and includes relief sculptures of the seven seas by Charles Wheeler together with two sentry figures representing a Merchant Navy sailor and an officer. The First World War memorial was commissioned after the loss of more than 17,000 merchant seafarers and the sinking of over 3,300 British and Empire-registered vessels. Queen Mary unveiled the Lutyens design on 12 December 1928 after a rejected river-bank arch proposal. The Second World War memorial, reflecting the higher toll of 4,786 ships and 32 000 lives, was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in November 1955, after which relatives were invited to lay flowers. A third addition, dedicated to merchant seamen killed in the 1982 Falklands conflict, was installed in 2005. Both war-time memorials are protected as listed buildings – the Mercantile Marine Memorial at grade I and the Merchant Seamen’s Memorial at grade II* – and form part of a national collection of Lutyens’ war memorials. The site is on Crown land, offers step-free wheelchair access, and can be reached via the surrounding gardens in the Tower Hill area.

Gordon Museum

Borough Market · 0.6 miles

A collection of human pathological specimens, the Gordon Museum of Pathology forms part of King’s College London’s medical teaching facilities. Situated on the Guy’s Campus near Borough Market, the museum holds roughly 8,000 items, ranging from early specimens dating to about 1608 to historic artefacts such as Joseph Lister’s antiseptic spray and Thomas Hodgkin’s first stethoscope used in England. Highlights include the original kidneys, adrenal glands and lymph nodes that enabled Thomas Hodgkin, Thomas Addison and Richard Bright to describe the eponymous diseases, as well as Joseph Towne’s anatomical wax models and Lam Qua’s pre-operative tumour paintings. The collection also contains the mummified remains of Alan Billis, a former taxi driver who participated in research on ancient Egyptian mummification. The museum opened in 1905 on King’s Guy’s Campus after a donation from the lawyer Robert Gordon and was intended solely as a teaching resource. Specimens began to be gathered in 1802 under the first medical curator Thomas Hodgkin, forming the basis of the museum when the first medical school opened in 1826. By 1829 the collection numbered about 3,000 exhibits, and contemporary reports in 1861 placed it among the nation’s foremost medical collections. Admission is free, although the museum is not generally open to the public and access is limited to educational use within the college.

Bank of England

Tower of London · 0.6 miles

The Bank of England stands on Threadneedle Street in the City of London, opposite the historic Tower of London and at the junction known as Bank Junction. Often referred to as “The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” after an 1797 cartoon, the building is listed as a heritage landmark and is operated by the Governor and Company of the Bank of England. Founded in 1694 to serve as the English Government’s banker and debt manager, the institution has remained at the same site since the early 18th century. It functions as the United Kingdom’s central bank, overseeing monetary stability through the Bank Rate and quantitative easing, and supervising payment systems such as CHAPS. The bank also safeguards the nation’s official gold reserves and manages foreign-exchange holdings. Although it no longer provides consumer banking, it maintains a limited public service for exchanging superseded banknotes. Visitors can view the façade from the surrounding streets and observe the distinctive architecture that houses the world’s second-oldest central bank. The location is readily reachable on foot via Bank Junction, with the Tower of London a short walk away. No admission charge or dedicated visitor facilities are mentioned, and access is limited to external observation and the occasional public-facing service.

Altab Ali Park

Whitechapel · 0.6 miles

A small green space set back from Whitechapel Road, Altab Ali Park occupies the historic footprint of the 14th-century parish church of St Mary Matfelon, the building that gave Whitechapel its name. The former St Mary’s Park retains the outline of the demolished church, which suffered extensive damage during the Blitz in 1940 and was later removed. Within the remaining layout visitors can see the original floor plan and a number of graves, among them those of Richard Parker, Richard Brandon, Sir John Cass and the self-styled “Sir” Jeffrey Dunstan, once mayor of Garratt. The park was renamed in 1998 to commemorate Altab Ali, a 24-year-old British Bangladeshi leather-worker who was killed on Adler Street in May 1978. An entrance arch, designed by David Petersen, serves as a memorial to Ali and other victims of racist attacks; its interlaced Bengali and European pattern symbolises the cultural mix of East London. In the southwest corner stands the Shaheed Minar, a reduced replica of the monument in Dhaka that marks the Bengali language movement. Unveiled in February 1999 by Bangladesh’s parliamentary speaker Humayun Rashid Choudhury, the structure represents a mother and her martyred sons. A former path once displayed letters forming a fragment of a Rabindranath Tagore poem, though that feature is no longer present. The nearest Underground access is Aldgate East station on the District and Hammersmith & City lines. As a public park, entry is unrestricted and no admission charge is recorded. The site offers a combination of historic remnants, commemorative art and open space within the Whitechapel neighbourhood.

St Paul's Churchyard

West Smithfield · 0.6 miles

The area surrounding St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London has served as a public space with a long commercial and civic history. Historically the precinct incorporated St Paul’s Cross, an open-air pulpit where statements on the political and religious changes of the Reformation were proclaimed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A single execution is recorded there: the hanging of clergyman Henry Garnet, one of the conspirators in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. By the early modern period the site functioned as one of London’s main marketplaces, and as of 2024 the narrow lane to the north of the cathedral grounds bears the name St Paul’s Churchyard. With the introduction of printing, the location became the focal point of England’s book trade before the activity shifted to nearby Paternoster Row. The trade was initially dominated by foreign booksellers; a 1484 act passed by Richard III’s only parliament encouraged their presence, and the king intervened to secure exemptions for printers and booksellers from later protectionist measures. The area is also mentioned by Alexander Pope in *An Essay on Criticism*, where he uses it as a literary reference. Today the site is classified as a park and is operated by St Paul’s Cathedral. It lies close to West Smithfield and can be reached on foot from surrounding streets. No admission fee or specific visitor facilities are listed, so access is unrestricted and the space forms part of the open environment surrounding the cathedral.

Queen Anne

Bank · 1.2 miles

A copy of Francis Bird’s 1712 marble statue of Queen Anne stands in the forecourt on the west side of St Paul’s Cathedral, within the City of London and closest to the Bank area. The monument, which achieved Grade II listed status in 1972, presents the monarch in regal attire, holding a gilded orb and sceptre while facing Ludgate Hill. She is set upon a Portland-stone pedestal designed by Christopher Wren, the base being flanked by four allegorical figures that represent England, France, Ireland and North America, each bearing distinct symbols such as a trident, fleur-de-lys, harp and a feathered headdress. Heavy cast-iron railings enclose the three-step platform that supports the pedestal. The present sculpture replaces the original, which had been unveiled at a thanksgiving service for the Peace of Utrecht on 7 July 1713 and suffered repeated vandalism and weathering by the late 19th century. In 1885 a replica was commissioned from Sicilian marble; after the original sculptor, Richard Claude Belt, was imprisoned, Louis-Auguste Malempré completed the work. Installation was overseen by city architect Sir Horace Jones and the statue was unveiled by Lord Mayor Reginald Hanson on 15 December 1886. The monument’s inscriptions record both the 1712 erection of the first statue and the 1886 funding by the Corporation of London. Visitors to the cathedral’s forecourt can view the figure and its surrounding allegorical groupings at any time the cathedral precinct is open to the public.