In the early modern period back through the Middle Ages there were the four separate kingdoms of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England. These later developed separate parliaments. The 1800 Act of Union included Ireland under the Parliament of the United Kingdom and Ireland, the 1707 Acts of Union brought England and Scotland together under the Parliament of Great Britain, and Wales was annexed as a part of England as a result of the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535–42.
The origins of the English Parliament can be traced to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. A feudal system was brought by William of Normandy in 1066, by which he sought advice of a council of ecclesiastics and the tenants in chief before making laws. The Magna Carta was secured from King John in 1215 by the tenants in chief. The Magna Carta established that the king may not collect or levy any taxes, save without the consent of his royal council, which slowly developed into a parliament.

In 1265, the 6th Earl of Leicester, Simon de Monfort, summoned the first elected Parliament. The franchise for parliamentary elections for country constituents was uniform throughout the country and extended to all those who owned the freehold of land to an annual rent of 40 shillings, who were known as Forty shilling Freeholders.

The franchise differed across the boroughs and individual boroughs had various arrangements. This set the scene for the so called Model Parliament of 1295 which was adopted by Edward I. By the reign of Edward II, Parliament was separated into dual Houses: the first which included the burgesses and the other included the higher clergy and nobility, and no tax could be levied nor law made, without the consent of Sovereign and both Houses.

In 1603 Elizabeth I was succeeded by the Scottish King James VII, becoming James I of England, both countries came under his rule but they each retained their own Parliament. Charles I, who was James I’s successor, quarreled with the English Parliament and their dispute developed into the English Civil War. In 1649 Charles was executed and Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth of England the House of Lords was abolished and the House of Commons were subsequently made subordinate under Cromwell. Following Cromwell’s death, the House of Lords and Monarchy were restored by the Restoration of 1660.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James II in favor of the joint rule of Mary II and William III amidst fears of a Roman Catholic succession, and while the supremacy of the Crown remained, introduction of a constitutional monarchy was finally accomplished with the agreement to the English Bill of Rights. A Convention Parliament was required to determine the succession for the third time.

In 1881 the Alfred Waterhouse building opened with collections that originated from within the British Museum, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition and is designed partly as a modern facility for valuable collection storage.

Certainly one of the most prominent and famous exhibits is a long replica of Diplodocus carnegii skeleton which is 105 foot (32 m) long and located within the central hall and known affectionately as Dippy. The cast was given by Andrew Carnegie, after several long discussions with King Edward VII. At his own considerable expense of £2000 Carnegie had the cast to be created by copying the original held at the Carnegie Museum.

On the 12th May 1905, the exhibit was unveiled to great public and media interest. Mr. Carnegie paid to have more copies made for display in most of the major European capitals and in South and Latin America, which made Dippy the most popular dinosaur skeleton in the world. The dinosaur has been featured in many cartoons and other media, including the 1975 Disney comedy One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing.

Another iconic display is the parallel model and skeleton a blue whale. The display of the skeleton, which is some 25 m long and weighs 10 tons, was only made possible in 1934 with the building of the New Whale Hall. Around this time discussions of the idea of a full sized model and from within the Whale Hall itself, work was finally undertaken. Scale models were used to tediously put the structure together since it was prohibitively expensive to take a cast of such a large animal.

Today the British Museum was founded as a universal museum although it was originally founded as a museum of cultural art objects. The will of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloan (1660 – 1753) are where its foundations lie. During his lifetime Sloane gathered an enormous collection of curiosities and, not wanting to see his collection broken up after death, for the sum of £20,000 he bequeathed it all to King George II for the nation.

Sloane’s collection at the time consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 7,000 manuscripts, 40,000 printed books, numerous specimens of natural history including approximately 337 volumes of prints, dried plants, and drawings including antiquities from the Americas, the ancient Far and Near East, Rome, Greece, and Egypt.

The Museum was founded as an encyclopedia of art and nature 250 years ago. Today the manuscripts and books it once held are now part of the British Library. It also no longer maintains collections of natural history. However, the Museum still preserves its universality in its collections of artifacts which represent the cultures of the world, both modern and ancient. The original 1,753 collection has grown to over 150 million at the British Library, 70 million at the Natural History Museum, and 13 million at the British Museum.

Designed and conceived by Sydney Smirke, the Round Reading Room opened in 1857. Researchers came here to study in the Museum’s huge library for almost 150 years. When the British Library moved to a new building at St. Pancrasin 1997 the Reading Room was closed. Today it has been transformed into the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Center. It now contains the Paul Hamlyn Library of books about the Museum’s collections, which is open to all visitors.

With the book stacks in the central courtyard of the museum now empty, the process of demolition for Lord Fosters’s glass roofed Great Court can begin. The Great Court, which opened in 2000, was criticized for the lack of exhibition space during a time when the museum was having serious financial difficulties. At the same time the Oceanic and African collections that had once been housed in 6 Burlington Gardens temporarily were given a new gallery in the North Wing which is funded by the Sainsbury family.

Britain’s national museum of international modern art is known as the Tate Modern and is, with Tate Online, Tate St. Ives, Tate Liverpool, and Tate Britain are simply known as Tate.

The Tate galleries are housed in the former Bankside Power Station, which was built in two stages between 1947 and 1963 and was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert. The power station closed in 1981. The building was converted by architects de Meuron and Herzog, after which it stood at 99 m tall. The southern third of the building was retained by the French power company EDF Energy as an electrical substation.

The collections in Tate Modern are made up of international contemporary and modern art works dating from as far back as 1900 and continuing forward to present day. The Tate Collection is displayed on levels five and three of the building, while level two houses a small exhibition space with work by contemporary artists and level four houses large temporary exhibitions.

The collections were not displayed in chronological order when the gallery opened in 2000 but rather were arranged thematically into four broad groups: Still life/Object/Real Life; Landscape/Matter/Environment; Nude/Action/Body, and; History/Memory/Society. The first rehang at Tate Modern opened in May 2006. It eschewed the thematic groupings in favor of focusing on pivotal moments of twentieth century art, with further spaces allocated on levels 3 and 5 for shorter exhibitions. The layout is: Level 3, Material Gestures; This focuses on abstract expressionism, expressionism and, abstraction and features work by Tacita Dean, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Anish Kapoor, and Claude Monet.
Section four focuses on Arte Povera, with work by artists such as Jenny Holzer, Mario Merz, Ana Mendieta, Kasimir, Jannis Kounellis, and Alighiero Boetti.
Section five focuses on Pop Art, Vorticism, Futurism, and Cubism and contains work by artists such as Andy Warhol. Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso and photographer Eugene Atget,

The Turbine Hall, which once housed the electricity generators of the old power station, is five storeys tall and has 3,400 square meters of floorspace. Between October and March each year it is utilized to display works by contemporary artists in a series which is sponsored by Unilever. This series was planned to last the gallery’s first five years, but the popularity of the series has led to its extension until at least 2012.

The artists that have exhibited commissioned work in the turbine hall are: Louise Bourgeois, Maman: Juan Munoz, Double Bind; Anish Kapoor, Marsyas; Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project; Bruce Nauman, Raw Materials; Rachel Whiteread, Embankment; Carsten Holler, Test Site; Doris Salcedo, Shibboleth; Doninique Gonzalez-Foerster, TH.2058, and; Miroslaw Balka, How It Is

The Level 2 Gallery is a smaller gallery located on the north side of the building and houses exhibitions of cutting edge contemporary art. Its exhibitions normally run for 2 to 3 months.

Level 4 is broken into two large exhibition areas as are levels 3 and 5. An entry fee is charged since this is used to stage the major temporary exhibitions. These exhibitions normally run for three or four months. The two exhibition areas are sometimes combined to host a single exhibition.

Temporary small exhibition spaces are also located between the two galleries on levels 3 and 5. These may be used to display recent acquisitions. Works are also sometimes shown in the restaurants and members’ room. Other locations that have been used in the past include the north facing exterior of the building and the mezzanine on Level 2

To the west of Tate Modern lie Sampson House, a massive late Britalist office building and the sleek stone and glass Ludgate House, the former headquarters of Express Newspapers.

Tate Modern has attracted more visitors than originally expected and plans to expand it have been in preparation for some time. These plans have focused on three areas for expansion all to the south of the building: The area no longer required by EDF Energy; Three large, unused, underground oil tanks which were originally used by the power station, and; A major new extension building to be built above the oil drums.

The design of the new extension building, also designed by de Meuron and Herzog, has been controversial. It was originally designed as a glass stepped pyramid, however, this has recently been changed to incorporate a brick sloping façade after feedback on the original design was negative. The extension will include galleries dedicated to exhibitions, video, photography, and the community. This project will cost approximately £215 million and is scheduled to open in 2012, in time for the 2012 Olympic Games being held in the city. Additionally, the Tate Britain will be undergoing refurbishment.

The history of London from the prehistoric to the present day is documented in the Museum of London. The museum is near the Barbican Center and is part of the Barbican building complex. It is within a few minutes’ walk of St. Paul’s Cathedral and overlooks the Roman city wall remains. It is near the oldest part of London, which is now the financial district.

The social history of London and its inhabitants are its primary concern. As part of the Barbican Estate the museum was opened in 1976, using collections which were previously held by the Corporation at the Guildhall bur also includes items from other collections, including the London Museum. Architects Hidalgo Moya and Philip Powell adopted a radical new museum design approach. The galleries were positioned such that there was the only way through the museum which was from the prehistoric period to the modern ages.

The museum contains a series of chronological galleries containing diagrams, pictures, models, and original artifacts. There are also interactive activities and displays for all ages. Fragments of the Roman London Wall are just outside the museum. The prehistoric galleries have already been updated, and in 2007 a new exhibition on the Great Fire of London opened.

The museum is currently engaged in a £20million redevelopment which is due to be completed in May 2010. It is the largest investment since it opened in 1976. The redesign, by London architects Wilkinson Eyre, will relate the story of London and Londoners from the Great Fire of 1666 to the present day. The redesign consists of four new galleries. The new City Gallery features large street level windows along the London Wall.

The Galleries of Modern London enable the display of some 7,000 objects by increasing the museum’s exhibition space by 25%. The exhibits include the puppet stars of the BBC’s children’s TV Ben, Bill and Andy Panda, and the interior of the Wellclose debtor’s prison.

The name of the new gallery is World City and recounts London’s story from the early 1950s to the current day. Fashion is everywhere, from the starchy and stiff suits of the 1950s, through to the dress of the swinging 1960s, to the hippy days in the 1970s and the baggy trousers of the current punk era. And the fashion is right up to date with the 2008 collection of Alexander McQueen.

Royals later followed the pattern. King Edgar gave land for a church, and several kings, including Ethelred and Canute, donated relics. In 960, St. Dunstan endowed a place for a dozen monks. But it is to one man that we owe the marvelous church that we see today. Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) had a vision of an ecclesiastic royal complex including a palace with a large monastery and an abbey church suitable for royal burials and functions.

Although Edward was certainly devout, he was also driven by guilt in his building project. Earlier during his reign he had been forced to flee into exile in Normandy from a Danish invasion. Upon his return he vowed that should he ever regain his throne he pledged to make a pilgrimage to Rome in gratitude.

Although he did manage to oust the Danes and regain the throne, it was unwise for him to leave Rome because of the politically uncertain climate made. Pope Leo excused Edward from his vow on condition that the king re endow the monastery of Westminster.

Edward then went to work. He began work on his nearby palace and rebuilt the Old Saxon church in the new Romanesque style. The work was consecrated on December 28, 1065; However Edward lived only another eight days. Following him as king was Harold Godwinson who may have begun the tradition of royal coronations in the Abbey. William the Conqueror, Harold’s successor was crowned here on December 25, 1066.

There is a portrait of Richard II which was painted in 1390, and the oldest contemporary portrait of a British monarch in existence. There are also funeral monuments that line the Abbey’s interior. In 1540 the Westminster monastery was closed by Henry VIII and the Abbey was in dire need of funds, so they made the building was made available (for a nominal fee) as a burial place. The wealthy could buy the right to be buried in the abbey, a practice which continued until the mid 19th century.

The tomb of Sir Isaac Newton lies within the screen itself.  Also within the screen is the 13th century pulpit. There is a special seat reserved for the reigning monarch in the choir stalls.

The cloister spans the reigns of Henry III to Edward III, and the result is a mix of glorious architectural styles. The south walk has an amazing complex system of Gothic buttresses which support the abbey walls.

The Chapter House was designed after Lincoln and Beverly, but far outshines those houses. The mood is enhanced by the surviving medieval wall paintings, tiles, and by the sensitive Victorian restoration work of Sir Gilbert Scott.

The most interesting transept is the south, where the original rose window remains, and there is excellent medieval sculpture on the end wall. The Poet’s Corner is on the east side. The earliest memorial is to Geoffrey Chaucer. Ben Jonson also lies here. The royal memorials are in this part of the Abbey. Here are the bronze effigies of Henry III and Eleanor of Castile. Henry VII’s amazing chapel is at the end of the apse. The first Tudor of the chapel was intended to be a fitting place to bury Henry VI, but the place of pride now goes to the tombs of Henry VII himself and his mother, Margaret Beaufort. Henry VII’s tomb is the design of the Italian Torrigiano, whose only other claim to fame lies with the fact that as an art student he once gave a promising student a bloody nose. The promising student’s name was Michelangelo.

The church managed to survive the Great Fire of London, which did not reach as far as the City of Westminster. Never the less it was replaced with a new building which was designed by James Gibbs in 1721 and was completed five years later. The design was widely criticized at the time but subsequently became very famous. The church is essentially rectangular, with Classical style and is supported by large Corinthian columns. The tall steeple is topped with a gilt crown…

Soon after being built, numerous 18th century noblemen were buried in the new church, including Thomas Chippendale, the famous furniture maker. Jack Sheppard is also buried in the adjoining churchyard.

The church also had its own Pension Charity, which was established in 1886, and Almshouses. It had 19 trustees who administered Almshouses for women and provided them with a weekly allowance. In 1818 the almshouses were built on a part of the parish burial ground in St. Pancras and Camden Town but were replaced in 1683 with new ones.
The church has also has a very close relationship with the Admiralty and the Royal Family, who belong to the parish.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields is the most famous of all non cathedral churches in London because of its prominent position. Its ethos as the Church of the Ever Open Door in the early 20th Century continues today, even though it is not possible for that to literally to be the case. It is famous for its work with the homeless though. The church is known for its regular lunchtime and evening concerts. Numerous ensembles perform there, including the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields which was co-founded by John Churchill and Sir Neville Marriner, then the Master of Music at St Martin’s. In the Crypt there is a popular Café, where jazz concerts are held. All profits from this go to the work of the church. The crypt is also home to the London Brass Rubbing Center, which is a gift and book shop and art gallery.

A £36 million renovation project was begun project in January 2006. The project includes renewing and cleaning of the church and the provision of social care, parish, music, and visitors, which not only encompass the church’s crypt and a row of buildings to the north including some significant new underground spaces. The crypt and church have now reopened, since the work was completed in 2008. As part of the public fundraising, it is possible to sponsor a pane of glass and Give light to St Martin’s’.

The Prince Regent, who later became King George IV, asked architect John Nash to redevelop the area in 1812. Although he died before his plans came to fruition, Nash had the terrain cleared. Between 1840 and 1845, Architect Sir Charles Barry, better known for Landseer Lion his Houses of Parliament, the new design for the large square was finally implemented.

The Corinthian column is approximately 170 ft. (52 m) tall, including the base. It was built in 1842 and was designed by William Railton, who was chosen from a selection of 124 competition entries. An 18ft tall statue of Lord Nelson stands on top of the column which was designed by Edmund Hodges. There are four large lions which were designed by Sir Edwin Landseer and were added to the base of the column in 1868.

There are two fountains contained in Trafalgar Square, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, which were added in 1939, as well as a large number of statues. Numerous great buildings surround the square. On the north side is the neoclassical National Gallery stands on the north side and was built between 1834 and 1838. It houses a collection of more than 2300 paintings, including work from Claude Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Renoir, and Van Gogh. The square is bordered on the east side by the Canada House which was completed in 1827. The South Africa House, opened in 1933, is opposite the Canada House.

The St. Martin in the Fields parish church sits of at the north east corner. The church was built by James Gibbs in 1721, has a large white steeple, and was used as an example for numerous churches, particularly in the U.S. It was the first built in the 13th century and is the fourth church at this site.

In 2003, the north side of the square was redeveloped. The area around the front of the National Gallery was redesigned to accommodate pedestrians and a flight of stairs now reaches the museum. This change represents a great improvement from the past when, in order to get to the museum, people had to cross a busy road.

The tower, which holds the bell, is also called the clock tower. The clock itself is immense. Its minute hand is 14 feet long and the figures are 2 feet high while the four dials are 23 feet square. Despite its size and age, Big Ben is an excellent timekeeper and rarely stops. The accuracy of the clock is maintained by using old coins. A light shines from the top of St. Stephen’s Tower when Parliament is in session after dark. At night when the four clock faces are alight, the clock tower looks spectacular.

Timekeeping on Big Ben is accomplished by placing a stack of coins on the huge pendulum. The clock tower managed to survive a bomb destroying the Commons chamber during the Second World War and afterwards Big Ben continued to strike for hours.
The BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben on 31 December 1923, a tradition that continues to this day.
In 1834, fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster. In 1844, it was decided the new buildings for the Houses of Parliament should include a clock and Tower. In 1858, the bell itself was redesigned in Whitechapel and on 31 May, 1859, Westminster first heard the clock ring.

Big Ben cracked just two months later. The bell was rotated to its present position to a section of the hammer that wasn’t damaged section of the hammer and a much lighter hammer was then fitted. This is the bell that we hear today.

Although the origin Big Ben’s name is not known, there are two different theories. The first says that it was named after the commissioner of works, one large man named Sir Benjamin Hall who was affectionately known as Big Ben. The second theory is that it was named after Benjamin Caunt, who, at the time was a heavyweight boxing champion. He was also known as Big Ben and this nickname was routinely bestowed to all things that were the heaviest in its class in society.

The Tower Bridge plans were devised around 1876 when it became extremely crowded in the east of London and it seemed a bridge across the Thames in that area of the city was a necessity. It would take a lot of discussions and another eight years before actual construction of the bridge started.

The bridge was designed by city architect Horace Jones in collaboration with John Wolfe Barry and was eventually completed in 1894. Nearly 450 workers and five contractors were involved in the construction of the bridge which is 265 meter long bridge. It took about 11,000 tons of steel to build the framework. Although at the time many Londoners disliked its Victorian Gothic design over time the bridge became one of London’s most famous symbols.

It was decided that the bridge would allow the passage of large vessels because of its location in direction of the sea and its proximity to the harbor. Therefore a decision was made to create a moveable bridge which could raise and lower to accommodate boat traffic. The mechanism to open the bridge is hidden in the two towers. Steam power was used to pump water into hydraulic accumulators which powered the engines until 1976, when the mechanism became electrified.

Each deck can be opened to an angle of 83 degrees and is more than 30 meters wide. When opened the bridge has a clearance of nearly 45 meters. At one time it was opened as much as 50 times a day but these days t is only raised about 1,000 times a year.

While a favorite tourist activity is taking photographs of the Tower Bridge you can also go inside the bridge and have an excellent view over London from the walkway between the two bridge towers.

Inside the bridge is the Tower Bridge Exhibition which is a display area that encompasses the walkway and the two famous towers where you can observe the Victorian engine room. Visitors can learn about the history of the bridge via films, photos,and other media.

Currently the bridge is undergoing a renovation project that should be completed in 2012. The Tower Bridge may close for several months during the renovations sometime in 2010.