London’s buildings are the heart of the city’s iconic skyline. From ancient medieval halls to le dernier cri in design, London has always attracted the Starchitects of the day. You may well easily recognise the buildings but do you know their stories and secrets too?
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Bethlem Royal Hospital dates back to 1247 and specialized in the care of the insane from the 1300s. Our word ‘bedlam’, meaning ‘a scene of uproar and confusion’, derives from Bethlem Hospital for the insane
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The Tower was renamed to honour the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. It is said that the bell, Big Ben, was named either for a bare-fist fighter called Benjamin Caunt or for Sir Benjamin Hall, MP and Chief Commissioner of the Works at the time of the Tower’s construction
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The building opened in July 2014 and was designed by the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners architectural practice. Whilst most people know of its nickname, fewer know there is a falcons’ nest box on its roof
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They were constructed to serve as blowholes for some of the first underground trains in the 1860s, which were steam-driven and needed open air spaces to release their toxic fumes
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The Prince made his comments about Peter Ahrend’s scheme for the extension to the National gallery
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The Crystal Palace was first erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851 but was later moved to Sydenham in South East London
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It became the tallest square tower in the world when it was completed in 1855
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Senate House is also thought to be the model for the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s novel ‘1984’
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The wine cellar and Banqueting House are the only two remaining parts of the Palace of Whitehall that once stood on the site
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Despite its curved shape, there is actually only one piece of curved glass - the lens at the top of the building
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