David Bowie was one of those singers who made it through to the mainstream and when he died of cancer at the age of sixty-nine, having just failed to reach his biblical allotment of three score years and ten, politicians of all different stripes were lining up to praise him even if they had little time for his music when he was alive. People spontaneously wanted to express their grief at his passing and many of them went to a Brixton mural to do so.

Grosvenor Square in the heart of Mayfair in London has often been called ‘Little America’, although it actually takes its name from the Grosvenors, the family who own the land there. It is where the first American Consulate in Britain was found, the consul being John Adams, who later became America’s second president. He was a Founding Father, and the wish to establish cordial relations with the former enemy nation is part of the reason he moved to a house in Grosvenor Square at the corner of Brook and Duke Streets, one which still stands.

London welcomes millions of visitors each year, and for many, their first experience of the city begins at one of its major airports. From the world-renowned Heathrow to the convenient London City Airport, the capital is served by six airports, each with its own unique character and advantages.

Did you know that, across the UK, only 2.7% of statues are of women who are not either royal or mythical? By my count there are now twenty eight statues of named non-royal women in London. Queens such as Victoria, Elizabeth and Anne have prominent statues and many mythological figures are also represented in female form.

The collector William Beckford said of Turner: ‘He paints now as if his brains and imagination were mixed up on his palette with soapsuds and lather.’ Whether insult or compliment, it’s a great description of this Romantic artist who raised humble landscape painting to the level of intellectual history painting.

The Victoria and Albert museum has done it again! On 31 May, the new V&A East Storehouse opened to the public, unveiling a new venue with a collection of over 250,000 objects, set in the ultimate Ikea display but, needless to say, with a degree of sophistication that only the Victoria & Albert can muster.

The Tower of London located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London is a top 10 London tourist attraction. Visitors are mainly drawn to the Tower of London to see the spectacular display of The Crown Jewels, part of the Royal Collection and still regularly used by His Majesty The King.

The Household Cavalry regiment, the soldiers who stand guard on horseback in Whitehall are made up of two main groups: the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. Today they make up just one regiment but each has its own identity, traditions, colonels and uniform. The Blues and Royals and the Life Guard can be seen in Whitehall between 11am and 4pm every day and many visitors to London like to have their photograph taken next to the mounted soldiers. Be careful, however. As the signs nearby say, horses can both bite and kick.

London’s five billion pound Super Sewer is now fully connected and promises a cleaner, healthier River Thames. The 150-year-old sewer network has struggled to cope with the twin challenges of an increase in the population it serves in the capital (from four million people when it was built to over nine million today) together with climate change. With rainfall overwhelming the system, it sometimes discharges into the Thames. With the Super Sewer fully connected, 95% of those spills are stopped.

Born in 1778 in Zakynthos (Zante in Venetian), a Greek island that was then a Venetian possession, Ugo Foscolo was the son of an Italian father and a Greek mother. Following his father’s death, the family moved to Venice, where he learned Italian and completed his studies at the University of Padua. He joined intellectual circles and admired Napoleon, even siding with his army.

Who is the best-selling writer in history after Shakespeare and the Bible? The answer is Agatha Christie who was born in Devon in 1890 but whose stories often feature London and who wrote what is the capital’s (and the world’s) longest-running play The Mousetrap, which is still playing at Saint Martin’s theatre sixty-five years after it opened. One of the original cast was the late Sir Richard Attenborough, who was paid partly with a share of rights from the play. These were never expected to be worth much but later in his career he was able to sell them to help finance his film about the life of Mahatma Gandhi starring Sir Ben Kingsley.

Going to the theatre has always been an important part of any trip to London. Not only does the city boast some of the great theatres but ticket prices are usually reasonable. It is also home to the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. The story has been at St Martin’s Theatre for over seventy years. London also hosts the world’s two longest-running musicals. Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera have been running on the London stage for nearly forty years. Les Mis, as it is commonly known, celebrates its fortieth birthday in October 2025, and Phantom passes the forty-year mark a year later.