This is LONDON | Learn English through story level 1 | Subtitles

thank you chapter one this is London every year more than nine million people come from countries all over the world to visit London they go to the theaters and museums they look at interesting old buildings many of them hundreds of years old they sit or walk in the beautiful parks or have a drink in a pub they go to Oxford Street to look at the shops or to Harrods two million visitors go to the Tower of London a million more go to see Saint Paul's Cathedral yes London is a big and beautiful city with lots to see and do but how did it all begin chapter 2 in the beginning the name London comes from the Romans there were people living here before they came but we do not know very much about them the Romans came to England in A. D 43. they built houses and other buildings and made a town next to the River Thames they called The Town londinium they built a bridge over the river and ships came up to londinium from the sea the town got bigger and bigger important new buildings went up and you can see some of the Roman city wall today near the Museum of London it was a rich town with about 50 000 people living in it but soon after ad400 the Romans left londinium to go back to Rome and nobody lived in the town for many hundreds of years the buildings began to fall down Danish soldiers destroyed more buildings nearly 500 years later King Alfred was King of England then he got the Danes to leave London and his men built the town again in 1066 William the Conqueror came to England from France to be king soon after he began to build the Tower of London when Henry VII was King in 1509 50 000 people lived in London again by the year 1600 there were two hundred thousand but a lot of them lived in old and dirty buildings in 1665 a hundred thousand people died from an illness called the plague this was called the year of the Great Plague a year later in 1666 there was a big fire the Fire of London it began in a house in Pudding Lane near London Bridge more than a quarter of a million londoners lost their homes in the fire it destroyed Saint Paul's Cathedral and 88 other churches but the fire also destroyed most of the worst old buildings and the new houses that went up after this were better for people to live in a new Saint Paul's Cathedral was built between 1675 and 1711.

by 1881 more than 3 million people lived in London today more than 6 million people live here there were 8 million in the 1960s but in the 1970s and 1980s people moved out of the center of London chapter three visiting the city a quick and easy way to get to different places in the city is to use an underground train the trains run all day and most of the night buy your ticket before you get on the train it's better not to make your journey between eight o'clock and 10 o'clock in the morning or four o'clock and six o'clock in the evening these are called the rush hours thousands of people are going to work or coming home again then and it is difficult to move or to find a place to sit on the train you can see much more of London from one of its famous red buses some special visitors buses take you to many of the interesting places in the city on one Journey it takes about one and a half hours but you can break your journey and get off and on again at the different places you want to visit London taxis are called black cabs most of them are black but some are not you can stop one if it has a for higher sign on it the drivers are usually friendly and helpful why not take a boat trip along the River Thames boats leave Westminster pier and Charing Cross Pier and they go to Tower pier and Greenwich between April and October you can take a longer boat trip to Hampton Court about four hours a beautiful palace in a big Park um chapter four some places to go the queen has her London home at Buckingham Palace it is at the end of the mall a long road that begins at Trafalgar Square at half past 11 most mornings the soldiers at Buckingham Palace changed the guard it takes about 30 minutes and hundreds of visitors come to watch and in August and September you can usually visit some of the rooms in the palace but there are always lots of people coming to see them so be ready to wait you can also visit the Royal Muse at the palace this is the home of the Queen's horses and coaches the Queen's Gallery is also at the palace and you can visit it at most times of the year you can see pictures from all over the world the tar of London is now a museum and one of London's most famous buildings more than two million people visit it every year Yeoman Waters also called beefeaters tell them all about the tower you can see the crown jewels and visit the bloody Tower and the White Tower or take a walk Round the wall and perhaps see one of the tower's famous black birds the Ravens Tower Bridge is near the Tower of London it is one of the most famous bridges in the city and first opened in 1894. Saint Paul's Cathedral is not far away on ludget Hill it was built by Sir Christopher Wren After the Fire of London Wren built more than 50 London churches visitors can go up to the golden gallery to look across London chapter 5 Westminster Westminster Abbey is more than 900 years old and is a very famous London Church after William the Conqueror every king and queen of England was crowned king or queen here the houses of Parliament are near Westminster Abbey this is the home of the British government the clock high up on the building is called Big Ben the prime minister the head of the British government lives at 10 Downing Street walk along Parliament street to Whitehall passed the government buildings and you can see the little Street on your left parks and Gardens when you are tired of looking at buildings you can sit or walk in one of London's beautiful parks Hyde Park has a lake in the middle called the serpentine and you can take a boat out on the water it is a good place to get away from the crowds and the noise of the city you can listen to the speakers at Speaker's Corner near Marble Arch people from all over the world come and speak here you can ask a speaker some difficult questions if you like or you can stand on a box and speak to some of the listeners Kensington Gardens is next to Hyde Park here you can see the statue of Peter Pan the famous boy in the children's story Peter Pan by J. M Barry Regents Park is the home of London Zoo the zoo has thousands of birds and animals from all over the world there is also a theater in the park on a summer's evening you can sit out under the night sky and watch a play by William Shakespeare England's most famous writer St James's Park is next to the mall it is smaller but many people think it is more beautiful chapter 6 shops and eating the most famous shop in London some people say the most famous in the world is Harrods in Knightsbridge it opened in 1849 Oxford Street has many big shops selfridges Marx and Spencer John Lewis Debenhams there are always lots of people looking at the shops here but at Christmas thousands more people come to see the wonderful Christmas lights and to buy things for their friends and family for Christmas Charing Cross is famous for its bookshops there are lots of them and they sell old and new books one of the oldest and most famous is foils it has thousands of books but it can sometimes be very difficult to find the book you want Covent Garden was once a big food market but now it has lots of small shops and cafes and there are street performers to watch there are two very famous markets in London Petticoat Lane Market open on Sundays is in Middlesex Street and is a good place to buy cheap clothes and things for the home at the market in Portobello Road open on Saturdays you can buy old clocks old chairs and tables and hundreds of other things you can find food from nearly every country in the world in London in SoHo in the West End of London cmap on pages 18 and 19.

you can eat food from Italy India China Japan Greece and lots more places there are also thousands of pubs in the city in many pubs you can eat as well as drink or why not have some English fish and chips they are cheap and good to eat or you can have tea at the Ritz in Piccadilly or at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand chapter seven going out theaters and music London's West End has some of the best theaters in the world so tickets can be expensive go in the afternoon it is often cheaper there is something for everybody from a play by the Royal Shakespeare company at the Barbican theater to Agatha Christie's the mouse trap this play began in 1952 and thousands of visitors see it every year there are lots of Cinemas to visit the most expensive are in the West End but you can sometimes get cheap tickets on Mondays you can hear wonderful music and singing from all over the world at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gore the London Coliseum in Saint Martin's Lane and the Barbican Center silk Street for ballet go to the Sadler's Wells theater in rosebery Avenue or to the Royal Opera House to get cheap tickets buy them an hour or two before it begins do you like to listen to Jazz musicians you can hear some of the best at Ronnie Scott's Club in frith Street or at the Bulls head barns at Barnes Bridge or at 100 Club at 100 Oxford Street sport some of the most famous English football clubs are in London you can see Arsenal play at Arsenal stadium Road N5 Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge Fulham Road sw6 and Tottenham Hotspur play at whiteheart Lane High Road N17 [Music] to watch the very English game of cricket go to Lord's cricket ground in Saint John's Wood nw8 this is the home of cricket for most English people chapter 8. museums and galleries the British museum in great Russell Street is the biggest Museum in Britain tickets are free the Museum of London at 150 London Wall is one of the most interesting museums in the city it tells the story of London and its people one more Museum that tells a story is the Museum of the moving image Mommy on the South Bank underwaterloo Bridge this tells the story of Cinema and television and there are many things for visitors to see and do you can act with actors on a film set or you can read the news on TV four million people visit the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square every year they come to look at more than 2 000 pictures tickets are free at the National Portrait Gallery in Saint Martin's Place you can see pictures of famous people tickets are free here too the London dungeon in Thule Street is a museum of Horror half a million people visited every year but they don't always stay to see it all Madame Tussauds in malabon road is famous for its people made from wax you can see famous people from the past and famous people of today Abraham Lincoln Mahatma Gandhi Nelson Mandela Pavarotti Marilyn Monroe Charlie Chaplin Sylvester Stallone and in the chamber of Horrors you can see some very bad people chapter nine places and parades the city londoners often talk about the city cmap on pages 18 and 19. they are talking about the oldest part of London the home of the bank of England and many other big offices about 5 000 people live in the city and at weekends it feels empty but between Monday and Friday nearly half a million people come here to work in the banks and offices look for the city men with their dark suits and umbrellas Saint Paul's Cathedral is in the middle of the city and the bank of England has an interesting Museum that you can visit also in the city is a very tall building 60.