Two Palaces Burned
5 stops · 55 min · 1.3 km
Two royal palaces stood on this ground and both burned — Whitehall in 1698, Westminster in 1834. Everything you can see in the most photographed quarter-mile in Britain is one of three things: what survived a fire, what replaced what didn't, or what went underground once fire stopped being the worst that could happen. Five stops, about an hour, including the king who was tried in one building and executed outside another — with the hour marked on a clock face. Station at each end, and it walks from either one.
Walk it either way
There is a station at each end, so this walk works in both directions — the guide reorders the route and retells the stops to match the way you are going.
- Abingdon Street → Horse Guards
- Horse Guards → Abingdon Street
Stops on this walk
- 1Jewel Tower
- 2Westminster Hall
- 3Big Ben (the Elizabeth Tower)
- 4Churchill War Rooms
- 5Horse Guards Parade
How this walk works
Wanderful is an audio guide that knows where you are. Start this walk and it speaks as you reach each stop — no reading a map, no hunting for the next number on a sign. Put your phone in your pocket and listen.