England, United Kingdom, Travel Guide to London

From its darkest hours in the 1970s and the 80s at the height of the IRA terrorist campaigns to the ecstasy of winning the 2012 Olympics and the Queens Jubilee. London has had the experience and gravity to treat both with equal respect.

I remember travelling through London to return home to Northern Ireland where I now live on the day the news broke that Princess Diana had tragically been killed in a car accident in Paris. The sense of grief and shock were overwhelming as total strangers just blindly made their way to Kensington Palace to lay flowers at the people’s memorial. Contrast this with the day in 2005 of the Live 8 festival at Hyde Park when the city resounded to rock music belting out across its entire centre.

There is History almost round very corner in London. History that it would appear that most Londoners take for granted.

Take the changing of the guard for instance. This happens everyday at Betty and Phil’s place at the end of the mall. Perhaps I should be slightly more serious at this point because most onlookers will realize this point I am of course referring to Buckingham Palace and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh. Tradition is such that occasionally it gets altered and none more so than when after the awful events of 911 the band of the guards performed the Star-Spangled Banner in front of visiting American tourists instead off the traditional God Save the Queen.

It was important to note the significance of this event in that it was the only time that any other national anthem had been played at the changing of the guards instead off God Save the Queen.

If nothing else the building of St Paul’s Cathedral is a testament to survival itself having both survived the Great Fire of London in the 16th Century and then four hundred years later the Blitz in World War II.