In the last year for which figures are available, some 2.4 million people visited the Tower of London, helped by its central location, close to key transport links, restaurants and the top London Hotels.

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The Tower of London is formally known as Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress, giving a clue to its historical use. It was used as a prison, an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie and the home of the Royal Mint. Famously, it was and still is used to store the Crown Jewels. It’s unique appearance and grandeur is mimicked at all places of luxury, such as the top Dubai Hotels or finest London restaurants. People seem to enjoy re-creating the pomp and circumstance of the era, even if the Tower itself had a grizzly past.

The Tower of London was founded in controversial circumstances. William I, having just defeated the English king Harold, was keen to make his mark on England and commoners saw the tower as being a symbol of oppression.

Over the next few hundred years, it was besieged several times, while in the 15th century it was the prison of the Princes in the Tower.

On the death of Edward IV in 1483, his eldest son Edward V should have acceded to the throne, but his uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester, was declared Lord Protector instead, as the child was only 12. Edward was imprisoned in the tower, along with his younger brother Richard, and they are believed to have been murdered there in the late summer of 1483.

Among the Tower of London’s other famous temporary residents was Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, who was imprisoned and later executed at the site. Guy Fawkes, one of the members of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Palace of Westminster in 1605, was tortured at the Tower.

The Crown Jewels are stored in the Waterloo Barracks at the Tower, and are without doubt one of the most fascinating sights of London. The collection includes St Edward’s Crown, made in 1661, the Imperial State Crown made for George VI in 1937 and the George IV State Diadem, made in 1820.

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Millions around the world watched on TV on April 29 when Kate Middleton made her way from The Goring (one of the most luxurious London Hotels) to the Abbey to marry Prince William. That historic day will have increased interest in visiting the building. Westminster Abbey has in fact been used for coronations and other royal occasions for centuries, so William and Kate were continuing a rich tradition.

Westminster Abbey was founded some time before AD624, and housed a community of Benedictine monks for its first few years. The present church was built in 1245 by Henry III, who was later buried there. The Abbey stood to be destroyed during the reign of Henry VII, for that fate befell most abbeys in his time. But he decided to grant it cathedral status, and spare it from being pulled down. Again in the 17th century it came under threat when it suffered damage at the hands of Puritans, but it survived mostly intact. Around 100 years later, the Abbey’s two western towers were built to a Gothic Revival design. It’s the history surrounding that makes it so unique and special, something even the finest of Dubai Hotels can re-create.

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It is an important religious building, also known as The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which saw parts of the King James Bible and the New Testament translated, as well as, more recently, the New English Bible.

Westminster Abbey has been used for the weddings of most of the royal family in recent times, the exception being Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Queen Elizabeth II, then Princess Elizabeth, married the Duke of Edinburgh at the Abbey in 1947. And it was only appropriate that Prince William, now the Duke of Cambridge, chose the Abbey to host his wedding this year.

Westminster Abbey has also been known as one of the sights of London for its use as the burial place of most of the Kings and Queens of England. Besides royalty, many of England’s finest poets are buried here, including William Blake, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, John Milton and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The Princess of Wales’ funeral was held there on September 6, 1997, watched by a huge TV audience around the world.

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Don’t go expecting to be able to take home one of the Queen’s pillows as a keepsake either, as the private quarters of the royal family are out of bounds to visitors, but many thousands of people each year make a trip to London just to get the chance to enter Buckingham Palace.

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In a city where many of the buildings are centuries old, it may surprise some people that the palace itself only dates back to 1705, though that is considerably longer than the Dubai hotels that seek to replicate the Palace’s grandeur. King George III acquired it later in the 18th century for his wife, Queen Charlotte, but it was not an official royal palace until Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837.

Over the years, the building has been extended. Though the core of the building remains largely unchanged, it was enlarged by architects Edward Blore and John Nash by the addition of three wings around a central courtyard.

If there’s one feature of Buckingham Palace known better than any other, it is the balcony on which members of the Royal Family gather to greet crowds. Many millions of TV viewers around the world will remember the balcony as the scene for famous kisses following royal weddings – that of Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales in 1981 and Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge in April 2011.

One of the most used rooms in Buckingham Palace is the Ballroom, built in 1854. It is the largest room in the building, and one used for investitures, including the conferring of knighthoods, as well as state banquets.

For those lucky enough to receive an invitation, one of the greatest sights in London happens every November when the Queen entertains members of the foreign diplomatic corps, who get to dine off gold plate.

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