London Then and Now (Then & Now)

In spite of wartime damage and postwar planning, the buildings that characterize London remain. St Paul's Cathedral stands out among the high-rise temples of commerce. The Gothic silhouette of the Palace of Westminster, home of the Houses of Parlliament, is breathtaking, while Victorian marketplaces jostle with royal palaces and ancient churches. The remains of the Roman City Wall survive as evidence that 'Londinium' can claim to stand alongside the oldest cities in the world. In London's South Bank district you can watch plays at the reconstructed Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare would have watched his own works performed, and admire art at Tate Modern, the amazing refurbished power station. On the north side of the river, gleaming new office buldings and towers such as Canary Wharf rise among the remaing nineteenth-century warehouses and docks.