The columns of the façade of the National Gallery were taken from the Carlton House when that historic palace was demolished in 1827.
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A Passing Glimpse Of Many Windows
Short and narrow Downing Street is the real centre of the British Empire, for the building numbered 20, looking very much like a cheap lodging house, has been the home of the Premier of England these two hundred years, since Robert Walpole was Prime Minister.
Burial in Westminster Abbey is the highest mark of recognition and honour that can be bestowed by the English nation. In this grand old church have been crowned all the sovereigns of England from the time of Saxon Harold. Where the Abbey stands to-day there was once a church commenced by Sebert, King of Essex, in the year 610. It was on Thorney Island, the boundaries of which are not now traceable, for closely cemented partly by nature partly by artifice, it has become a solid part of the British Isles. The original church was later destroyed by the Danes. Another quite as large as the present one was begun in 1050 in the reign of Edward the Confessor and parts of this old edifice can be traced to-day. In 1220, Henry III. began the rebuilding of the Confessor's church but it was almost destroyed by fire before its completion. The damage was repaired by Edward I., and the church was added to by Edward II., Edward III., Henry VII., and indeed by all other sovereigns down to the year 1714, when Sir Christopher Wren undertook its complete restoration, adding the western towers as they are now. Perhaps no other spot in all the world is so truly holy ground and the number of the great ones of the earth sleeping here is very large.
Interior of St. Margaret's, Westminster