Find the Iguanodon with its thumb spike on its nose

Walk the whole island circuit and count the extinct animals

See the Megalosaurus and compare it with what we know now

Walk the terraces of the old Crystal Palace site above the lake

Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins built these life-sized models for the Crystal Palace park under the direction of Richard Owen, the anatomist who coined the word Dinosauria, and they were unveiled in 1854 — the first dinosaur sculptures in the world. They are wrong in ways that are now famous: the Iguanodon stands on four legs with its thumb spike on its nose. That is the point of them.

The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs: The First Dinosaurs Ever Built

Take a river boat from Westminster down the Thames to Greenwich, past the Tower and Tower Bridge

Board the Cutty Sark, the tea clipper built in 1869 and preserved in a dry dock at Greenwich

See the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, painted by James Thornhill between 1707 and 1726

Stand astride the historic Greenwich Meridian line at the Royal Observatory, commissioned by Charles II in 1675, and see Flamsteed House, finished in 1676

Greenwich is a river-boat ride down the Thames from Westminster. The Royal Observatory was commissioned by Charles II in 1675 on the hilltop site of Greenwich Castle, chosen by Christopher Wren, to fix the positions of the stars for finding longitude at sea; John Flamsteed was the first Astronomer Royal, and the observatory, through which the Greenwich Meridian runs, gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time. Below it the Painted Hall of the old naval hospital was painted by James Thornhill between 1707 and 1726, and 3,700 square metres of it were conserved from 2014. By the river is the Cutty Sark, built at Dumbarton in 1869, one of the last tea clippers and one of the fastest — she had only a few years in the tea trade before the Suez Canal, opened the same year, gave the route to steamships, and then carried wool from Australia.

Thames to Greenwich: Cutty Sark and the Meridian

Eat at Borough Market, one of London's oldest food markets, on its present site since 1756

Browse the stalls of Camden Market around Camden Lock

Walk Portobello Road on a Saturday, when the antiques market runs

Buy plants at Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday, among the Victorian shopfronts

Borough Market, one of London's oldest food markets, has been on its present site since 1756. Camden Market spreads round Camden Lock, Portobello Road's antiques market runs on Saturdays, and on Sundays Columbia Road fills with a flower market among Victorian shopfronts.

London's Markets: Borough, Camden, Portobello and Columbia Road

Watch the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London, the nightly locking-up said to date back to the 14th century, booking a ticket from Historic Royal Palaces well in advance

Ride the London Eye after dark, the 135m wheel that opened in 2000

Join a Jack the Ripper walking tour through Whitechapel and Spitalfields, past the sites of the 'canonical five' murders of 1888

Every night the Tower of London is locked in the Ceremony of the Keys, said to have been held in some form since the 14th century; tickets must be booked well in advance from Historic Royal Palaces. The London Eye, 135m high, opened in 2000, and walking tours follow the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 through Whitechapel and Spitalfields.

London After Dark: The Ceremony of the Keys and the Eye

Watch a play at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, the reconstruction opened in 1997 of the theatre where Shakespeare's company performed: stand as a groundling in the open-air season, or in winter see a play in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

See a play at the National Theatre, Denys Lasdun's Brutalist building of 1976 on the South Bank

See a show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, on the site where a theatre has stood since 1663

Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, opened in 1997, reconstructs the theatre where his company played, and in the open-air season you can still stand as a groundling. Denys Lasdun's National Theatre of 1976 stands on the South Bank, and at Drury Lane a theatre has stood on the site of the Theatre Royal since 1663.

London Theatre: The Globe, the National and Drury Lane

Visit the Churchill War Rooms, the underground Cabinet War Rooms used from 1939 to 1945, and the Map Room

Board HMS Belfast, the cruiser that supported the D-Day landings of 1944 and is moored by Tower Bridge

Explore the Imperial War Museum on Lambeth Road

Stand in St Paul's Cathedral, which survived the Blitz

Under Whitehall, the Cabinet War Rooms were used from 1939 to 1945, Map Room included. HMS Belfast, the cruiser that supported the D-Day landings in 1944, is moored by Tower Bridge, the Imperial War Museum is on Lambeth Road in Southwark, and St Paul's Cathedral came through the Blitz.

London at War: The Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast

Watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, and tour the State Rooms when they are open in the summer

Tour the Tower of London and see the Crown Jewels in the Jewel House, and find the White Tower begun around 1078 by William the Conqueror

Look for the Tower's ravens and meet a Yeoman Warder

Visit Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819, and walk in Kensington Gardens around it

William the Conqueror began the White Tower around 1078, and the Tower of London holds the Crown Jewels in the Jewel House, with Yeoman Warders and the ravens. At Buckingham Palace the guard changes and the State Rooms open in summer, and at Kensington Palace, where Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819, Kensington Gardens lie all round the house.

Royal London: The Tower, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace

Walk into the passage of the north-east cairn

See how the passages line up with the midwinter sunset

Walk the ring of standing stones around each cairn

Find the kerb stones carved with cup marks

The Balnuaran of Clava lie in a grove of trees by the River Nairn: three Bronze Age cairns in a line running north-east to south-west, the two at the ends passage graves with their entrances oriented south-west towards the midwinter sunset, each ringed by standing stones. The site gave its name to the whole class of Clava cairns, and the Culloden battlefield is a couple of miles away.

Clava Cairns: Bronze Age Tombs Aligned on the Midwinter Sun

Walk the full length of the caves to the inner chamber

Cross the underground stream called the Styx

Climb to St Lawrence's church with its golden ball

Walk round the open hexagonal mausoleum on the hill

From 1748 Sir Francis Dashwood had a network of chalk and flint tunnels dug about a quarter of a mile into the hill above West Wycombe, giving work to villagers after failed harvests and a meeting place to the Hellfire Club. The caves run directly beneath St Lawrence's church and the hexagonal mausoleum he also built, and end at an underground chamber across a stream called the Styx.