История США

At the west end of Princes Street, St. John's Episcopal Church at the corner of Lothian Road is built at street level above a basement crypt and a small churchyard. In addition, there are several fair trade outlets in this space as part of the church, whilst St Cuthbert's Church stands just to the south of it, in a far larger and older churchyard, west of the gardens.

Princes Street remains popular, although it has now fallen from its status as the most expensive place to rent shop space in Britain outside London. Princes Street may be one of the few streets in the UK to have an order of Parliament placed on it to prevent any further building on the south side, so as to preserve its open vista.

 

b) Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. It is in the borough of the City of Westminster. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth (постамент) displaying changing pieces of contemporary art. The square is also used for political demonstrations and community gatherings, such as the celebration of New Year's Eve.

The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars over France. The original name was to have been "King William the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".

The square consists of a large central area with roadways on three sides, and a terrace to the north, in front of the National Gallery. The roads around the square form part of the A4 road. The square was formerly surrounded by a one-way traffic system, but works completed in 2003 reduced the width of the roads and closed the northern side to traffic.

Nelson's Column is in the centre of the square. The column is topped by a statue of Horatio Nelson, the vice admiral who commanded the British Fleet at Trafalgar. On the north side of the square is the National Gallery and to its east St Martin-in-the-Fields church. The square adjoins The Mall entered through Admiralty Arch to the southwest. To the south is Whitehall, to the east Strand and South Africa House, to the north Charing Cross Road and on the west side Canada House.

There are three busts of admirals against the north wall of the square. Those of Lord Jellicoe by Sir Charles Wheeler and Lord Beatty by William MacMillan were installed in 1948 in conjunction with the square's two fountains, which also commemorate the two men. A bust of the Second World War First Sea Lord Admiral Cunningham was unveiled alongside them on 2 April 1967.

On the south side of the square, on the site of the original Charing Cross, is a bronze equestrian statue of Charles I by Hubert Le Sueur. It was cast in 1633, and placed in its present position in 1678.

There are two statues on the lawn in front of the National Gallery: James II to the west of the portico, and George Washington, a replica of a work by Jean-Antoine Houdon, to the east. The latter, was a gift from the state of Virginia installed in 1921.

Two statues erected in the nineteenth century have since been removed. One, of Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, was set up in the south-west corner of the square in 1858, next to that of Napier. Sculpted by William Calder Marshall, it showed Jenner sitting in a chair in a relaxed pose, and was inaugurated at a ceremony presided over by Prince Albert. It was moved to Kensington Gardens in 1862. The other, of General Charles George Gordon by Hamo Thornycroft, was erected on an eighteen-foot high pedestal between the two fountains in 1888. It was removed in 1943 and re-sited on the Victoria Embankment ten years later.

 

c) Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.

Hyde Park is the largest of four parks which form a chain from the entrance of Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park, past the main entrance to Buckingham Palace and then on through Saint James's Park to Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall.

The park was the site of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton. The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations.

Monuments and Statues in Hyde Park:

1. Achilles or the Wellington Monument – n 18ft bronze statue of Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, carrying a sword and shield with his armour beside him. It stands on a plinth of Dartmoor granite.

2. Boy and Dolphin Fountain –  Pre-Raphaelite marble sculpture of a cherub (херувим) and dolphin on a rock in a basin.

3. Cavalry Memorial – bronze statue of St George on horseback stepping over a vanquished dragon.

4. Diana, Princess of Wales’ Memorial Fountain – Oval stone ring of moving water, measuring 210m in circumference.

5. Holocaust Memorial – two boulders (валуны) set in raked gravel and surrounded by silver birch trees.

6. Joy of Life Fountain – two bronze figures holding hands and appearing to dance above the water. Four bronze children emerging from the pool.

7. Queen Caroline Memorial – stone urn (урна) mounted on a plinth.

8. Reformers’ Tree – circular black and white floor mosaic of a tree, surrounded by a sandstone ring.

9. 7/7 Memorial – 52 closely spaced stainless steel columns representing each of the people who died in four bombs detonated in London on 7 July 2005.

 

3) Museums and Art Galleries.

1. What is the connection between Sir Hans Sloane and the British  Museum?

The British Museum, in London, is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest museums of human history and culture. Its permanent collection, numbering some eight million works, is amongst the finest, most comprehensive, and largest in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.

The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.

Although principally a museum of cultural art objects and antiquities today, the British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753).

Sir Hans Sloane was an Irish physician and collector. During the course of his lifetime Sloane gathered an enviable collection of curiosities and, not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to King George II, for the nation, for the princely sum of £20,000. At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas.

On 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum.

The Foundation Act, added two other libraries to the Sloane collection. The Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dated back to Elizabethan times and the Harleian library, the collection of the Earls of Oxford. They were joined in 1757 by the Royal Library, assembled by various British monarchs. Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf.

The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, whilst including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element and meant that the British Museum now became both national museum and library.

2. What museums / galleries are situated in:

a) Trafalgar Square:

The National Gallery – is one of the best-known art galleries in the world. It was founded in 1824 and houses one of the most important collections of Italian paintings outside Italy. It is also famous for its Dutch collection, particularly for paintings by Rembrandt.

The National Portrait Gallery –  it is Britain’s leading art gallery of portraits of famous people in British history. The National Portrait Gallery is noted for representing various kinds of portraits from traditional oil paintings to photographs. Founded in 1856, in 1984 it contained over 8 00 original portraits and more than 500 000 photographs.

b) Millbank:

Tate Gallery – was opened in 1897 with the financial support of Sir Henry Tate. He also gave a collection of 65 paintings. The Gallery contains a unique collection of British painting from the 16th century to the present day. Turner and Blake are particularly well represented in the collections. The Gallery also has many drawings and modern sculpture.

c) Brompton Road:

Victoria and Albert Museum – is a collection of fine and applied arts. It contains a great collection of miniature, too. It was opened in 1857 and was named after Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. 

The Natural History Museum – the museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research, specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons.

The Science Museum – the Science Museum now holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including such famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine,  some of the earliest remaining steam engines, a working example of Charles Babbage's Difference engine, the first prototype of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now, and documentation of the first typewriter. It also contains hundreds of interactive exhibits. A recent addition is the IMAX 3D Cinema showing science and nature documentaries, most of them in 3-D, and the Wellcome Wing which focuses on digital technology.

The museum houses some of the many objects collected by Henry Wellcome around a medical theme.

 

 

 

 

4) Streets and squares.

1. What are these streets famous for:

a) Fleet Street is a street in the City of London named after the River Fleet, London's largest underground river. It was the origin and home of the British newspapers until the 1980s. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the term Fleet Street continues to be used as a metonym for the British national press.

As early as the 13th century, it seems to have been known as Fleet Bridge Street, and in the early part of the 14th century it began to be mentioned frequently by its present name, spelled, of course, in accordance with the customs of those days.

Publishing on Fleet Street dates back to around 1500, when the first printers started setting up shop there. As often happens when a new trade arises in the city, printers clustered on Fleet Street after the first print shop was established, and the street quickly became known for being the powerhouse of the publishing industry. As a result, British newspapers naturally located themselves along Fleet Street as well, taking advantage of readily accessible presses and experienced printers.

For many years Fleet Street was especially noted for its taverns and coffeehouses. Many notable persons of literary and political fame used to frequent these, and a few, such as Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, have survived to this day, in name at least.

Many famous men are associated with Fleet Street, either by living there or in one of its many side streets, or by being regular frequenters of its taverns. Amongst these include Ben Jonson, John Milton, Izaak Walton, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith and Charles Lamb.

Fleet Street is also famous for the barber Sweeney Todd, traditionally said to have lived and worked in Fleet Street (he is sometimes called the 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street'). An early example of a serial killer, the character appears in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century.

Fleet Street is now intimately associated with British journalism, despite the fact that most British publishers have relocated to other areas. In addition to being linked with the British press, Fleet Street is also home to a number of law firms, and many lawyers also have offices on and around Fleet Street. Fleet Street is accessible by a number of London Underground stations, and its location is quite convenient, which explains why it was a hub of British publishing for so long.

b) Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations. It is named after the Prince Regent (later George IV), and is commonly associated with the architect John Nash, whose street layout survives, although all his original buildings except All Souls Church have since been replaced.

The street was completed in 1825 and was an early example of town planning in England.

Selected shops and other places of note:

All Souls Church, Langham Place, at the top of Regent Street next to Broadcasting House, is a church with a distinctive circular portico surmounted by a stone spire. Completed in 1823 and consecrated in 1824, All Souls is the only surviving building in Regent Street that was designed by John Nash.

The Apple retail store opened on Regent Street at 10am on 20 November 2004. At the time this was the first such store in Europe, the others being in the United States and Japan. It was the largest Apple store worldwide until the opening of the even-larger Covent Garden store in August 2010.

The Superdry store was originally Austin Reed's flagship store for more than 85 years was located at 103–113 Regent Street. The store had an atrium at its centre, housing glass lifts allowing viewing across all floors. The lower ground floor sold womenswear and also housed Austin's, the refurbished 1920’s Art Deco Barber Shop, offering a full range of hair, face and body treatments for both men and women.

The BBC's headquarters are in Broadcasting House, whose front entrance is in Langham Place, marking the top end of Regent Street.

The Café Royal, located at 68 Regent Street in the Quadrant, opened in 1865 and became an institution of London high society. The Café Royal closed in December 2008, as part of Crown Estate plans to redevelop this part of Regent Street.

Hamleys toy shop is 100 metres south of Oxford Circus on the east side of the road. Originally located in Holborn and named Noah's Ark, the store has been at the present address since 1906. It claims to be the largest toy shop in the world.

Oxford Circus is the junction where Regent Street crosses Oxford Street, and the site of one of the busiest of London's underground stations. The Central, Bakerloo and Victoria lines all meet here.

Paris Theatre was located in Lower Regent Street, near other BBC buildings and was a place of performance of the well-known rock groups.

There is a yearly Regent Street Festival when the street is closed to traffic for the day.

The Christmas light displays are a London tradition dating since 1948, when the Regent Street Association decorated the street with Christmas trees. Lighting was not allowed until 1949, following lifting of wartime restrictions, and the first full lighting display was in 1953. There is a different display every year, switched on at an opening ceremony in the first week of November.

On 6 July 2004, half a million people crowded into Regent Street and the surrounding streets to watch a parade of Formula One cars.