Trafalgar Square, London (must see)

Britain’s most self-important plaza, Trafalgar Square is arguably the closest thing to London’s beating heart (if London had ventricles paved in pigeons and protest signs). Want the official center of the city? That’s actually a tiny traffic island called Charing Cross, just south of the square. Yep, all distances to London are measured from there. Not Buckingham Palace. Not Big Ben. A glorified roundabout...

Now, if you're into obscure imperial measurements, Trafalgar’s got you covered. Nestled behind the café, you’ll find the Imperial Standard measures: inches, feet, yards, chains, perches, poles... basically, the greatest hits of Victorian measuring tape. Originally installed in 1876, they were moved in 2003 when the north terrace was pedestrianized-because who needs traffic when you’ve got trivia?

The square gets its name from the Battle of Trafalgar, a Napoleonic showdown where Admiral Lord Nelson heroically defeated the French and Spanish fleets in 1805... and promptly died doing so. 30 years later, the square got its now-famous name. Then, in 1843, they added Nelson’s Column, a towering tribute built from Devon granite, with bronze panels depicting his greatest hits: Saint Vincent, The Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar-which, to be fair, did earn him the naming rights.

By 1868, the stone lions guarding the column were considered too puny for British pride, so the sculptor Edwin Landseer crafted bronze ones instead, with remarkable anatomical precision. Beautiful, grand, majestic-except, apparently, he got one detail hilariously wrong: he sculpted the back of the lions as if they had beanbag backs (real lions don’t sag like that).

Surrounded by fountains, tourists, and-until recently-a whole lot of feathered freeloaders, Trafalgar was once London’s top pigeon hangout. That is, until a mayor declared them public enemy number one and evicted the birdseed dealers. The pigeons, scandalized, have never quite forgiven the city.

Tip:
Plant yourself on the steps, let the sounds of the city wash over you, and watch the sun dip behind Nelson’s heroic silhouette. Or just use it as your springboard to the rest of London-you’re already at the center, after all.