London Zoo - The north-eastern corner of Regent's Park is occupied by London Zoo, founded way back in 1826. over the last decade, the zoo has sought to redefine itself as an enironmentally aware enue whose prime purpose is to sae species which are under threat of extinction.

The zoo boasts some striking architectural features, such as the 1930s modernist, spiral-ramped, concrete penguin pool, designed by the Tecton partnership, led by Russian émigré Berthold Lubetkin, who also made the zoo's Round House. The Giraffe House, by contrast, was designed in Neoclassical style by Decimus Burton, who is also responsible for the mock-Tudor Clock Tower.

Kenwood House - Hampstead Heath NW3 - is the most enjoyably approached ia the winding path from the Highgate Ponds. Set in its own magnificently landscaped grounds, the house is seventeventh-century, but was later remodeled by Robert Adam for the Earl of Mansfield, Attorney-General, Lord Chief Justice and the most powerful jurist in the country.

Mansfield, who sent 102 people to the gallows and sentenced another 448 to transportation, was a deeply unpopular character and one of the prime targets of the Gordon rioters in 1780, who ransacked his Bloomsbury house. The house is now open to the public and home to the Ieagh Bequest, a collection of seventeventh- and eighteventh-century art from the English, Dutch and French schools
country.

Neasden Temple - just off the North Circular Road in Neasden is truly one of the best places in London. We have to admit that it is awkward to reach it by public transport, but if you have a car or a minicab serice is not expensie - please go there. You can go by tube to Neasden or Stonebridge park tube stations but from there it is a fair walk. It is worth the effort though because you will be enchanted  by this exotic building.

Just looking at the outside facade of the temple is enough to leae you speechless. Admission is free.

The whole process of building this temple is astonishing; fie thousands of tons of limestone and marble from different parts of Europe was shipped out to India, cared there and brought back to London. This is truly a place that you have to isit.

Open from: daily 9am-6:30pm; free. Tel: 020 8965 2651.

Nelson's Column - raised in 1843 and now one of London's best-loed monuments, commemorates the one-armed, one-eyed admiral who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, but paid for it with his life. The statue which surmounts the granite column is more than triple life-size but still manages to appear minuscule, and is coated in anti-pigeon gel to try and stem the build-up of guano.

The acanthus leaes of the capital are cast from British cannons, while bas-reliefs around the base - depicting three of Nelson's earlier ictories as well as his death aboard HMS ictory more...

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