Westminster on foot: Whitehall, Big Ben, the Abbey and Buckingham Palace

This walk follows one street of power and then a royal park: from Trafalgar Square down Whitehall, past the Horse Guards sentries, the hall where Charles I was beheaded, Downing Street and the Cenotaph, to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, then through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace.

Whitehall is named after the Palace of Whitehall, home of the monarchs from Henry VIII to William III, which burned down in 1698. Government offices took its place, and today "Whitehall" is shorthand for the civil service. Just beyond its southern end stands the Palace of Westminster, built as a royal palace in the 11th century, where Parliament has met since the 13th. The route is flat and short, and it ends where the King's Guard changes.

A note on accuracy: some of what you see is younger than it looks. The Houses of Parliament were rebuilt after 1834, and Buckingham Palace's front dates from 1913. Where something is a rebuild or a site of something gone, we say so, and every fact links to its source.

Start

Charing Cross station (Bakerloo and Northern lines, and National Rail)

Finish

The Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, about 700 m from Green Park station (Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines)

Distance

2.8 km, one way

Time

About 80 minutes: 37 minutes of walking and 8 stops. Allow longer to watch a guard change or go inside the Abbey

Print this walk / save as PDF

Terrain, guard-change times, tickets and a shorter version ↓

What to see: the stops

1. Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column

   

   From Charing Cross station, walk west along the pavement into Trafalgar Square and down to the foot of Nelson's Column. The square is named after Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Laid out by Charles Barry, it opened on 1 May 1844. William Railton's column went up between 1840 and 1843. A 2006 survey measured the whole monument at 51.59 m to the top of Nelson's hat. The bronze panels on the pedestal were cast from captured French guns, and Edwin Landseer's four lions only arrived in 1867. The fourth plinth, in the north-west corner, was built in 1841 for a statue of William IV that was never paid for; since 1999 it has mostly shown changing artworks. On the south side, the bronze Charles I on horseback stands where the original Charing Cross stood, the point from which distances from London are measured. It was cast in 1633 and placed here in 1678. You will reach the spot where Charles died at stop 3.

   More history

   Nelson's statue is 5.2 m tall, about three times the height of the man. Landseer had a dead lion from London Zoo brought to his studio to sketch, and took so long that it began to rot.

   Sources: Wikipedia, Trafalgar Square; Wikipedia, Nelson's Column; Wikipedia, Fourth plinth.

2. Horse Guards and the King's Life Guard

   

   Walk to the south side of the square, past Charles I, and down the right-hand side of Whitehall to the arch with two mounted sentries. Horse Guards was originally the entrance to the Palace of Whitehall, and soldiers have kept the King's Life Guard here since Charles II's restoration in 1660. Today the Household Cavalry provides it: the Life Guards wear red tunics and white plumes, the Blues and Royals blue tunics and red plumes. The two mounted sentries stand from 10:00 to 16:00 and are swapped every hour. The guard itself changes on Horse Guards Parade, through the arch, at 11:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and every day at 16:00 there is a dismounted inspection. The building dates from the 1750s; William Kent designed it but died before work began. Until 1858 it was Britain's main military headquarters, and the Duke of Wellington worked in the office over the arch. Look up at the clock: a dark mark above the II is said to record the hour of Charles I's execution in 1649.

   More history

   The parade ground behind was Henry VIII's tiltyard, where tournaments and jousts were held. Trooping the Colour starts there each June when the clock strikes eleven.

   Sources: Household Division, the King's Life Guard; Wikipedia, Horse Guards; Wikipedia, Horse Guards Parade; Wikipedia, King's Guard.

3. The Banqueting House, where Charles I was executed

   

   Cross Whitehall to the pale stone building opposite. The Palace of Whitehall once spread along this street; it was the monarch's home from 1530 until 1698, when most of it burned down. The Banqueting House is the only large part that survives. Inigo Jones designed it after the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, and it was built from 1619 to 1622, the first building in England finished in that classical style. In the 1630s Charles I had Peter Paul Rubens paint its ceiling to glorify his father, James I; the panels were painted in Antwerp and installed in 1636. On 30 January 1649, just before 2 pm, Charles stepped out of a first-floor window onto a black-draped scaffold built against this front and was beheaded with a single blow. He had asked for an extra shirt that morning, so that the crowd would not see him shiver from the cold and think him afraid. The window itself is gone: it was in a lost part of the building, roughly above today's visitor entrance at the north end. The Portland stone front is a 19th-century refacing that kept the original details. It opens to visitors on set dates only; check before you go.

   More history

   After the 1698 fire the hall became a chapel. From 1893 the Royal United Services Institute used it as a museum, which showed, among other things, the skeleton of Napoleon's horse. The museum closed in 1962.

   Sources: Wikipedia, Banqueting House; Wikipedia, Execution of Charles I; Wikipedia, Whitehall. Visiting: dates and tickets on Historic Royal Palaces' site.

4. Downing Street and the Cenotaph

   

   Walk on down Whitehall and cross back to the black gates on the right. Behind them is Downing Street, a cul-de-sac that Sir George Downing, a diplomat who served both Oliver Cromwell and Charles II, built between 1682 and 1684. George II offered Number 10 to Sir Robert Walpole, who accepted it only for the office of First Lord of the Treasury, not for himself. Walpole moved in on 22 September 1735, and that title is still engraved on the brass letterbox. You can't walk in: railings went up in 1982 and the steel gates in 1989, during the IRA's campaign. A few steps further, in the middle of the road, stands the Cenotaph, the national war memorial. Its name is Greek for "empty tomb". Sir Edwin Lutyens first made a temporary version for the 1919 victory parade. George V unveiled this one, in Portland stone, on 11 November 1920, the day the Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey (stop 6). The only words on it are THE GLORIOUS DEAD. It looks plain, but its sides lean in so slightly that, Historic England says, they would meet about 1,000 ft (300 m) up. The National Service of Remembrance is held here every Remembrance Sunday.

   More history

   Number 10 is far bigger than its front suggests: in the early 18th century the house on the street was joined to a larger, more elegant house behind it, which looks over Horse Guards.

   Sources: Historic England, The Cenotaph; Wikipedia, The Cenotaph; GOV.UK, history of 10 Downing Street; Wikipedia, Downing Street.

5. Big Ben, the Elizabeth Tower and the Houses of Parliament

   

   Keep going down Whitehall, which becomes Parliament Street, to the corner of Bridge Street by Westminster station. Big Ben is the nickname of the great bell, not the tower. The tower was called the Clock Tower until 2012, when it was renamed the Elizabeth Tower for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. Augustus Pugin designed it for the architect Charles Barry; it was finished in 1859 and is 96 m tall. The bell weighs 13.7 tonnes; its nickname is usually traced to Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw its installation, though some say it came from the boxer Ben Caunt. The clock still runs on its original mechanism, adjusted by adding or removing old pennies on the pendulum. The palace behind it was built after a fire on 16 October 1834 destroyed most of the old one; work started in 1840 and lasted 30 years. Westminster Hall, from the reign of William II (1087–1100), survived the fire and is the oldest part. Westminster Bridge, east along Bridge Street, is painted green like the benches of the House of Commons. For tower climbs, tours and free debates, see the questions below.

   More history

   The first Westminster Bridge opened in 1750; the present one, by Thomas Page, opened on 24 May 1862. William Wordsworth wrote his sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" standing on the old bridge.

   Sources: UK Parliament, Big Ben tours; Historic England, Palace of Westminster; Wikipedia, Big Ben; Wikipedia, Palace of Westminster; Wikipedia, Westminster Bridge. Visiting: UK Parliament, ways to visit.

6. Westminster Abbey, the coronation church

   

   Cross into Parliament Square, walk along its east and south sides, and follow Broad Sanctuary to the Abbey's west front. Forty English and British monarchs have been crowned here since 1066, and eighteen are buried inside. Edward the Confessor built the first large church on this site from the 1040s and is buried in it. Henry III began the present Gothic church in 1245. The two west towers in front of you came much later: Nicholas Hawksmoor and John James built them in the 1740s. Over the Great West Door stand ten statues of 20th-century Christian martyrs, carved by the Abbey's own craftsmen in 1998. Just inside that door is the grave of the Unknown Warrior, a soldier killed on a European battlefield in the First World War and buried here on 11 November 1920. It is the only floor stone in the Abbey that no one may walk on. In October 2026 entry costs £32 for adults; services are free.

   More history

   Benedictine monks are thought to have settled here around 959, on what was then Thorney Island in the Thames. A legend says a fisherman saw St Peter near the site, and the Fishmongers' Company still gives the Abbey a salmon every year.

   Sources: Westminster Abbey, opening times and prices; Westminster Abbey, worship; Wikipedia, Westminster Abbey.

7. St James's Park and the pelicans

   

   From the west front, walk up Storey's Gate to the corner of Great George Street and turn left along Birdcage Walk. Turn right into the park and follow the path to the Blue Bridge over the lake. Henry VIII bought this marshy land in 1532 and fenced it for deer. James I drained it and kept camels, crocodiles and an elephant here, and his exotic birds lived in aviaries along what is now Birdcage Walk. Charles II, back from exile, had the park redesigned in the French style with a canal almost half a mile long, and opened it to the public. In 1826–27 John Nash turned the canal into today's curving lake. From the bridge you can see Buckingham Palace to the west and, to the east, Duck Island, with Horse Guards beyond. Pelicans have lived here since 1664, when a Russian ambassador gave some to Charles II. In 2026 four chicks hatched in the park, the first in over 360 years.

   More history

   At the Grand Jubilee of August 1814, Nash built a Chinese bridge and a seven-storey pagoda over the canal. The pagoda caught fire during the fireworks, killing at least one man.

   Sources: The Royal Parks, history of St James's Park; The Royal Parks, the pelicans; Wikipedia, St James's Park.

8. Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard

   

   Walk west along the lake path, then join The Mall at the end of the park for the Victoria Memorial in front of the palace. At its core is Buckingham House, a townhouse built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. George III bought it in 1761 for Queen Charlotte. John Nash and Edward Blore enlarged it in the early 19th century, and it became the monarch's London home when Victoria came to the throne in 1837. King Charles III lives at nearby Clarence House but works here. The front you see is the East Front, which Blore built around 1850 and Aston Webb refaced in Portland stone in 1913; the balcony in the middle is where the royal family appears to the crowds. The Victoria Memorial, by Thomas Brock, was unveiled on 16 May 1911 and finished in 1924; the Household Division says it is known affectionately as the "Birthday Cake". The guard changes on the forecourt at 11:00 on set days (see the questions below). The State Rooms open for most of the summer and on some days in winter and spring.

   More history

   Until 1959 the sentries stood outside the railings. That ended after a guardsman, pestered by tourists, kicked one of them on the ankle as he marched.

   Sources: Household Division, Changing the Guard; Household Division, schedule; Household Division, the ceremony in detail; Wikipedia, Buckingham Palace; Wikipedia, King's Guard; Wikipedia, Victoria Memorial. State Rooms tickets: Royal Collection Trust.

Practical details

Terrain

Flat: Open-Meteo puts every stop between about 7 and 17 m above sea level. Pavements along Whitehall, then park paths through St James's Park.

Step-free

OpenStreetMap maps a short flight of steps on the east side of Trafalgar Square, next to where this route enters it. The south side of the square is level with the pavement, so you can avoid them, and the square has two lifts for disabled access. Wikipedia says St James's Park station is not wheelchair accessible.

Water

OpenStreetMap lists a bottle refill fountain in Charing Cross station, at the start, and none for adults on the rest of the route. Fill up before you set off.

Toilets

Free toilets in Charing Cross station, at the start, and public toilets in Trafalgar Square. The Royal Parks charge 20p for their park toilets, paid by card or phone only.

Sit and eat

St James's Park has two cafés, St James's Café and Storey's Gate Café, plus kiosks. The Abbey's Cellarium Café and Terrace is by stop 6.

When to go

The mounted sentries at Horse Guards are on duty every day from 10:00 to 16:00. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the Household Division lists both guard changes, at Horse Guards and at Buckingham Palace, at 11:00 (the palace ceremony starts at about 10:45), so you can see one or the other. Ceremonies can be changed or cancelled at short notice: check the Household Division's schedule on the day. The Abbey's own calendar shows it closed to sightseers on Sundays in October 2026, when it holds services, and the Banqueting House opens on set dates only (the next are 1 November and 20 December 2026).

Shorter walk

Finish at stop 6, Westminster Abbey: 1.6 km, about 50 minutes. Westminster station is about 350 m back, by stop 5.

Getting back

Green Park station is about 700 m from the Victoria Memorial, 10 minutes on foot along The Mall and up Queen's Walk. St James's Park station (District and Circle lines) is about 800 m away.

Walking distances and times from the OSRM foot router on OpenStreetMap data. Elevations from Open-Meteo. Stations, fountains, toilets and steps from OpenStreetMap; guard times from the Household Division; prices and opening from Westminster Abbey, UK Parliament and the Royal Parks. Checked 4 October 2026.

Questions people ask

Sources

• Official and heritage pages: Household Division, Changing the Guard and schedule, Household Division, the King's Life Guard, Historic England, The Cenotaph, Historic England, Palace of Westminster, Historic England, Westminster Bridge, GOV.UK, history of 10 Downing Street, The Royal Parks, St James's Park history and pelicans. We used their facts and wrote our own text.
• Wikipedia: Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Column, Fourth plinth, Whitehall, Horse Guards, Horse Guards Parade, King's Guard, Banqueting House, Execution of Charles I, Downing Street, The Cenotaph, Big Ben, Palace of Westminster, Westminster Bridge, Westminster Abbey, St James's Park, Buckingham Palace, Victoria Memorial, Charing Cross tube station, Green Park tube station, St James's Park tube station
• Opening times, tickets and visits: Westminster Abbey, Westminster Abbey, worship, UK Parliament, ways to visit, UK Parliament, Big Ben tours, UK Parliament, watch debates, The Royal Parks, St James's Park FAQs, Historic Royal Palaces, Banqueting House, Royal Collection Trust, Buckingham Palace
• Map data and places: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL; walking route from the OSRM foot router run by FOSSGIS
• Elevations: Open-Meteo
• Photos: Wikimedia Commons contributors Beata May, PRA, Stephen Richards, Godot13, Christian David, Antiquary, Colin and Julian Herzog, credited under each photo