City of Westminster, Greater London

The City of Westminster includes the Westminster Abbey (Anglican) and Westminster Cathedral (Roman Catholic), Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the principal government offices, St. James’s Palace, the most important shopping districts of the country, most of the London area’s luxury hotels, and some of its more-renowned museums of art.

The National Gallery has a superb collection of Old Masters paintings, and Tate Britain (a branch of the national Tate galleries), built in 1893–97 on the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge, has large holdings of British paintings and sculpture.

The Wallace Collection is kept in Hertford House, Manchester Square, and the National Portrait Gallery is based north of Trafalgar Square.