What should one do in London?

[TinCow]

Sorry for bursting romantic views of the world, but this is one of my pet peeves.

Do you realize that Valley Forge is much older, and Gettysburg as old, as the Parliament Building and the Statue of Richard the Lionheart?

The United States is ancient, much older than most European states. In the nineteenth century, America was a forward-looking country, constantly renewing her legacy, whereas European states build and invented themselves traditions and a history during this period.

Americans travel to Europe, and go see, for example, Budapest and think they are in an ancient town. Never realising that except for maybe an old Cathedral and a fortified castle everything they see around them was build in a historical style at the exact same time Chicago was building skyscrapers.

Splendid older monuments apart, most of London, like Paris, is nineteenth century, when the congested medieval town was replaced with wide streets and large appartment blocks. Alas, further twentienth century renewal hasn't been kind to London. I must agree with prince Charles that London has lost its historical character.

I'm going to have to disagree with you here. As an American who became a naturalized British citizen, I have spent a great deal of time in the US, the UK, and pretty much all of Europe. There is no place in the US that has anything remotely like the historical feel of even the smallest European towns, let alone the main cities. I went to law school in Williamsburg, Virginia, which is famous for having a large section of rebuilt and restored structures from the Colonial period. Even that place pales in comparison to any random small town in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc.

True, much of Europe has been knocked down and rebuilt. However that is no different than the US. Americans knock down old buildings and put new ones over them far more often than Europeans do, simply because we don't think many of our buildings are historical in any way. The simple fact that Nash townhouses in London are Grade 2 listed structures already goes far beyond the history of most structures in the US. Sure, 90% of buildings in London are relatively new, but a good deal of that other 10% is older than our entire country.

From an American perspective, what is truly amazing about Europe is that your historical buildings are still used for practical purposes. People live in 200+ year old homes and work in 200+ year old offices. And don't get me started on the stupendous number of churches, castles, palaces, and miscellaneous ruins scattered about the countryside, many of which were built before Columbus ever set sail. In the US, structures that old tend to be turned into museums or otherwise taken out of use as normal facilities. This is a reflection of how truly rare they are. It's really not that surprising, because most early American structures were built out of wood. Wood does not last long. All you need to do is wander through the French Quarter of New Orleans. That area has some of the oldest wooden buildings on the continent, and they look BAD. I sure wouldn't want to live in them, and they stink to high hell. Europeans have been building out of stone for a very long time, and that has made their structures last.

If you think that Europe has no more history in it than the US, that's probably because you grew up with that history all around you and don't notice it as much. Americans notice it all, because we don't have it over here. At least, not like you do. It's not the individual buildings that give it the historical feel, it's the entire city, the entire country, indeed the entire continent.