Inside London's most iconic buildings including Downing Street and the Gherkin

The Royal Opera House
QuickQuid
Sian Bayley20 May 2019

London is full of iconic buildings, but most of us only ever get to see them from the outside.

Now researchers including architect Laurentiu Stanciu have teamed up with online lender QuickQuid to create a series of cutaway illustrations to show what’s inside many of the capital’s landmarks.

Inside London's landmarks-in pictures

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The Gherkin

Designed by Norman Foster and opened in 2004, the Gherkin at St Mary Axe is now a famous part of the City. It has 41 floors and is 591 ft tall, and is meant to resemble a stretched egg.

It stands on the site of the Baltic Exchange, which was severely damaged by an explosion in 1992, detonated by the Provisional IRA. Today it is mainly used as an office building.

The Barbican

Love it or hate it, the Barbican is one of London’s best examples of brutalist architecture and is even Grade II listed. It began as a housing complex, before the performing arts centre was approved in 1971, including a concert hall, theatre for 1,300, art gallery and cinemas. The estate was designed by Geoffrey Powell, Peter "Joe" Chamberlin and Christoph Bon. It took nearly three decades to design as it included more than 2,000 flats and two schools. It even required the realignment of an Underground line and the excavation of 190,000 m³ of soil to complete!

Big Ben

Situated at the north end of the Houses of Parliament is the Elizabeth Tower, better known as Big Ben, despite being the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock instead. The tower opened in 1859 and was designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, after the fire that destroyed the original Westminster Palace in 1834.

The O2 Arena

Now the world’s busiest music arena, the O2 is the destination for the best entertainment shows around. It has the second highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the UK. However, hidden beneath the millennium dome, it can be difficult to understand where everything fits – until now.

King’s Cross Underground

The home of Platform 9 and ¾, this station is famous for the hidden magical platform to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books. And now you can see a cross section of it, as if you had x-ray vision! It opened in 1863 and is one of the busiest stations in London.

Royal Opera House

Designed by architect E.M Barry, Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House opened in 1858. Although the façade, foyer and auditorium still date from this period most of the other areas were built in the restoration in the 1990s.

10 Downing Street

Officially the home of the First Lord of the Treasury…otherwise known as the Prime Minister. This is the headquarters of the government. It was designed by Kenton Couse and opened in 1684 containing approximately 100 rooms!