//
Photo: Anthony O'Neil, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Wallace Collection is one of the world's finest private art collections, the best known of which is Frans Hals's work The Laughing Cavalier. Other artists on display include Rembrandt, Titian, Poussin, and Reynolds. This is well worth escaping to after the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street.
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along with the Marquesses of Hertford, in the 18th and 19th centuries. The collection features fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with important holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms and armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries. It is open to the public and entry is free.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Not as well-known as the Royal Albert Hall, the 'Wig', which opened in 1901, is one of London's main concert halls. It still mainly caters for a classical audience, and includes chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It hosts around 500 concerts each year.
The parish church of Marylebone was completed in 1827 to a design by Thomas Hardwick.
This enormous arch was built in front of Buckingham Palace. In 1851 the expansion of the palace meant the arch could no longer remain where it was, so it was moved to this point on Hyde Park. It now stands rather sadly on a large traffic island, but the subway beneath the roads means you can stop off at the Marble Arch on your way from Oxford St to Hyde Park.
Madame Tussauds is a world-famous waxwork museum, best known for its Grand Hall, with a collection of international royalty, statesmen and world leaders. Visitors generally report that the entrance fee does not warrant the selection of waxworks on show, which rarely resemble celebrities. Also, there is usually a long queue stretching down the road.
Guided tours that cover the tube's 150-year-history in two hours, including its construction, design and social history. Meet at the Sherlock Holmes Statue.
Nicknamed Little America, it was the long-time home of the American Embassy (which in 2018 moved to Nine Elms across the river), and a statue of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.