The Ned

Top choice in London

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What was until recently the Midland Bank designed by Sir Edwin `Ned' Lutyens in 1924 has metamorphosed into a splendid butterfly with 250 rooms over nine floors. Choose a `Cosy' room (there are a dozen different types) facing Queen Victoria St. The Ned counts a full seven restaurants in the erstwhile Grand Banking Hall, where there is daily live music.

The spa with enormous swimming pool, sauna and hammam in the basement is a delight. Beg, borrow or steal to get into the Vaults lounge and its adjacent bar with 3000 original safe-deposit boxes.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • The Long Walk, the pathway leading to Windsor Castle is 2 1/2 miles long.

    Windsor Castle

    22.29 MILES

    The world’s largest and oldest continuously occupied fortress, Windsor Castle is a majestic vision of battlements and towers. Used for state occasions, it…

  • Westminster Abbey.

    Westminster Abbey

    1.86 MILES

    A splendid mixture of architectural styles, Westminster Abbey is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic. It's not merely a beautiful place…

  • Tate Modern museum on the southern bank of the River Thames.

    Tate Modern

    0.56 MILES

    One of London's most amazing attractions, Tate Modern is an outstanding modern- and contemporary-art gallery housed in the creatively revamped Bankside…

  • London Natural History Museum

    Natural History Museum

    3.91 MILES

    With its thunderous, animatronic dinosaur, riveting displays about planet earth, outstanding Darwin Centre and architecture straight from a Gothic fairy…

  • St. pauls cathedral with red double decker bus in London, United Kingdom

    St Paul's Cathedral

    0.35 MILES

    Sir Christopher Wren’s 300-year-old architectural masterpiece is a London icon. Towering over diminutive Ludgate Hill in a superb position that's been a…

  • The Tower of London

    Tower of London

    0.72 MILES

    Few parts of the UK are as steeped in history or as impregnated with legend and superstition as the titanic stonework of the Tower of London. Not only is…

  • Dusk view of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the banks of the River Thames in London

    Shakespeare's Globe

    0.48 MILES

    Seeing a play at Shakespeare's Globe – ideally standing under the open-air "wooden O" – is experiencing the playwright's work at its best and most…

  • Great Court, British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

    British Museum

    1.62 MILES

    With almost six million visitors trooping through its doors annually, the British Museum in Bloomsbury, one of the oldest and finest museums in the world,…

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Nearby London attractions

1. Mansion House

0.05 MILES

Opposite the Bank of England stands porticoed Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London since 1752. Built by George Dance the…

2. St Stephen Walbrook

0.07 MILES

St Stephen Walbrook (1679) is one of Wren’s finest parish churches and, as it was his first experiment with a dome, a forerunner to St Paul’s Cathedral…

3. London Mithraeum

0.07 MILES

It takes a little stagecraft to bring these ruins to life, but it's amazing what low lighting and Latin chanting can do. This Roman temple was dedicated…

4. Bank of England Museum

0.12 MILES

This surprisingly interesting museum explores the evolution of money and the history of the venerable Bank of England, founded in 1694 by a Scotsman. Its…

5. Royal Exchange

0.13 MILES

Founded by 16th-century merchant Thomas Gresham as a centre to trade stocks, the Royal Exchange was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571. Today…

6. St Mary-le-Bow

0.14 MILES

It's said that a true Cockney is born within earshot of the Bow bells, and they ring out from the delicate steeple at St Mary-le-Bow, designed by…

7. St Mary Aldermary

0.14 MILES

A Christoper Wren reconstruction, the church of St Mary Aldermary (1682) is unusual for the architect: it was built in Gothic style, and it's the only…

8. Guildhall Art Gallery

0.15 MILES

The City of London has had centuries to acquire an impressive art collection, which it's shown off since 1885. The original gallery was destroyed in the…