Momliz, you can use www.fancyapint.com to locate good pubs in the areas you'll be visiting.

Lee Ann

look up the "rock and roll" tours. We did this 3 years ago with our teens and we all loved it! They include the major sites and will accomodate any requests you have. You will see many musicians home, abbey road studio, and so on...alot of fun.

Things our teens enjoyed:

the Cabinet War Rooms
the Tower of London
a boat ride down the Thames
shopping at Harrod's
British Museum: the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and Elgin Marbles
British Museum

We spent a week each in London and Paris with my step-daughters - 11 and 14. (Granted younger than your group - but sophisticated city kids so maybe not so different.) What they lived best in London:

The Tower
V&A Museum
Westminster Abbey
Shopping at Covent Garden (stuff) and Harvey Nicks (clothes)
Tea At Fortnum & Mason

Also liked - but slighty lesser
British Museum
The Tate
Royal Academy summer show (they thought some of the amateur stuff was hysterical)
Museum of London
London Eye
Parliament (not in session)
Changing of Guard (Buck House and Horse Guards)
Hyde Park/Serpentine
St James Park

Waste of time
Mme Tussauds (11 year old had been told by her best friend that she MUST go - both agreed a complete waste. I must admit I let their father take them and went gallery hopping instead.)

Outside of London
Day trip to Greenwich by boat
Windsor Castle/Hampton Court Palace

Thanks for all the great replies. I'm thinking I should put together possible itineraries. They can do the Buckingham Palace, down the Mall, Trafalgar Square, down Whitehall, Westminster-Parliament-Big Ben walk together and then give them specific directions to different parts of town. There will be enough adults to have 2-3 adults per group to make sure they can get back to the hotel at night.

What do you think of these options?

Shopping & Tea: Harrods, V&A Museum, Covent Garden, tea where?
History Buffs: Cabinet War rooms or Tower of London and what else?
Any suggestion for a third option?

for that itinerary -- tea at either Harrods (many different cafes and restaurants inside Harrods) or in the restaurant at the V&A. Another option would be tea at the Orangery in Kensingtonn Gardens. There are also pastry shops all over. Patisserie Valerie is a chain w/ locations in many neighborhoods -- including one scheduled to open in Covent Garden this month.

As for the Tower - it is a quite a distance from where they will be and getting there noon-ish means they will face massive lines. It is best to visit the Tower right at opening time or w/i about 90 minutes of its closing time. Otherwise they will have to wait in ginormous queues.

Are any of the kids into art? Either the National Gallery (at Trafalgar Sq) or Tate Modern (on the southbank) would be good choices.

Thanks janisj, I love the National Gallery and the Tate and National Portrait Gallery. I probably should do a museum itinerary too. My sons loved the Imperial War Museum the most on our last trip to London but it is quite a ways away on the tube. It's so hard to think of only being there for 24 hours!