Names with and without the.

These places usually have names with the:

Hotels/restaurants/pubsè  the Station Hotel, the Bombay Restaurant, the Red Lion (pub)
theatres/cinemasè the Palace Theatre, the Odeon Cinema

Museums/galleriesè the British Museum, the Tate Gallery

other buildings è the Empire State Building, the Festival Hall, the White House.
Oceans/seas/canals è the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal
also:

Newspapers è the Washington Post, the Financial Times
organisationsè the European Community, the BBC (= the British Broadcasting Corporation)

Sometimes we leave out the noun: the Hilton (Hotel), the Sahara (Desert)

Sometimes the name is only the + noun: the Vatican (in Rome), the Sun (British newspaper)

Names with ...of... usually have the. For example:

the Bank of England/ the Tower of London/ the Museum of Modern Art
the Houses of Parliament/ the Great Wall of China/ the Tropic of Capricorn
the Gulf of Mexico/ the University of London (but the London University)

C/ Many shops, restaurants, hotels, banks etc. are named after the people who started them. These names end in -'s or -s. We do not use 'the' with these names:

Lloyds Bank (not the Lloyds Bank)/ McDonalds/ Jack's Guest House/ Harrods (shop)/

Churches are often named after saints:

St John's Church (not the St John's Church)/ St Paul's Cathedral

D/ Names of companies, airlines etc. are usually without 'the':

Fiat (not the Fiat)      Sony      Kodak      British Airways      IBM