London

For other uses, see London (disambiguation).

London
The Palace of Westminster overlooking the River Thames
London region shown within England
Country   Region     Regional Authority	United Kingdom   London     GLA, London Assembly
Government
• Mayor	Ken Livingstone
Population  (2005)
• City	7.5 million
• Urban	8.5 million
• Metro	12−14 million
Time zone	GMT
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (BST)
Website	http://www.london.gov.uk/

London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union.

London is a leader in international finance, politics, education, culture, entertainment, fashion and the arts and has considerable influence worldwide. It is widely regarded as one of the world's major global cities, and has been an important settlement for nearly two millennia.

London has an estimated population of 7.5 million (as of 2005) and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. London has an extremely cosmopolitan population, drawing from a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, speaking over 300 different languages. Residents of London are referred to as Londoners.

The city is an international transport hub and a major tourist destination, counting iconic landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace amongst its many attractions, along with famous institutions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery.

Defining London

Area

Today, "London" usually refers to the region of England called London, which is coterminous with Greater London. At the heart of the conurbation is the small, ancient City of London which was historically the entirety of the city. Londoners generally refer to the City of London simply as "the City" or the "Square Mile". London's metropolitan area grew considerably during the Victorian era and again during the Interwar period with expansion halted in the 1940s by World War II and Green Belt legislation and has been largely static since.

The extent of the London postal district, Metropolitan Police District, local government area, London transport area, urban sprawl, coverage of the London telephone area code and metropolitan area have rarely been coterminous and are not currently. The area delimited by the orbital M25 motorway is sometimes used to define the "London area" and the Greater London boundary has been aligned to it in places. London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London.

The coordinates of the centre of London (traditionally considered to be the original Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall) are approximately 51°30′N 0°8′W. The Romans may have marked the centre of Londinium with the London Stone in the City.

Status

The entire London urban area may be classed as a "city" using a geographical definition, but technically it is not so. Officially, London is a region containing two smaller cities within its built-up area: the City of London and the City of Westminster (see City status in the UK).

Unlike most capital cities, London's status as the capital of the UK has never been granted or confirmed officially — by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten constitution.

Geography and Climate

Main article: [[:Geography of London and Climate of London]]

A Landsat 7 satellite image of west London. The prominent green space in the middle is Hyde Park, with Green Park and St. James's Park to its right

Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²). Its primary geographical feature is the Thames, a navigable river which crosses the city from the southwest to the east. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills such as Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill. These hills presented no significant obstacle to the growth of London from its origins as a port on the north side of the river, and therefore London is roughly circular.

The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river with extensive marshlands. It has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding. The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level by the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound. The Thames Barrier was constructed across the Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal with this threat, but a more substantial barrier further downstream may be necessary in the near-future.

London has a temperate climate with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. Snow is uncommon, particularly because heat from the urban area can make London 5°C hotter than the surroundings.

Districts

See also: Inner London and Outer London

Main articles: Central London, City of London, West End, East London, East End, Docklands, West London, North London, South London

London by night as seen from the International Space Station

London's vast urban area is often divided into a large set of districts (e.g. Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Whitechapel, among dozens of others). These are for the most part informal designations which have become commonplace through tradition, with no official boundaries. One area of London which does have a strict definition is the City of London (usually just called The City), the principal financial district of the UK. The City has its own governance and boundaries, giving it a distinctive status as a "city within a city". London's other financial hub is the Docklands area in the east of the city, dominated by the Canary Wharf complex, whilst many other businesses locate in the City of Westminster which is the home of the UK's national government.

The West End (actually in Central London, in the City of Westminster) is London's main entertainment and shopping district, with locations such as Oxford Street, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus acting as tourist magnets. The actual West London region, further out from the centre, is traditionally known for fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington and Chelsea — amongst the most expensive places to live in the country.

Meanwhile, the eastern side of London contains the East End — the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London. The surrounding East London area, of which the East End is seen to form a part, saw much of London's early industrial development, and is currently part of the Thames Gateway regeneration that includes the 2012 Olympics.

North London and South London are divisions of the capital made by the River Thames although informally can cover varying areas.

History

Main article: History of London

St. Paul's Cathedral during the World War II bombings of London

Early London

Although there is some evidence of scattered pre-Roman settlement in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans in AD 43. This settlement was called Londinium, commonly believed to be the origin of the present-day name, although a Celtic origin is also possible.

The first London lasted for just seventeen years. Around AD 61, the Iceni tribe of Celts led by Queen Boudica stormed London, burning it to the ground. The next, heavily-planned incarnation of the city prospered and superseded Colchester as the capital of the Roman province of Britannia in AD 100. However, by the 3rd century AD, the city started a slow decline due to trouble in the Roman Empire, and by the 5th century AD, it was abandoned.

By 600 AD, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new settlement (Lundenwic) about 1km upstream from the old Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden. There was probably a harbour at the mouth of the River Fleet for fishing and trading, and this trading grew until disaster struck in 851 AD, when the new city's ramshackle defences were overcome by a massive Viking raid and it was razed to the ground. A Viking occupation twenty years later was short-lived, and Alfred the Great, the new King of England, established peace and moved the settlement within the defensive walls of the old Roman city (then called Lundenburgh). The original city became Ealdwīc ("old city"), a name surviving to the present day as Aldwych.

Subsequently, under the control of various English kings, London once again prospered as an international trading centre and political arena. However, Viking raids began again in the late 10th century, and reached a head in 1013 when they sieged the city under Danish King Canute and forced English King Aethelred the Unready to flee. In a retaliatory attack, Aethelred's army achieved victory by pulling down London Bridge with the Danish garrison on top (thought to have been immortalised in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is falling down"), and English control was re-established.

Canute took control of the English throne in 1017, controlling the city and country until 1042, when his death resulted in a reversion to Anglo-Saxon control under his pious step-son Edward the Confessor, who refounded Westminster Abbey and the adjacent Palace of Westminster. By this time, London had become the largest and most prosperous city in England, although the official seat of government was still at Winchester.

Norman & medieval London

Following a victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, the then Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly-finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. William granted the citizens of London special privileges, whilst building a castle in the southeast corner of the city to keep them under control. This castle was expanded by later kings and is now known as the Tower of London, serving first as a royal residence and later as a prison.

In 1097, William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. The hall proved the basis of a new Palace of Westminster, the prime royal residence throughout the Middle Ages. Westminster became the seat of the royal court and government (persisting until the present day), whilst its distinct neighbour, the City of London, was a centre of trade and commerce and flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London. Eventually, the adjacent cities grew together and formed the basis of modern central London, superseding Winchester as capital of England in the 12th century.

After the successful defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588, political stability in England allowed London to grow further. In 1603, James I came to the thrones of both England and Scotland, essentially uniting the two countries. His enactment of harsh anti-catholic laws made him unpopular, and an assassination attempt was made on 5 November 1605 — the famous Gunpowder Plot.

Plague caused extensive problems for London in the early 17th century, culminating in the Great Plague in 1665-1666. This was the last major outbreak in Europe, possibly thanks to the disaster that immediately followed in 1666. A fire (the Great Fire of London) broke out in the original City and quickly swept through London's wooden buildings, destroying large swathes of the city (and killing off much of the disease-carrying rat population). Rebuilding took over ten years.

Rise of modern London

File:Bwvictoria.jpg

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901

London's growth accelerated in the 18th century and was the world's largest city during the 19th century. This growth was aided from 1836 by London's first railways which put small countryside towns within easy reach of the city. The rail network expanded very rapidly, and caused these places to grow whilst London itself expanded into surrounding fields, merging with neighbouring settlements such as Kensington. Rising traffic congestion on city centre roads led to the creation of the world's first metro system — the London Underground — in 1863, driving yet further expansion and urbanisation.

London's local government system struggled to cope with the rapid growth, especially in providing the city with adequate infrastructure. Between 1855 and 1889, the Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion. It was then replaced by the County of London, overseen by the County Council, London's first elected city-wide administration.

The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and flattened large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. The rebuilding during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was characterised by a wide range of architectural styles and has resulted in a lack of architectural unity that has become part of London's character. Also the ethnic and religious diversity now enjoyed in the City began to establish itself in the 1950s–1970s and more recently, today.

An economic revival from the 1980s onwards re-established London's position as an eminent trading centre. However, as the seat of government and the most important city in the UK, it has been subjected to bouts of terrorism. IRA bombers sought to pressure the government into negotiations over Northern Ireland, frequently disrupting city activities with bomb threats — some of which were carried out — until their 1997 ceasefire. More recently, a series of coordinated bomb attacks were carried out by Islamic extremist suicide bombers on the public transport network — just 24 hours after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Government

See also: Category:London Government

City Hall at night, headquarters of the Greater London Authority.

Political parties controlling the London borough councils as of 2006.

The administration of London takes place in two tiers — a city-wide, strategic tier and a local tier. City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), whilst local administration is carried out by 33 smaller districts.

The GLA is responsible for strategic planning, policing, the fire service and transport. It consists of two elected parts — the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, who scrutinise the Mayor's decisions and can accept or reject his budget proposals each year. The GLA is a recent organisation, having been set up in 2000 to replace the similar Greater London Council (GLC) which was abolished in 1986.

The current Mayor of London is Ken Livingstone, who is in his second term of office. He was elected in 2000 as an independent candidate and again in 2004 as a Labour candidate. Ken Livingstone was also the leader of the GLC when it was abolished.

The 33 local administrations are the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. They are responsible for local services not overseen by the GLA (except for health, which is nationally-controlled and administered in London by five Strategic Health Authorities). The boroughs are controlled by resident-elected local councils, whilst the City is run by the historic Corporation of London, which is elected by both residents and businesses. The City has its own police force distinct from the GLA-controlled Metropolitan Police (or "Met").

At a national level, London is represented in Parliament by 74 MPs who correspond to local parliamentary constituencies (for a list of London constituencies, see List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London). London is the centre of national government, which is located around the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Many government offices are located close to Parliament, particularly along Whitehall and including the Prime Minister's famous residence on Downing Street.

London has "sister city" agreements with the following cities:

• New York City since 2001
• Moscow
• Berlin (since 2000)
• Paris
• Beijing since 2006
• Tokyo concluded 2006

Economy

Further information: [[:Economy of the United Kingdom]]

Leadenhall Market, in use at this site since the 14th Century.

London is an important centre in the international economy. As Europe's largest city economy, it generated $365 billion in 2004 (17% of the UK's Gross Domestic Product) although this only refers to the city proper. The economic impact of the entire London metropolitan area is far higher, year-on-year accounting for approximately 30% of the UK's GDP or $642 billion (estimate) in 2004.

London's biggest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. The City is the largest financial centre in London, home to banks, brokers, insurers and legal and accounting firms. A second, smaller financial district is developing at Canary Wharf to the east which includes the global headquarters of HSBC, Reuters, Barclays and the largest law firm in the world, Clifford Chance. 35% of global currency transactions occurred in London as of 2005 (an average daily turnover of $613 billion), with more US dollars traded in London than New York, and more Euros traded there than every city in Europe combined.

London is host to many company headquarters. More than half of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies are headquartered in central London. Over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area. Media and professional services are important sectors.

Much of the British media is concentrated in London (see Media in London). The BBC is a key employer, and many other broadcasters also have headquarters around the city. Many national newspapers are edited in London, having traditionally been associated with Fleet Street in the City, but they are now primarily based around Canary Wharf. The post-production industry in Soho is also strong, as is publishing.

Tourism is one of London's largest industries and employed the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003, whilst annual expenditure by tourists is around £15bn. London is a popular destination for tourists, attracting 27m overnight-stay visitors every year.

From once being the largest port in the world, the Port of London is now only the third-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 50 million tonnes of cargo each year. The main docks are now at Tilbury, which is outside the boundary of Greater London.

Transport

Main article: Transport and infrastructure in London

Paddington Station, one of Central London's main railway terminals

Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, but the mayor's financial control is limited. The public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is one of the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is attempting to address, including £7 billion (€10 billion) of improvements planned for the Olympics.

The centrepiece of the public transport network is the London Underground, the oldest metro system in the world, upon which nearly 1 billion journeys are made each year. The Underground serves the central area and most suburbs to the north of the Thames, whilst those to the south are served by an extensive suburban rail network. Commuter and intercity railways generally do not cross the city, instead running into fourteen terminal stations scattered around its historic centre. The London bus network caters for most local journeys and carries even more passengers than the Underground.

Although the vast majority of journeys involving central London are made by public transport, travel in outer London is car-dominated. An inner ring road (the North and South Circular) and an orbital motorway (the M25) are intersected by a number of busy radial routes — but very few motorways penetrate inner London.

London is an international transport hub, with five sizeable airports and a cross-channel rail service. Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic; such traffic is also handled at Gatwick, whilst Stansted and Luton cater mostly for low-cost short-haul flights. London City, the smallest and most central airport, is popular with European business travellers. Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium.

In 2003 the London congestion charge was introduced in an attempt to curb the growing traffic congestion problems of the city. Primarily targetting individual commuters, motorists excluding cycles are required to pay £8 per day to enter the centre of London.

Demographics

Main article: [[:Demographics of London and Religion in London]]

See also: History of London § Population

Hindu temple at Neasden, the largest temple of Hinduism in Europe.

With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming the most populated city in the world for a period in the late 19th century. Some 7,420,600 people were estimated to live in London as of 2004 at an overall density of 4,697 people per square kilometre.

It has historically been known as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, and this continues in the modern day, with more than 300 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities with a population of more than 10,000 living in London. In the 2001 census, it was shown that 40% of London's population classified themselves as non-British, with 29% classified as non-white.

In terms of religion, London is historically dominated by Christianity, and consequently has a large number of churches, particularly in the City. The famous St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres, whilst important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is not to be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, a relatively recent edifice which is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales.

Despite this dominance, London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu and Jewish communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham; the most important Muslim edifice is London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park. A large Hindu community exists in Southall, West London, and has constructed the largest Hindu temple in Europe, Neasden Temple. The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant Jewish communities in Stamford Hill and Golders Green in North London.

Society & culture

Education & institutions

The Royal School of Mines entrance at Imperial College London, part of the University of London

Main article: Education in London

London has the largest student population of any British city (about 378,000), although not the highest per capita. It is home to a diverse number of universities, colleges and schools, and is a leading centre of research and development. Most primary & secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England.

With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the United Kingdom and in Europe. It comprises over 50 colleges and institutes with a high degree of autonomy. Constituent colleges have their own admissions procedures, and are effectively universities in their own right, although all degrees are awarded by the University of London rather than the individual colleges. Its most prestigious colleges are King's, LSE, Imperial, SOAS and UCL; while smaller member institutes include Queen Mary, the Institute of Education, and Birkbeck College, which specialises in part time and mature students.

There are other universities, such as UeL, the University of Westminster and London South Bank University, not part of the University of London, some of which were polytechnics until UK polytechnics were granted university status in 1992, and others which were founded much earlier.

London is home to a number of important museums and other institutions which are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum (dealing with fashion and design) are clustered in South Kensington's "museum quarter", whilst the British Museum houses important artefacts from around the world. The British Library at St Pancras is the most important library in the country, housing 150 million items. The city also houses extensive art collections, primarily in the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

Style and fashion

London is one of the main fashion capitals (alongside Paris, New York City and Milan) and is home to some of the finest haute couture in the world. Burberry, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Stella McCartney are all famous London designers. London Fashion Week takes place twice a year.

Some of the world's most renowned department stores are based in London including Harrods, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols. The Knightsbridge district and the Mayfair district (which includes Bond Street) are home to many exclusive designer stores and boutiques. The famous street markets of London, that shot to fame in the 1960s, are also well known and include Carnaby Street, Notting Hill and Camden Town. Traditionally the elite men's tailors of London were centred around Savile Row and several high profile English fashion designers of today (such as Alexander McQueen) spent their early days in its service.

The East End has become a new cool area for fashionable stores and bars, especially in the Spitalfields, Hoxton and Brick Lane areas.

Literature

Main article: London in fiction

London has been the setting for many works of literature. The two writers who are perhaps most closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous among other things for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets is a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London.

James Boswell's Life of Johnson is the most notable biography in English. Most of it takes place in London, and is the source of Johnson's famous aphorism: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

The earlier (1722) A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague. Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the afore-mentioned Dickens novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes stories. The 1933 novel Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell describes life in poverty in both cities. Among modern writers, perhaps the most pervasively influenced by the city is Peter Ackroyd in works such as London: The Biography, The Lambs of London and Hawksmoor.

Film

Further information: [[:London in film]]

London hosts a number of performing arts schools, some of which boast many famous alumni. Such schools include the Central School of Speech and Drama (whose past students include Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier), the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (educators of Jim Broadbent and Donald Sutherland amongst others) and the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (past students including Joan Collins and Roger Moore).

Traditionally, London has had a thriving film industry, based around Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios, both just outside West London. Their most famous productions include the James Bond films along with two of the Aliens films, Batman and Superman amongst others. Ealing Studios in west London, which claim to be the oldest film studios in the world, have produced a lengthy number of comedy films (the Ealing comedies), as well as more famous films such as Notting Hill along with music videos.

Some films have used London as a critical element of their story. Adaptations of Dickens and the Sherlock Holmes novels are numerous, depicting Victorian London (often as a foggy, lamp-lit world). Crime films have used the London underworld to great effect, ranging from the 1960s The Krays and Let Him Have It to more modern films such as Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which put the grittier parts of London on show, in stark contrast to the upmarket image projected by the popular Notting Hill. Disaster films use imagery of a deserted or decaying London as a contrast to its real-life bustling streets, such as Danny Boyle's horror film 28 Days Later.

Parades & events

File:Bpalacejack.700px.jpg

Buckingham Palace with the Union Flag projected onto it

See also: Category:London events

The Lord Mayor's Show is one of London's oldest parades, and celebrates the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the City each November. Rather less formally, the colourful Notting Hill Carnival is Europe's biggest street carnival, taking place in Notting Hill in West London, where many Caribbean immigrants settled in the 1950s. A newer tradition is the New Year's Day Parade which raises money for charity. At the other end of the spectrum, Trooping the Colour is a very formal military pageant to celebrate the (official) Queen's Birthday.

Leisure

London offers a wide variety of leisure activities to residents and visitors alike. Popular shopping and entertainment venues are concentrated in the West End, whilst speciality shopping and markets are scattered around the city. London also boasts an impressive array of parks and open spaces, along with several stadia.

Entertainment and shopping

See also: London markets

London's Chinatown, near Leicester Square.

Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district.

A short distance to the east, Covent Garden is a popular tourist destination with its covered market and speciality shops, as well as the Avenue of Stars — London's answer to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, honouring those who have made notable achievements in the entertainments industry. On the northern edge of the West End is the main shopping district, which includes the busy Oxford Street and its upmarket neighbours, Bond Street and Regent Street. Knightsbridge, not far to the southwest, is home to the famously posh Harrods department store and many boutiques.

London also boasts many markets, including the gastronomically popular Borough Market, the famous Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill, the popular Camden Markets, and Petticoat Lane and Brick Lane in Shoreditch.

Parks and gardens

See also: Category:Parks and open spaces in London

London is well endowed with open spaces. The eight Royal Parks of London, covering over 5,000 acres of land, are former royal hunting grounds which are now open to the public. Four of these — Green Park, St James's Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens — form a green strand through the western side of the city centre, whilst a fifth, Regent's Park is just to the north. Many of the smaller green spaces in central London are garden squares which were built for the private use of the residents of the fashionable districts, but in some cases are now open to the public.

The remaining (and largest) three Royal Parks are in the suburbs — Greenwich Park to the south east, and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to the south west. In addition to these spaces, a large number of council-owned parks were developed between the mid 19th century and the Second World War, including Victoria Park, Alexandra Park and Battersea Park. Other major open spaces in the suburbs, such as Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common and Epping Forest, have a more informal and semi-natural character, having originally been countryside areas protected against surrounding urbanisation. Some cemeteries provide extensive green land within the city — notably Highgate Cemetery, burial place of Karl Marx and Michael Faraday amongst others.

Completing London's array of green spaces are two paid entrance gardens — the leader is the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, whilst the royal residence of Hampton Court Palace also has a celebrated garden.

Sport

Main article: Sport in London

London has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948. In July 2005 London was chosen to host the Games in 2012, making it the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times. London was also the host of the British Empire Games in 1934.

The most popular spectator sport in London is football, and London has several of England's leading football clubs. Three of the UK's biggest — Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur — are in London, as are several other famous clubs, such as Charlton Athletic, Fulham and West Ham United.

Wembley Stadium (which is currently being rebuilt) has traditionally been the home of the English national football team, and serves as the venue for the FA Cup final, as well as rugby league's Challenge Cup final. Twickenham Stadium in west London is the national rugby union stadium, and three Guinness Premiership sides (London Irish, Saracens and Wasps) all originate from London, although they are now all based just outside Greater London. When opened in August 2006, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium will become the largest club ground in London, and the second biggest in England after Manchester United's Old Trafford.

Two Test cricket grounds are located in London: Lord's, home of Middlesex, in St John's Wood, and The Oval, home of Surrey, in Kennington. The well-known Wimbledon Tennis Championships are also held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon.

London hosts the annual London Marathon, one of the largest mass-participation marathons in the world, and the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race.

Architecture

See also: Tall buildings in London

The British Museum, one of London's top tourist attractions

London is not characterised by any particular architectural style, having accumulated its buildings over a long period of time. Few structures predate the Great Fire of 1666, except for the Tower of London and a few scattered Tudor survivors in the City.

In itself, the City contains a wide variety of styles, progressing through Wren's late 17th century churches and the financial institutions of the 18th and 19th century such as the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England, to the early 20th century Old Bailey (Britain's central criminal court) and the 1960s Barbican Estate. Perhaps the most notable recent buildings are the 1980s skyscraper Tower 42, the Lloyd's building with services running along the outside of the structure, and the 2004 Swiss Re building, known as the "Gherkin".

London's generally low-rise nature makes these skyscrapers and others such as 1 Canada Square and its neighbours at Canary Wharf and the BT Tower in Fitzrovia very noticeable from a distance. High-rise development is banned at certain sites if it would obstruct protected views of St Paul's Cathedral. Nevertheless, there are plans for more skyscrapers in central London (see Tall buildings in London), including the 72-story "Shard of Glass", which will be one of the tallest buildings in Europe.

Other notable modern buildings include City Hall in Southwark with its distinctive ovular shape, the British Library in Somers Town, the Great Court of the British Museum, and the striking Millennium Dome next to the Thames east of Canary Wharf. The disused (but soon to be rejuvenated) 1907 Battersea Power Station by the river in the southwest is a well-known landmark, whilst some railway termini are excellent examples of Victorian architecture, most notably St Pancras and Paddington (at least internally).

Several notable monuments pay homage to people and events in the city. The Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area whilst commemorating the Great Fire of London which originated nearby. Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, at the north and south ends of Park Lane respectively, have royal connections, as do the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column is a nationally-recognised monument in Trafalgar Square, providing a focal point for the whole central area.

See also

Tower Bridge crosses the River Thames next to the Tower of London. See also: Sequence showing the bridge opening.

• 2012 Summer Olympics
• Greater London
• 7 July 2005 London bombings
• Agriculture in London
• Hotels in London
• Tourism in London
• List of churches and cathedrals of London
• List of heads of London government
• List of places in London
• List of television shows set in London
• London in fiction
• London markets
• London postal districts
• London School of Economics
• Londonistan
• Mayor of London
• Photographs of London
• Subterranean London
• Tall buildings in London
• University College London
• University of London
• Walking in London

External links

• Template:Wikitravel
• Mayor of London, London Assembly and the Greater London Authority - Official city government site
• Transport for London (TfL) - city transport authority
  • London Underground - part of TfL
• London 2012 Olympic Games
• Office for National Statistics: Focus on London 2003 - compendium of official statistics about London
• The London Plan 2004 - city spatial development strategy