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Main articles: 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
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 Thames, which is a navigable river. The river had a major influence on the development of the city. London was founded on the north bank of the Thames and, for many centuries, there was only a single bridge, London Bridge. As a result, the main focus of the city was on the north side of the Thames. When more bridges were built in the 18th century, the city expanded in all directions as the mostly flat or gently rolling countryside around the Thames floodplain presented no obstacle to growth. Today, there are a few hills in London, examples being Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill, they provide fine prospects of the city centre without significantly affecting the directions of the spread of the city and London is therefore roughly circular.
The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river than it is today 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 and 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 in early-2005 it was suggested that a ten-mile-long barrier further downstream might be required to deal with the flood risk in the future [1].
London has a Sydney. London's large built-up area creates a microclimate, with heat stored by the city's buildings: sometimes temperatures are 5°C (9°F) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas.
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 The British Museum, one of London's top tourist attractions
The British Museum, one of London's top tourist attractions
 Buckingham Palace with the Union Flag projected onto it
Buckingham Palace with the Union Flag projected onto it
Today Greater London comprises the City of London and the 32 London boroughs (including the City of Westminster). 12 of these boroughs are defined as Inner London, the remaining 20 defined as Outer London. The dominant centre of activity in London is the City of Westminster (including the West End) which is the main cultural, entertainment and consumer district, the location of most of London's major corporate headquarters outside of the financial services sector, and the centre of the UK's national government. The City of London (also known as the "Square Mile") is at the centre of international finance, and is Europe’s main business centre. The headquarters of more than 100 of Europe’s 500 largest companies are all in London. The London foreign exchange market is the largest in the world, with an average daily turnover of $504 billion, more than the York City">New York and Tokyo exchanges combined. While very busy during the working week, most parts of the City tend to be quiet at weekends, since it is primarily a non-residential area.
London is one of the most visited cities on earth. Tourist attractions are located mainly in Central London, comprising the historic City of London; the West End with its many cinemas, bars, clubs, theaters, shops and restaurants; the City of Westminster with Westminster Abbey, the royal residences of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and St. James's Palace; the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with its museums (the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum) and Hyde Park. Other important tourist attractions include St Paul's Cathedral, the National Gallery; the South Bank and Bankside areas of Southwark with the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern; London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and the Tate Britain on the Embankment; and the British Museum in Bloomsbury. There are many other places of interest across the city.
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 The city's largest ethnic minorities. See also The Guardian newspaper's January 2005 survey and maps of ethnic and religious diversity in London
The city's largest ethnic minorities. See also The Guardian newspaper's January 2005 survey and maps of ethnic and religious diversity in London
 London by night as seen from the International Space Station
London by night as seen from the International Space Station
London had about 860,000 people in Japan), at the time the largest city in the world, has been estimated at 1 million to 1.25 million people. London was the most populous city in the world from 1825 until 1925, when it was overtaken by York City">New York.
Residents of London are known as Londoners. The city and the 32 boroughs (some 610 square miles or 1,579 km˛) had an estimated 7,429,200 inhabitants as of July 1, 2004 (Moscow (10,415,400 inhabitants in 2005).
In the 2001 census, 71% of these seven million people classed their ethnic group as white (classified as British White (60%), Irish White (3%) or "Other White" (8%) in the 2001 census), 12% as Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani or "Other Asian" (mostly Sri Lankan and other South Asian ethnicities), 5% as black African, 5% as black Caribbean, 1% as "Other Black", 3% as mixed race, 1% as Chinese and 2% as Other (mostly Filipino, Japanese, and Vietnamese). The largest religious groupings are Christian (58.2%), No Religion (15.8%), Muslim (7.2%), Hindu (4.1%), Jewish (2.1%), and Sikh (1.5%). 21.8% of inhabitants were born outside the European Union. The Irish are the largest foreign-born group in London (numbering approximately 200,000).
In January 2005, The Guardian newspaper published a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity [3], which claimed that there were more than 300 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities of more than 10,000 population in London.
The population of the urban area of London at the 2001 census, as calculated by the Office for National Statistics, was 8,278,251 inhabitants [4]. London's urban area is the third-largest in Europe, behind Moscow (11.7 million inhabitants in 2000) and Paris (9.6 million inhabitants in 1999).
Unlike many other countries, the UK does not provide national metropolitan area population figures based on commuter percentages and economic influence. This is left up to each individual city to define. This has created some confusion when comparing London's true metropolitan area region with others around the world. It is helped even less by confusion of the term "Greater London" with the political entity of the City of London, which is often confused with the metropolitan area.
Without a specific national reference to London's metropolitan area, different sources provide alternate definitions. One such definition describes the London metropolitan area (6,267 square miles, 16,043 km˛) with a population of 13,945,000 (in 2001) [5]; larger than the combined populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If this definition is followed, then London is the largest metropolitan area of Europe, along with Moscow (whose metropolitan area has somewhere around 14 million people), and above Paris (11.5 million people in the metropolitan area in 2004). However, other definitions which exclude the outer areas, put the figure at around 12 to 12.5 million people.
In 2004, the Greater London Authority defined a "metropolitan region" centred on London with a population of 18 million. This region extends to cover the commuter belt, which includes much of South East England and part of the East of England, including satellite cities such as Brighton and Oxford [6],[7],[8].
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 Bishopsgate, City of London
Bishopsgate, City of London
London is a major engine of the global economy. As Europe's largest city economy, it generated $365 billion in 2004 (17% of the UK's Australia. London is also a large financial exporter making it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments.
Further information: Economy of the United Kingdom and List of countries by GDP (nominal)
The City of London is the largest financial centre in London, home to banks, brokers, insurers and legal and accounting firms. A second financial district is developing at Canary Wharf to the east of central London. This is smaller than City of London, but has equally prestigious occupants, including the global headquarters of HSBC, Reuters, Barclays and the largest law firm in the world, Clifford Chance.
Non-financial business headquarters are located throughout central London. Some are in City of London, but more are located further west, in and around Mayfair, St. James's, the Strand and elsewhere. More than half of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE) are headquartered in central London, and more than 70% in London's metropolitan area. London is a leading global centre for professional services, and media and creative industries. 31% of global currency transactions occur in London, with more US Dollars traded in London than New York, and more Euros traded there than every city in Europe combined.
Tourism is one of the UK's largest industries, and in 2003 employed the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London [11].
While the United Kingdom — rather than largest in the world, as it once was — it still handles 50 million tonnes of cargo each year. The main docks are now at Tilbury, which is outside the boundary of Greater London.
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 Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the University of London's central administrative offices and its library
Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the University of London's central administrative offices and its library
Main article: Education in London
London is home to a diverse number of universities, colleges and schools, and is a leading centre of research and development. This includes prominent universities such as Imperial College London, King's College London, School of Oriental and African Studies, University College London, the London School of Economics and London Business School.
London has the largest student population of any British city, although not the highest per capita. Universities in London may be divided into two groups.
First, the federal 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.
Secondly, there are other universities 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.
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With computers and technology playing a key part in the economy, companies have created a large number of datacentres within Greater London, many of which are in the Docklands area. As a result, London now hosts key parts of the Internet, including LINX (London INternet eXchange), the largest Internet Exchange Point in the world carrying over 82Gb/sec (12/2005) of internet traffic - an estimated 96% of UK internet traffic.
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 A view of St Paul's Cathedral from Ludgate Hill
A view of St Paul's Cathedral from Ludgate Hill
When St. Augustine to bring England into the Catholic fold in 597, it was intended that the envoy should become "Archbishop of London", as the city was remembered as the capital of Roman Britain. In the event, the saint received his most hospitable reception in the Kingdom of Kent, and the archiepiscopal see was founded at Canterbury. Nonetheless London has been at the centre of England's religious life for much of its history, and each Archbishop of Canterbury has traditionally spent much of his time in London, where he has an official residence at Lambeth Palace. London's two Anglican bishops are the Bishop of London, whose see is London north of the Thames, and whose throne is in London's grandest church, the baroque St Paul's Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren), and the Bishop of Southwark, who tends to Anglicans south of the river. Important national and royal ceremonies are divided between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey, a gothic church on the scale of a cathedral.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster is generally regarded as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Other traditional Protestant denominations whose headquarters are in London include the United Reformed Church and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Many of London's immigrant groups have established denominations in the city, for example Greek Orthodoxy. In addition various evangelical churches exist.
London is the most important centre of Islam in the United Kingdom. Two London boroughs contain the highest proportion of Muslims in the UK: Tower Hamlets and Newham. The London Central Mosque is a well-known landmark on the edge of Regent's Park, and there are many other mosques in the city. London also has the largest Hindu population outside of India. Southall, in West London is home to many Hindus. Hare Krishna monks are a common sight in the city centre and the Hindu temple at Neasden, Neasden Temple is the largest Hindu temple outside of India, built in the traditional style. Much of the enormously elaborate and intricate marble sculpture used in the building was carved in India. Over two-thirds of British Jews live in London, which ranks thirteenth in the world as a Jewish population centre [12].
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 Trafalgar SquareFull panoramic photo
Trafalgar Square
Full panoramic photo
 The London Eye is a recent addition to the London skyline
The London Eye is a recent addition to the London skyline
Buckingham Palace
Camden Town
Chinatown
Covent Garden
Downing Street
Horse Guards Parade
Leicester Square
The London Dungeon
London Aquarium
London Eye
London Planetarium
London Zoo
Madame Tussaud's
Piccadilly Circus
South Bank
Theatreland
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
Trafalgar Square
List of hotels in London
Further information: Hotels in London
Buildings and monuments
Further information: Tall buildings in London
 Paternoster Square in the City of London
Paternoster Square in the City of London
Canada Square">1 Canada Square (the centrepiece of Canary Wharf)
30 St Mary Axe (Home of Swiss Re, and also known as "The Gherkin" or even the "Erotic Gherkin")
Albert Memorial
Alexandra Palace
Bank of England
Battersea Power Station
British Library
Broadcasting House
BT Tower (Formerly known as the Post Office Tower and Telecom Tower)
Buckingham Palace
Bush House
City Hall
Clarence House
Cleopatra's Needle
Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain
Hampton Court Palace
Lambeth Palace
Kensington Palace
Lloyd's building
Marble Arch
Millennium Dome
The Monument (to the Great Fire of London)
Nelson's Column
 The Palace of Westminster seen across the River Thames.
The Palace of Westminster seen across the River Thames.
National Portrait Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
Palace of Westminster (Parliament and tower containing Big Ben)
Royal Albert Hall
Royal Courts of Justice
Royal Exchange
Royal Festival Hall
Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Greenwich Meridian
Royal Opera House
Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden
St Pancras Station
St Paul's Cathedral
Somerset House
Syon House
Tate Gallery (now known as Tate Britain)
Tate Modern (formerly Bankside Power Station)
Temple of Mithras
Tower 42 (formerly known as the Natwest Tower)
Westminster Abbey
Museums and galleries
Further information: #Museums and #Art
Markets and shopping areas
 Harrods store at night-time, February 2005
Harrods store at night-time, February 2005
West End
Knightsbridge
Borough Market
Portobello Road Market
Petticoat Lane Market
Brick Lane Market
Covent Garden
Harrods
See also: London markets
Most of London's council-owned parks were developed between the mid 19th century and the Second World War. Examples include Victoria Park, Alexandra Park and Battersea Park. Some of the other major open spaces in the suburbs, such as Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common and Epping Forest have a more informal, semi-natural character. The leading paid entrance garden in London is the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. Hampton Court Palace also has a celebrated garden.
Other places of interest
The Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court with famous trials but inconvenient for the unprepared tourist since personal items prohibited include bags and mobile phones.
Tyburn was the location for many infamous executions by hanging. Now near the site of Marble Arch and Hyde Park.
Battersea Power Station and the Millennium Dome are two architecturally interesting buildings which currently stand empty. However mixed use developments centred on both buildings are due to commence in 2005. The Millennium Dome will become an indoor sports hall, and Battersea Power Station will become a shopping and leisure facility.
The Avenue of Stars is a walkway based on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honouring those who have made notable achievements in the entertainments industry.
Highgate Cemetery is an interesting cemetery where many famous people are buried, for example Karl Marx and | |
