London is not really a city. It is a collection of villages that grew into each other and never quite lost their edges, which is why Londoners describe where they live by neighbourhood rather than by district number, and why the character changes completely every twenty minutes’ walk.
The two Londons
The City of London is the original Roman settlement, about one square mile, and it is not part of Greater London administratively. It has its own Lord Mayor (not the Mayor of London, a permanent source of confusion), its own police force, and voting rights for businesses as well as residents. Around 8,000 people live there and hundreds of thousands work there.
Greater London is everything else: 32 boroughs, nine million people, and the responsibility of the Mayor of London.
By tradition the monarch pauses at Temple Bar on the City boundary and is offered the Lord Mayor’s Sword of State — a ritual asking of permission that dates from a time when the City’s independence from the Crown was a live question.
The shape of it
The Thames splits the city, and the split matters. North London and South London maintain a rivalry that is largely a joke and partly not — South London historically had far fewer Tube stations, which is why some North Londoners still talk about crossing the river as an expedition.
The rough geography: the West End for theatre and shopping, the City for finance, Westminster for government, the East End for the historic working-class districts now heavily gentrified, and Canary Wharf for the towers that finance built when the City ran out of room.
Two thousand years
Founded by the Romans as Londinium around AD 43, burned by Boudica, abandoned, refounded, and repeatedly destroyed since. The Great Fire of 1666 consumed most of the medieval city in four days; the Blitz destroyed vast areas again in 1940-41. Each time it was rebuilt on essentially the same street plan, which is why the road layout still follows medieval lanes and makes no sense whatsoever.
What surprises visitors
- It is green. Nearly half of Greater London is open space, and the eight Royal Parks alone cover 5,000 acres.
- It is low. Strict sightline protections keep views of St Paul’s clear, so the skyline is scattered rather than uniform.
- It is diverse. Over 300 languages are spoken, and around 40% of residents were born outside the UK.
- It is expensive. Housing costs are among the highest in the world, and Londoners will tell you about it at length.
Getting around
The Tube for distance, buses for sightseeing, and walking for anything under a mile — which is more journeys than people expect, because the Tube map lies about distance. Tap a contactless card for everything; fares cap automatically.