London Attractions

London

National capital, United Kingdom

London, city, capital of the United Kingdom. It is among the oldest of the world’s great cities—its history spanning nearly two millennia—and one of the most cosmopolitan. By far Britain’s largest metropolis, it is also the country’s economic, transportation, and cultural centre.

London is situated in southeastern England, lying astride the River Thames some 50 miles (80 km) upstream from its estuary on the North Sea. In satellite photographs the metropolis can be seen to sit compactly in a Green Belt of open land, with its principal ring highway (the M25 motorway) threaded around it at a radius of about 20 miles (30 km) from the city centre. The growth of the built-up area was halted by strict town planning controls in the mid-1950s. Its physical limits more or less correspond to the administrative and statistical boundaries separating the metropolitan county of Greater London from the “home counties” of Kent, Surrey, and Berkshire (in clockwise order) to the south of the river and Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Essex to the north. The historic counties of Kent, Hertfordshire, and Essex extend in area beyond the current administrative counties with the same names to include substantial parts of the metropolitan county of Greater London, which was formed in 1965. Most of Greater London south of the Thames belongs to the historic county of Surrey, while most of Greater London north of the Thames belongs historically to the county of Middlesex. Area Greater London, 607 square miles (1,572 square km). Pop. (2001) Greater London, 7,172,091; (2011 prelim.) Greater London, 8,173,941.

Character Of The City

If the border of the metropolis is well defined, its internal structure is immensely complicated and defies description. Indeed, London’s defining characteristic is an absence of overall form. It is physically a polycentric city, with many core districts and no clear hierarchy among them. London has at least two (and sometimes many more) of everything: cities, mayors, dioceses, cathedrals, chambers of commerce, police forces, opera houses, orchestras, and universities. In every aspect it functions as a compound or confederal metropolis.

Historically, London grew from three distinct centres: the walled settlement founded by the Romans on the banks of the Thames in the 1st century CE, today known as the City of London, “the Square Mile,” or simply “the City”; facing it across the bridge on the lower gravels of the south bank, the suburb of Southwark; and a mile upstream, on a great southward bend of the river, the City of Westminster. The three settlements had distinct and complementary roles. London, “the City,” developed as a centre of trade, commerce, and banking. Southwark, “the Borough,” became known for its monasteries, hospitals, inns, fairs, pleasure houses, and the great theatres of Elizabethan London—the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), and the world-famous Globe (1599). Westminster grew up around an abbey, which brought a royal palace and, in its train, the entire central apparatus of the British state—its legislature, executive, and judiciary. It also boasts spacious parks and the most fashionable districts for living and shopping—the West End. The north-bank settlements merged into a single built-up area in the early decades of the 17th century, but they did not combine into a single enlarged municipality. The City of London was unique among Europe’s capital cities in retaining its medieval boundaries. Westminster and other suburbs were left to develop their own administrative structures—a pattern replicated a hundred times over as London exploded in size, becoming the prototype of the modern metropolis.

The population of London already exceeded one million by 1800. A century later it reached 6.5 million. The city’s physical expansion was not constrained either by military defenses (a highly influential factor on continental Europe) or by the intervention of state power (so evident in the town planning of Paris, Vienna, Rome, and other capitals of continental Europe). Although much of the land around London was owned by the aristocracy, the church, and other institutions with feudal roots, its development was the work of unfettered capitalism driven by the housing demands of the rising middle class. Free-ranging building speculation engulfed villages and small towns over an ever-widening radius with each improvement in transport technology and purchasing power. The solidly built-up area of London measured some 5 miles (8 km) from east to west in 1750, 15 miles (24 km) in 1850, and 30 miles (50 km) in 1950.

Landscape

City site

The landscape of southeastern England is shaped by an undulating bed of thick white chalk, consisting of a pure limestone speckled with flint nodules in the upper beds. Under the chalk are an incomplete layer of Upper Greensand (a Cretaceous rock; 65 to 145 million years old) and a 200-foot- (60-metre-) thick waterproof layer of Gault clay. Beneath them in turn lies London’s true geologic foundation, a stable platform of old hard rocks of Paleozoic age (about 250 to 540 million years old). This basement is buried nearly 1,000 feet (300 metres) below London, sloping away southward to depths more than 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) below the English Channel.

The London Basin is a wedge-shaped declivity bounded to the south by the chalk of North Downs, running north to south, and to the north by the chalk outcrop of the Chiltern Hills, running up in a northeasterly direction from the Goring Gap. The chalk floor of the basin carries a sequence of clays and sands of the Neogene and Paleogene periods (those 2.6 to 65 million years old), chiefly the stiff, gray-blue London Clay, which lies up to 433 feet (132 metres) thick under the metropolis and supports most of its tunnels and deeper foundations. The subsoil is topped with deposits of gravel up to 33 feet (10 metres) deep, consisting mostly of pebbles with flint, quartz, and quartzite. There are also patchy deposits of brick earth, a mixture of clay and sand often excavated for building materials. Lastly, modern London is built on “made ground,” the deposits of centuries of continuous human occupation, which have accumulated on average between 10 and 16 feet (3 and 5 metres) in the oldest urban nuclei of the City and Westminster.

Climate

Continuous records of London’s weather extend back to 1659, with specific data for wind direction available since 1723 and for precipitation since 1697. The fluctuations show a cyclic pattern, with troughs of hard winters and cold springs during the 1740s, 1770s, 1809–17, 1836–45, and 1875–82 followed by a long upswing after 1919, in which London’s climate became warmer, largely because of milder weather in the autumn months.

Modern London has the equable climate of South East England, with mild winters and temperate summers. The average daytime air temperature is 52 °F (11 °C), with 42 °F (5.5 °C) in January and 65 °F (18 °C) in July. Statistics show that the sun shines, however briefly, on five days out of six. Londoners shed their winter overcoats in April or May and begin to dress warmly again in late October. The prevailing wind is west-southwest. Because of the sheltering effect of the Chiltern Hills and North Downs, the city has slightly less rainfall than the Home Counties. In an average year one can expect 200 dry days out of 365 and a precipitation total of about 23 inches (585 mm) evenly distributed across the 12 months.

The incidence of sleet and snow is less predictable. It varies greatly from year to year around a long-run statistical average of 20 days. The snowiest winter on record was 1695, with snow falling on 70 days. When snow does fall (generally only in the first three months of the year), it rarely accumulates. Semihardy plants can winter over in London gardens, though only in the most sheltered and sunny spot will a London vine bear grapes sweet enough for wine making.

Climatic variations across the metropolis show very clearly that there is a heat island created by concentration of buildings, internal-combustion engines, and heating and air-conditioning plants. Temperatures are higher toward the centre of the city, and the air is drier. Overall, the average difference in minimum temperatures between London and the surrounding country is 3.4 °F (1.9 °C), but on individual nights the difference can be as much as 16.2 °F (9 °C). The chemical, mechanical, and thermal effects of the city also affect wind speed and precipitation. Downpours of heavy rain are liable to be more intense within London because pollution particles act as condensation nuclei for water vapour.

City layout

London’s complicated topography can be made simple by means of three basic patterns. First, there is the undulating line of the Thames separating northern from southern London. For historical reasons, most important destinations lie north of the river. The south is essentially an intricate patchwork of residential districts joined by miles of conventional through streets. It has no fast through roads.

In addition, London differs from east to west. The waters of the Thames and the prevailing winds flow eastward. Therefore, shipping, heavy haulage, manufacturing, and labouring districts developed downstream in the East End, while the affluent and leisured classes built their homes and pursued their pleasures in the West End. This social gradient was reinforced by the location of the royal palaces at Westminster, Kensington, Richmond, and (beyond London’s boundary) Windsor. Partly in consequence, the western sector has a series of tranquil and elegant open spaces on either side of the river, from St. James’s Park, by the prime minister’s house at No. 10 Downing Street, through Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Battersea Park, Wimbledon Common, Richmond Park, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Richmond riverbank, Hampton Court Park, and Bushey Park. Their landscapes soften the effect of noise pollution under the flight path of Heathrow Airport, on the western border. Proximity to one of the world’s busiest international airports has itself reinforced the favoured position of western London.

The east-west divide is entrenched equally in the physical fabric of London and in the psychology of Londoners. Its significance, however, began to diminish in the later years of the 20th century as port and manufacturing activity declined and was replaced by white-collar work and residents. This process was accelerated in 1981–98 when the London Docklands Development Corporation undertook the regeneration of a vast tract of derelict docklands at the eastern end of the city—an area that included Wapping, Limehouse, the Isle of Dogs, the Royal Docks, Beckton, Surrey Docks, and Bermondsey Riverside. (See also London Docklands.)

Finally, overlying the north-south and east-west distinctions is a simple concentric ring pattern that reflects the historical phases of London’s growth. At the centre is the area familiar to visitors—the City of London, a 1.1-square-mile (2.8-square-km) municipal corporation and borough of London, with its offices, shops, and public buildings. The first ring surrounding that area, the suburban belt—known for statistical purposes as Inner London—developed from the late 18th century until the beginning of World War I. There terraced houses predominate, and the building scale is domestic and intimate, except where the original units were replaced by higher-density rental housing built by local councils in areas of World War II bomb damage or postwar clearance. The third zone—Outer London—consists of 20th-century suburban housing, chiefly created in a short, intensive building boom in 1925–39. The most common building type is the semidetached unit, a distinctively British compromise between row housing and the freestanding homestead. The Metropolitan Green Belt forms a final concentric ring, defining the shape of the whole capital.

People

From a total population of 5.6 million in 1891, London grew by 3 million to its peak magnitude at the outbreak of World War II. For several decades after the war, its population shrank by approximately 2 million, to some 6.6 million in the mid-1980s. The decline occurred for reasons common to all large cities of its type. Increasing leisure and holiday time, shorter working hours, and access to the automobile freed people from the ties of proximity to their place of work. Families moved out of town in search of a better quality of life. Firms moved for similar reasons, seeking more spacious and accessible sites. As the remaining population spread itself more comfortably in the dwelling stock, the three-generation household became a rarity except among ethnic minorities. Mass housing initiatives and individual “gentrification” of terraced houses tended equally to reduce population density.

The steepest fall occurred in the densest areas. Inner London boroughs lost more than one-third of their population in the postwar decades. In the 1980s the slump was eased by a fall in the rate of out-migration and a rise in the birth rates of new immigrant families. London’s population began slowly growing again in the 1990s, and by 2000 it had surpassed seven million; it is thus comparable in size to New York City, though the latter metropolis sits in a wider urban region with approximately three times the population of Greater London.

Economy

London has been described elsewhere in this article as a polycentric city. The map of Elizabethan London shows that fields and the river separated distinct centres: the City of London with its shipping, trade, and crafts; Southwark with its gardens, hospitals, and theatres; and the royal court at Westminster. The economy of contemporary London has evolved continuously from the three complementary elements of trade, administration, and leisure. London is one of a handful of trade centres—along with New York City, Tokyo, and Hong Kong—where dealers in currencies, equities, commodities, and insurance operate on a global scale. In the first half of the 20th century it was also a substantial manufacturing centre. In contrast to the other great cities of Britain, London’s factory closures have been compensated at least partly by the city’s dynamism in financial services and the media.

As an administrative centre, London dominates the national life to an exceptional degree. The United Kingdom is constitutionally a unitary state and politically the most centralized in Europe. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, England’s three national partners within the United Kingdom, have administrative identity and (since 1999) national assemblies. But of the three only the Scottish Parliament has significant power. Much legislative power remains concentrated in the English capital, at Westminster. British local governments raise less than one-fourth of their needs in tax revenues and depend heavily on fiscal transfers from the centre. In British politics, virtually all roads lead to London.

If London is a place to win influence and make money, it is also a great playground—a leisure metropolis. Historically, the landed classes flocked to London each year to spend “the season” in the proximity of the court. The legacy of aristocratic consumption still survives in the gunsmiths, art dealers, tailors, and vintners of the West End, now serving a market of London’s international visitors. Each year more than 100 million nights are spent by tourists in the capital’s hotels. Though its full impact is difficult to trace, tourism has clearly overtaken manufacturing as a source of employment for Londoners, offering direct employment for more than 200,000 workers and perhaps as many more again through economic multiplier effects, some of them in the black market.

Finance

The London economy was relatively fortunate in being able to offset manufacturing decline by participating in the growth of global financial markets. By 1990 one in six members of London’s workforce was in financial or business services—one-third of Britain’s total employment in these sectors. The City (“the Square Mile”) claimed to have the largest concentration of financial employment in the world.

London’s role as a world financial centre has long historical roots. At the end of the 19th century more than half the world’s trade was financed in British currency (pounds sterling). In the early 20th century the City played a more modest role as banker to the British Empire and the sterling area of trading nations. It regained a global presence thanks to the relaxation of exchange controls in 1958, the development of the Eurocurrency and Eurobond markets in the 1950s, and the deregulation of capital and securities markets in the 1980s.

In the 1990s London’s most significant revenue-earning function was to provide a centre for the international banking market. A unique concentration of banks from every corner of the globe allowed an exceptional range of currencies to be traded. In the competitive climate of contemporary global finance, it captured a large share of activity in the newer, esoteric markets—swaps, cross-exchange equity trading, and currency options—and also maintained its historical position in the conventional fields of international bank lending, underwriting, bond trading, foreign exchange trading, and investment management. London became Europe’s main centre for large volume trading in securities. It dominated the world market in marine and aviation reinsurance.

Administration And Society

Government

The Lord Mayor and City Corporation of London form one of the oldest local governments in the world, with a history of municipal autonomy extending in unbroken succession to the folkmoots of the early Middle Ages. The Square Mile remains an autonomous jurisdiction within its historic boundaries, with its own police force and a complete range of municipal services attending to the needs of its relatively small resident population and a vastly larger weekday working population. Through the centuries the City Corporation has accumulated immense resources of capital and property, entrenching itself alongside its historic foes, the crown and the aristocracy, at the pinnacle of Britain’s stratified society. The City has never concerned itself with the wider issues of local government in the metropolis, except insofar as they impinge on its own position and privileges, which are tenaciously defended.

Around the unyielding nucleus of the Square Mile, arrangements for the wider metropolis have developed by stages. The City’s indifference left a mid-19th-century population of almost three million under an anarchic miscellany of more or less undemocratic bodies based either on medieval ecclesiastical parishes or on ad hoc service agencies created under local legislation. In 1855 water and sewerage provision for the entire built-up area were brought under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Following charges of corruption and lack of accountability, the organization was transformed in 1889 into the administrative nucleus of an elected local government for London as a whole, the London County Council (LCC). However, the City Corporation successfully lobbied to preserve its autonomy and secured the creation of a second tier of elected local governments, the metropolitan boroughs, to function as a political counterweight to the LCC.

Cultural Life

The competitive, localist streak that complicates public administration in London makes for exceptional cultural vitality. Artistic creativity flourishes in the diversity of rival centres of patronage. Royal patronage created the Royal Albert Hall, which every summer provides the setting for one of the world’s greatest music festivals, the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, known popularly as the Proms. Municipal patronage, first of the London County Council and later of the Greater London Council, turned former industrial and warehousing land on the Waterloo riverbank into the South Bank arts complex, which combines the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Hayward Gallery. The National Film Theatre and the Royal National Theatre are also there. Nearby are the Imperial War Museum, the London Aquarium, and the London Eye (a type of enormous Ferris wheel). Not to be outdone, the City Corporation launched its own arts complex within the Square Mile at the Barbican, a high-density urban renewal scheme built on World War II bomb sites immediately north of the central business district. The Barbican has a concert hall, cinemas, an art gallery, a library, and a theatre and is home to the London Symphony Orchestra.

Each centre generates its own program of festivals and special events, as do borough councils and commercial promoters. No other city in Europe offers so many entry points to young and talented musicians, writers, artists, filmmakers, and performers. Though exact figures are elusive, it is safe to say that London has a large share of total national employment in cultural industries. Listings for the performing arts present a choice of more than 100 venues on a typical Friday or Saturday evening. Though the fragmentation of arts funding is often contrasted unfavourably with strong public sponsorship elsewhere, it is hard to resist the conclusion that London thrives on its distinctive combination of wide-open internationalism and local particularism.