Greater London is divided into the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. The boroughs are the most important unit of local government in London, and are responsible for running most local services in their respective areas. The City of London is run not by a conventional local authority, but by the historic Corporation of London.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) is the London-wide body responsible for co-ordinating the boroughs, strategic planning, and running some London-wide services such as policing, the fire service and transport. The GLA consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The mayor is elected by the Supplementary Vote system while the assembly is elected by the Additional Member System.

The incumbent Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was elected as an independent candidate in the 2000 election. Despite opposition from all the main political parties and the press, his popularity with Londoners has remained high. Livingstone was expelled from the Labour Party when he opposed the official Labour candidate Frank Dobson in the 2000 Mayoral election. Readmitted by that party in 2004, he was re-elected as Mayor as an official Labour candidate in the election later that year.

The GLA was created in 2000 as a replacement body for the former Greater London Council (GLC) which was created in 1965 and abolished in 1986 after political disputes between the GLC (then led by Ken Livingstone) and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.
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Demographics of London

London had about 860,000 people in 1801 (by comparison, Paris had about 670,000 in 1802), and the population of Edo (modern-day Tokyo, 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 New York.

The city and the 32 boroughs had an estimated 7,429,200 inhabitants as of July 1, 2004 [4], making London the second most populous city in Europe behind 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), 10% as Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi 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 [5], which claimed that there were more than 300 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities of more than 10,000 population in London. (more…)

Docklands:London

The London Docklands, on the Isle of Dogs along the Thames in the East End, has developed enormously since the early-1980s. For a period in the early-1980s, many warehouse buildings in Wapping had been occupied and used as artists’ studios and low-cost loft living spaces. This inevitably drew the attention of property developers who gradually (and then not so gradually) moved in to take over. The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up in 1981 to accelerate the process, and the first phases of major development started to reshape the area, culminating in Canary Wharf, whose best-known feature is the 1 Canada Square office tower (which is often incorrectly called “Canary Wharf”), which has been the UK’s tallest skyscraper since 1991.

A massive-scale development within the last three or four years has added a great many more skyscrapers, and many large businesses (investment banks, law firms, etc.) have moved in. A new headquarters for HSBC and Barclays as well as the European headquarters of Citigroup, have now been completed, and are in use. Many more skyscrapers are being built in the area over the next decade.

Attracted by this growth, restaurants, bars and nightclubs have opened, there are three interconnected shopping malls beneath the Canary Wharf structure, and a cinema complex has opened in the area. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) serves the area, connecting to the London Underground at Bank, Shadwell, Canning Town and Stratford stations.

There has also been a great deal of gentrification and residential development in the area: North of the Thames around Limehouse Basin and toward Wapping, as well as south of the Thames in Rotherhithe where former wharfs and the old docks have been converted into high-priced loft apartments for a community of bankers, software developers and others working in the financial service industries in and around Docklands.

Further east in the London Borough of Newham are London City Airport and the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.

Dockland areas

London ’s Docklands comprise a number of former dockyard complexes along the Thames, which are (from west to east):
St Katharine Docks (Wapping)
London Docks (Wapping)
Regent’s Canal Dock (now Limehouse Basin, Limehouse)
Surrey Commercial Docks (now Surrey Quays, Rotherhithe)
West India and Millwall Docks (Isle of Dogs)
East India Docks (Canning Town)
Royal Docks (Royal Victoria Dock, Royal Albert Dock and King George V Dock)

Another dockyard exists much further downstream at Tilbury, but this is not generally regarded as part of the Docklands.
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City of London

The City of London is the principal financial district of the United Kingdom, and is one of the most important in the world. It is governed by the Corporation of London, an ancient body headed by the Lord Mayor of London. The City also has its own police force, the City of London police. Once dominated by the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, London is home to modern skyscrapers, including Tower 42 (formerly, and popularly still, known as the NatWest Tower) and 30 St Mary Axe (popularly known as the “Gherkin”, built in 2003).

The skyline is set to change further over the next few years as more high-profile skyscrapers are being built in the City of London to satisfy the need for additional office space. The City has a resident population of about 7,000 people, but a daytime working population of more than 300,000. Its primacy as the chief financial district has been directly challenged in recent years by Canary Wharf in East London.

The City of London is a small area in Greater London. The modern conurbation of London developed from the City of London and the nearby City of Westminster, which was the centre of the royal government. The City of London is now London’s main financial district. It is often referred to as just the City or as the Square Mile, as it is approximately one square mile (2.6 square kilometres) in area; note that these terms are also often used as synonyms for the UK financial services industry, which is principally based there.

In the medieval period the City was the full extent of London (as distinct from the nearby but then-separate City of Westminster), but the term London now refers to a much larger conurbation containing both ‘cities’. The City of London is still part of London’s city centre, but apart from financial services, most of London’s metropolitan functions are centred on the West End. The City of London has a resident population of under 9,000 but a daily working population of around 300,000.

The City itself has two independent enclaves within it - Inner Temple and Middle Temple. These two areas form part of the City and Ceremonial county, but are not governed by the Corporation of London. The Corporation governs the rest of the City and also owns various open spaces (parks, forests and commons) in and around London. Its Latin motto is “Domine dirige nos” which means “Lord, direct us”.

Extent

The size of the City was originally constrained by a defensive perimeter wall, known as ‘London Wall’, which was built by the Romans to protect their strategic port city. However, the boundaries of the City of London are no longer the old City Wall as the city expanded its jurisdiction to the so-called City Bars - such as Temple Bar. The boundary froze in the medieval period, thus the City did not and does not control the whole of London.

The walls have long since disappeared although several sections remain visible above ground. A section near the Museum of London was revealed after the devastation of an air-raid on 29 December 1940 at the height of the Blitz. Other visible sections are at St Alphage, London Wall, and there are two sections near the Tower of London.

The City of London borders the City of Westminster to the west - the border cutting through Victoria Embankment, passing to the west of Middle Temple, going east along Strand and Fleet Street, north up Chancery Lane, where it becomes instead the border with the London Borough of Camden. It continues north to Holborn, turns east, continues, and then goes northeast to Charterhouse Lane. As it crosses Farringdon Road it becomes the border with the London Borough of Islington. It continues to Aldersgate, goes north, and turns into some back streets soon after it becomes Goswell Road. It ends up on Ropemakers Lane, which as it continues east past Moorgate becomes South Place.

It goes north, becomes the border with the London Borough of Hackney, then east, north, east on backstreets, meeting Norton Folgate at the border with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It continues south into Bishopsgate, and takes some backstreets to Middlesex Street where it continues south-east then south. It makes a divergence to the west at the end of Middlesex Street to allow the Tower of London to be in Tower Hamlets, and then reaches the river. The boundaries of the City are marked by black bollards bearing the City’s emblem. (boundary map).

In some places the financial district extends slightly beyond the political boundaries of the City to the north and east, into the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Islington, and informally these locations are seen as part of the “Square Mile”. Since the 1990s the eastern fringe of the City, extending into Hackney and Tower Hamlets, has increasingly been a focus for large office developments due to the relatively easy availability of large sites there compared to within the City itself.

Since 1991 Canary Wharf a few miles east of the City Boundary within Tower Hamlets has become a second centre for London’s financial services industry and now houses a number of banks and other institutions formerly located in the Square Mile. However, fears that the City would be damaged by this development appear to have been unfounded with growth predicted in both locations. Indeed Canary Wharf may have been of great service to the Square Mile by providing large floorplate office buildings at a time when this was difficult within the City boundary, and therefore preventing strategically important companies such as HSBC from relocating abroad.

The City of London is England’s smallest ceremonial county by both population and area covered and is the second smallest British city in both population and size, after St David’s in Wales.

At its maximum extent the City included areas now not part of it, including Southwark (as the ‘ward of bridge without’). The City today controls the full spans of London Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, but only half of the river underneath them.

The City of London also owns and looks after a number of open spaces well outside its own boundaries. These are: Ashtead Common, Burnham Beeches, Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath (including Parliament Hill), Highgate Wood, Queen’s Park, West Ham Park, and West Wickham and Coulsdon Common. (more…)

History of London

The name London is commonly thought to have come from the Latin name Londinium, as London was founded by the Romans during their reign over the land, around AD 43- although there is some slight evidence of pre-Roman settlement. The BBC History website, however, claims that the name Londinium is actually “Celtic, not Latin, and may originally have referred to a previous farmstead on the site”; the root is ‘Lond’ meaning ‘wild’ (i.e. overgrown or forested) place.

This fortified Roman settlement was the capital of the province of Britannia. According to findings displayed in The Museum of London, the initial language of London was Latin with much Greek spoken due to the presence of Greek speaking Roman soldiers and businessmen. Another suggestion for where the name of the city comes from could be that of the mythical leader, King Lud. It was said that Lud laid out the first set of roads in the city. His statue can be seen hidden at the church of St Dunstan’s In The West, Fleet Street.

Around AD 61 the Iceni tribe of Celts lead by Queen Boudica stormed London and took the city from the Romans. The Celts burnt the relatively new Roman town to the ground, and archaeological digs have revealed a layer of red ash beneath the City of London, which is believed to be the burnt remains of the old Roman town.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Roman Londinium was initially defended by the sub-Roman administration and used as a base of operations during the early campaigns against the Jutes in Kent led by Hengist. After Kent had been abandoned in 456 desperate attempts were then made to repel Saxon invasion which came from the south and east. These campaigns were not successful and the city and its environs became indefensible. If the language of Gildas who lived at this time is to be believed, the fight for the beleaguered city was probably savage indeed. Besieged and battered by c.571 the city of Caer Llundain was evacuated by the Romano-Britons and remained a largely uninhabited ruin for more than a generation afterwards.

Although the old city was not settled the surrounding farms were taken by the Middle Saxons. Initially this would have been an active frontier between Saxons and the Britons who were regrouping in Calchwyned and Caer Celemion and was the scene of raids by both sides. In the early 7th Century the East Saxons came into ascendancy and Lundencestir became subject to their authority. In 604 the city received Mellitus as its first bishop since the conquest when Saeberht of the East Saxons converted to Christianity. Mellitus founded the first St. Paul’s Cathedral amid the crumbling ruins on the site of the old Temple of Diana. This would have only been a modest chapel at first and may well have been destroyed after he was briefly expelled from the city by Saeberht’s pagan successors. Later in the 7th Century a Saxon village named Lundenwic was established approximately one mile to the west in what is now Aldwych, in the 7th century, probably using the mouth of the River Fleet as a trading ship and fishing boat harbour.

The new town came under direct Mercian control in c.730 and the East Saxons kingdom of which it had once been part was gradually reduced in size and status. Mercian lordship was replaced by that of Wessex after 825. Over the years that followed the trading city of Lundonwic became an important trading centre.

Disaster struck in 851 when the new city’s ramshackle defences were overcome by a massive Viking raid and was razed to the ground. The old Roman city (then called Lundenburh) was reoccupied during this time because a fortified place was now essential for it to be better defended against further Viking attacks.

The tale of the next century is a confused one, with first English, then Danish, then Norman kings controlling the city. The Danes were ousted from the city by Alfred the Great in 886, and Alfred made London a part of his kingdom of Wessex. In the years following the death of Alfred, however, the city fell once more into the hands of the Danes.

The Danes did not have it all their own way. In 1014 they were occupying the city when a large force of Anglo-Saxons and Norwegian Vikings sailed up the Thames to attack London. The Danes lined London Bridge and showered the attackers with spears.

Undaunted, the attackers pulled the roofs off nearby houses and held them over their heads in the boats. Thus protected, they were able to get close enough to the bridge to attach ropes to the piers and pull the bridge down. There is some speculation that the nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down” stems from this incident.

The attacks ceased when the Danish king Canute came to power in 1017. Canute managed to unite the Danes with the Anglo-Saxons, and invited Danish merchants to settle in the city. London prospered under Canute, but on his death the city reverted to Anglo-Saxon control under Edward the Confessor. Edward had been raised in Normandy, so his rule brought French influence and trade.

London was now the most prosperous and largest city in the island of Britain - but it was not the capital of the realm. The official seat of government was at Winchester, although the royal residence was generally at London.

After the disaster of 1066 when the English king Harold II was slain in battle by the Duke of Normandy the city saw dramatic scenes as the boy prince Edgar Aetheling was declared king and he with the people of London barricaded London Bridge to stop the forces of Duke William entering the city. Their efforts were in vain as a few weeks later Edgar was compelled to submit.

In some ways the medieval history of London can be said to have begun on Christmas Day, 1066, when William the Conqueror was crowned king of England in a ceremony at the newly finished Westminster Abbey, just three months after his victory at the Battle of Hastings.

William granted the citizens of London special privileges, but he also built a castle in the southeast corner of the city to keep them under control. This castle was expanded by later kings until it became the complex we now call the Tower of London.

The Tower acted as royal residence, and it was not until later that it became famous as a prison. During the medieval period it also acted as a royal mint, treasury, and housed the beginnings of a zoo.

In 1097 William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. The hall was to prove the basis of a new Palace of Westminster, the prime royal residence throughout the Middle Ages. Westminster was once a distinct town, and has been the seat of the English royal court and government since the mediæval era. Eventually, Westminster and London grew together and formed the basis of London, becoming England’s largest - though not capital - city (Winchester was the capital city of England until the 12th century). On William’s death his brother Henry needed the support of London merchants to maintain his dubious grip on the throne. In exchange, Henry I gave city merchants the right to levy taxes and elect a sheriff.

By the early 12th century the population of London was about 18,000 (compare this to the 45,000 estimated at the height of Roman Britain).

London has grown steadily over centuries, surrounding and making suburbs of neighbouring villages and towns, farmland, countryside, meadows and woodlands, spreading in every direction. From the 16th to the early-20th century, London flourished as the capital of the British Empire.

In 1666, the Great Fire of London swept through and destroyed a large part of the City of London. Rebuilding took over 10 years but London’s growth accelerated in the 18th century and, by the early-19th century, was the largest city in the world until 1925. (more…)

Climate of London

London has a temperate climate, with warm but seldom hot summers, cool but rarely severe winters, and regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 33 °C (91.4 °F), though higher temperatures have become more common recently. The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1 °C (100.6 °F), measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003. Heavy snowfalls are almost unknown.

In recent winters, snow has generally only settled once or twice and it is rarely more than an inch (25 mm) or so. London’s average annual precipitation of 584 mm (22.9 inches) is lower than that of Rome or Sydney. London’s large built-up area creates a micro climate (”heat island”), with heat stored by the city’s buildings. Sometimes temperatures are 5 °C (9 °F) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas.

The following table shows average climate data for 1971-2000 at the Met Office station at Greenwich which is the closest station to the centre of London. It is generally felt that the British climate turned warmer in around the mid 1980s and if averages were available for more recent periods, they would probably show somewhat higher average temperatures.

Geography of London

Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²). London used to be identified by its port on the 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 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

Rivers and canals

The Thames was once a much broader shallower river than it is today. It has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Fleet River is a good example of this. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding by storm surges. The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level, caused by both the slow ’tilting’ of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound and the gradual rise in sea levels due to climate change. 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 . (more…)

London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. It is also the most populous city in the European Union. London produces 19.5% of the U.K.’s GDP, and is one of the world’s major business, political and cultural centres. London is a leader in international finance, politics, communications, entertainment, fashion and the arts and has considerable influence worldwide. Along with New York, Tokyo and Paris, it is widely regarded as one of the world’s major global cities

London has an estimated population as of 1 January 2005 of 7.5 million and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. London’s population includes an extremely diverse range of peoples, cultures, and religions, making it one of the most cosmopolitan, vibrant and energetic cities in the world. Over 300 languages are spoken in London, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. A city where cutting-edge meets tradition, London is a major tourist destination and an international transport hub. It has many important buildings and iconic landmarks, including world-famous museums, theatres, concert halls, galleries, airports, stadiums and palaces.

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.

A resident of London is referred to as a Londoner. Over the centuries, London has developed and expanded, despite the many dangers that might have defeated a lesser place - the Great Plague, the Great Fire, the bitter English Civil War and even a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But most recently and resiliently, London and its citizens survived the German Luftwaffe attempts to bomb the city to oblivion during the World War II ‘Blitz’.

Nowadays, the sheer scale of Greater London can be daunting at first, as it sprawls 1,500sq km (580 square miles) across a voluminous plain. However, it is a city that is surprisingly easy to get around, with the comprehensive and easily navigated London Underground or ‘Tube’. The twin axis on which London rests is the Houses of Parliament to the west and the City of London to the east. The seat of government (not far from the home of the royal family) is connected to the City (the financial engine room of London and the whole of the UK) by the River Thames.

In between lie most of the tourist attractions and the busiest, liveliest different entertainment areas, such as Knightsbridge and Soho. But London’s vivacity and charm stretches far beyond the Circle Line - the Underground route that rings the inner city. Residential areas outside the city center, such as leafy Richmond (southwest) or Hampstead (north), trendy Hoxton (east) or Notting Hill (west), each have their own beating heart. (more…)