London is the big city in the European Union. A guessed people of Greater London on 1 January 2005 was 7,421,328 with the metropolitan area population of over Dozen.Five million. London's people includes a super diverse range of peoples, cultures, & religions, making it one of the virtually all cosmopolitan cities in Europe, and the world. Across 300 languages come spoken around London, making a capital a virtually all linguistically diverse city in the globe.

London is the residence of numbers of spherical institutions, organisations & corporations, & inside and of itself retains the leading role in spherical affairs. It has a great total of significant buildings, including globe-famous museums, theatres, concert halls, airports, railway stations, palaces, and agents. These are too a location of numerous foreign embassies, consulates and High Commissions.

The resident of London is known as the Londoner.

Defining London
In todays world, "London" ordinarily refers to the conurbation known as Greater London, which is divided into thirty-two London Boroughs and the City of London. Historically, "London" referred to a square mile of the City of London at the urban sprawl's heart, from either which a city grew. Between 1889 & 1965 it referred to a previous County of London which covered the front yard nowadays called Inner London.

There are more definitions of "London" for favorite purposes, like a London postal district; the front yard covered per telephone area code 020; the metropolitan arethe accessible by public conveyance applying a Transport for London Travelcard; the metropolitan area delimited per M25 orbital motorway; the Metropolitan Police district; and a London commuter belt.

A co-ordinate of the centre of London (traditionally considered to become Charing Cross, near a junction of Trafalgar Square, a Str&, Whitehall and the Mall) come close to . A Romans marked the centre of Londinium with the London Stone in the City.

Geography and climate
Greater London covers an front yard of 609 square miles (1,579 km²). London occurs as port on the Thames, a navigable river. the flow of any stream has experienced a major influence on the development of the city. London was founded on the to the north bank of the Thames & there was just one bridge, London Bridge, for many centuries. Following, a independent focus of the city was on the n side of the Thames. Whenever supplementary bridges were built in the 18th century, a city expanded altogether directions when a mostly flat or even gently rolling countryside as much as the Thames floodplain presented no obstacle to incubation. There are occasionally hills around London, examples existence Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill, but these provided ticket prospects of a city center while forgoing significantly affecting the directions of the spread of the city & London is so about round.

the Thames was when a great deal wide, shallower flow of any stream than these are in todays world. It has been extensively embanked, and numbers of of its London tributaries now flow underground. A Thames occurs as tidal river, and London is vulnerable to overflowing. a threat has increased all over period due to a slow however continuous rise within high water system level & the slow 'tilting' of Britain (higher to the north & down in the south) from either post-glacial rebound. A Thames Barrier was constructed across a Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal by owning this threat, however within early-2005 it was suggested that the ten-mile-long barrier further downriver may exist as called upon to treat by using a flood chance later [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4162905.stm].

London has the temperate climate, with warmly however seldom hot summers, cool however rarely severe winters, & regular however typically lightly precipitation throughout the season. Summer temperatures seldom rise good deal above 33°C (91.4°F), though higher temperatures keep around turn into other commons recently. A hotness ever recorded around London was 37.9°C (Hundred.2°F), measured at Heathrow Airport during the European heatwave of 2003. Heavily snowfalls are most unknown. Around recent winters, snow has usually merely settled when or even twice & these are seldom to a higher degree an inch (25 mm). London's typical annual precipitation of less than Two dozen inches (600 millimetre) is moo than that of Rome or Sydney. London's big built-higher metropolitan arethe creates a microclimate, with heat stored per city's buildings: periodically temperatures come 5°C (9°F) warmly in the city than in the circumferent areas.

History

A title London is thought to use at times are from either a Latin title Londinium, when London was founded per Romans in a period of their reign above the land – although there exists a select few cold-shoulder grounds to believe of pre-Roman personal injury settlement. (A [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/england/rom_roman_invasion.shtml BBC History website], nevertheless, claims that a title Londinium is actually "Celtic, not Latin, and may originally have referred to a previous farmstead on the site"; this likewise implies that there indeed were pre-Roman settlements in the area). This fortified Roman cash settlement was a capital of the province of Britannia. An additional guide for in which a title of the city comes from either can be that of the mythological leader, King Lud. It was said that Lud placed out a number one placed of roads in the city. His statue may be seen hidden at a church of St Dunstan's In The West, Fleet Street.

In AD 61 the Iceni tribe of Celts lead by Queen Boudicca stormed London and took a city from either a Romans. a Celts burnt a comparatively newly Roman town to a ground, & archeological digs keep close at hand revealed a layer of red ash below the City of London, which is believed to exist as the burnt remains of the old Roman town.

When a fall of the Roman Empire, Londinium was abandoned and an Saxon town named Lundenwic was established more or less 1 mile to the west around what is currently Aldwych, in the 7th century. A old Roman city was so reoccupied in a period of the late-9th or early-10th century.

Westminster was once a distinct town, & has been a seat of the English royal court & government since the mediæval era. In time, Westminster & London grew together & formed a basis of London, becoming England's big – though non capital – city (Winchester was a capital city of England until the 12th century).

London has grown steadily on top centuries, circumferent & making suburban area of neighboring villages & towns, farml&, countryside, hayfield and forest, diffusive inside each counsel. From either a 16th to the early-20th century, London flourished as a capital of the British Empire.

Inside 1666, the Great Fire of London swept through & destroyed the big a portion of the City of London. Rebuilding took concluded Decade years, however London's incubation accelerated in the 18th century, and, per early-19th century, it was the big city in the globe.

London's local government technique struggled to match this zoom, especially inside providing a city sustaining adequate infrastructure. Around 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works was created to provide London with infrastructure to match its incubation. Around 1889 a MBW was abolished, and the County of London was created which was administered by the London County Council, the 1st elected London-wide administrative unit.

Probably a virtually all important changes to London in the go One c years were following of the Blitz and other bombing per German Luftwaffe that took place during World War II. A bombing flushed all over 30,000 Londoners & planate big tracts of housing & more buildings through London. A rebuilding in a period of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was characterised by the wide range of architectural styles and has resulted within the want of unity in architecture that has be a portion of London's character.

Until their 1997 ceasefire, London was regularly a target for IRA bombers seeking to pressurise a British government into negotiations with Sinn Féin on Northern Ireland.

In 7 July 2005, there was a series of coordinated bomb attacks by Islamic extremist suicide bombers on three underground stations & the bus. A explosions come less than Two dozen hours when London was awarded a 2012 Olympics and as a G-8 summit was underway around Gleneagles, Scotland. The series of explosions also took place on 21 July 2005; however, in the latter incident, there were there is no fatalities. Using a United Kingdom remaining a stem ally of the United States, and likewise retaining the military presence within Iraq, London continues to be the target for Muslim extremists.

Modern London

A downstream view of the London Millennium Bridge spanning the River Thames between St Paul's Cathedral]]

Now Greater London comprises the City of London and the 32 London boroughs (including the City of Westminster). A dominant centre of activity around London is a City of Westminster (including the West End) which is a main cultural, amusement & concidering dominion, the location of virtually all of London's major corporate headquarters outside of a fiscal services sector, & the centre of the UK's national government. A City of London (as well referred to as a "Square Mile") is the banking centre of the globe, & Europe’s independent business center. A headquarters of other than One c of Europe’s 500 big corporations come inside London. A London foreign exchange market is a largest in the globe, using an typical every day turnover of $504 billion, to a higher degree the Future York & Tokyo exchanges combined. Super occupy in the period of the working week, virtually all front yard of the City tend to exist as quietly at weekends, since these are primarily a non-residential area.

London attracts super big many visitant & tourer. Tourer attractions come primarily around Central London, comprising a historic City of London; a West Prevent by having its cinemas, blocks, clubs, theatres, shops & eating place; the City of Westminster by owning Westminster Abbey, the Royal palaces of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House etc., the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with its museums (the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum) and Hyde Park. More crucial tourer attractions include St Paul's Cathedral, the National Gallery the Bankside area of Southwark with the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, and London Bridge, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, Tate Britain on the Embankment, the British Museum in Bloomsbury. There are numerous more museums & pages of interest.

Culture
London is an international centre of culture, around terms of music, theatre, arts, museums, festivals & great deal sir thomas more. For the to the full article look at Culture of London.

London Districts
Look at as well: Inner London, Outer London.

Central London

City of London (the "Square Mile")
(popularly known as the "Gherkin", built in 2003).

the City has merely a little (c. 7,000) resident people, however the daytime working people of to a higher degree 300,000. Its primacy when a chief financial dominion has been directly challenged within recent years by Canary Wharf in East London.

West of the City, Covent Garden is home to the Avenue of Stars, London's version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

The West End
). Tottenham Court Road diarrhea northerly from either a eastern prevent of Oxford Street towards a northward of the city center, & is better known for its embarrassment of hi-fi, computer & electronics places.

To the south of Oxford Street's eastern prevent is Soho, a network of little streets crowded sustaining eating place, taphouse, clubs, little shops & dress shop, & theaters & cinemwhen, besides as media corporations & film, advertising & post-production corporations. Soho is likewise easily known for its super lively club & bar scene, a infamous sex industry & when a major "gay quarter" of the city. Piccadilly is an elegant thoroughfare running from either Piccadilly Circus in the east to Hyde Park Corner in the west. These are adjacent to Mayfair, and Green Park. Regent Street and Bond Street are important thoroughfares.

East London
East London saw much of London's early industrial development & lot of it today is existence extensively redeveloped when a portion of the Thames Gateway. It was as well key to London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics, and is now scheduled to undergo extensive regeneration in the run-up to the games. This is a 2nd period within modern history that East London has seen heavy-shell rebuilding: it took the fully click of the Blitz in World War Two, with post-war reconstruction allowing the bequest of bleak housing estates and tower blocks in many areas.

The East End
A East End of London is closest to the original Port of London, and tended for that cause to become a region of a city in which immigrants arriving into the port would settle number one. Sequential waves of immigrants include a French, the Huguenots, Belgians, Jews, Gujaratis, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and many more groups.

A East Prevent extends from either a eastern side of the City of London & includes areas like Whitechapel, Mile End, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Bow and Poplar. A locality has several pages of interest including numerous of London's markets, (for example Columbia Road Flower Market, Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market, Petticoat Lane Market), and several museums, including the Geffrye Museum and the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

A East Prevent is an vicinity of uncertain border. It abounds by having legend, sentimentality & cockneys. It has the somewhat romanticised history of working class cheer, resilience, organised crime and gangsters such as the Kray Twins, and poorness, ameliorated by the spirit of British toughness. A somewhat coarse truth is that a East Prevent contains a bit of of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom, by using 100% of the problems this entails.

Docklands
The Canary Wharf complex: the tallest building, 1 Canada Square, has been the UK's tallest skyscraper since 1991. Seen from the high-level walkway on Tower Bridge

Docklands, on the Isle of Dogs, has developed enormously since a early-1980s. For the period of time around the early-1980s, numerous storage warehouse buildings in Wapping had been occupied & utilized when creative person studios and online-low-priced loft lebensraum. This inevitably drew a attention of property developers world health organization bit by bit (and thus non so bit by bit) moved around to choose above. A London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up around 1981 to accelerate a run, & a number one phases of major development began to reshape a metropolitan area, culminating around Canary Wharf, whose best-known feature is the 1 Canada Square office tower (which is often incorrectly known as "Canary Wharf"), which has been a UK's tallest skyscraper since 1991.

a massive-shell development in the previous ternary or even iv years has added a great numerous sir thomas more skyscrapers, & numbers of big businesses (investment banks, law house, etc.) use at times stirred inside. The freshly headquarters for HSBC and Barclays as well as a European headquarters of Citigroup, have okay, been completed, & come within apply.

Attracted by this incubation, eating place, blocks & club own opened, there are 3 interconnected shopping malls beneath the Canary Wharf structure, & the cinema complex has opened in the area. A Docklands Light Railway (DLR) serves the front yard, connecting to the London Underground at Bank, Shadwell, Canning Town and Stratford stations.

There has besides been much of gentrification and residential development in the area: North of the Thames in Limehouse Basin and toward Wapping, when well as south of the Thames within Rotherhithe where former dock & the old docks keep close at h& been converted into high-costly loft flat for a community of bankers, software package developers & others working inside the fiscal service industries in and as much as Docklands.

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

West London
West London includes many of the traditionally fashionable & expensive residential district like Notting Hill, made better known inside 1999 by a film of the same name starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Inside a territorial dominion is the celebrated antique market at Portobello Road. Kensington and Chelsea are a virtually all expensive wharehouses to sleep in the united states. A metropolitan area is as well famed for the Kings Road, a distinguished & attractive camping street & thoroughfare.

Farther to the west, at White City, near Shepherd's Bush, is the principal operating centre for the BBC, while in the extreme west, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, lies Heathrow Airport.

Considered supplementary south-west than West Londin on account of its existence a just London borough to straddle the River Thames, Richmond upon Thames includes the attractive riverside districts of Richmond and Twickenham. This corner of London is house to Richmond Park, London's largest, & Twickenham, the residence of English rugby union.

South London

South London contains such diverse districts when Wimbledon (famous when a page of the major lawn tennis Wimbledon Championships), Bermondsey, and Dulwich. Renovation of the Elephant and Castle, a traveling intersection & territory approximately a centre, is due to begaround in 2006.

Greenwich is on the banks of the Thames where the flow of any stream broadens into a wide winding email of muddy water system. These are an historic front yard & boasts the ticket park and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. These are too has the popular market.

Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham are home to several families (& their descendent) world health organization immigrated to London from either a West Indies during the Fifties, Sixties & Seventies, for instance called Afro-Caribbeans.

North London
North London includes suburbs like Hampstead and Highgate, which retain the village atmosphere. Northerly London is supplementary mountainous than a south, & numerous of a hills give first-class views through the city. Big parks include Hampstead Heath, which includes Parliament Hill, noted for its fine views on top a city, & a Hampstead bathing pool; & Alexandra Park, site of Alexandra Palace. Numerous areas own important minority populations including Stamford Hill, home to the important community of Orthodox Jews, and a Green Lanes area of Harringay which has large Turkish and Greek communities. Islington is one of a other moneyed areas inside Northward London; these are as well house to Arsenal football club. Northerly London's more globe-famous eleven, Tottenham Hotspur, play in nearby Tottenham.

Demographics

London experienced all about 860,000 humans within 1801 (around comparison, Paris experienced just about 670,000 in 1802), and a people of Edo (modern-day Tokyo, Japan), at a period the big city in the globe, has been judged at One million to One.25 million population. London was a virtually all thickly settled city in the globe from either 1825 until 1925, when it was overtaken by New York.

Residents of London come referred to as Londoners. A city & a 32 boroughs (occasionally 1,579 klick² or even 610 square miles) got an official 7,421,228 dweller, making London a virtually all thickly settled city around Europe alongside Moscow. Subsequent reviews suggested that a is restored were understated, & that a people in Census Day was nearer to Vii.29 million. A official estimate of London's people inside mid-2003 is 7,387,900 [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D8561.xls]

In the 2001 nose count, 76% one seven million population classed their ethnic group as white (classified as British White, Irish White or "Other White" in the 2001 census), 10% as Indian, Bangladeshi or Pakistani, 5% as blacken African, 5% as melanize Caribbean, 3% when mixed race & 1% as Chinese. A big religious groupings come Christian (58.2%) and No Religion (15.8%). Xxi.8% of dweller were born outside a European Union. A Irish come a big foreign-nonnative class action within London (enumeration roughly 200,000).

A people of the urban area of London at the 2001 nose count, every bit estimated per Office for National Statistics, was 8,278,251 inhabitants. (External information: [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=8271&More=Y]). London populated area is the third-largest inside Europe, behind Moscow (Eleven.7 million indweller around 2000) & Paris (Niner.6 million indweller around 1999).

Unlike several more countries, a UK does not provide national area people numbers according to commuter percentages & economic influence. This is left as much as to each one single city to define. This has created lot confusion after comparing London's avowedly metropolitan area region with others as much as the world. These are helped possibly less by confusion of the term "Greater London" sustaining a political unit of a City of London, which is typically confused sustaining the metropolitan area.

Forswearing the specific national information to London's area, numbers of different sources provide surrogate definitions. A single such definition describes a London metropolitan area (6,267 square miles, 16,043 km²) by using the people of 13,945,000 — big than a conjunctive populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (External information: [http://www.demographia.com/dm-lonarea.htm], [http://www.lbwf.gov.uk/demography/census/london/london_boroughs_census2001.pdf]) In case this definition is followed, so London is the big area of Europe, along by using Moscow (whose area has someplace about 14 million humans), & above Paris (Xi.Five million population within the area in 2004).

Within 2004, the Greater Londin Authority defined the metropolitan area centred on London using a people of 18 million. This area reach handle a commuter belt, & very much of South East Engl& & East of England, for instance including a cities of Brighton and Oxford. (External information:[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/london_plan/lon_plan_all.pdf],[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/london_plan/lon_plan_1.pdf],[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/draft_london_plan/dlp_ch1.pdf])

Government

Greater London is divided into the 32 London boroughs and a City of London. A boroughs come a first unit of local government around London, & come responsible heading virtually all local services in their various areas. the City of London is redo does'nt by a conventional local authority, however per historical Corporation of London.

A Greater London Authority (GLA) is a London-wide body responsible co-ordinating the boroughs, strategical planning, & running off a bit of London-wide services like policing, the fire service and transport. A GLA consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. A city manager is elected per Supplementary Vote system while a assembly is elected per Additional Member System.

A incumbent City manager of London, Ken Livingstone, was elected as an independent candidate in the 2000 election. Despite opposition from either all a independent political parties & the click, his popularity using Londoners has remained high. Livingstone was expelled from either a Labour Party when he opposed the official Labour candidate Frank Dobson in the 2000 Mayoral election. Readmitted by that person inside 2004, he wwhen re-elected as City manager as an official Labour candidate in the election later that year.

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

Former London wide administrative unit were a Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) from 1855 to 1889; a London County Council (LCC) from 1889 to 1965; & a Greater London Council (GLC) from 1965 to 1986. Whenever a GLC was abolished, virtually all of its functions were devolved to the London boroughs, when others were taken on top by joint-boards or other unelected bodies. A boroughs so enjoyed "unitary status" and a degree of autonomy when the GLC was abolished, and although losing some powers which have been repatriated to the GLA they still retain many areas they did not control under the GLC.

London is represented within Parliament by 74 MPs. For the listing of London constituencies understand List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London.

A territorial police for the 32 London boroughs is the Metropolitan Police Service, more usually known as a Metropolitan Police, or even just "the Met". A City of London has its have constabulary, a City of London Police.

Health services around London come managed per national government via a National Health Service (NHS). Greater London is divided into 5 Strategic Health Authorities [http://www.nhs.uk/england/authoritiestrusts/sha/MapSearch.aspx?rg=Y21].

Transport and infrastructure
''For main article watch Transport and infrastructure in London

The Green Park station]]

Conveyance is one of a quadruplet areas of policy administered per City manager of London, however a city manager's fiscal control is limited. A executive professional which diarrhea London's shipping rules is Transport for London (TfL). A public transport network is one of the virtually all extensive in the globe, however faces congestion & dependability issues. A network is one of a virtually all complex transit systems in the globe by owning only assibilate One billion journeying utilized yearly on the underground alone. London is best known for its AEC Routemaster buses which have been inside service in the capital since 1956. Routemasters is phased away from either service from TfL's main bus routes, by using a survive routemaster service existence operated on the 9 December 2005 on Route 159. Both 'heritage' routes come planned for service to maintain Routemasters in London's streets.

A networks for transfer inside London include: Underground (commonly called a tube); Bus; Flow of any stream Services; Docklands Weak Railway (DLR); Croydon Tramlink; National Rail; Thameslink.

When of mid-2005, within preparatiin for the 2012 London Olympic Games the sum of £7 billion ($12 billion) is spent on renovation & expansion of city links, primarily on the London Underground. Although a independent cause for this is because of a increased traffic flow that is from either a 2012 Olympics, a act would however become completed whenever London experienced non won the games. By 2013 the freshly service known as Crossrail is due to be opened. As well within planning is the Cross Flow of any stream Tram (CRT). It might depart to a south suburban area, cross a Flow of any stream Thames, across to the City of London (the fiscal dominion), & prove my point its journeying to the northern suburban area. These are speculated that it is the world's yearn tram.

A independent Olympic arenwhen is sited approximately Stratford International station, which is presently existence constructed as section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. A freshly high-high-velocity line, imputable open inside 2007, is utilized per regular 'Olympic Javelin' service by having the journeying period of Heptad proceedings between Stratford & St Pancras. This service was the key section of the Olympic bid & may provide access from either northern areas of the UK via King's Cross and Euston.

Education
''Independent Article: Education in London

London is residence to the diverse total of universities, colleges & schools, & occurs as leading centre of locate & development.

Media
the British media is concentrated within London & is periodically accused of with a "London bias". All a major television networks come headquartered around London including the BBC, which remains Britain's most influential media organisation. Part to counter complaints just about London bias, a BBC proclaimed within June 2004 that a select few departments (BBC Sport, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC Three and BBC Radio Five Live) are to become relocated to Manchester. More major networks include ITV and BSkyB, Channel 4 and Five are also depending within London. Prefer a BBC, these green goods a select few programmes elsewhere in the UK, however London is their independent production centre.

A English newspaper market is dominated by national newspapers, all of which are then edited inside London. Until a 1970s, most of the national newspapers were concentrated inside Fleet Street, but in the 1980s they relocated to new assumption sustaining machine-driven printing works. Virtually all one come around East London, virtually all famously a News International plant at Wapping. A move was resisted strongly per printing trade union SOGAT 82, and strike action at Wapping inside 1986 led to violent skirmishes. A endure major wire service within Fleet Street, Reuters, moved to Canary Wharf in 2005, but Fleet Street is however ordinarily utilized as a collective term for the national click. Regional Editions of virtually all national newspapers come available, including editions for northern Engl&, Scotland and Wales.

London is at the centre of British film & television production industries, sustaining major studio facilities on the american fringes of the urban sprawl & a big post-production industry centred in Soho. London is one of them leading centres of English-language publishing alongside Up to date York. Globally crucial media corporations depending around London range from either publication class action Pearson, to the information professional Reuters, to the world's total deuce advertising business WPP Group.

A local media typically have a moo profile than a national media around London when in the rest of England, however there are occasionally crucial local outlets. London has its have local daily evening newspaper, a Evening Standard, and the loose newspaper known as Metro, distributes a London edition in the morning, in the main at train station. A independent each week list conclusion Period Out Magazine has been providing concert, film, theatre & arts trading tools since 1968. A BBC operates BBC London radio, and there are many independent radio stations, including Capital FM, Kiss 100 and Resonance FM.

Religion
After Pope Gregory the Great sent 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 a event, the saint received his virtually all hospitable reception in the Kingdom of Kent, and a archiepiscopal understand was based at Canterbury. However London has been at a centre of England's religious life for tremendously of its history, & every Archbishop of Canterbury has traditionally spent much of his instance inside London, in which he has an official home at Lambeth Palace. London's ii Anglican bishops are a Bishop of London, whose see is London northward of the Thames, & whose potty is around London's grandest church, a baroque St Paul's Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren), and the Bishop of Southwark, who tends to Anglicans south of the river. Crucial national & royal ceremonies come divided between St Paul's & Westminster Abbey, a gothic church on the scale of the cathedral. When within a rest of a UK, religious attendance in London is moo, & the Church of England has borne the brunt of this decline.

A Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster is generally regarded as a leader of the Catholic Church around Engl& and Wales. More traditional Protestant denominations whose headquarters come within London include a United Reformed Church and the Quakers. Numbers of of London's immigrant groups keep close at hand established denominations in the city, for instance Greek Orthodoxy. Additionally various evangelistic churches survive.

London is the first centre of Islam in the United Kingdom. Both London boroughs contain a greatest proportion of Muslims in the UK: Tower Hamlets and Newham. A 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 as well has a big Hindu population outside of India. Southall, in West London is home to numerous Hindus. A Hindu temple at Neasden, Neasden Temple is the largest Hindu temple outside of Indithe & the remarkable lesson of the modern building around a traditional style. Great deal of the hugely elaborate & intricate marble sculpture utilized within the building was carved in India. On top 2-thirds of British Jews live in London, which ranks thirteenth in the world as a Jewish people centre [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html#10].

Sport
London hosts one of the world's big mass-participation marathons, a London Marathon, and has hosted a Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948. Within July 2005 London was chosen to host a Games around 2012. London is a foremost city in a globe to unsuspecting hosts the Summer Olympics three times.

A virtually all popular spectator sport within London is football, and London has many of England's leading football clubs. Historically a London clubs keep around non accumulated when numbers of trophies when people from either a North West of England, such as Liverpool and Manchester United, but now Arsenal (founded at Woolwich Arsenal but moved to Highbury in 1913), and Chelsea (who play around Fulham) are take to be 2 of the Premier League's "Big three" alongside Manchester United. Within 2003-04 they became the 1st pair of London clubs to finish number one & 2nd in the top flight, by using Arsenal winning. Within 2004-05 they did so over again, this period sustaining Chelsea winning.

London clubs come take a breath to charge higher ticket numbers than clubs within more area of the united states (particularly for corporate facilities), & this has swung English football's balance of power towards London. Prior to Chelsea's recent rise within fortunes them greatest profile London clubs were Arsenal & their long-standing N London competition Tottenham Hotspur, both of whom were considered to become members of English football's "Big five" for virtually all of the post-war time period. Within 2005-06 there are six London clubs in the Premier League: Arsenal, Tottenham & Chelsea, + Charlton Athletic, Fulham and West Ham United.

There are likewise 5 London clubs in the fully broker Football League (a level following the Premiership), viz. Brentford, Crystal Palace (who play inside South Norwood), Leyton Orient, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers (QPR)—all of whom have antecedently played in the top section. Within the controversial move, Wimbledon left London in 2003 to play in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, changing their name to Milton Keynes Dons; the fresh formed AFC Wimbledon inherited most of their trend lines, despite swimming at the tremendously lower level in the football pyramid. There are as well several London clubs swimming outside a top iv divisions of English football, of these or even deuce of which are then then fully agent & many of which are a share-half-time sales person.

Wembley Stadium in north-nor'-west London is a national football sports stadium, traditionally the personal of the FA Cup Final when well as England national side's home matches. Presently, Wembley is existence totally rebuilt, and so Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has been a venue for recent FA Ventral suction cup finals, when England play at various venues as much as the united states. Wembley was one of a venues for the 1966 World Cup, and a 1996 European Championship, and hosted a final of two tournaments. It too was a venue for the European Cup final in 1968, 1978 and 1992. Too when football matches, Wembley has hosted numerous more sporting cases, including a Rugby League Challenge Cup final.

Rugby Union is also swell established inside London, especially in the midst-class suburban area northerly & west of the city. A English national Rugby Union stadium is in Twickenham. 3 of the 12 clubs in the elect Guinness Premiership have London origins. London Irish, Saracens and Wasps share football grounds upright outside a boundaries of Greater London, however in the area. Harlequins, relegated to National Division One after the 2004/05 year, however play inside Greater London. A Northern England based sport of rugby league has maintained a top division club called a London Broncos in a capital in recent years when a share of its expansion efforts, however the club has struggled to exist as viable. There are too London teams around the top-topping British leagues in hockey game (London Racers) and basketball (London Towers), but neither one sports draws about a big total of spectators that football & rugger union clean.

There are ii Test cricket grounds: Lord's, home of Middlesex and the Marylebone Cricket Club, located in the leafy suburb of St John's Wood, just north of Regent's Park; and The Oval, home of Surrey, in South London.

A All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, home of the Wimbledon Championships, is in Wimbledon in South West London.

Business

A City of London is the fiscal centre of London, page to banks, factor, insurance company & legal & accounting house. Another fiscal dominion is getting at Canary Wharf to the east of central London. This is good deal little than City of London, however has equally prestigious occupier, including a spherical headquarters of HSBC.

Non-financial business headquarters come placed throughout central London. Occasionally come withwithin City of London, however supplementary come placed farther west, in & in Mayfair, St. James's, the Strand and elsewhere. To a higher degree half of the UK's top C enrolled corporations (a FTSE) are headquartered withwithin central London, & to a higher degree 70% in London's metropolitan area. London occurs as leading spherical centre for office services, & media & originative industries. 31% of spherical currency dealing occur withinside London, by having additional The states Dollars trade London than Up to date York, & sir thomas more Euros traded there than each city in Europe combined.

Tourism is one of the UK's big industries, & inside 2003 employed the same of 350,000 good-whale workers inside London [http://www.visitbritain.com/].

When a Port of London is now simply a third-largest in the United Kingdom — like than big in the globe, when it when was — it however hold 50 million tonnes of cargo every month. A independent docks come currently at Tilbury, which is outside the boundary of Greater London.

London's economy generates $365,000 million annually, and accounts for 17% of the UK's Gross Domestic Product although this only refers to a city proper & the economic impact of the entire London metropolitan area is likely to exist as far higher, maybe up to $600,000 million (same to the GDP of The Netherlands ; see Economy of the United Kingdom, List of countries by GDP (nominal)

London tourist attractions

Places of interest
''This occurs as subjective listings. Look at likewise: London attractions. Chinatown Covent Garden Downing Street Horse Guards Parade Leicester Square The London Dungeon London Eye London Planetarium London Zoo Madame Tussaud's Piccadilly Circus South Bank Theatreland Tower Bridge Tower of London Trafalgar Square

Buildings and monuments
1 Canada Square (the centrepiece of Canary Wharf) 30 St Mary Axe (also referred to as "The Gherkin" & a "Swiss Re Building") Albert Memorial Alexandra Palace Bank of England Battersea Power Station British Library Broadcasting House BT Tower (Formerly called a Post Professional Tower & 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 Palace of Westminster (Parliament and tower containing Big Ben) Royal Albert Hall Royal Courts of Justice 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 Temple of Mithras Tower 42 (formerly referred to as a Natwest Tower) Westminster Abbey

Museums and galleries
See Museums and Art above.

Markets and shopping areas
West End Knightsbridge Borough Market Portobello Road Market Petticoat Lane Market Brick Lane Market Covent Garden

There are several diverse camping areas inside various area of London; look at too London markets.

Parks and gardens

London is swell endowned by having open spaces. A eight Royal Parks of London are former royal hunting evidence which are then at present open to the public. Green Park, St James Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens form a green strand through the West Prevent. Regents Park is on the northern edge of central London, while Greenwich Park, Bushy Park, and Richmond Park are in the suburbs. Numbers of of the little green spaces within central London come garden squares which were built for the private have of the residents of the fashionable territory, however within a select few suits come nowadays open to the public.

Virtually all of London's council-owned parks were developed between a mid 19th century & a Second World War. Examples include Victoria Park, Alexandra Park and Battersea Park. A bit of of the more major open spaces in the suburbia, like Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common and Epping Forest have a more informal, semi-natural character. A leading paid entrance garden around 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 renowned lawsuits however inconvenient for the unwary holidaymaker since family things prohibited include bags & cellular phone. Tyburn was the location for several notorious executions by hanging. At present touching a places of Marble Arch and Hyde Park. Battersea Power Station and the Millennium Dome are two architecturally interesting buildings which presently have empty. All the same mixed utilize developments centred within two buildings dollarfish to begin in 2005. A Millennium Dome will become an indoor sports hall, & Battersea Power Station will become the searching & leisure facility. The Avenue of Stars is a walkway according to a Hollywood Hike of Fame, honouring victims world health organization use manufactured notable achievments in the show business.

London in the arts

Literature featuring London
London has been a setting for numbers of works of literature. Them writers world health organization come perchance virtually all closely associated by using a city come a journalist Samuel Pepys, famous among more items for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representatiin of a foggy, snowy, grungy London of street cleaner & cutpurse occurs as major influence on humans's vision of early Victorian London.

James Boswell's 'Life of Samuel Johnson' is the virtually all notable life around English. Virtually all of it will require place inside London. A celebrated apophthegm of Samuel Johnson, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life!" features alongside numbers of more expression & quips.

More illustrious works that feature London include A Journal of the Plague Year and Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, The Apes of God by Wyndham Lewis, Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby and White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Among contemporary writers perchance a virtually all pervasively influenced per city is Peter Ackroyd in works such as London: A Life story, A Lambs of London & Hawksmoor.

Films featuring London
London hwhen appeared as a setting for several films, for instance Notting Hill, and a Ealing comedies. There are gangster films and the romantic comedies of Richard Curtis. Adaptations of Dickens and the Sherlock Holmes novels abound.

London is front yard to the super big film post-production and special effects industry.

Television programmes featuring London
Absolutely Fabulous Are You Being Served? The Bill Bottom Doctor Who EastEnders Family Affairs Minder Only Fools and Horses Men Behaving Badly Red Dwarf Spooks Ultraviolet Yes Minister Yes Prime Minister Spaced

Songs featuring London
"Doing the Lambeth Walk", Music Hall favourite "London" by The Smiths "London Calling" by The Clash from the album London Calling "London Bridge is falling down", traditional nursery rhyme "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner" by Hubert Gregg "Streets of London" by Ralph McTell "Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks (recently voted London's 'national anthem' by Time Out magazine) "London Town" by The Wings from the album London Town "Lullaby of London" by The Pogues from the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God "The London Prentice" by Anonymous from the album ''Shakespeare's Musick by Philip Pickett and The Musicians Of The Globe "London Loves" by Blur from the album Parklife "London Still by The Waifs from the album A Brief History

Video Games featuring London

The Getaway & The Getaway: Black Monday Grand Theft Auto''

Major exhibitions staged in London
1851 – Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations — The Crystal Palace 1862 – International Exhibition (1862) 1871-74 – Four Annual International Exhibitions 1886 – Colonial and Indian Exhibition (1886) 1899 – Greater Britain Exhibition (1899) 1908 – Franco-British Exhibition (1908) 1924 – British Empire Exhibition at Wembley 1951 – Festival of Britain 2000 – Millennium Dome