Portal:London

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The London Portal

Panorama of modern London, taken from the Golden Gallery of St Paul's Cathedral. See Panorama of London for more panoramic images.

Big Ben

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of 8,866,180 in 2022. The wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of the national government and parliament. London grew rapidly in the 19th century, becoming the world's largest city at the time. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has referred to the metropolis around the City of London, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised the administrative area of Greater London, governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

As one of the world's major global cities, London exerts a strong influence on world art, entertainment, fashion, commerce, finance, education, healthcare, media, science, technology, tourism, transport, and communications. Despite a post-Brexit exodus of stock listings from the London Stock Exchange, London remains a European economic powerhouse, and one of the world's major financial centres. It hosts Europe's largest concentration of higher education institutions, some of which are the highest-ranked academic institutions in the world: Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London. It is the most visited city in Europe and has the world's busiest city airport system. The London Underground is the world's oldest rapid transit system.

London's diverse cultures encompass over 300 languages. The 2023 population of Greater London of just under 10 million made it Europe's third-most populous city, accounting for 13.4% of the United Kingdom's population and over 16% of England's population. The Greater London Built-up Area is the fourth-most populous in Europe, with about 9.8 million inhabitants as of 2011. The London metropolitan area is the third-most populous in Europe, with about 14 million inhabitants as of 2016, making London a megacity. (Full article...)

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Exterior of large theatre — The London Coliseum, home of The English National Opera

English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English.

The company's origins were in the late 19th century, when the philanthropist Emma Cons, later assisted by her niece Lilian Baylis, presented theatrical and operatic performances at the Old Vic, for the benefit of local people. Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company; these evolved into the ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet, respectively. (Full article...)

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Photo credit: David Iliff

The Royal Albert Hall, as viewed from the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. The Royal Albert Hall, built 1867–71, is a concert hall in South Kensington best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941. With the Albert Memorial the Hall forms part of the national memorial to Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria.

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Ayres and child

Alice Ayres (12 September 1859 – 26 April 1885) was an English nursemaid honoured for her bravery in rescuing the children in her care from a house fire. Ayres was a household assistant and nursemaid to the family of her brother-in-law and sister, Henry and Mary Ann Chandler. The Chandlers owned an oil and paint shop in Union Street, Southwark, then just south of London, and Ayres lived with the family above the shop. In 1885, a fire broke out in the shop, and Ayres rescued three of her nieces from the burning building, before falling from a window and suffering fatal injury.

Britain, in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, experienced a period of great social change in which the rapidly growing news media paid increasing attention to the activities of the poorer classes. The manner of Ayres's death caused great public interest, with large numbers of people attending her funeral and contributing to the funding of a memorial. Shortly after her death, she underwent what has been described as a "secular canonisation", being widely depicted in popular culture and, although very little was known about her life, widely cited as a role model. Various social and political movements promoted Ayres as an example of the values held by their particular movement. The circumstances of her death were distorted to give the impression that she was an employee willing to die for the sake of her employer's family, rather than for children to whom she was closely related. In 1902, her name was added to the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice and in 1936 a street near the scene of the fire was renamed Ayres Street in her honour. (Full article...)

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William Shakespeare Henry Wood Jack the Ripper Samuel Johnson Jack Sheppard Mary Wollstonecraft Noël Coward Mellitus David Bowie Edgar Speyer Harold Pinter Edmund Evans Elizabeth Canning Henry Moore William Sterndale Bennett Gilbert Foliot Lilias Armstrong Laurence Olivier George Lansbury Marie Lloyd Stanley Holloway Robert of Jumièges

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Selected quotation

“

London is a bad habit one hates to lose.

”

Anonymous popular saying, as quoted by William Sansom in Blue Skies, Brown Studies (1961)

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Did you know...

...that The Clink prison in Southwark, from which the phrase "in the clink" derives, was possibly the oldest prison in England, founded in the 12th century?

...that Bridewell Palace (pictured), originally a residence of Henry VIII, later became a poorhouse and prison?

...that another defunct royal palace, the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, housed a biscuit factory and a prisoner of war camp?

...that Newgate Prison was rebuilt in 1782 in an architectural style known as architecture terrible, intended to discourage law-breaking?

...that Millbank Prison, used largely to hold convicts who were to be deported to Australia, stood on the site now occupied by Tate Britain?

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General images

The following are images from various London-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The statue of Alfred the Great at Winchester, erected 1899 (from History of London)
Image 2A plaque in the City of London noting the re-establishment of the Roman walled city (from History of London)
Image 3A silver coin of Alfred, with the legend ÆLFRED REX (from History of London)
Image 4A detailed copy of John Rocque's Map of London, 1741–5 (from History of London)
Image 5Tourists consulting a map near St Paul's Cathedral (from Tourism in London)
Image 6Firefighters putting out flames after an air raid during The Blitz, 1941 (from History of London)
Image 7The "Woodcut" map of London, formally titled Civitas Londinum (c. 1561) (from History of London)
Image 8Section 1 (from History of London)
Image 9Maughan Library, King's College London (from Culture of London)
Image 10Three cultural icons of London: a K2 red telephone box, Big Ben and a red double-decker bus (from Culture of London)
Image 11London c. 1300 (from History of London)
Image 12John Norden's map of London in 1593. There is only one bridge across the Thames, but parts of Southwark on the south bank of the river have been developed. (from History of London)
Image 13Ogilby & Morgan's map of the City of London (1673). "A Large and Accurate Map of the City of London. Ichnographically describing all the Streets, Lanes, Alleys, Courts, Yards, Churches, Halls, & Houses &c. Actually Surveyed and Delineated by John Ogilby, His Majesties Cosmographer." (from History of London)
Image 14Samuel Pepys, chronicler of Stuart London (from History of London)
Image 15Girl in costume at the Notting Hill Carnival (from Culture of London)
Image 16The Houses of Parliament from Westminster Bridge in the early 1890s (from History of London)
Image 17A signpost on Parliament Square with directions for nearby attractions (from Tourism in London)
Image 18The Clock Tower of Wren's St Paul's Cathedral (from History of London)
Image 19Section 3 (from History of London)
Image 20Tourism in London 2013 (from Tourism in London)
Image 21People gathered in Whitehall to hear Winston Churchill's victory speech, 8 May 1945. (from History of London)
Image 22A view of London from the east in 1751 (from History of London)
Image 23A medal of Constantius I capturing London (inscribed as lon) in 296 after defeating Allectus. From Beaurains treasure. (from History of London)
Image 24Richard Blome's map of London (1673). The development of the West End had recently begun to accelerate. (from History of London)
Image 25Section 2 (from History of London)
Image 26Buckingham Palace as it appeared in the 17th century (from History of London)
Image 27Cheapside pictured in 1909, with the church of St Mary-le-Bow in the background (from History of London)
Image 28Les Misérables at the Palace Theatre (from Culture of London)
Image 29The National Gallery from Trafalgar Square (from Culture of London)
Image 30A tourist stall selling various London and United Kingdom related souvenirs on the edge of Trafalgar Square on the Strand (from Tourism in London)
Image 31A depiction of the imprisonment of Charles, Duke of Orléans in the Tower of London, from a 15th-century manuscript. Old London Bridge is in the background (from History of London)
Image 32Floral Hall of the Royal Opera House (from Culture of London)
Image 33Outline of the London region (from Geography of London)
Image 34The Shard (left), an icon of 21st-century London (from History of London)
Image 35Tourists at Buckingham Palace (from Tourism in London)
Image 36Amy Winehouse was a singer-songwriter from Southgate, north London. (from Culture of London)
Image 37London as engraved by J. & C. Walker in 1845 from a map by R Creighton. Many districts in the West End were fully developed, and the East End also extended well beyond the eastern fringe of the City of London. There were now several bridges over the Thames, allowing the rapid development of South London. (from History of London)
Image 38Buckingham Palace in 1837, enlarged by John Nash (from History of London)
Image 39Shaftesbury Avenue, c. 1949 (from History of London)
Image 40John Evelyn's plan for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire (from History of London)
Image 41Satellite image by Sentinel-2 satellite (from Geography of London)
Image 42Main entrance to the British Museum (from Culture of London)
Image 43Young people in Carnaby Street in 1966 (from History of London)
Image 44A Carausius coin from Londinium mint (from History of London)
Image 45In spite of heavy traffic, several companies operate tour buses in London. (from Tourism in London)
Image 46Brixton Academy (from Culture of London)

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London Boroughs

City of London † City of Westminster Kensington and Chelsea Hammersmith and Fulham Wandsworth Lambeth Southwark Tower Hamlets Hackney Islington Camden Brent Ealing Hounslow Richmond Kingston upon Thames		Merton Sutton Croydon Bromley Lewisham Greenwich Bexley Havering Barking and Dagenham Redbridge Newham Waltham Forest Haringey Enfield Barnet Harrow Hillingdon
† sui generis – not a London borough

More about London Boroughs
Category: London boroughs

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London Topics

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Transport

London has one of the oldest and largest public transport systems in the world. Many components of its transport system, such as the double-decker bus, the Hackney Carriage black taxi and the Tube, are internationally recognised symbols of London. London has a comprehensive rail network with several major railway stations, including two international train stations at St Pancras railway station and Stratford International, which connect London to mainland Europe through the Eurostar service. London also has six international airports. In addition to public transport, London is the start point for a number of motorway routes. The M25 is an orbital motorway which enables vehicles to avoid travelling through central London, and is one of the busiest motorways in Europe.