London, England

London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom, though the latter status is unofficial. The district known as the City of London is also the largest financial and business district in Europe. The city is a major cultural, economic, and travel hub, home to Heathrow and Gatwick airports and an underwater high-speed rail service that connects the island to mainland Europe.

London's central district is uniquely governed, thanks to centuries-old decrees by William the Conqueror. Despite being the home of both the local and national democratic government, London is also the site of a de facto oligarchy called the Corporation, which runs the city, and owns most of it.

Landscape

London grew from a Roman fort called Londinium, the remains of which are roughly in the center of the modern county known as the City of London ("The City," or "The Square Mile," colloquially). Piccadilly Circus is generally regarded as London's center, and is a landmark in its own right, particularly because of the renowned lighted signs.

The Greater London area, consisting of the City and thirty-two boroughs, spans 1,610 square kilometers (620 square miles) and is one of the world's largest cities by area. London straddles the Thames River, which has been significantly embanked during the city's development. Because the Thames is a tidal river, and because London has been slowly "tilting," the risk of flooding in parts of the city has remained a constant concern.

Since World War II, the modern city has been extensively and meticulously rebuilt. Part of this reconstruction was the so-called Green Belt, part of an effort by the city to prevent overdevelopment. Most of the districts within London are unofficial, informal, and hazily defined. The City is unique in that it has its own central government, separate from that which governs Greater London. The City of Westminster is the site of the United Kingdom's national government. Despite its name, the City of Westminster is part of London.

The city has a temperate climate, and generally mild precipitation throughout the year, averaging 584 millimeters (23 inches) annually. London has been affected by climate change. The city has hotter, drier, summers than it did in the past and wetter winters. Extreme weather such as heat waves has become more common.

People

First-generation immigrants account for approximately 30 percent of London's population. More than three hundred languages are spoken in the city, and at least 500,000 Londoners are members of non-Indigenous communities. According to Gov.UK, in 2021 46.2 percent of Londoners self-identified as being Black, Asian, or as another ethnicity other than White. About 17 percent of the population of London is White.

London is one of the least religious cities in the world, with 37.2 percent of the population claiming to have no religion at all. In fact, those with no religion are the second most numerous group by religion, after Christians, who account for 46.2 percent of the population in 2021. Other religious groups include Muslims (6.5 percent) and Hindus (1.7 percent).

England has never been known for its food, although London's high immigration rate has led to an amazing diversity in the types of restaurants in the city. Londoners have adopted many foreign foods, such as tea and curry, as their own. London is home to cuisine from more than seventy different countries and has many stores where a wide variety of ingredients can be purchased.

London experienced tremendous population growth in the nineteenth century; the population of Greater London increased sixfold between 1801 and 1901, from 1.1 million to 6.6 million people. However, London was so severely affected by World War II and the subsequent movement toward suburbanization that it was not until 2015 that the population passed its prewar peak of 8.6 million. As of 2015, London was the most populous city in the European Union. With increasing waves of immigration, this number is set to continue to rise. London's population was 9.426 million in 2022.

Economy

Long a major world port, London exports clothing, precision instruments, jewelry, and stationery, and imports petroleum, tea, wool, raw sugar, timber, butter, metals, and meat.

The London Underground, commonly referred to as "the Tube," is the city's major transportation system, connecting sixteen rail lines serving central London and the northern suburbs. The Underground is the oldest and largest subway system in the world, with Londoners making approximately three million journeys each day, and approximately one billion journeys each year.

Although nearly one hundred livery companies, descended from London's fourteenth century trade guilds, still exist in the city, they retain relatively little political and economic influence. The liverymen now elect the lord mayor of London, but this position is purely ceremonial.

In 2021, London's gross domestic product (GDP) was £56,431, as compared to the United King's GDP of £24,484.

Landmarks

London has a thriving tourism industry, which draws millions of visitors every year to well-known sites like Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace (the royal family's residence in London), and the historic Fleet Street, which was formerly the site of most of the newspaper offices in England. Westminster Abbey has been the site of every coronation and royal burial for close to five hundred years, and draws thousands of visitors every year. One of the most popular sections of the Abbey is Poet's Corner, where such important British poets as Geoffrey Chaucer are buried.

The city's rich theatrical history has survived into the modern era, with more than one hundred theater groups currently active in the city, including the world-famous Royal Shakespeare Company. The city is also home to a replica of Shakespeare's famous Globe Theatre. Although it has a storied literary history, London is home to only one literary museum, the Dickens House. Charles Dickens lived in fifteen different houses in London, but the sole surviving structure, and site of the museum, was where he wrote two of his most famous novels, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. One of the most popular tourist attractions in London is an aluminum statue in Piccadilly Circus known as Eros. The statue is in fact a depiction of the Angel of Christian Charity, in honor of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who was an active social reformer.

London is the home of the Tate Modern Gallery, the world's largest modern art gallery, founded in 1897 by a grant from Henry Tate, the inventor of the sugar cube. The Tate London contains British art from 1500 to the present, and sponsors the Turner Prize, a prestigious modern art award. The gallery changes its displays semiannually, but important works from Monet, Picasso, Warhol, Dalí, and other major artists are usually on display.

History

Portions of the stone walls from the first century Roman fort of Londinium still exist in modern London, though some evidence seems to indicate Celtic settlement predated the Romans. The Romans controlled the city until the fifth century, at least, but much of the history of the city from that time has been lost.

The Romans made London the administrative and commercial capital of Britannia, before abandoning the city in the wake of attacks by the Visigoths. After brief occupations by the Saxons and the Danes, Edward the Confessor established Westminster Abbey in London as the home of the royal government, thus establishing the separation of London's political and commercial centers. As it became stronger economically and politically in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, London came to develop the governmental structure it has today. With the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, King John gave the city the right to elect a mayor. By the fourteenth century, London had become the political capital of England.

As the city grew, it became more prone to large-scale disasters. Its first plague, the Black Death, killed almost half of the city's population in 1348 and 1349. The Great Plague of 1665 killed 75,000 Londoners. The Great Fire of 1666, started by an errant spark from the oven of the royal baker, ended up being one of the greatest disasters the city has seen in its history, even though the mayor at the time proclaimed that it was nothing to worry about. The fire eventually destroyed about 80 percent of the city, including 13,000 homes, but killing only nine people. On a positive note, the fire also killed most of the rats and fleas living in the city, which had been responsible for the recent plague.

For eight weeks in 1888, London found itself the victim of one of the most notorious serial killers in history, Jack the Ripper. Between August and November, five prostitutes were stabbed to death and disemboweled by a man who became notorious when the police began receiving taunting letters from him. Most of these letters are now thought to be fakes, but the identity of Jack the Ripper is still unknown. The Ripper murders brought attention to the squalor and depravity that had come to dominate the East End section of the city.

On September 7, 1940, Germany commenced a massive bombing attack against London. The Blitz, as it is now known, lasted for fifty-seven consecutive nights, and then continued intermittently, culminating in a devastating attack in May 1941. On the night of May 10, German planes dropped more than 100,000 incendiary devices on London, killing over 1,400 people and injuring 1,800 in a single evening. All told, the Blitz resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 Londoners and devastated the city itself.

A wide variety of architectural styles were employed during the reconstruction of the city after the war. Political districts were expanded in 1965 in order to take account of the city's continued growth. The years following the war also saw the beginning of widespread immigration to the city of London, which resulted in it becoming one of the most diverse cities in Europe.

Margaret Thatcher's election as prime minister in 1979 resulted in upheaval and economic despair in London. In 1986, Thatcher abolished the Greater London Council (GLC), making London the only European capital without an elected city government. In 2000, however, the Greater London Authority was created, and former GLC leader Ken Livingstone was elected the first mayor of London in 2000.

Despite the rise of representative government in England, the monarchy remains, and continues to be a presence in modern London. Though the royal family no longer has any power beyond the ceremonial, they still enjoy a special status and receive international attention. Until 1992, the Queen did not pay any taxes on her enormous fortune, and public funds were used for the upkeep of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

In June 2016, a referendum to decide whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union in 2019 passed with 51.9 percent of the vote. The results triggered protests in London by those who wanted to remain in the EU. On October 20, 2018, approximately 670,000 people gathered in London to call for a second Brexit referendum.

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