Online CasinoSome areas of the city, particularly those just west of the centre, are characterised by white stucco or whitewashed buildings. As a large city, London has a considerable urban heat island effect, making the centre of London at times 5 °C (9 °F) warmer than the suburbs and outskirts. London was the world’s largest city from about 1831 to 1925, with a population density of 802 per acre (325 per hectare). While the City of Westminster developed into a true governmental capital, its distinct neighbour, the City of London, remained England’s largest city and principal commercial centre and flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London. William built the Tower of London, the first of many such in England rebuilt in stone in the south-eastern corner of the city, to intimidate the inhabitants. The 2025 population of Greater London of just over 9.8 million made it Europe’s third-most populous city, accounting for 13.1 per cent of the United Kingdom’s population and 15.5 per cent of England’s population.
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Just an hour by train from London and you’re in the city of dreaming spires. A quirky seaside city filled with diverse cuisine, vintage shopping and adrenaline-fuelled adventure. Stay in this leafy and affluent part of London that has great bars and delis, restaurants and is home to the city’s green lungs – Hampstead Heath. Visit the capital city to get a taste for the festivities. See some of London’s best views atop one its newest skyscrapers. Notting Hill brings a delightful pop of colour to the London cityscape.
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Ealing Trailfinders and London Scottish play in the RFU Championship; other rugby union clubs in the city include Richmond, Rosslyn Park, Westcombe Park, and Blackheath. Other long-distance paths, linking green spaces, have also been created, including the Capital Ring, the Green Chain Walk, London Outer Orbital Path (“Loop”), Jubilee Walkway, Lea Valley Walk and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk. Access to canals and rivers has improved recently, including the creation of the Thames Path, some 28 miles (45 km) of which is within Greater London, and the Wandle Trail along the River Wandle. Three of the UK’s most-visited theme parks, Thorpe Park near Staines-upon-Thames, Chessington World of Adventures in Chessington and Legoland Windsor, are located within 20 miles (32 km) of London.
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Drought is sometimes possible, especially during longer heatwaves in summer. With the need for more rail capacity in London, the Elizabeth line (also known as Crossrail) opened in May 2022. The most used airport is Heathrow Airport, although it is actually outside the city. Many products were made in London including ships, electronics and cars. The UK’s fashion industry, centred on London, contributes tens of billions to the economy.
Art – but not as you know it
The place to be for rap and R&B music in the UK with previous headliners including Kanye West and Jay-Z. Dive into Europe’s largest celebration for African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Caribbean LGBTQIA+ people in London. Revealing the human side of Britain’s conflicts, the world’s largest war museum is both poignant and fascinating. Step back in time to the Victorian world of one of the greatest literary detectives, Sherlock Holmes, at his ‘real life’ address.
- With the need for more rail capacity, the Elizabeth Line (also known as Crossrail) opened in May 2022.
- A dead otter was found at The Highway, in Wapping, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Tower Bridge, which would suggest that they have begun to move back after being absent a hundred years from the city.
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- North London is situated north of the City of London, with South London (whose development started with the ancient borough of Southwark at the southern end of London Bridge) occupies all of London south of the River Thames.
- The city is one of the four fashion capitals of the world, and, according to official statistics, is the world’s third-busiest film production centre, presents more live comedy than any other city, and has the biggest theatre audience of any city in the world.
St Paul’s Cathedral
London’s theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs, and restaurants, including the city’s Chinatown district (in Soho), and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops. It is also a major centre for biomedical research, and three of the UK’s eight academic health science centres are based in the city – Imperial College Healthcare, King’s Health Partners and UCL Partners (the largest such centre in Europe). At major piers including Canary Wharf, London Bridge City, Battersea Power Station and London Eye (Waterloo), services depart at least every 20 minutes during commuter times. The BBC, the world’s oldest national broadcaster, is a significant employer, while other broadcasters, including ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, also have headquarters around the city. In population terms, London is the 19th largest city and the 18th largest metropolitan region.
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In the 1940s, George Orwell wrote essays in the London Evening Standard, including “A Nice Cup of Tea” (method for making tea) and “The Moon Under Water” (an ideal pub). G. Wells’ science fiction novel The War of the Worlds sees London (and southern England) invaded by Martians. The literary centres of London have traditionally been hilly Hampstead and (since the early 20th century) Bloomsbury. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based there, and some of his work, most notably his play The Alchemist, was set in the city. Today, the annual London Pride Parade and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival are held in the city. While London has been an LGBT tourism destination, after homosexuality was decriminalised in England in 1967 gay bar culture became more visible, and from the early 1970s Soho (and in particular Old Compton Street) became the centre of the London LGBT community.
Outside, the Millennium Bridge provides one of the most iconic views of St Paul’s, aligning perfectly with the west façade. Founded as a Benedictine monastery around the 10th century, every English and later British monarch — except Edward V and Edward VIII — has been crowned here, including Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and King Charles III in 2023. During the summer months, it’s possible to get a closer look at this historic building, when the palace’s 19 lavish State Rooms and gardens open to the public . Guided or self-guided audio tours lead you through Westminster Hall, the oldest surviving part of the palace, the House of Commons where debates take place, and the richly decorated House of Lords. Known for remarkable precision, its innovative timekeeping is regulated using old pre-decimal pennies placed on the pendulum to alter its speed by fractions of a second.
In particular the genres UK garage, drum and bass, dubstep, and grime evolved in the city from the foreign genres of house, hip hop and reggae, alongside local drum and bass. London was instrumental in the development of punk music, with groups such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood based in the city. The city is home to the original Hard Rock Cafe and the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded many of their hits. Several music festivals, including the Wireless Festival, Lovebox, and Hyde Park’s British Summer Time, are held in London. London has numerous venues for rock and pop concerts, including the world’s busiest indoor venue, the O2 Arena, and Wembley Arena, as well as many mid-sized venues, such as Brixton Academy, the Hammersmith Apollo and the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The record label EMI was formed in the city in 1931, and an early employee for the company, Alan Blumlein, created stereo sound that year.
A number of large parks lie outside the city centre, including Hampstead Heath and the remaining Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the southeast, and Bushy Park and Richmond Park (the largest) to the southwest. The city is the largest in western Europe by population and area. Modern London stands on the Thames, its primary geographical feature, a navigable river which crosses the city from the south-west to the east. London has plenty of incredible viewpoints, including rooftop bars, city parks and Britain’s tallest building.
Over 85% (3.2 million) of the employed population of greater London works in the services industries. Notwithstanding a post-Brexit exodus of stock listings from the London Stock Exchange, London is one of Europe’s most economically powerful cities, and it remains one of the major financial centres of the world. London’s largest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK’s balance of payments. By the mid-19th century London was the leading global financial centre, and at the end of the century over half the world’s trade was financed in British currency.
Epping Forest is a popular venue for various outdoor activities, including mountain biking, walking, horse riding, golf, angling, and orienteering. Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist, including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest, both controlled by the City of London Corporation. Close to Richmond Park is Kew Gardens, which has the world’s largest collection of living plants. Hyde Park in particular is popular for sports and sometimes hosts open-air concerts.
This called for the Corporation of the city to extend its jurisdiction and administration over expanding areas around the city. Much property in London passed from church to private ownership, which accelerated trade and business in the city. With the Black Death in the mid-14th century, London lost nearly a third of its population. Winchester had been the capital of Anglo-Saxon England, but from this time London became the main forum for foreign traders and the base for defence in time of war. By about 680 the city had become a major port again, but there is little evidence of large-scale production. With the early-5th-century collapse of Roman rule, the walled city of Londinium was effectively abandoned, although Roman civilisation continued around St Martin-in-the-Fields until about 450.
- These destinations are both renowned and historic, continuing to play an active role in city life centuries after their creation.
- With its grand façade, gilded gates, and timeless pageantry, the palace is one of London’s most enduring symbols.
- St Pancras International is the city’s Eurostar hub, with multiple direct connections to Europe.
- In terms of international connectedness, as of 2024, London was one of two cities worldwide classified as an “Alpha++” city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
- In January 2005, a survey of London’s ethnic and religious diversity claimed that more than 300 languages were spoken in London and more than 50 non-indigenous communities had populations of more than 10,000.
In 2010 foundations of a large timber structure, dated to 4800–4500 BC, were found on the Thames’ south foreshore downstream from Vauxhall Bridge. In 1993 remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south River Thames foreshore, upstream from Vauxhall Bridge. It became the first city to host three Summer Olympic Games upon hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. The London metropolitan area is the third-most-populous in Europe, with about 15 million inhabitants as of 2025, making London a megacity.g It is the most-visited city in Europe and has the world’s busiest city airport system. London hosts Europe’s largest concentration of higher education institutions, comprising over 50 universities and colleges and enrolling more than 500,000 students as at 2023.
Indians accounted for 7.5% of the population, followed by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis at 3.7% and 3.3% respectively. Of the total population, those that arrived between the years of 2011 and 2021 account for 16.6% of London. The 2021 census recorded that 3,575,739 people (40.6%) of London’s population were foreign-born, making it among the cities with the largest immigrant population in terms of absolute numbers and a growth of roughly 3 million since 1971 when the foreign born population was 668,373. The region covers 610 square miles (1,579 km2), giving a population density of 13,410 inhabitants per square mile (5,177/km2) more than ten times that of any other British region.
London is Europe’s largest city economy, and is one of the world’s major financial centres. London grew rapidly in the 19th century, becoming the world’s largest city at the time. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries.e The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of the national government and parliament. Londonc is the capital and largest cityd of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of 9.1 million people in 2024. Your Google Account helps you save time by automatically filling in passwords, addresses, and payment details using the information you’ve saved to your account.
It is the largest metropolis in the United Kingdom, and it is also the country’s economic, transportation, and cultural center. During World War II London suffered intense aerial bombardment by Nazi forces during the Blitz, a campaign from September 1940 to May 1941 that devastated the city. It is the U.K.’s largest metropolis and its economic, transportation, and cultural center. The rules of modern boxing, the Queensberry Rules, were formulated in London in 1867, and since then fights have taken place at York Hall (the spiritual home of British boxing), and larger arenas and stadiums across the city. While rugby league is more popular in the north of England, the sport has one professional club in London – the London Broncos, while the Challenge Cup final often takes place in the city.
On 6 July 2005 London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics, as the first city to stage the Olympic Games three times. This was born out of London’s increasing role as an international financial centre in the 1980s. London’s development as an international financial centre matured for much of the 18th century. Yet English maritime enterprise hardly reached beyond the seas of northwestern Europe. London was a centre of England’s Jewish population before their expulsion by Edward I in 1290.
The London financial elite was strengthened by a strong Jewish community from all over Europe capable of mastering the most sophisticated financial tools of the time. Also, London’s market-centred system (as opposed to the bank-centred one in Amsterdam) grew more dominant in the 18th century. London took over as a major financial centre shortly after 1795 when chicken road app the Dutch Republic collapsed before the Napoleonic armies. Since the start of the 21st century the extreme form of the Cockney dialect is less common in parts of the East End itself, with modern strongholds including other parts of London and suburbs in the home counties. Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue has the largest membership of any Orthodox synagogue in Europe. London is home to 44 Hindu temples, including the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London.