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 Europe's most economically powerful city 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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The Civil Service Rifles War Memorial is a First World War memorial located on the riverside terrace at Somerset House in central London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1924, the memorial commemorates the 1,240 members of the Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles regiment who were killed in the First World War. They were Territorial Force reservists, drawn largely from the British Civil Service, which at that time had many staff based at Somerset House.

Both battalions of the expanded Civil Service Rifles were disbanded shortly after the war; the regiment amalgamated with the Queen's Westminster Rifles, but former members established an Old Comrades Association to keep the regiment's traditions alive. The association began raising funds for a war memorial in 1920, and the Prince of Wales unveiled the memorial on 27 January 1924. It takes the form of a single rectangular column surmounted by a sculpture of an urn and flanked by painted stone flags, the Union Flag on one side and the regimental colour on the other. The base on which the column stands is inscribed with the regiment's battle honours, while an inscription on the column denotes that a scroll containing the names of the fallen was placed inside. (Full article...)

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Featured picture

Photo credit: David Iliff

The three tallest skyscrapers in Canary Wharf, a large business and shopping development in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, as viewed from Cabot Square: 8 Canada Square (centre-left), One Canada Square (centre), Citigroup Centre (centre-right).

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Articles about London can be found under these categories:

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Bowie in 2002

David Robert Jones (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie (/ˈboʊi/ BOH-ee), was an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, particularly for his innovative work during the 1970s. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, and his music and stagecraft has had a significant impact on popular music.

Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age. He studied art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. He released a string of unsuccessful singles with local bands and a self-titled solo album (1967) before achieving his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart with "Space Oddity" (1969). After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of "Starman" and its album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (both 1972), which won him widespread popularity. In 1975, Bowie's style shifted towards a sound he characterised as "plastic soul", initially alienating many of his UK fans but garnering his first major US crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the album Young Americans (both 1975). In 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. In 1977, he again changed direction with the electronic-inflected album Low, the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno that came to be known as the Berlin Trilogy. "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger (1979) followed; each album reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise. (Full article...)

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Selected quotation

“

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

”

Samuel Johnson, 20 September 1777. Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791) by James Boswell

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Did you know...

... that the Grade I-listed George Inn, Southwark (pictured), is London's only remaining coaching inn, and appears on a map dating to 1543?

... that the Spaniards Inn on Hampstead Heath appears in Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers and Barnaby Rudge, and in Bram Stoker's Dracula?

... that the London Beer Flood of 1814 claimed 9 lives after a large vat of the drink burst at Meux's Brewery on Tottenham Court Road?

... that the vaulted cellars of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese are thought to belong to a thirteenth-century Carmelite monastery which once stood on the site?

... that the Fortune of War at Smithfield stood at the place where the Great Fire of London is said to have stopped, and was a popular haunt for body-snatchers?

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General images

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

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