London
London i/'l?nd?n/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom,
the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest
urban zone in the European Union by most measures.[note 1] Located on the
River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its
history going back to its founding by the Romans, who called it
Londinium.[3] London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains
its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century,
the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this
core.[4] The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region[5] and the
Greater London administrative area,[6][note 2] governed by the elected
Mayor of London and the London Assembly.[7]
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce,
education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media,
professional services, research and development, tourism and transport
all contributing to its prominence.[8] It is the world's leading
financial centre alongside New York City[9][10][11] and has the fifth-
largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe).[12] London has
been described as a world cultural capital.[13][14][15][16] It has the
most international visitors of any city in the world[17] and London
Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international
passengers.[18] London's 43 universities form the largest concentration
of higher education in Europe.[19] In 2012 London will become the first
city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.[20]
London has a diverse range of peoples, cultures, and religions, and more
than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries.[21] In July 2010
Greater London had an official population of 7,825,200, making it the
most populous municipality in the European Union,[2][22] and accounting
for 12.5% of the UK population.[23] The Greater London Urban Area is the
second-largest in the EU with a population of 8,278,251,[24] while
London's metropolitan area is the largest in the EU with an estimated
total population of between 12 million[25] and 14 million.[26] London had
the largest population of any city in the world from around 1831 to
1925.[27]
London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew
Gardens; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster
Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich
(in which the Royal Observatory marks the Prime Meridian (0° longitude)
and GMT).[28] Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the
London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge,
Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium. London is home to numerous museums,
galleries, libraries, sporting events and other cultural institutions,
including the British Museum, National Gallery, British Library,
Wimbledon and 40 theatres.[29] The London Underground is the oldest
underground railway network in the world[30] and the second-most
extensive (after the Shanghai Metro).[31]
The etymology of London is uncertain.[32] It is an ancient name and can
be found in sources from the 2nd century. It is recorded c. 121 as
Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin.[32] The earliest
attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of
Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae.[32] This had it that the name
originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the
city and named it Kaerlud.[33]
From 1899 it was commonly accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and
meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos; this explanation has
since been rejected.[32] Richard Coates put forward an explanation in
1998 that it is derived from the pre-Celtic Old European *(p)lowonida,
meaning 'river too wide to ford', and suggested that this was a name
given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London; from
this, the settlement gained the Celtic form of its name,
*Lowonidonjon.[34]
Until 1889 the name "London" officially only applied to the City of
London but since then it has also referred to the County of London and
now Greater London.[4]
Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the
area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans in 43 AD.[35]
This lasted for just seventeen years and around 61, the Iceni tribe led
by Queen Boudica stormed it, burning it to the ground.[36] The next,
heavily planned incarnation of the city prospered and superseded
Colchester as the capital of the Roman province of Britannia in 100. At
its height during the 2nd century, Roman London had a population of
around 60,000. By the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new
settlement called Lundenwic over a mile (2 km) upstream from the old
Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden.[37]
It is likely that there was a harbour at the mouth of the River Fleet for
fishing and trading, and this trading grew, until the city was overcome
by the Vikings and forced to move east, back to the location of the Roman
Londinium, in order to use its walls for protection.[38] Viking attacks
continued to increase, until 886 when Alfred the Great recaptured London
and made peace with the Danish leader, Guthrum.[39] The original Saxon
city of Lundenwic became Ealdwic ("old city"), a name surviving to the
present day as Aldwych, which is in the modern City of Westminster.[40]
Two recent discoveries indicate that London could be much older than
previously thought. In 1999 the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found
on the foreshore north of Vauxhall Bridge.[41] This bridge either crossed
the Thames, or went to a (lost) island in the river. Dendrology dated the
timbers to 1500BC.
In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to 4500BC,
were found on the Thames foreshore, South of Vauxhall Bridge.[42] The
function of the mesolithic structure is not known, but it covers at least
50m x 10m, and numerous 30 cm posts are visible at low tides. Both
structures are on South Bank, at a natural crossing point where the River
Effra flows into the River Thames, and 4 km upstream from the Roman City
of London. The effort required to construct these structures implies
trade, stability, and a community size of several hundred people at
least.
With the collapse of Roman rule in the early 5th century, London was
effectively abandoned. However, from the 6th century an Anglo-Saxon
settlement known as Lundenwic developed slightly to the west of the old
Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden and the Strand, rising to a
likely population of 10–12,000.[37] In the 9th century London was
repeatedly attacked by Vikings, leading to a relocation of the city back
to the location of Roman Londinium, in order to use its walls for
protection.[38] Following the unification of England in the 10th century
London, already the country's largest city and most important trading
centre, became increasingly important as a political centre, although it
still faced competition from Winchester, the traditional centre of the
kingdom of Wessex.
In the 11th century King Edward the Confessor re-founded and rebuilt
Westminster Abbey and Westminster, a short distance upstream from London
became a favoured royal residence. From this point onward Westminster
steadily supplanted the City of London itself as a venue for the business
of national government.[43]
Westminster Abbey is a World Heritage Site and one of London's oldest and
most important buildings as seen in this painting (Canaletto, 1749 A.D.)
Following his victory in the Battle of Hastings, William, Duke of
Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly finished Westminster
Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.[44] William constructed the Tower of London,
the first of the many Norman castles in England to be rebuilt in stone,
in the southeastern corner of the city to intimidate the native
inhabitants.[45] In 1097, William II began the building of Westminster
Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. The hall became the basis of a
new Palace of Westminster.[46][47]
During the 12th century the institutions of central government, which had
hitherto accompanied the royal court as it moved around the country, grew
in size and sophistication and became increasingly fixed in one place. In
most cases this was Westminster, although the royal treasury, having been
moved from Winchester, came to rest in the Tower. While the City of
Westminster developed into a true capital in governmental terms, 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. In 1100 its population was
around 18,000; by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000.[48]
Disaster struck during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, when
London lost nearly a third of its population.[49] London was the focus of
the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.[50]
During the Tudor period the Reformation produced a gradual shift to
Protestantism, with much of London passing from church to private
ownership.[51] Mercantilism grew and monopoly trading companies such as
the East India Company were established, with trade expanding to the New
World. London became the principal North Sea port, with migrants arriving
from England and abroad. The population rose from an estimated 50,000 in
1530 to about 225,000 in 1605.[51]
In the 16th century William Shakespeare and his contemporaries lived in
London at a time of hostility to the development of the theatre. By the
end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still very compact. There was
an assassination attempt on James I in Westminster, through the Gunpowder
Plot on 5 November 1605.[52] London was plagued by disease in the early
17th century,[53] culminating in the Great Plague of 1665–1666, which
killed up to 100,000 people, or a fifth of the population.[54]
The Great Fire of London broke out in 1666 in Pudding Lane in the city
and quickly swept through the wooden buildings.[55] Rebuilding took over
ten years and was supervised by Robert Hooke[56][57][58] as Surveyor of
London.[59] In 1708 Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral
was completed. During the Georgian era new districts such as Mayfair were
formed in the west; and new bridges over the Thames encouraged
development in South London. In the east, the Port of London expanded
downstream.
In 1762 George III acquired Buckingham House and it was enlarged over the
next 75 years. During the 18th century, London was dogged by crime and
the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police
force.[60] In total, more than 200 offences were punishable by death,[61]
and women and children were hanged for petty theft.[62] Over 74 per cent
of children born in London died before they were five.[63] The
coffeehouse became a popular place to debate ideas, with growing literacy
and the development of the printing press making news widely available;
and Fleet Street became the centre of the British press.
London was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925.[27] London's
overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics,[65] claiming 14,000
lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866.[66] Rising traffic congestion led to
the creation of the world's first local urban rail network. The
Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion. It was
replaced in 1889 by the London County Council, London's first elected
city-wide administration. The Blitz and other bombing by the German
Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and destroyed
large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. Immediately
after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley
Stadium, at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war.
In 1951 the Festival of Britain was held on the South Bank. The Great
Smog of 1952 led to the Clean Air Act 1956, which ended the "pea-souper"
fogs for which London had been notorious. From the 1940s onwards, London
became home to a large number of immigrants, largely from Commonwealth
countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, making London
one of the most diverse cities in Europe.
Primarily starting in the mid-1960s, London became a centre for the
worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London subculture
associated with The King's Road, Chelsea and Carnaby Street. The role of
trendsetter was revived during the punk era. In 1965 London's political
boundaries were expanded to take into account the growth of the urban
area and a new Greater London Council was created. During The Troubles in
Northern Ireland, London was subjected to bombing attacks by the
Provisional IRA. Racial inequality was highlighted by the 1981 Brixton
riot. Greater London's population declined steadily in the decades after
World War II, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8
million in the 1980s. The principal ports for London moved downstream to
Felixstowe and Tilbury, with the London Docklands area becoming a focus
for regeneration as the Canary Wharf development. This was borne out of
London's ever-increasing role as a major international financial centre
during the 1980s.
The Thames Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect London against
tidal surges from the North Sea. The Greater London Council was abolished
in 1986, which left London as the only large metropolis in the world
without a central administration. In 2000, London-wide government was
restored, with the creation of the Greater London Authority. To celebrate
the start of the 21st century, the Millennium Dome, London Eye and
Millennium Bridge were constructed. On 7 July 2005, three London
Underground trains and a double-decker bus were bombed in a series of
terrorist attacks.[67]
The administration of London is formed of two tiers—a city-wide,
strategic tier and a local tier. City-wide administration is coordinated
by the Greater London Authority (GLA), while local administration is
carried out by 33 smaller authorities.[68] The GLA consists of two
elected components; the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and
the London Assembly, who scrutinise the mayor's decisions and can accept
or reject his budget proposals each year. The headquarters of the GLA is
City Hall, Southwark; the current mayor is Boris Johnson. The mayor's
statutory planning strategy is published as the London Plan, which as of
mid-2009 is being revised, for final publication in 2011. The local
authorities are the councils of the 32 London boroughs and the City of
London Corporation.[69] They are responsible for most local services,
such as local planning, schools, social services, local roads and refuse
collection. Certain functions, such as waste management, are provided
through joint arrangements. In 2009-2010 the combined revenue expenditure
by London councils and the GLA amounted to just over 22 billion £ (14.7
billion £ for the boroughs and 7.4 billion £ for the GLA)[70]
Policing in Greater London, with the exception of the City of London, is
provided by the Metropolitan Police Force, overseen by the Metropolitan
Police Authority. The City of London has its own police force – the City
of London Police.[71] The British Transport Police are responsible for
police services on National Rail and London Underground services in the
capital.[72]
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for
Greater London. It is run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning
Authority and is the third-largest fire service in the world.[73]
National Health Service ambulance services are provided by the London
Ambulance Service (LAS) NHS Trust, the largest free at the point of use
emergency ambulance service in the world.[74] The London Air Ambulance
charity operates in conjunction with the LAS where required. Her
Majesty's Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution operate
on the River Thames.[75][76]