Topography
A list of the highest points can be found in List of highest points in London
At the largest scale London lies within the bowl of the London Basin, with most of the built-up area lying on the Tertiary and younger sediments, and only a small part of south London (Sutton, Banstead and Croydon) lying on the chalk backslope of the North Downs. The centre of the basin is dominated by the modern valley of the Thames, which forms a level corridor running from west to east. The modern floodplain is around half a mile wide to the west of Greater London, expanding to two miles wide to the east. This is bordered by slightly higher and older terraces often extending several miles from the floodplain, for example in Hounslow and Southwark. Other significant river valleys include those of the Colne, Crane, Brent, Lea (with a floodplain more than a mile wide in places), Wandle and Ravensbourne, which run north and south towards the Thames.
There are a few notable hills in Greater London, but none of them more than a few hundred feet high, and they have not impeded the development of the city in all directions. It is therefore very roughly circular.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of London
Famous quotes containing the word topography:
“That the mere matter of a poem, for instance—its subject, its given incidents or situation; that the mere matter of a picture—the actual circumstances of an event, the actual topography of a landscape—should be nothing without the form, the spirit of the handling, that this form, this mode of handling, should become an end in itself, should penetrate every part of the matter;Mthis is what all art constantly strives after, and achieves in different degrees.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)