London i/ˈlʌndən/ 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. 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 named it Londinium. 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. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
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. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world depending on measurement. London has been described as a world cultural capital. It is the world's most-visited city measured by international arrivals and has the world's largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
London has a diverse range of peoples and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries. In March 2011, London had an official population of 8,174,100, making it the most populous municipality in the European Union, and accounting for 12.5% of the UK population. The Greater London Urban Area is the second-largest in the EU with a population of 8,278,251, while the London metropolitan area is the largest in the EU with an estimated total population of between 12 million and 14 million. London had the largest population of any city in the world from around 1831 to 1925.
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). Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. London is home to numerous museums, galleries, libraries, sporting events and other cultural institutions, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, British Library, Wimbledon, and 40 West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world.
Read more about London: Government, Demography, Economy, Transport, Sports, Twin Cities
Other articles related to "london":
... come under the operating area of the British Army's London District, which is responsible for the administration of the Household Division ... This covers Buckingham Palace, St James's Palace and the Tower of London, as well as Windsor Castle ... Holyroodhouse, but not as regularly as in London ...
... by Peter Brook) (1968) The Theatre of Grotowski by Jennifer Kumiega, London Methuen, 1987 ... At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions by Thomas Richards, London Routledge, 1995 ... by Lisa Wolford and Richard Schechner, London Routledge, 1997 ...
... Park Depot is the service and storage area for trains on the Victoria Line of the London Underground, the only part of the line above ground ... railway station, on Tottenham Marshes, Tottenham in the London Borough of Haringey ... As part of Transport for London's tube upgrade scheme, the depot has been expanded and upgraded to accommodate the new fleet of 2009 Tube Stock trains ...
... places on six continents named after London ... As well as London's twinning, the London boroughs have twinnings with parts of other cities across the world ... The Greater London Authority has twinning arrangements with Bogotá, Colombia La Paz, Bolivia Arequipa, Peru Berlin, Germany Delhi, India Johannesburg, South Africa Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Kuwait City ...
... Peters emigrated to England and lived in London where he was a member of the London Group of the Social Democracy of Latvia and of the British Socialist Party ... He married May Freeman, the daughter of a London banker, and together they had a daughter, Maisie Peters-Freeman (born 1914) ...
Famous quotes containing the word london:
“The Thirties dreamed white marble and slipstream chrome, immortal crystal and burnished bronze, but the rockets on the Gernsback pulps had fallen on London in the dead of night, screaming. After the war, everyone had a car—no wings for it—and the promised superhighway to drive it down, so that the sky itself darkened, and the fumes ate the marble and pitted the miracle crystal.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“I don’t care very much for literary shrines and haunts ... I knew a woman in London who boasted that she had lodgings from the windows of which she could throw a stone into Carlyle’s yard. And when I said, “Why throw a stone into Carlyle’s yard?” she looked at me as if I were an imbecile and changed the subject.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it became New York, London or Tokyo.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)