London Guide
Introduction to London
London is a very big city. In fact, it's one of Europe's largest capitals, stretching for more than thirty miles on either side of the River Thames, and with a population of just under eight million. Ethnically and linguistically, it's also Europe's most diverse metropolis, offering cultural and culinary delights from right across the globe. Londoners tend to cope with all this by compartmentalizing the city, identifying with the neighbourhoods in which they work or live, and just making occasional forays "into town" or "up West", to the West End, London's shopping and entertainment heartland.
With no single predominant focus of interest, the city can seem bewilderingly amorphous to newcomers. The key to enjoying London is not to try and do everything in a single visit – concentrate on one or two areas and you'll get a lot more out of the place. London has always been an enthralling city, and the capital's traditional sights – Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London– continue to draw in millions of tourists every year. Things change fast, though, and the regular emergence of new attractions ensures that there's plenty to do even for those who've visited before. In the last decade, virtually all of London's world-class museums, galleries and institutions have been reinvented, from the Royal Opera House to the British Museum. And with Tate Modern and the London Eye, the city can now boast the world's largest modern art gallery and Ferris wheel, as well as the Millennium Bridge, the first new Thames-crossing for over a hundred years.
Monuments from the capital's glorious past are everywhere, from medieval banqueting halls and the great churches of Christopher Wren to the eclectic Victorian architecture of the triumphalist British Empire. There's also much enjoyment to be had from the city's quiet Georgian squares, the narrow alleyways of the City of London, the riverside walks, and the assorted quirks of what is still identifiably a collection of villages. And London is offset by surprisingly large expanses of greenery, with several public parks right in the centre as well as wilder spaces on the outskirts