London

City Statistics

Location:

Southeastern England, United Kingdom.

Dialing code

44.

Time zone

GMT (GMT + 1 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).

Electricity

240 volts AC, 50Hz; square three-pin plugs are standard.

Average January temperatures

5°C (41°F).

Average July temperatures

18°C (64°F).

Annual rainfall

585mm (23 inches).

London: Overview

Buckingham Palace

Eye Of London

The Rubens At The Palace

Tower Bridge

Vast, vibrant and truly multicultural, London is one of the world’s great cities. Located in the southeast of England, on the River Thames, it is the capital of the United Kingdom (UK) and has been the heart of its political, cultural and business life for centuries.

It was the Romans who established ‘Londinium’ as an important fortress town, guarding the Thames and protecting against any Celtic tribes trying to invade the then untamed island.

Over the centuries, London has developed and expanded, despite the many dangers that might have defeated a lesser place – the Great Plague, the Great Fire, the bitter English Civil War, a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, and the ‘Blitz’ during WWII.

Nowadays, the sheer scale of Greater London can be daunting at first, although it is a city that is surprisingly easy to get around, with the comprehensive and easily navigated London Underground or ‘Tube’.

The twin axes on which London rests are the Houses of Parliament to the west and the City of London to the east. The seat of government (not far from the home of the royal family) is connected to the City (the financial engine room of London and the whole of the UK) by the River Thames.

In between lie most of the tourist attractions and the busiest, liveliest entertainment areas, such as Knights bridge and Soho. But London’s vivacity and charm stretch far beyond the Circle Line – the Underground route that rings the inner city. Residential areas outside the city center, such as leafy Richmond (southwest) or Hampstead (north), trendy Hoxton (east) or Notting Hill (west), each have their own beating heart.

And as the population of the greater London area pushes inexorably towards the 10 million mark, the city continues to grow and thrive. Home to 37 distinct immigrant groups, each consisting of more than 10,000 people, this is a city where some 300 languages are spoken.

This very real multiculturalism is evident on every street (and many restaurant plates) and is a key reason why people love the city. Tourists come for London’s history or London’s royal pageantry but they return for all the charms of the modern London, not least the extraordinary breadth of London’s cultural life, with world-class art galleries and theaters, vibrant nightlife, film, music, culinary and fashion scenes.

But the city skyline is the place where the London’s rapid change and optimism is most visible – the Docklands and the City (with its now famous ‘Gherkin’ tower) have shot up over the last few years.

After an enthusiastic campaign endorsed by a wealth of sporting celebrities and fervently supported by the majority of residents, London won the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, which will have a significant impact on the future of the city in terms of both tourism and investment.

During summer, London’s bountiful green spaces fill up with office workers and tourists enjoying the surprisingly balmy days as café tables sprout across a multitude of pavements. During winter, the grey skies and rain can be forgotten for a while in numerous cozy pubs. But spring or autumn are probably the best seasons to visit the city, when clear, crisp, sunny days often illuminate London and its landmarks, old and new.

London: Tourist information

WalkingTours
A variety of guided walks is available from several operators, although the most comprehensive tours are offered by TheOriginalLondonWalks (tel: (020) 7624 3978 or 7624 9255 (recorded information); website: www.walks.com) (duration: 2 hours). The company also offers themed tours on a huge variety of subjects, including ‘Jack the Ripper’ and ‘The Beatles’. Tours start and finish near a Tube station; there is no need to book and walkers can just turn up at the appropriate station, all of which are listed on the website’s ‘timetable’. LondonMysteryWalks (tel: (020) 8526 7755; website: www.tourguides.org.uk) also offer ‘Jack the Ripper’ tours, as well as ‘Haunted London’. Both take approximately two hours and depart from Aldgate station and St Paul’s station respectively. Booking is required for the ‘Haunted London’ tour.

Alternatively, for self-guided walks, the SilverJubileeWalkway (website: www.jubileewalkway.com) has been extended from the original 3km (2miles) along the South Bank of the River Thames (between Lambeth and Tower bridges) to include much of the City and the West End. It now covers 23 km (14 miles). Also, starting at the Tower of London, 21 explanatory plaques trace a route along the Roman LondonWall.

BusTours
Various companies offer bus tours of London’s sights. Tickets are usually valid for 24 hours and passengers can hop on and off at various attractions en route. The BigBusCompany (tel: (020) 7233 9533; website: www.bigbus.co.uk) offers three different 90-minute sightseeing routes, with departure points close to many of London’s attractions. OriginalLondonSightseeingTours (tel: (020) 8877 1722; website: www.theoriginaltour.com) also offers various sightseeing bus tours, including a Da Vinci Code route.

BoatTours
Westminster Pier is the main embarkation point for river trips. From here, there are services east (downstream) or west (upstream). CityCruises (tel: (020) 7740 0400; website: www.citycruises.com) operates sightseeing cruises east to Tower Pier (journey time – 30 minutes each way), and Greenwich Pier (journey time – 1 hour each way). CityCruises also offers a ‘Red Rover’ day pass for its tours, enabling visitors to hop on and off at four different stops. Tickets must be purchased at the ticket office before boarding.

Going west, summer services by WPSA (tel: (020) 7930 2062; website: www.wpsa.co.uk) depart from Westminster Pier upriver to Kew Gardens, Richmond and Hampton Court. Tickets must be purchased before boarding and the journey time is 90-minute to Kew, and 3 hours to Hampton Court.

CatamaranCruisers (tel: (020) 7987 1185; website: www.catamarancruisers.co.uk) provides 50-minute non-stop multilingual cruises from Waterloo, Westminster and Embankment Piers. CatamaranCruisers also operates a hop-on, hop-off service, covering Embankment Pier, Waterloo Pier, Bankside, Tower Pier and Greenwich Pier. The ‘Hopper Pass’ allows for a day’s worth of free travel, otherwise individual tickets are available. Tickets must be purchased at the ticket office before boarding.

OtherTours
LondonDuckTours (tel: (020) 7928 3132; website: www.londonducktours.co.uk) runs unconventional tours on an amphibious craft, which depart from Chichley Street (the street behind the London Eye) and rumble through London’s streets, taking in Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, before plunging into the River Thames for a 30-minute cruise.

For those who like to experience life in the fast lane, London RIB Voyages (tel: (020) 7401 8834; website: www.londonribvoyages.com) offers small group tours on the Thames onboard purpose-built rigid inflatable boats (very similar to those used by the police and emergency services). The tour lasts for an hour, takes in all the main sights and includes a running commentary (in English only) by a knowledgeable and entertaining guide.
London taxi drivers’ unsurpassed understanding of the city has been tapped by BlackTaxiTours (tel: (020) 7935 9363; website: www.blacktaxitours.co.uk), London sightseeing tours in a black cab.

London: Culture

Wembley Stadium

Bus Tours

London Bridge Along With Boat Tours

Tube Train Station In London

London's cultural scene combines the assurance of long-standing tradition with the verve of regained creativity. The sheer breadth of cultural activities on offer in the capital is breathtaking, with over 150 theatres and 300 art galleries.
The hulking concrete mass of the South Bank Centre, South Bank, SE1 (tel: 0871 663 2500; website: www.sbc.org.uk), is one of the city's cultural meccas. It houses the Hayward Gallery (website: www.hayward.org.uk) and three concert halls. Next door is the flagship Royal National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (tel: (020) 7452 3400 (information) or 3000 (box office); website: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk). Flying the cultural flag north of the river, the labyrinthine Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2 (tel: (020) 7638 4141; website: www.barbican.org.uk), is an all-inclusive performing and visual arts venue with a varied all-year program of events.
The weekly Time Out magazine (website: www.timeout.com) provides details of the week's entertainment. So does the website of Visit London, www.visitlondon.com. Ticket agencies include Ticket Switch (website: www.ticketswitch.com) and Ticketmaster UK (tel: 0844 847 2455; website: www.ticketmaster.co.uk).
Music: The world-famous Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2 (tel: (020) 7304 4000; website: www.royalopera.org), is home to the excellent Royal Opera. However, despite some attempts to cut the price, ballet and opera tickets are still often fairly expensive. More accessible are performances by the English National Opera (tel: (020) 7632 8300; website: www.eno.org) at the London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, WC2.
Large-scale concerts are staged at the Royal Festival Hall (see above), home of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (020) 7840 4200 or 4242 (box office); website: www.lpo.co.uk), or the Barbican (see above), home of the London Symphony Orchestra (tel: (020) 7588 1116 or 7638 8891 (box office); website: www.lso.co.uk). The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 (tel: (020) 7589 8212 (box office); website: www.royalalberthall.com), can also stage huge concerts, including London's annual musical highlight, the summer series of the Proms.
Music connoisseurs should head for the traditional but friendly surroundings of the Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, W1 (tel: (020) 7935 2141; website: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk), to hear impeccable chamber music and solo recitals. More informal concerts take place in halls and churches all over the capital, including St Martin-in-the-Fields (off Trafalgar Square), St John's, Smith Square, SW1, and St James's, Piccadilly, W1.
Theatre: Within the extraordinary diversity of London's theatre scene (there are over 100 theatres in the capital, including 50 in the West End), the Royal National Theatre (see above) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (tel: (01789) 403 404; website: www.rsc.org.uk) compete for audiences with commercial West End theatres, repertory companies, 'off-West End' productions and fringe theatres. The National Theatre's three auditoria allow productions of different scale, from classics to new writing. The Royal Shakespeare Company, performing primarily Shakespeare and based out of Stratford-upon-Avon, performs in a range of venues including the Barbican.
The Old Vic, The Cut, Waterloo, SE1 (tel: 0870 060 6628; website: www.oldvictheatre.com), offers inspired traditional drama. Meanwhile, down the road, at 66 The Cut, the Young Vic (tel: (020) 7922 2922; website: www.youngvic.org) presents modern productions of contemporary and classic plays. The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1 (tel: (020) 7565 5000; website: www.royalcourttheatre.com), continues to foster excellent new writing.
Quality innovative productions can also be expected from 'off-West End' theatres, such as the Donmar Warehouse, Earlham Street, WC2 (tel: 0870 060 6624; website: www.donmarwarehouse.com) and the Almeida, Almeida Street, N1 (tel: (020) 7359 4404; website: www.almeida.co.uk). Fringe theatre, ranging from the inspired to the insane, is performed in dozens of local venues, including the King's Head, 115 Upper Street, N1 (tel: 0844 412 2953; website: www.kingsheadtheatre.org), which is the oldest pub-theatre in London, and the Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, SW10 (tel: 0844 847 1652; website: www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk).
From May to September, the Globe Theatre, New Globe Walk, SE1 (tel: (020) 7902 1400; website: www.shakespeares-globe.org), stages open-air productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. There are also outdoor summer performances at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, NW1 (tel: 0844 826 4242; website: www.openairtheatre.org).
You can buy West End theatre tickets in advance from the theatre box office. Alternatively, for tickets on the day of the performance, there is a booth on the south side of Leicester Square, called tkts (website: www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk). It is open Monday to Saturday 1000-1900 and Sunday 1200-1500. This is the official Society of London Theatre's booth; visitors should avoid touts and other outlets in the area. The booth sells mainly half-price tickets, although some tickets at 25% discount and some full-price tickets. Because of the booking fee, when only full-price tickets are available for that night's performance, visitors are advised to go to the actual theatre box office. There is another tkts outlet in Canary Wharf DLR Station.
Dance: Touring dance companies perform mostly contemporary dance at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, EC1 (tel: (020) 7863 8198 or 0844 412 4300 for tickets; website: www.sadlers-wells.com). Ticket prices are usually more reasonable than at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2 (tel: (020) 7304 4000), which is home to the Royal Ballet (website: http://info.royaloperahouse.org/ballet). The Roundhouse on Chalk Farm Road, Camden (tel: 0844 482 8008; website: www.roundhouse.org.uk), has reopened after a £30 million refurbishment and will be showcasing new talent in various cutting edge productions, many of which will be dance.
Film: Local cinemas are less expensive than those in the West End, where tickets can cost over £10. Two main cinema chains are Odeon (tel: 0871 224 4007; website: www.odeon.co.uk) and Vue (formerly Warner) (tel: 0871 224 0240; website: www.myvue.com), with venues all over London, their biggest in Leicester Square, WC2. Barbican Screen, Silk Street, EC2 (tel: (020) 7638 8891; website: www.barbican.org.uk/film), is London's leading independent cinema showing independent, art house and blockbuster movies, along with the National Film Theatre, on the South Bank, SE1 (tel: (020) 7633 0274; website: www.bfi.org.uk). For more art house films try the Curzon, which has several branches including at Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (tel: 0871 7033 988; website: www.curzoncinemas.com) or the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y (tel: (020) 7930 3667; www.ica.org.uk). You can experience IMAX magic at the largest cinema screen in the UK, the BFI London IMAX Cinema, South Bank, SE1 (tel: 0870 787 2525; website: www.bfi.org.uk/imax). For cheaper seats, try the Prince Charles off Leicester Square on Leicester Place (tel: (020) 7494 3654; website: www.princecharlescinema.com); it shows mainstream movies later than the bigger cinemas, but you can catch a film for under £5.
The Ealing Studios in west London presented English eccentricity and black humor in a distinctive London setting in the 'Ealing Comedies', such as Passport to Pimlico (1949) and The Ladykillers (1955). Before the war, Alfred Hitchcock established his reputation at Elstree Film Studios, with London-based thrillers such as The 39 Steps (1935), featuring Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) hanging precariously from the clock face of Big Ben. More recently, Sliding Doors (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Notting Hill (1998) have achieved huge success by combining a London setting with the box-office draw of Hollywood stars. The compelling gangster face of East End London has also been portrayed in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000). London has also been portrayed in Blow Up (1966), Mona Lisa (1986) and Wonderland (1999). Recent movies shot in the capital include Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), Dirty Pretty Things (2002), About a Boy (2002), 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Closer (2004), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), Match Point (2005), Breaking and Entering (2006) and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008).
Literary Notes: London has sheltered and inspired writers for centuries. Bunhill Fields' graveyard has monuments to John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe and William Blake. Bloomsbury gave its name to a literary set that included Virginia Woolf, while the leafy suburb of Hampstead was once home to John Keats, H G Wells and D H Lawrence. Some of the country's most famous writers are commemorated in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
The seething mass of 19th-century London life (and its legendary fog) is vividly recreated in the novels of Charles Dickens. Sinister goings-on in the capital surface in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and The Secret Agent (1923) by Joseph Conrad. Graham Greene captured the unique atmosphere of wartime London in The Ministry of Fear (1943).
More recently, Martin Amis' London Fields (1989), a depressing portrait of a London in pre-millennial decline, Chris Petit's Robinson (1993), which delves deep into Soho life, Tobias Hill's Underground (1999), a poetic murder mystery woven around the Tube, Jake Arnott's The Long Firm (1999), set in the London underworld of the 1960s, and Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) a tale of life in multicultural London, have added their names to the rich London literary canon.
A lively and impressively detailed history of London that captures the essence of the city's spirit is Peter Akroyd's London: A Biography (2000). If you are into travel writing with a twist, try Tim Moore's Do Not Pass Go (2002), a travelogue of one man's journey around the Monopoly board and an epic history of London's progress since the launch of this very popular game. Also worth mentioning is Brick Lane, by Monica Ali (2003), a moving account of a young woman's journey from her native Bangladesh to the East End of London and Saturday by Ian McEwan (2006).