London, United Kingdom

London, the capital city of the United Kingdom and England, is situated on on the River Thames in the south-east of the country. Originally founded under the Roman Empire in AD 43 as a fortified settlement and administrative centre known as Londinium, its long and storied history reaches from the era of the ancient Norman kings, the fire and plague of 1666, through the smoke and squalor of Dickensian London, the "unreal city" of T.S. Eliot, to the present multicultural metropolis of British and world culture. Through it all, London has remained one of the great cities of the western world. "He who is tired of London, is tired of life," opined Samuel Johnson two centuries ago, and any modern visitor is likely to agree.

Panoramic view of Piccadilly Circus, London, circa 1909.

London's present population of 7.7 million makes it the largest city in the European Union; its metropolitan area population is estimated at between 12 and 14 million. Administratively, it consists of 32 boroughs and the City of London, administered by the Greater London Authority. The City of London, occupying the site of the old walled mediaeval city north of the Thames, is the financial and business centre, including the Bank of England, Stock Exchange, and Royal Exchange; the City of Westminster is the administrative and judicial centre, including the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and government departments. The West End is the main shopping and entertainment centre, around Oxford Street, Piccadilly, and Regent Street; the outer boroughs comprise mixed residential and industrial developments. London's extensive docklands, once an area of deterioration and decay, have been extensively redeveloped; now served by the Docklands Light Railway, and with Canary Wharf as their anchor, they have become a model of urban renewal.