London
London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. London is the city with the highest population in the United Kingdom. On the Thames, London has been a central city since it was founded by the Romans two millennia ago as Londinium.
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London's original city centre, the City of London is England's smallest city. In 2011 had 7,375 inhabitants on an area of 2.9 km².
The term "London" is used for the urban region which developed around this city centre. This area forms the region of London, the Greater London administrative unit led by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is one of the world's most important political, economic and cultural centres. London was the capital of the British Empire and so for almost three centuries the centre of power for large parts of the world.
The city has about 9.1 million inhabitants (2018). If one counts the entire metropolitan area of London (London Metropolitan Area), it has about 15 million people. The city is the largest in Europe by population. The climate is moderate.
HistoryEdit
The Romans built the city of Londinium along the River Thames in AD 43. The name Londinium (and later 'London') came from the Celtic language of the Ancient Britons. In AD 61, the city was attacked and destroyed. Then the Romans rebuilt the city, and London became an important trading hub.[6][7][8]
5th century: end of Roman rule to 12th centuryEdit
After the decline of the Roman Empire, few people remained in London. The Anglo-Saxon people of Sub-Roman Britain were mainly agricultural. Once the Romans had gone, trade with Continental Europe dwindled. In the 9th century, more people started living in London again. It became the largest city in England. However, it did not become the capital city of England again until the 12th century. For a long time after the Romans, England was not unified, and so had no capital.
17th centuryEdit
The 17th century saw Londoners suffer from the plague and the fire of London. The century starts with the famous Gunpowder Plot.
In the 17th century the Stuart kings ruled: James I and Charles I. Charles Stuart was defeated by Cromwell, so the century was remarkable in that respect. Cromwell marks the beginning of the modern system whereby Parliament is more important than the monarch. The war between Cromwell and Charles was bitterly fought. London was the key city, and Oxford was also important.
The century also had two great disasters: the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. The control of London by Cromwell and Parliament was one of the decisive factors in the civil war. Cromwell's victory was followed by his death in 1658, and the country for a time moved back to royal rule under Charles II.
The plague virus, carried by fleas on rats, came to Britain from Europe.[9]
The Great Fire of London broke out at the beginning of September 1666. Unfortunately there were warehouses full of timber, pitch, tallow, wine and tar. These caught fire and, in the end, all the riverfront buildings were destroyed. The fire eventually destroyed about 60% of the city, (mainly the City of London, rather than the large city we have today). Old St Paul's Cathedral was destroyed. Some fires burnt more widely, up to present-day Southwark and even Highgate (which are not in the city, but are in London).
Modern eraEdit
Another famous old part of Greater London is Westminster, which was a different city from the City of London. In Westminster is Westminster Abbey (a cathedral), the Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament, and 10 Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives).
After the railways were built, London grew much larger. Greater London has 33 boroughs (neighbourhoods) and a mayor. The old City of London is only a square mile in size but has its own Lord Mayor.
EventsEdit
- AD 43 – Londinium is founded by the Romans
- 61 – Londinium is sacked by Queen Boudica and the Iceni
- 100 – Londinium becomes the capital of Roman Britain
- 200 – The population is about 6,000
- 410 – The end of Roman rule in Britain
- 8th century – London is captured by Vikings
- 885 – King Alfred the Great recaptures the city and makes peace with the Viking leader Guthrum.
- 1045/50 – Westminster Abbey is rebuilt by Edward the Confessor who is buried there in January 1066.
- 1066 – William the Conqueror is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
- 1100 – The population is about 16,000.
- 1300 – The population of London has risen to 100,000.
- 1381 – The Peasants' Revolt – the first poll tax riots
- 1605 – The Gunpowder Plot is stopped
- 1642 – The English Civil War starts
- 1647 – London supports Cromwell's army
- 1665 – The Great Plague of London
- 1666 – The Great Fire of London
- 1700s – The Georgian era (the time of George III)
- 1780 – The Gordon Riots
- 1900s – Canals, railways, bridges. British Empire
- 1851 – The Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace
- 1908 – The Olympic Games take place in London.
- 1940/1941 – London was bombed by German planes during World War II. This is known as The Blitz.
- 1944/45 – London bombed by self-propelled bombs and V2 rockets.
- 1948 – The Summer Olympic Games take place in London for the second time.
- 1966 – The Football World Cup final took place in London. It was won by England.
- 1990 – The Second Poll Tax Riots
- 2005 – The 7 July bombings on the London Underground and a bus. 52 people die and over 700 people are injured.[10]
- 2012 – The Summer Olympic Games take place in London for a third time.
- 2017 – There were two terrorist attacks. The first happened in March on Westminster Bridge and Parliament Square. Five people were killed outside the Palace of Westminster, including the attacker and a police officer. 40 more people were injured. Another attack happened on London Bridge in June. Seven people were killed before the Metropolitan Police shot down the three attackers near Borough Market. The Islamic State has said they were responsible for both attacks.
LandmarksEdit
Business and economyEdit
London has five major business districts: the city, Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington and Lambeth & Southwark.
The London Stock Exchange is the most international stock exchange and the largest in Europe.
Financial servicesEdit
London's largest industry is finance. This includes banks, stock exchanges, investment companies and insurance companies The Bank of England is in the City of London and is the second oldest bank in the world.
Professional servicesEdit
London has many professional services such as law and accounting firms.
MediaEdit
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC), which has many radio and TV stations, is in London.
TourismEdit
Tourism is one of London's biggest industries. London is the most visited city in the world by international tourists with 18.8 million international visitors per year. Within the UK, London is home to the ten most-visited tourist attractions. Tourism employed about 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003. Tourists spend about £15 billion per year.[11]
TechnologyEdit
A growing number of technology companies are based in London.
RetailEdit
London is a major retail centre, and in 2010 had the highest non-food retail sales of any city in the world, with a total spend of around £64.2 billion. The UK's fashion industry, centred on London, contributes tens of billions to the economy.
Manufacturing and constructionEdit
For the 19th and much of the 20th centuries London was a major manufacturing centre (see Manufacturing in London), with over 1.5 million industrial workers in 1960. Many products were made in London including ships, electronics and cars. Nowadays, most of these manufacturing companies are closed but some drug companies still make medicine in London.
TwinningsEdit
London has twin and sister city agreements with these cities:
- Sister cities:
- Partner cities:
London also has a "partnership" agreement with Tokyo, Japan.
Transportation (trains, airports and underground)Edit
The city has a huge network of transport systems including trains, underground (metro) and five main airports.
The Victorians built many train systems in the mid-19th century (1850s). Their main stations are in London, and the lines go to every part of Great Britain. There were originally five major companies but the five companies became a national rail network in modern times. Their terminals at King's Cross, St. Pancras, Paddington, Waterloo and Charing Cross are still used as terminals.
There are five airports, though only one is actually in London (London City Airport). There is the London end of the London–Birmingham canal, which was important to the industrial 19th century. The most used airport is Heathrow Airport, although it is actually outside the city.
The London Underground is a system of electric trains which are in London. It is the oldest underground railway in the world. It started running in 1863 as the Metropolitan Railway. Later, the system was copied in other cities, for example Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. Even though it is called the London Underground about half of it is above the ground. The "Tube" is the name used for the London Underground, because the tunnels for some of the lines are round tubes running through the ground. The Underground has got 274 stations and over 408 km of track. Over one billion passengers used the underground each year.
There is a black taxi system regulated by the Metropolitan Police, and various other private enterprise hire car companies. Efforts are being made to make roads safer for cyclists.
ClimateEdit
London has an oceanic, or temperate climate. It is not usually very hot or cold. It is often cloudy.
London has a temperate climate with regular, light rain throughout the year. July is the warmest month, with an average temperature at Greenwich of 13.6 °C to 22.8 °C. The coldest month is January, with an average of 2.4 °C to 7.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 583.6 mm, and February is normally the driest month. Snow is uncommon in London itself, although there is regular snow in the surrounding area; this is because the extra heat the big city generates makes the city about 5 °C warmer than surrounding areas in winter.
| Climate data for Heathrow Airport | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 17.2 (63.0) |
19.7 (67.5) |
24.2 (75.6) |
29.4 (84.9) |
32.8 (91.0) |
35.6 (96.1) |
36.7 (98.1) |
38.1 (100.6) |
35.4 (95.7) |
29.9 (85.8) |
20.8 (69.4) |
17.4 (63.3) |
38.1 (100.6) |
| Mean maximum °C (°F) | 13.1 (55.6) |
14.1 (57.4) |
17.2 (63.0) |
21.3 (70.3) |
25.8 (78.4) |
28.5 (83.3) |
30.1 (86.2) |
29.7 (85.5) |
25.5 (77.9) |
20.5 (68.9) |
16.2 (61.2) |
13.5 (56.3) |
31.5 (88.7) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 8.1 (46.6) |
8.4 (47.1) |
11.3 (52.3) |
14.2 (57.6) |
17.9 (64.2) |
21.0 (69.8) |
23.5 (74.3) |
23.2 (73.8) |
19.9 (67.8) |
15.5 (59.9) |
11.1 (52.0) |
8.3 (46.9) |
15.2 (59.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.3 (36.1) |
2.1 (35.8) |
3.9 (39.0) |
5.5 (41.9) |
8.7 (47.7) |
11.7 (53.1) |
13.9 (57.0) |
13.7 (56.7) |
11.4 (52.5) |
8.4 (47.1) |
4.9 (40.8) |
2.7 (36.9) |
7.5 (45.5) |
| Mean minimum °C (°F) | −4.2 (24.4) |
−3.9 (25.0) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
3.1 (37.6) |
6.7 (44.1) |
9.5 (49.1) |
9.1 (48.4) |
6.0 (42.8) |
2.0 (35.6) |
−1.7 (28.9) |
−4.1 (24.6) |
−6.1 (21.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −13.2 (8.2) |
−9.6 (14.7) |
−5.1 (22.8) |
−2.6 (27.3) |
−0.9 (30.4) |
1.5 (34.7) |
5.6 (42.1) |
5.9 (42.6) |
1.8 (35.2) |
−3.3 (26.1) |
−7.0 (19.4) |
−11.8 (10.8) |
−13.2 (8.2) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 55.2 (2.17) |
40.9 (1.61) |
41.6 (1.64) |
43.7 (1.72) |
49.4 (1.94) |
45.1 (1.78) |
44.5 (1.75) |
49.5 (1.95) |
49.1 (1.93) |
68.5 (2.70) |
59.0 (2.32) |
55.2 (2.17) |
601.7 (23.69) |
| Average rainy days | 11.1 | 8.5 | 9.3 | 9.1 | 8.8 | 8.2 | 7.7 | 7.5 | 8.1 | 10.8 | 10.3 | 10.2 | 109.6 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 61.5 | 77.9 | 114.6 | 168.7 | 198.5 | 204.3 | 212.0 | 204.7 | 149.3 | 116.5 | 72.6 | 52.0 | 1,632.6 |
| Source: Met Office [14] Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute [15][16] | |||||||||||||
ReferencesEdit
- ↑ Number 1 Poultry (ONE 94), Museum of London Archaeology, 2013. Archaeology Data Service, The University of York.
- ↑ "London weather map". The Met Office. Archived from the original on 3 August 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
- ↑ "Metropolitan Area Populations". Eurostat. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ↑ "Regional economic activity by gross domestic product, UK: 1998 to 2018". www.ons.gov.uk.
- ↑ Sub-national HDI. "Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org.
- ↑ Hingley, Richard 2018. Londinium: a biography: Roman London from its origins to the fifth century. London. ISBN 978-1-350-04730-3
- ↑ Dunwoodie, Lesley. 2015. An early Roman fort and urban development on Londinium's eastern hill: excavations at Plantation Place, City of London, 1997-2003. Harward, Chiz. & Pitt, Ken. London: MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology). ISBN 978-1-907586-32-3
- ↑ Wallace, Leslie 2015. The origin of Roman London. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-04757-0
- ↑ Walter George Bell (1951). The Great Plague of London. p. 13.
- ↑ "BBC NEWS - INDEPTH - LONDON ATTACKS". news.bbc.co.uk.
- ↑ "London Travel Guide". Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 "Beijing, London to be sister cities". China Daily, 11 April 2006. Retrieved 6 June 2006.
- ↑ "Sister City - London". nyc.gov. Archived from the original on 14 January 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
- ↑ "London Heathrow Airport". Met Office. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
- ↑ "Heathrow Airport Extreme Values". KNMI. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
- ↑ "Heathrow 1981–2010 mean maximum and minimum values". KNMI. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
Other websitesEdit
| Wikivoyage has a travel guide about: London |
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to London. |
- London City Government
- WorldFlicks in London: Photos and interesting places on Google Maps Archived 2008-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
- Events [1]
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