London
London (in English, London, pronounced/хl dinning(
listen)) is the capital and largest city in the United Kingdom. Located on the banks of the River Thames, London is an important human settlement since it was founded by the Romans with the name of Londinium almost two millennia ago. The ancient core of the city, the City of London, basically preserves its medieval perimeter of a square mile. Since the centuryXIX the name “London” also refers to the entire metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the administrative area of Great London, governed by the Mayor and the London Assembly.
London is a global city, one of the nerve centers in the field of arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, the media, research, tourism and transport. It is the world's leading financial center along with New York. With a GDP of €801.66 billion in 2017, it is the largest urban economy on the European continent. London is also a world cultural capital, the most visited city considering the number of international visits and has the largest airport system in the world according to passenger traffic. Likewise, the 43 universities in the city make up the highest concentration of higher education centers in the entire Europe. In 2012 London became the only city to host three Summer Olympic Games.
This multiracial city is home to people from a large number of cultures who speak more than 300 different languages. The Greater London Authority estimates that in 2015 the city has 8.63 million inhabitants, which represents 12.5 % of total UK population. The Greater London urban area, with 10,470,000 inhabitants, is the second largest in Europe, but its metropolitan area, with an estimated population of between 12 and 14 million, It is the largest on the continent. From 1831 to 1925 London, as the capital of the British Empire, was the most populous city in the world.
London has four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, the site formed by the Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's Church, and Greenwich (where the Royal Observatory that marks the Greenwich meridian and mean time). Other famous places in the city are Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge or Trafalgar Square. London also has numerous museums, art galleries, libraries, sporting events and other cultural institutions such as the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Modern, the British Library and the forty theaters of the West End. The London Underground, which in 2013 it turned 150 years old, it is the oldest in the world.
Etymology
The etymology of London is uncertain. It is a very old place-name appearing in sources from the 2nd century AD. C. Around 121 d. C. is cited as Londinium, a term that points to a British-Roman origin of the settlement. The first attempt at clarification, today discarded, is attributed to Godfrey of Monmouth, who in his Historia Regum Britanniae held that the place name came from a certain King Lud who supposedly seized the city and named it Kaerlud.
Since 1898 it was commonly accepted that the place name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man named *London, but this explanation has also been rejected. In 1998 Richard Coates proposed the explanation that the name comes from the Old European hydronym *(p)lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford", and he suggested that it was a name given to the stretch of the River Thames as it passed through London. From this place name it would derive its Celtic form, *Lowonidonjon, although the transformation of the word is too great. The difficulty is reconciling the Latin name, Londinium, with that given in modern Welsh, Llundain. The possibility cannot be ruled out that this Welsh name was borrowed from English in later times and therefore cannot be taken as a reference for the reconstruction of the original name of the city. Officially, until 1889 the name London applied only to the City, but since then it has also referred to the County of London and Greater London.
History
Prehistory
Two recent discoveries indicate that London may have been inhabited in prehistoric times. Remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the north bank of Vauxhall Bridge in 1999. This ancient bridge may have spanned the Thames or provided access to a now-defunct island in the middle of the river. Dendrology dates the logs found to around 1500 BC. In 2010, the foundations of a large wooden structure dating to around 4500 BC were also found on the banks of the Thames, south of Vauxhall Bridge. C., although the function of this Mesolithic work is unknown. Both sites are on the south bank of the river, at a natural crossroads where the River Effra flows into the Thames.
Old Age
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Although remains of British settlements have been found in the area, the first settlement was founded by the Romans in AD 43. However, just seventeen years later, in AD 61, Queen Boudica's tribe of the Iceni raided and burned the Roman colony. The rebuilt city soon prospered and in AD 100 succeeded Colchester as the capital of the Roman province of Britain. At its height under Latin rule during the II century d. C., Londinium reached a population of about 60,000 people.
Middle Ages
With the collapse of Roman power in the V century d. C. Londinium ceased to be a capital and was abandoned. However, around the year 500 an Anglo-Saxon settlement called Lundenwic developed to the west of the Roman colony, near what is now Covent Garden and the Strand Street, and reached a population of between ten and twelve thousand inhabitants. By the year 680 it is likely that an important port existed at the mouth of the River Fleet, although little material evidence of it survives. From 820 the city declined due to repeated Viking attacks, which forced its inhabitants to move upstream, to the site of the former Roman colony in order to take advantage of the protection of its walls. Viking raids were they increased until the year 886, when King Alfred the Great reconquered London and made peace with the leader of the Danish Vikings, Guthrum. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Alfred the Great "refounded" London in 886 Archaeological research has corroborated that this meant the abandonment of Lundenwic and a revival of life and commerce within the old walls of Roman Londinium, especially notable from from 950. The Saxon town Lundenwic was renamed Ealdwic ("Old Town"), a place name that has survived to the present day as Aldwych, which is the modern Town of Westminster.
After the unification of the Kingdom of England in the X century, London, which was the largest city in the kingdom and Its most important center of commerce, it began to acquire relevance as a political center, although it still had to face competition from Winchester, the capital of Anglo-Saxon England and traditional center of the kingdom of Wessex. In the 11th century King Edward the Confessor refounded and rebuilt Westminster Abbey along with the City of Westminster, a short upriver from London, it became the main royal residence. Thereafter Westminster supplanted the City of London itself as the center of national government.
Following his victory at the Battle of Hastings, William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the recently completed Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. William ordered the erection of the Tower of London at the southeast end of the city, the first of many Norman castles built in England to strengthen the power of the conquerors. In 1097 William II began construction of Westminster Hall next to the abbey of the same name. This room would be the core of the new Palace of Westminster.
During the 12th century, the central government institutions, which until then had accompanied the court as it moved around across the kingdom, they grew in size and sophistication and began to stay in one place. In most cases this location was Westminster, although the royal treasury was moved from Winchester to the Tower of London. While the City of Westminster developed into a true capital in terms of government, its neighboring City of London remained England's largest city and main center of commerce thanks to its flourishing under its sole administration, the Corporation of London. If around 1100 the London population was around 18,000, by 1300 this number had increased to almost 100,000. In the middle of the XIVth century the Black Death ravaged London, claiming the lives of a third of its inhabitants. Soon after, in 1381, London was the center of the popular insurrection known as the Wat Tyler Rebellion.
Modern Age
During the Tudor period the Anglican Reformation began a gradual shift from Christian faith to Protestantism. In London much of the Church's possessions passed into private hands. English wool shipped from the city in vast quantities to nearby ports in the Netherlands. The reach of English shipping companies extended far beyond the ports of northwestern Europe. After the reopening of the trade routes between the Netherlands and England in January 1565, there was a strong growth in commercial activity and in the same year the Royal Exchange center of commerce in London was created. Mercantilism grew and with the increase in trade with the New World trade monopolies such as the British East India Company were created. London became the main port on the North Sea, a place of embarkation and disembarkation for many migrants. The city's population grew from about 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605.
In the 16th century, the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, a leading figure in Elizabethan theater, lived in London. At the end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still a fairly compact urban core. On November 5, 1605, during the Gunpowder Plot, King James I suffered an assassination attempt on Westminster. During the 17th century the city suffered several plague epidemics, the most devastating of which was the so-called Great London plague of 1665-66, which killed nearly 100,000 Londoners, a fifth of its population.
In 1666 there was also the famous Great Fire of London, which started in Pudding Lane, in the City, and spread rapidly, destroying the wooden buildings of much of the city. The reconstruction lasted ten years and it was supervised by Robert Hooke. In 1708 the architect Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, was completed. During the Georgian era (18th century and early 19th century) new districts were created, such as Mayfair to the west, new bridges were built over the Thames that allowed the development of the south bank of the river and the port of London was expanded downriver, to the east.
In 1762 King George III bought Buckingham House, which was progressively expanded over 75 years. During the 18th century London was seriously affected by crime, a circumstance that forced the creation in 1750 of a professional police force, the Bow Street Runners. At that time, more than two hundred types of crimes were punishable by death, and even women and children were hanged for theft. At that time, up to 74% of children died before their fifth birthday. coffeehouses became popular places to debate ideas, literacy became widespread, and the development of the printing press—centered in London on Fleet Street—made news available to the people. In the words of the British poet Samuel Johnson:
You don't find anyone, especially any intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; in London is all that life can offer.Samuel Johnson, 1777
Contemporary Age
London was the largest city in the world between 1831 and 1925, coinciding with the height of the British Empire. The overcrowding of the city's inhabitants caused the outbreak of several cholera epidemics: that of 1848 caused 14,000 deaths and that of 1866 some 6,000. to the creation of the first local railway network. The Metropolitan Board of Works, the city's growth agency at the time, oversaw the expansion of infrastructure in the capital and surrounding counties. This body was replaced in 1889 by the London County Council.
The Second World War (1939-1945) fully affected London, especially the systematic bombardment to which it was subjected by the planes of the German Luftwaffe during the so-called Blitz. These attacks claimed the lives of over 30,000 Londoners and leveled large parts of the city. had recovered from the effects of the conflict.
In 1951, the Festival of Britain art exhibition was held on the South Bank of the river. In 1952 the so-called Great Fog, denser than usual and polluted with sulfur, claimed the lives of about 12,000 Londoners. Since the 1940s the city has been a destination for numerous immigrants, generally from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, making London one of the most ethnically diverse cities in all of Europe..
From the mid-1960s, the British capital became a global center of youth culture, exemplified by the subculture movement called Swinging London, associated particularly with the areas of King's Road, Chelsea and Carnaby Street. This form of trend setting was revived in the following decade by punk fashion. In 1965 the political limits of London were extended to cover the growth of its urban area and for this purpose the Greater London Council was created. During the Northern Ireland conflict, London was the scene of several terrorist bombing attacks by the Provisional IRA. Racial inequality erupted with the Brixton riot of 1981.
The population of Greater London declined steadily in the three decades after World War II, falling from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to a peak of 6.8 million in the 1980s. The main city moved downriver to Felixstowe and Tilbury, while the city's old docks, London Docklands, became the large business complex of Canary Wharf. The financial boom was confirmed by London's growing role as a world center of finance since the 1980s.
In 1982 the Thames Barrier, intended to protect London from the exceptionally high tides of the North Sea, was completed. In 1986 the Greater London Council was abolished, leaving the British capital as the only major city without a central administration. This was reestablished in the year 2000 with the creation of the Greater London Authority. To celebrate the entry into the new millennium, several buildings that are now emblematic of the British capital were built: the Millennium Dome, the London Eye and the Millennium Bridge. On July 7, 2005, a series of terrorist attacks on the London subway and bus lines, perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists, caused 56 deaths and 700 injuries. Just one day before, London had obtained the celebration of the Olympic Games, the third in its history, which were held between the months of July and August 2012. In June 2016, the population of Greater London was estimated at 8.78 million, the highest demographic peak since 1939.
Government
Local government
London's administration is made up of two tiers: a strategic city-wide one and a local one. City administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA) and local administration is managed by 33 other lesser authorities. The GLA is made up of two elected bodies: the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, which oversees the mayor's decisions and can approve or reject his annual budget proposals. The headquarters of the GLA is the Town Hall, located in Newham, and the current mayor is Labor Sadiq Khan. The mayor's planning strategy was published under the name "London Plan". Local authorities are the councils of London's 32 boroughs and the City of London Corporation, responsible for most services such as schools, services social, street furniture and garbage collection. Some functions, such as waste management, are provided through joint agreements.
Police in Greater London, with the exception of the "City", are the London Metropolitan Police, under the Metropolitan Police Authority. The "City of London" has its own police force, the City of London Police. For its part, the British Transport Police is in charge of security in rail transport and the city's metro.
The London Fire Brigade is the fire service for Greater London, reports to the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and is the third largest fire service in the world. The National Health Service ambulance pool is operated by the London Ambulance Service, which is the largest free ambulance service in the world. London Air Ambulances operate in conjunction with LAS. Safety on the River Thames is provided by Her Majesty's Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
National Government
London is the seat of the Government of the United Kingdom, located around the Palace of Westminster. Many of the government offices are located close to Parliament, especially along Whitehall, where the Prime Minister's residence is located, at 10 Downing Street. The United Kingdom Parliament has been and is an example for many others. parliamentary systems around the world. In the British Parliament there are 73 members from London, representing local constituencies in the UK House of Commons.
Geography
Scope
Greater London is the highest level administrative subdivision that encompasses the entire city. The little old City of London once contained the entire city. Although the urban area of the city grew enormously over the centuries, the municipal corporation resisted amalgamating it with its suburbs, something that caused "London" to be defined in many ways for different purposes. This situation became the subject of legal debate. Only forty percent of Greater London is covered by the London postal district, that is, within which "London" forms part of the postal addresses. The telephone area code of London (020) covers a large area, similar in size to Greater London, although some outer boroughs are excluded. Normally the area that falls within the M25 ring motorway is what is considered to be London.
Expansion of the urban area of the city is currently prevented by the Metropolitan Green Belt, although some built-up areas extend beyond its limits and fall under the definition of Greater London Urban Area. Beyond lies the vast metropolitan area of London. For some purposes the city is often divided into Inner London and Outer London, and is naturally divided north and south by the River Thames. The coordinates of the city centre, traditionally considered to be located at Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square with Whitehall, are approximately 51°30′26″N 00°07′39 ″O / 51.50722, -0.12750.
Status
Within London, both the City and the City of Westminster have city status, while the City and the rest of Greater London are the ceremonial shires. Over time, Greater London has incorporated areas that were once they belonged to the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire. Interestingly, London's status as the capital of England, and after all the United Kingdom, has never been officially guaranteed or confirmed (neither in writing nor by any law). Its position was formed through the constitutional convention, which gave it its status as de facto capital as part of the unwritten constitution of the United Kingdom. The capital of England passed from Winchester to London when in the 12th and 13th centuries the Palace of Westminster began to establish itself as the permanent location of the court and therefore as the nation's political capital. More recently Greater London has been defined as region of England, a context in which it is known simply as "London".
Topography
Greater London occupies an area of 1,583 km² in which 8,173,194 people lived in 2012, that is, with a population density of 5,163 people per km². The metropolitan area of the city extends for 8,382 km² and its population amounts to 13,709,000, 1,636 inhabitants per km². Present-day London extends for several kilometers along the course of the Thames, the navigable river that crosses the city of southwest to east. The Thames Valley is an alluvial plain dotted with gentle hills such as Parliament Hill, Addington Hills or Primrose Hill. The Thames had a much longer and shallower channel than the current one, it irrigated a wide area of marshes and with high tides it was five times as wide as it is today.
Since the Victorian era (XIX century) the Thames has been channeled in various embankment works that have gained ground by river and several of its tributaries now run underground. It is a tidal river from the North Sea and London is vulnerable to its flooding. The danger of flooding was progressively increasing due to the slow to continuous tilt of Great Britain (rising north and falling south) as a result of the postglacial adjustment. Therefore, work began in 1974 that lasted a decade and included the construction of the Thames Barrier at the height of Woolwich with the intention of reducing the danger of floods. This barrier is expected to fulfill its function until 2070, but ideas for its possible expansion or redesign are already being considered.
Climate
London has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb), similar to the rest of southern Britain. Despite its reputation as a rainy city, London receives less rainfall in a year than Rome (834 mm) or Bordeaux (923 mm). Winters are cold, with about two frosts per week in the suburbs between November and March. Snow falls rarely, about four or five times a year between December and February, while in the months of March and April it can snow once every two or three years. Winter temperatures range from −4 °C to 14 °C, although during the winter of 2010 the city experienced its record below freezing: −14 °C in Northolt and the heaviest snowfall in the last two decades, which collapsed the mountains. transport infrastructure of the city. The maximum temperature was 38.2 °C, on August 10, 2003, on July 25, 2019, 38 °C was recorded and on July 19, 2022, 40.2 °C was recorded, thus making it the highest temperature in 18 years.. At the other extreme, −16.1 °C was recorded at Northolt in January 1962. Before the XX century to Temperatures appear to have been below −20 °C, but the accuracy of those measurements is questionable.
Summers are generally mild, although there are occasional episodes of very hot days. In the center of the city, temperatures are usually about 5 °C higher than in the suburbs due to the heat island effect created by the urban area. The average temperature of London summers is 18.5 °C, although around seven days a year they usually exceed 30 °C and two days above 32 °C. From June to August, the usual thing is to record daytime temperatures that range between 20 and 24 °C maximum every week.
 London average climate parameters (Heathrow) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Ene. | Feb. | Mar. | Open up. | May. | Jun. | Jul. | Ago. | Sep. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Annual |
| Temp. max. abs. (°C) | 17.2 | 19.6 | 24.2 | 29.2 | 32.8 | 35.6 | 40.7 | 38.1 | 35.2 | 29.6 | 20.8 | 17.2 | 40.7 |
| Average temperature (°C) | 8.1 | 8.4 | 11.3 | 14.2 | 17.9 | 21.0 | 23.7 | 23.2 | 19.9 | 15.5 | 11.1 | 8.3 | 15.2 |
| Average temperature (°C) | 5.2 | 5.25 | 7.6 | 9.85 | 13.3 | 16.35 | 18.8 | 18.45 | 15.65 | 11.95 | 8.0 | 5.5 | 11.3 |
| Temp. medium (°C) | 2.3 | 2.1 | 3.9 | 5.5 | 8.7 | 11.7 | 13.9 | 13.7 | 11.4 | 8.4 | 4.9 | 2.7 | 7.5 |
| Temp. min. abs. (°C) | -13.6 | -9.5 | -7.2 | -3.8 | -0.4 | 2.8 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 2.8 | -4.6 | -6.3 | -14.0 | -14.0 |
| Total precipitation (mm) | 55.2 | 40.9 | 41.6 | 43.7 | 49.4 | 45.1 | 44.5 | 49.5 | 49.1 | 68.5 | 59.0 | 55.2 | 601.7 |
| Precipitation days (≥ 1 mm) | 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 |
| Days of snowfall (≥ 1 mm) | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| Hours of sun | 61.5 | 77.9 | 114.6 | 168.7 | 198.5 | 204.3 | 212.0 | 204.7 | 149.3 | 116.5 | 72.6 | 52.0 | 1632.6 |
| Relative humidity (%) | 91 | 89 | 91 | 90 | 92 | 92 | 93 | 95 | 96 | 95 | 93 | 91 | 92.3 |
| Source No. 1: | |||||||||||||
| Source No. 2: | |||||||||||||
Districts
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The vast urban area of London is often divided by a series of borough names, such as Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Wembley and Whitechapel. They are informal designations that reflect the names of the towns that were absorbed by the growth of the metropolis or the designations of administrative units that have already disappeared such as parishes or municipalities. These names have been kept alive by traditional use and because they designate local areas with a distinctive character, although they have no official boundaries. In 1965 Greater London was divided into 32 boroughs plus the former City, which is now the main financial district. business called Canary Wharf, which stands to the east on the grounds of what were the old city docks, the London Docklands.
The West End is the main shopping and entertainment area, the one that attracts the most tourists. It is also home to the most luxurious residential areas with houses that can be worth millions of pounds. The average price of housing in the exclusive area of Kensington and Chelsea is over £2 million, a cost similar to that of city center real estate. The East End is the area near the original London port and is characterized by its population immigrant and for being one of the poorest areas of the city. East London saw much of the city's early industrial development and derelict factory land is currently being reclaimed as part of the Thames Gateway scheme, which includes actions in London Riverside and in the Lower Lea Valley. It is in this area that the necessary infrastructures for the 2012 Olympic Games were built.
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Architecture
London architecture is very heterogeneous and therefore is not characterized by any particular style, partly due to the different eras to which the city's buildings belong. Many large houses and public buildings, such as the National Gallery, are built of Portland stone. Some areas of the city, particularly the one to the west of the center, are characterized by their stuccoed or whitewashed facades. Very few structures remain in the center of the city from before the Great Fire of 1666: some from Roman times, the medieval Tower of London and some buildings from the Tudor period. Hampton Court Palace, the oldest surviving Tudor palace in England, was commissioned by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey around 1515 to date from this latter period. The churches designed by Christopher Wren at the turn of the century XVII, 18th and 19th century financial institutions such as the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England, the Old Bailey court of early 20th century or the 1960s Barbican Estate is part of a diverse architectural heritage.
Also of interest are Battersea Power Station, built in 1939 to the southwest along the Thames and now disused, and some Victorian-style train stations such as St. Pancras and Paddington. The Monument to the Great Fire of London, a column Rising in the City near the site of the fire, offering spectacular views of the surrounding area, Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, north and south of Park Lane respectively, the Albert Memorial and the Royal Albert Hall, which have royal connections, are other architectural highlights of London. Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square is an icon of the city and a national symbol. On the other hand, exposed brick buildings with orange and reddish tones are very common, sometimes decorated with white plaster moldings.
In the most densely populated areas, medium and high-rise buildings rise. The tallest skyscrapers in the city, such as 30 St Mary Axe, Broadgate Tower, Tower 42 and One Canada Square, are located in the financial districts, the City and Canary Wharf. High-rise buildings are restricted in some areas so as not to obstruct views of icons such as St. Paul's Cathedral and other historic buildings. Despite this, some high-rise buildings have risen in central London, such as The Shard, which is one of the tallest buildings in all of Europe. Other notable buildings erected in recent times are the Town Hall, located in Southwark and with a peculiar oval shape, the British Library or the old Millennium Dome, which currently functions as a multipurpose building under the name of O2 Arena.
Parks and gardens
The three largest parks in central London are the Royal Parks: Hyde Park, nearby Kensington Gardens to the west of the city center and Regent's Park to the north. Within the latter is the London Zoo, the oldest scientific zoo in the world, and not far from the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum. Near the center of London are the smaller royal parks of Green Park and St. James's Park.
Hyde Park is a popular venue for sports and often hosts outdoor concerts. Away from the city center are several other parks, including Greenwich Park to the southeast, Bushy Park and Richmond Park (the largest) to the southwest, and Victoria Park to the east. Primrose Hill, north of Regent's Park, is a popular hill for taking in the skyline.
In London there are also other semi-natural open spaces, such as Hampstead Heath in the north of the city, and Epping Forest to the northeast, with an area of 2,476 hectares. Within Hampstead Heath is the palace of Kenwood House, a popular venue for its lakeside classical music concerts in summer which draw thousands of people every weekend to enjoy the music, scenery and fireworks. Epping Forest, for its part, is a common place for sports activities such as mountain biking, hiking, horse riding, playing golf or fishing.
Wildlife
The Natural History Society of London affirms that the British capital is "one of the greenest cities", since more than 40% of its surface are green spaces. According to their calculations, there are more than 2,000 plant species in it and 120 species of fish can be found in the River Thames as it passes through the city. They also state that 60 types of birds nest in central London and that throughout the city metropolis, 47 species of butterflies, 1173 of moths and more than 270 of spiders have been recorded. The city's wetland areas are home to nationally important colonies of waterfowl. London has 38 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, two National Nature Reserves and 76 Local Nature Reserves.
Amphibians are common in the capital, including the common newt that can be found in the Tate Modern area, frogs, common toads, webbed newts and crested newts, while other native reptiles such as the lunic, the viviparous lizard, the collared snake or the common European viper only live in outer London.
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There are 10,000 foxes in London, which means there are 16 foxes for every square mile of the city. These urban foxes are noticeably bolder than their country cousins, sharing sidewalks with pedestrians and breeding in Londoners' backyards. The foxes have even sneaked into the British Parliament, where one was found sleeping inside a filing cabinet. Another fox entered the Buckingham Palace gardens and killed some of Queen Elizabeth II's prized pink flamingos. However, in general Londoners and these foxes coexist in peace. A 2001 survey by The Mammal Society revealed that 80% of Londoners liked having them around.
Other mammals that can be found in the city include hedgehogs, rats, mice, rabbits, shrews, voles and squirrels. In the parkland of outer London, such as Epping Forest, hares, badgers, voles live, tawny mice, moles, shrews or ferrets, in addition to the aforementioned foxes, squirrels and hedgehogs. Ten of England's eighteen species of bats have been recorded in Epping Forest.
Among the more unusual animals sighted in the British capital are an otter near Tower Bridge, a whale in the River Thames, pigeons on the subway, a seal being fed by market fishmongers from Billingsgate and foxes that have learned to "sit" if given sausages.
Hards of red deer and fallow deer roam freely in Richmond and Bushy Parks, although every year in November and February a few are shot to keep their numbers in check. Epping Forest is known for its fallow deer, which graze on the herds north of the forest. At the Deer Sanctuary, near Theydon Bois in south-east London, lives a peculiar population of fallow deer with melanism that gives them black fur. A genus of deer, the muntiacs, escaped in the early XX century from their reserves and are found today in small numbers in the Epping Forest, although they are shy animals that are very difficult to see. Londoners have become used to sharing the city with birds and foxes, but in recent times more deer and fallow deer have begun to be seen that venture into residential neighborhoods at night to take advantage of the green areas of the British capital.
Demographics
With industrialization the population of London grew rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries, so much so that for much of the 19th century and early 20th century was the most populous city in the world, until New York surpassed it in 1925. The number of inhabitants of the capital reached a peak of 8,615,245 in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. In the second half of that century the total number decreased slightly, since in the 2001 census there were 7,192,091. However, in the first decade of this century the total number of inhabitants grew again to 8,173,941 and, according to the Estimates by the Greater London Authority, based on births, deaths and migration patterns since the 2011 census, by early 2015 the all-time population record of 1939 had already been exceeded.
It must be taken into account that the limits of the urban area extend beyond the borders of Greater London and this added 10,470,000 inhabitants in 2017, while the total of its metropolitan area is between twelve and fourteen million, depending on the account. According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, London is the most populous metropolitan area in the entire European Union and the second on the continent (the third if we count Istanbul). In the decade from 1991 to 2001 alone, 726,000 immigrants arrived in London.
The London region covers a total area of 1,579 km² and has a population density of 5,177 people per km², ten times more than any other region in England. In terms of total population, London ranks 19th among the most populous cities in the world and 18th in the list of metropolitan areas. It is also the fourth city in the world with the most billionaires (in US dollars) and one of the cities with the most expensive standard of living, along with Tokyo and Moscow.
Ethnic groups
| Ethnics in London (2011) |
|---|
| Whites (59.8 per cent) Asian (18.4%) Black (13.3 per cent) Mestizos (5%) Arabs (1.3 per cent) Other (2.1 per cent) |
According to the British Office for National Statistics, and based on 2011 census estimates, 59.8% of London's 8,173,941 inhabitants are white, broken down as follows: 44.9% white British, 2.2% White Irish, 0.1% Gypsies and Irish Travelers, and 12.1% classified as "Other White".
20.9% of Londoners are of Asian descent or of mixed-Asian descent: 19.7% are of full Asian descent and the remaining 1.2% of mixed couples. Indians are 6.6% of the population, followed by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, who are 2.7% each. The Chinese make up 1.5% and the Arabs 1.3%. Another 4.9% classify themselves as "other Asians". 15.6% of the British capital's inhabitants are black or have black ancestors. 13.3% are completely black and 2.3% mixed race. Black Africans are 7.0%, Black Caribbean 4.2% and 2.1% “other black”. 5.0% of Londoners are multiracial.
Across London black and Asian children outnumber white British children by six to four in public schools. However, white children make up 62% of the 1,498,700 population of the city who are under the age of 15 (55.7% White British, 0.7% White Irish and 5.7% White from other EU nations). A study of London's ethnic and religious diversity A study in 2005 stated that more than 300 languages were spoken in the metropolis and that more than fifty foreign communities lived with more than 10,000 members each. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that as of 2010 the London population born abroad was 2,650,000 (33%), compared to 1,630,000 in 1997.
The 2011 census showed that 36.7% of Greater London's population were born outside the UK. The table on the right lists the countries of birth for the city's largest foreign communities, as of 2011, which is the most recent census conducted. A significant portion of London's German-born population are likely to be British children of members of the British Armed Forces who have parents serving in Germany. Estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics indicate that the five largest foreign communities in the city are those born in India, Poland, Ireland, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Religion
| Religion in London (cense of 2011) |
|---|
| Christianity (55%) Irreligion (18.8%) Islam (11.4%) It does not declare religion (7.5%) Hinduism (4 per cent) Judaism (1.5 per cent) Sikhism (1.2%) Another (0.6 per cent) |
According to the 2011 census, the largest religious group in London is Christian (48.4%), followed by irreligious (20.7%), Muslim (12.4%), non-religious declaring no religion (8.5%), Hindus (5.0%), Jews (1.8%), Sikhs (1.5%), Buddhists (1.0%) and others (0.6%).
London has traditionally been Christian and has many churches, especially within the City. The famous cathedrals of St Paul's, in the City of London, and Southwark, south of the river, are Anglican administrative centers. The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England and the entire Anglican communion, has his residence at Lambeth Palace located in the borough of Lambeth.
Ceremonies of national importance and those of royalty are held between St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. This abbey should not be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, which is the largest Catholic cathedral in England and Wales Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches, observance of this Christian communion is very low and overall attendance at Christian religious services continues a long, slow decline, Church of England statistics show.
London is also home to large Muslim, Sikh and Jewish communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham, and the main gathering point for this community is the London Central Mosque, located next to Regent's Park. The economic boom that oil has brought to many Muslim countries has made The number of wealthy Muslims from the Middle East is growing in the city, residing mostly around Mayfair and Knightsbridge, west of London. In London is the largest mosque in Western Europe, Baitul Futuh, of the Ahmadiyya Community. The largest Hindu communities in the British capital live in the north-west townships of Harrow and Brent, the latter home to one of the largest Hindu temples in Europe, the Neasden Temple. The city has 42 other Hindu temples. Sikh communities are found in East and West London and also boast the largest temple of Sikhism outside of India.
Most British Jews live in London, where there are sizeable communities in Stamford Hill, Stanmore, Golders Green, Hampstead, Hendon and Edgware. The Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue has a larger membership than any other Orthodox synagogue in Europe. This community created the London Jewish Forum in 2006.
Accent
The London accent long ago acquired the name Cockney, a way of speaking similar to that of the rest of South East England. However, the London accent of the 21st century century is very diverse and the one that is becoming more common among those under thirty years is a certain amalgamation of Cockney, the Received Pronunciation, plus a whole series of "ethnic" accents, particularly Caribbean, that shape the speech christened multicultural London English.
Economy
London generates approximately 20% of all the UK's gross domestic product, and its huge metropolitan area, which is the largest in Europe, 30% of the nation's total. London is also one of the major financial centers in the world, so much so that it rivals New York as the pre-eminent locus of international finance. Indeed, finance is the city's largest industry and its financial exports make it a major contributor to the balance of payments from United Kingdom. As of mid-2007, some 325,000 people worked in financial services in London, a city home to 480 foreign banks, more than any other city in the world. Around 85% of Greater London's workforce (3.2 million people) is employed in the service sector. However, due to its important role in this sector, the London economy has been greatly affected by the financial crisis at the end of the first decade of this century and several thousand people who worked in finance have lost their jobs.
The City of London is home to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange and Lloyd's of London Insurance Market. Around half of the 100 companies listed on the FTSE 100 stock index and around 100 of the 500 largest companies in Europe are headquartered in London. In addition, 70% of the FTSE 100 companies are located within the metropolitan area of the city and 75% of the Fortune 500 companies have offices in London.
In addition to professional services, London is home to many companies in the media sector and the media distribution industry is the second most competitive sector of the city's economy. The BBC has many workers, although it is only one of many companies in the sector based around the City. Also, many British newspapers are published in London. The city is a very important commercial center and in 2010 had higher non-food retail sales than any other city in the world. The Port of London is the second largest in the country and handles 45 million tons of goods every year.
London has five major business districts: The City, City of Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington and Lambeth & Southwark. One way to get an idea of their relative importance is to look at their office spaces: Greater London had 27 million square meters of office space in 2001, eight of them in the City alone. On the other hand, the city has some of the highest real estate prices in the world.
Tourism
London is a very popular tourist destination, so this is one of its main industries: 350,000 people worked full-time in the tourism sector in 2003, an industry that brings in around £15 billion to the city annually The number of hotel rooms in the British capital was 138,769 in 2015, a number that is constantly growing. The city spends 54% of the total money that visitors leave the UK each year In 2016 it was the most touristic city in Europe with more than 20 million visitors that year and also the number 1 tourist destination according to users of the influential travel website TripAdvisor.
In 2015, the top ten places visited by tourists in the UK were all in London:
- British Museum
- National Gallery
- Museum of Natural History
- Southbank Centre
- Tate Modern
- Museum of Victoria and Alberto
- Science Museum
- Somerset House
- Tower of London
- National Portrait Gallery
Transportation
Transport in the city is one of the four main areas managed by the Mayor of London, although his budgetary powers do not cover the long-distance rail network into the city. In 2007 the Mayor took responsibility for some local rail lines, which now form the London Overground network, thus adding to his previous responsibilities for the tube, trams and city buses. London's public transport network, which is one of the most extensive in the world, is run by Transport for London. Cycling is becoming more and more popular in London and the London Cycling Campaign is trying to improve this way of getting around the city.
The lines that make up the London Underground, trams and buses became part of an integrated transport system through the creation in 1933 of the London Passenger Transport Board. Currently, Transport for London is the local government body responsible for most aspects of the Greater London transport system and is run by a board and a commissioner appointed by the mayor himself.
Airports
London is one of the major centers of world air traffic and also has the largest urban airspace. Eight airports have the word London in their name, but most of the air traffic goes through six of them.
- London-Heathrow Airport, in Hillingdon, west of the city, is the most international air traffic airport in the world and the base of the United Kingdom flag airline, British Airways. In March 2008, the fifth Heathrow terminal was inaugurated. There were plans to create a third runway and a sixth terminal, but they were cancelled in May 2010 by the British government.
- London-Gatwick Airport, located south of the city in West Sussex County, handles a similar traffic, as well as some low-cost airlines that make short-distance flights.
- London-Stansted Airport, northeast of the city, in Essex, is Ryanair's main airport in the UK.
- London-Luton Airport, north in Bedfordshire, serves mainly low cost and short distance companies.
- London City Airport, the smallest and most central to all, serves business flights and has a considerable private jet traffic.
- London-Southend Airport, in Essex east of the city, is a small regional airport for low cost and short distance flights. Recently it has been refurbished and now has a new terminal, a bigger track and a new train station that offers quick routes to the capital.
Buses and trams
London's bus network is one of the largest in the world: it runs 24 hours a day, has 8,000 buses, 700 lines and has around six million daily users. In 2003 this network made one and a half million short-distance journeys, more than the tube. Its annual profits are about £850 million. The city also has the best accessibility network for wheelchairs and since 2007 it has become more accessible for people with hearing or visual impairments thanks, in part, to the introduction of audiovisual notices. The distinctive red double-decker buses and retro-designed black cabs are, along with the Tube, international icons of London.
The British capital also has a modern tram network, known as Tramlink and based in Croydon, south of the city. It has 39 stops, three routes and transported 26.5 million people in 2008. Since that same year, Tramlink has belonged to Transport for London, an organization that plans to invest 54 million pounds by 2015 in maintenance, renovation and expansion of service capacity. Since 2009 all its trams have been refurbished.
Cable Car
London has the cable car called Emirates Air Line, inaugurated in June 2012 and crosses the River Thames joining the Greenwich peninsula with the Royal Docks, in the east of the city. This cable car is integrated with the London Oyster card, which simplifies payments on public transport.
Bicycle
Cycling in London has experienced a renaissance in the 21st century. Cyclists enjoy a cheaper and sometimes faster mode of transport around the city than public transport or private cars. The launch of a bike sharing scheme in July 2010 has been a success and is well received by Londoners.
Port and collective boats
The port of London was once the largest in the world, but today it is only the second largest in the United Kingdom. It moves 45 million tons of freight every year, most of which actually passes through the port of Tilbury, which is outside the limits of Greater London.
London has a regular service of collective launches on the Thames that cross the river every 20 minutes between Embankment Pier and North Greenwich Pier. There is also the Woolwich Ferry, a free ferry that transports both passengers and vehicles and used by 2.5 million people each year between the spoke roads north and south of London. Passenger transport on the river is managed by London River Services, a division of Transport for London.
Train
- Metro
The London Underground—known colloquially as The Tube—is the oldest and second longest in the world. It started operating in 1863 and currently has 270 stations. In its beginnings it was built and put into operation by several private companies and had the first electric traction metro line in the world, the City & South London Railway. Three million passengers use the London Underground every day, around one billion a year. An investment program is trying to solve its congestion and reliability problems, despite which London has been praised for to be the city with the best public transport. The Docklands Light Railway system, which began operating in 1987, is a second, more local tube system, using smaller, lighter trains for journeys between London Docklands and Greenwich.
- Train of proximity
There is also an extensive suburban train network in the capital made up of 366 railway stations, especially in South London, which is where there are fewer tube lines. The city is home to the busiest train station in the country, Waterloo Station, through whose interchange complex (which includes East Waterloo Station) 184 million people pass each year. The stations serve South London and England. Most rail lines terminate towards the city centre, at eighteen railway stations, with the exception of Thameslink trains which connect Bedford in the north with Brighton in the south via Luton and Gatwick airports.
With the need for increased rail capacity in London, Crossrail, a new east-west rail network running through the home counties and London, is expected to come online in 2019, with a line to London-Heathrow airport. It is currently the largest construction project in Europe and has an expected cost of £15 billion.
- Intercity and international
London is the hub of the United Kingdom's national rail network, with 70% of the country's train lines starting and ending in the city. Like commuter trains, regional and intercity trains depart from various city center terminals linking London to the rest of Great Britain, including: Cambridge, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Birmingham, Sheffield, Southampton, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Since 2007, the Eurostar high-speed train links St. Pancras International Station with Lille, Paris and Brussels on the continent. Train journeys to Paris and Brussels, which take two and a quarter hours and two hours and fifty minutes respectively, make London closer to mainland Europe than to many parts of Great Britain thanks to the London-High Speed line. Eurotunnel that crosses under the English channel. The first British high-speed trains began operating in 2009 linking London with Kent, to the southeast.
Roads
Although most trips around central London are made by public transport, in the suburbs car use is more common. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the north and south ring roads and the M25 ring motorway encircle the entire urban area of the city and are interconnected by several radial roads. However, very few highways reach the center of the city. The M25 is the longest ring road in the world at 195.5 km. The A1 and M1 highways connect the capital with Edinburgh, Leeds and Newcastle.
A plan was drawn up in the 1960s to create a comprehensive highway network throughout the city, but most of it was canceled in the 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volume on central London. With few exceptions, motorists must pay £10 a day to travel through a well-defined zone that encompasses much of the congested city centre. London is notorious for its traffic jams, especially on the M25, which is the motorway with more traffic in the whole country, and the average speed of cars at rush hour does not exceed 17 km/h. Thanks to the toll imposed to travel through the center, the number of cars has been reduced in this area of the city from 195,000 to 125,000, a 35% reduction every day.
Education
Primary and secondary education
Most of London's primary and secondary schools are public and controlled by the respective city councils. There are also many private schools, some very old and prestigious such as City of London School, Harrow School, St Paul's School, University College School, Highgate School and Westminster School.
Higher Education
London is a city with great weight in the world of higher education and research, and its 43 universities make up the largest concentration of higher education centers in all of Europe. In the 2008-09 academic year, the city had a population university that was around 412,000 students, approximately 17% of the entire country, of whom 287,000 were registered in university courses and 118,000 in postgraduate studies. In that same school year there were 97,150 foreign students in London, which which accounted for 25% of all those in the United Kingdom.
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London is home to some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. In the 2012 QS World University Rankings, University College London was ranked 4th, Imperial College London 6th and King's College London 26th. The School of Economics is considered the world's leading institution in research and development in the social sciences and the London Business School is among the best business schools, as its MBA program was considered the best in the world by Financial Times.
With its 125,000 students, the public University of London is the largest face-to-face university on the continent. It is made up of four universities and their respective colleges — King's College, Queen Mary, Royal Holloway and University College—plus several smaller, specialist institutions such as Birkbeck, Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London Business School, London School of Economics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. London, Royal Academy of Music, Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Veterinary College and the School of Oriental and African Studies. Each of these members of the University of London have their own admission procedures and their own awards for studies that they impart
There are other institutions of higher learning outside the University of London in the city, including Brunel University, City University of London, Imperial College London, Kingston University, London Metropolitan University (which with 34,000 students it is the largest unitary university in the city), London South Bank University, Middlesex University, University of the Arts London (the largest in Europe in its field), University of East London, West London University and the University of Westminster. In addition, in the British capital there are three international universities: Regent's College London, University of Richmond and Schiller International University.
London has five major medical schools—Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, King's College London School of Medicine (Europe's largest medical school), Imperial College School of Medicine, UCL Medical School and St George's—and numerous associated training hospitals. The city is also a prominent location for biomedical research thanks to its academic health sciences centers: Imperial College Healthcare, King's Health Partners and UCL Partners (the largest center of its kind in the entire Old Continent). Among the many business schools in the city are Cass Business School, London School of Business and Finance (LSBF), ESCP Europe, European Business School London, Imperial College Business School and London Business School. Likewise, in London there are several institutions specialized in the world of arts: Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, LAMDA, London Contemporary Dance School, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Royal College of Art, Ballet Rambert, Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Culture
Leisure and entertainment
Within the City of Westminster is the entertainment district of the West End, which is centered around Leicester Square, the site of London's film premieres, and Piccadilly Circus, recognizable by its giant illuminated billboards. There are the West End theatres, cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as the Chinatown district in the Soho area. Just to the east is Covent Garden, an area of clothing stores. The city is home to celebrated stage composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose musicals have dominated West End theaters in the closing decades of the 20th century . In London there are the Royal Ballet, the English National Ballet, the Royal Opera and the English National Opera, which present their shows at the Royal Opera House, the London Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theater and the Royal Albert Hall.
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Upper Street, a mile-long street in the Islington district running north from The Angel, is the street with the most bars and restaurants in the UK. Oxford Street concentrates more shops than any other area in Europe on a street 1.6 km long and is home to many department stores, including the pioneer of the Selfridges chain. In Knightsbridge, to the southwest, is the first of the famous Harrods department store.
Famous designers such as Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Jimmy Choo or the Spanish Manolo Blahnik, among many others, work in London, and the city is considered an international fashion center along with Paris, Milan or New York thanks to to its renowned schools of art and design. London restaurants offer numerous gastronomic varieties as a result of the ethnic diversity of the city's population.
Among the variety of annual events include the massive New Year's Day Parade, the fireworks display from the London Eye, the massive Notting Hill Carnival held on the Bank holiday in August, the traditional Lord's Parade Mayor's Show, in November, the centenary celebration of the appointment of the new Lord Mayor of London, which includes a procession through the streets of the City, and the Trooping the Color ceremony in June, a formal military parade performed by regiments of Commonwealth and British Army during the Queen's official birthday celebration.
Literature, film and television
London is the setting for many literary works. The city's literary centers have traditionally been Hampstead and, since the early 20th century century, Bloomsbury. Some writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, author of the interesting story about the Great Fire of 1666, Charles Dickens, whose literary portrayal of a misty, snowy and filthy city with streets full of street sweepers and pickpockets has made a deep impression on the image everyone has of Victorian London, and Virginia Woolf, remembered today as one of the leading figures of 20th century Anglo-Saxon literary modernism.
The Pilgrims from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, late 14th century They leave for Canterbury from London. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life working in London, his contemporary Ben Jonson also lived in the city and his comedy The Alchemist is set in the English capital. The Newspaper of the Year of The Plague by Daniel Defoe is a novelization of the events of the plague epidemic of 1665. Other important representations of London in literature are the detective Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Some writers moderns heavily influenced by the city are Peter Ackroyd, author of a 'biography' of London, and Iain Sinclair, writer in the genre of psychogeography.
London has also made its mark on the film industry. The city is home to Ealing Studios and Soho is home to a large community working in special effects and film post-production. The film production company Working Title Films is based in the capital. In addition, London has been the setting for films such as Oliver Twist (1948), Peter Pan (1953), The Quintet of Death (1955), 101 Dalmatians (1961), Mary Poppins (1964), Blow-Up (1966), The Long Good Friday (1980), Secrets and Lies (1996), Notting Hill (1999), Match Point (2005), V for Vendetta (2005) and Sweeney Todd (2008). The world of television is also very present with studios such as the BBC Television Centre, The Fountain Studios or The London Studios. Many television shows have been filmed in London, such as the soap opera EastEnders, broadcast on the BBC since 1985.
Museums and art galleries
In London there are many museums, galleries and other cultural institutions, some of which are major tourist attractions as well as fulfilling a research role. The first one founded was the British Museum, in Bloomsbury, in the year 1753. This museum initially contained antiquities, natural history specimens and the national library, but currently has funds with seven million pieces from all over the world. In 1824 the National Gallery was founded to house Britain's national collection of Western painting, an institution that today occupies a prominent place in Trafalgar Square. In the second half of the 19th century Albertopolis was created in South Kensington, an area dotted with cultural and scientific institutions, including three great British national museums: the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. The National Gallery of British Art is exhibited in the Tate Britain, created in 1897 as an annex to the National Gallery. The Tate Gallery, as it was formerly known, also became a major contemporary art museum and in 2000 its collection was moved to Tate Modern, a new art gallery located in the converted Bankside Power Station.
Music
London is one of the world capitals of classical and popular music and home to major record labels including EMI, as well as countless music groups, musicians and industry professionals. There are also several orchestras and concert halls in the city, including the Barbican Center (home of the London Symphony Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Royal Albert Hall (the Proms). The two main opera houses These are the Royal Opera House and the London Coliseum. Of course, there are numerous music conservatories in the city: the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
There are plenty of venues for rock and pop concerts in the city, including large arenas such as Earls Court, Wembley Arena and the O2 Arena, and medium-sized venues such as Brixton Academy, Hammersmith Apollo and Shepherds Bush Empire. Several music festivals are held in the capital, including the Wireless Festival. London is home to the first and original Hard Rock Café and the famous Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles recorded many of their biggest hits. In the 1970s and 1980s, musicians and groups that succeeded around the world such as Elton John, David Bowie, Queen, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Elvis Costello, Yes, T.Rex, Cat Stevens, Ian Dury, jumped from the streets of London. and the Blockheads, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Electric Light Orchestra, Madness, The Jam, The Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Fleetwood Mac, The Police, The Cure, Cream, Phil Collins and Sade.
London was also important in the development of punk music with figures who lived and worked in it including the Sex Pistols, the Clash and Vivienne Westwood. More recently, George Michael, Bananarama, Ultravox Bush, Seal, Pet Shop Boys, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Spice Girls, Jamiroquai, Blur, The Prodigy, Gorillaz, McFly, The Libertines, Babyshambles, Bloc Party have emerged from the London music scene., Florence and the Machine Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Adele, One Direction, Dua Lipa and Little Mix. Musical genres such as UK Garage, drum and bass, dubstep or grime have also developed in London from other foreign styles such as reggae or hip hop.
Sports
London has organized three Summer Olympic Games, in the years 1908, 1948 and 2012, and is therefore the city that has hosted the most Olympic editions in the modern era. In 1934 the capital organized the Games of the British Empire and hosted the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
The most popular sport in London is soccer and the city has fourteen teams in the English Football League, six of them in the Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Fulham Football Club In May 2012 Chelsea became the first London football club to win the UEFA Champions League.
In the British capital there are five rugby union teams that compete in the top competition for this sport in England, the Aviva Premiership: London Irish, Saracens, London Wasps, London Welsh and Harlequins FC, although only the Harlequins and Saracens they play in the city, the rest currently play outside of Greater London. The city's other professional rugby union team is London Scottish F.C., who compete in the RFU Championship and play their home games in London. In addition, the city has other traditional rugby union clubs such as Richmond F.C., Rosslyn Park F.C., Westcombe Park R.F.C. and Blackheath F.C.. Rugby league is also represented in London with three teams: London Broncos, London Skolars and the semi-professional Hemel Stags.
Since 1924, the old Wembley Stadium in London was the field where the England soccer team played. It was also the venue for the FA Cup finals in football and the Challenge Cup in rugby league. The new Wembley Stadium, which has a capacity of 90,000, serves exactly the same purpose as the old one. Twickenham, located to the southwest of the city and seating 84,000, is the national stadium for rugby union.
Cricket in the British capital has two test cricket grounds: Lord's, which has hosted four Cricket World Cup finals and is the home ground of the Middlesex C.C.C. team, and The Oval, where the Surrey C.C.C. One of the most famous annual sporting competitions that take place in London is the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which is held at the All England Club, southwest of the city in the suburb of Wimbledon. Other notable annual sporting events are the massive London Marathon, in which more than 35,000 people usually run, and the world-famous Oxford-Cambridge Regatta on the stretch of the River Thames that runs between Putney and Mortlake. Every July, the city hosts the final of the RideLondon-Surrey Classic, a UCI World Tour category cycling race. In the London metropolitan area there are several internationally recognized golf courses such as the Wentworth Club and the Sunningdale Golf Club.
Predecessor: San Luis.svg){kind=small} Berlin Beijing |  Olympic City 1908 1948 2012 | Successor: Stockholm Helsinki Rio de Janeiro |
Predecessor: Hamilton |  City of the Commonwealth 1934 | Successor:.svg){kind=small} Sydney |
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