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Places of Interest. London is an ancient city with many historical sites. Since 1066 England’s kings and queens have been crowned in a church called Westminster Abbey. The queen of England lives in Buckingham Palace. The Parliament meets in the Palace of Westminster. Its famous clock tower contains a huge bell called Big Ben.
- The Romans founded London (sort of) Did you know Romans first settled in London some 2,000 years ago? Except, not in the current state it is today. It wasn’t even properly called London back then.
- In 1369, Edward III tried to ban butchers from working in London. In 1369, the smell of raw meat, blood and offal around the city was almost too much to bear living with.
- The Houses of Parliament is really a palace. Its proper title is “The Palace of Westminster”, and it actually served as a main royal residence for English Kings and Queens until 1512 when a fire burned a large part of the original building down.
- London Zoo was the first zoo in the world. Initially started in 1827, London Zoo was only meant to be open to scientists to carry out research into animals and animal behaviour, which meant regular people weren’t allowed to see inside.
Key Facts about London. London is the largest city in the United Kingdom. London is the largest city in Europe. The exact centre of London is marked by a plaque in the Church of St Martin's-in-the-Fields overlooking Trafalgar Square. The tallest building in London is The Shard London Bridge - 310 meters (1,017ft) tall.
- History
- Administration
- National Government
- Geography
- Demography
- Economy
- Landmarks
- Underground and DLR
- Buses
- Education
The Romans built a city called Londinium on the River Thames in AD 43. The name Londinium (and then 'London') came from the Celtic language of the Ancient Britons. In the year AD 61, Queen Boudica (a British Celtic queen) and her army destroyed the city. Boudica killed herself when Romans trapped her. Then the Romans rebuilt London. London became a...
Local government
The administration of London is formed of two tiers: a citywide, strategic tier and a local tier. Citywide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller authorities. The GLA consists of two elected components: the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, which looks at the mayor's decisions and can accept or reject the mayor's budget proposals each year.
London is the seat of the Government of the United Kingdom. Many government departments, as well as the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, are based close to the Palace of Westminster, particularly along Whitehall. There are 73 Members of Parliament (MPs) from London, elected from local parliamentary constituencies in the national Par...
Topography
Greater London encompasses a total area of 1,583 square kilometres (611 sq mi), an area which had a population of 7,172,036 in 2001 and a population density of 4,542 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,760/sq mi). The extended area known as the London Metropolitan Region or the London Metropolitan Agglomeration, comprises a total area of 8,382 square kilometres (3,236 sq mi) has a population of 13,709,000 and a population density of 1,510 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,900/sq mi). Moder...
Climate
London has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb ), similar to all of southern England. Despite its reputation as being a rainy city, London receives less precipitation (601 mm, 24 in, in a year) than Rome, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Naples, Sydney and New York. Temperature extremes for all sites in the London area range from 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) at Kew during August 2003 down to −16.1 °C (3.0 °F) at Northolt during January 1962. Summers are generally warm and sometimes hot. London's average July h...
Districts
London's vast urban area is often described using a set of district names, such as Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Wembley and Whitechapel. These are either informal designations, reflect the names of villages that have been absorbed by sprawl, or are superseded administrative units such as parishes or former boroughs. Such names have remained in use through tradition, each referring to a local area with its own distinctive character, but without official boundaries. Since 1965 Greater London has been d...
The 2011 census recorded that 2,998,264 people or 36.7% of London's population were foreign-born making it the city with the second largest immigrant population after New York, in terms of absolute numbers. About 69% of children born in London in 2015 had at least one parent who was born abroad. The table to the right shows the commonest countries ...
London's gross regional product in 2019 was £503 billion, around a quarter of UK GDP. London has five major business districts: the city, Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington and Lambeth & Southwark. One way to get an idea of their relative importance is to look at relative amounts of office space: Greater London had 27 million m2 of offic...
The London Underground, commonly referred to as the Tube, is the oldest and second longest metrosystem in the world. The system serves 270 stations and was formed from several private companies, including the world's first underground electric line, the City and South London Railway. It dates from 1863. Over four million journeys are made every day...
London's bus network is one of the largest in the world, running 24 hours a day, with about 8,500 buses, more than 700 bus routes and around 19,500 bus stops. In 2013, the network had more than 2 billion commuter trips per annum, more than the Underground. Around £850 million is taken in revenue each year. London has the largest wheelchair accessib...
Tertiary education
London is a major global centre of higher education teaching and research and has the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. According to the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, London has the greatest concentration of top class universities in the world and its international student population of around 110,000 is larger than any other city in the world. A 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers report termed London the global capital of higher education. A number of world-lea...
Primary and secondary education
The majority of primary and secondary schools and further-education colleges in London are controlled by the London boroughs or otherwise state-funded; leading examples include Ashbourne College, Bethnal Green Academy, Brampton Manor Academy, City and Islington College, City of Westminster College, David Game College, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, Leyton Sixth Form College, London Academy of Excellence, Tower Hamlets College, and Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre. There are a...
- London (as a city) was founded by the Romans. Although several structures have been found pre-dating the Romans, it’s a broad consensus among historians that the Romans created the first large settlement on the banks of the Thames and called it Londonium.
- How London got its name is a mystery. Some think London’s name may have been derived from the Celtic Llyn (pronounced “lun”), a pool or lake that was the river that expanded to become a large lake.
- It took London 1000 years to regain the same population as Roman London. At its peak, around AD 120, Roman London’s population was around 45,000 people.
- Roman London was abandoned for hundreds of years. The Anglo-Saxons preferred to create a separate settlement outside of the old Roman London. So they called their town Lundenwic.
Feb 15, 2024 · 1 / 3. Modern London Facts. London has the tallest building in the UK, the Shard, which is 1,016 feet tall. It was opened to the public in February 2013. London's famous clock tower has been telling Londoners the time since 1859, but it is often called by the wrong name.
Oct 16, 2019 · Facts about London for kids. Learning about London can be super fun for kids. Here’s a few facts to kickstart their British adventure! 1) London is the capital of England, which is a country within the United Kingdom. London is the largest city in the United Kingdom. 2) People who come from London are called Londoners.
