LONDON

Many Americans think that England starts and ends with London. But what is London? And how do you go about seeing it? This page sets out to answer these questions.

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Introduction

The Celts, or possibly the Ancient Britons before them, had a large town built slightly to the west of the modern capital today called Londinos. It had already been abandoned by the time the Romans arrived some 2000 years ago, but they decided on a major city downstream called Londinium. After the Romans left, the place declined, but unlike many other Roman towns managed to survive. London was first a kentish city, then an East Saxon one, and finally a Mercian one, before falling briefly to the Danes duting the Great Army's 865-71 invasion. King Alfred of Wessex initially ceded it to them as part of their peace deal, but seized control of it when the Danes follishly tried to use it to shelter troublemakers. Over the following centuries, London prospered, though Alfred's Winchester remained England's capital. In the eleventh century King Edward the Confessor decided to build a major church (minster) just to the west of the city, Westminster Abbey. In 1154 Henry II became king; his mother had been humiliated in battle at Winchester, and he made London his main base. A fire in 1512 at the royal palace of Whitehall led Henry VIII to eventually give part of it to parliament for a permanent base; this august body (I'm being a tad facetious) had previously wandered around the country and sat wherever the king wanted. They responded a century later by cutting off King Charles I's head in their new base. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century saw the city massively expand, and its current population is around seven million, making it seven times larger than Birmingham, the second largest city in England.

What is London?

There are three definitions:

Historical: The Square Mile, the traditional walled city boundaries around what is now the Strand. The eastern edge is defined by the Tower of London.

Tourist: The central area, including the separate City of Westminster and extending west to Harrods, which is in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

Greater London: The city of seven million people, stretching for on average twenty miles into the surrounding countryside.

How do you see it?

Most American tourists, sadly, equate 'England' with 'London'. Ask yourself this; if a Briton started telling everyone that all Americans were like New Yorkers or San Franciscans.... yes, exactly. Parking in London varies between prohibitively expensive and impossible. The best way to see London is travel in via public transport. If you're hiring a car, drive to some nearby town like Slough and take the train in. Once in the centre, you can buy a rover ticket which will give you any number of days unlimited travel on all bus, tube (metro) and trains within a specified area. Avoid the tube during the rush hour, as it gets impossibly crowded. Bear in mind that, like all cities, London can be dangerous, so take care. The main area for shopping is Oxford Street, from which you can proceed by way of Soho (named after a hunting-cry and now the sex shops area - look, I just know, okay!) to Trafalgar Square and down the Mall to Buckingham Palace or down Whitehall to Big Ben. Open-top bus tours are good but horribly overpriced. A particularly attractive option is to take the ferry between Westminster and Tower Bridge, which gives you a whole new perspective on the capital. If you want a really different view, try the London Eye, a huge ferris wheel on the Thames' south bank. But you have to book well ahead, as it's very popular.

In 2003 London introduced the Congestion Charge, yet another disincentive to car drivers. Anyone entering the Congestion Charge Area (roughly Central London) had to pay a £5 charge or face a heavy fine. It's since gone up to £8, and more rises are planned. There are warning signs, but those I've spoken to say avoiding entering the area is hard because of the restrictions on left and right turns at many junctions. Of course any suggestion that this is a deliberate ploy to trick drivers into entering the zone are... now what is that word I was looking for?... ah yes. Correct.