London

Definitions
London can be defined in a number of different ways. The London region
of England, also commonly known as Greater London, is the area administered by
the Greater London Authority. The urban sprawl of the conurbation — or Greater
London Urban Area — covers a roughly similar area, with a slightly larger
population. Beyond this is the vast London commuter belt. At London's core is the
small, ancient City of London which is commonly known as "The City" or
"Square Mile". Within London, both the City of London and the City of
Westminster have City status and both the City of London and the remainder of
Greater London are ceremonial counties. The current area of Greater London was
historically part of the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Essex and
Hertfordshire.

Forty percent of Greater London is covered by the London postal area. The
London telephone area code covers a larger area, similar in size to Greater
London, although some outer districts are omitted and some places just outside are
included. The area within the orbital M25 motorway is sometimes used to define
the "London area and the Greater London boundary has been aligned to it in
places. Greater London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer
London. It can also be informally split into North, South, East, West and often also
Central London.

London's metropolitan area ('the metropolis') grew considerably during the

Victorian era and again during the Interwar period. Expansion halted in the 1940s
because of World War II and Green Belt legislation, and the area has been largely
static since. The Metropolitan Police District, city-wide local government area and
London transport area have varied over time, but currently broadly coincide with
the Greater London boundary.

Unlike most capital cities, London's status as the capital of the UK has
never been granted or confirmed officially — by statute or in written form.
[citation needed] Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional
convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten
constitution. The capital of England was moved to London from Winchester as the
Palace of Westminster developed in the 12th and 13th centuries to become the
permanent location of the royal court, and thus the political capital of the nation.

The Romans may have marked the centre of Londinium with the London
Stone, still visible on Cannon Street. The coordinates of the nominal centre of
London (traditionally considered to be the original Eleanor Cross at Charing
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Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall) are approximately
51°30′29″N, 00°07′29″W. Trafalgar Square has also become a central point for
celebrations and protests.

Geography and climate

Main articles: Geography of London, List of places in London, and Climate

of London
Topography and climate
Climate chart for London
J F M A M J J A S O N D
52 34 42 45 47 53 38 47 57 62 52 54
8 8 11 13 17 20 23 23 19 15 11 9
2 2 4 5 8 11 14 13 11 8 5 3
temperatures in °C / precipitation in mm
Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²), making it one of
the world's largest cities by area.[citation needed] Its primary geographical feature
is the Thames, a navigable river which crosses the city from the southwest to the
east. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills such as
Parliament Hill, Addington Hills, and Primrose Hill. These hills presented no
significant obstacle to the growth of London from its origins as a port on the north
side of the river, and therefore London is roughly circular.

The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river with extensive
marshlands; at high tide, its shores reached five times their current width. It has
been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow
underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding.
The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water
level by the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused
by post-glacial rebound.[28] In 1974, a decade of work began on the construction
of the Thames Barrier across the Thames at Woolwich to deal with this threat.
While the barrier is expected to function as designed until roughly 2030, concepts
for its future enlargement or redesign are already being discussed.
London has a temperate climate with regular but generally light precipitation
throughout the year - unlike the rest of the UK and even the nearby coast. London
is in fact among the driest of Europe's capitals, with water resources per head of
population equivalent to Israel.[30] The warmest month is July, with an average
temperature range at Greenwich of 13.6 °C to 22.8 °C (56.5 to 73.0 °F). Record
high temperatures of up to 38.1 °C (101 °F) were recorded in different parts of
London on 10 August 2003.[31] The coolest month is January, averaging 2.4 °C to
7.9 °C (35.6 to 46.2 °F). Average annual precipitation is 583.6 mm (22.98 in),
with February on average the driest month.[32] Snow is relatively uncommon,
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particularly because heat from the urban area can make London up to 5 °C (9 °F)
hotter than the surrounding areas in winter. However light snowfall is seen on
some days most winters. London is in USDA Hardiness zone 9, and AHS Heat
Zone 2.[citation needed]

[hide]Weather averages for London

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average 7.9 8.2 10.9 13.3 17.2 20.2 22.8 22.6 19.3 15.2 10.9 8.8 14.8
high °C (°F) (46) (47) (52) (56) (63) (68) (73) (73) (67) (59) (52) (48) (59)
Average low 2.4 2.2 3.8 5.2 8.0 11.1 13.6 13.3 10.9 8.0 4.8 3.3 7.2
°C (°F) (36) (36) (39) (41) (46) (52) (56) (56) (52) (46) (41) (38) (45)
Precipitation 51.9 34.0 42.0 45.2 47.2 53.0 38.3 47.3 56.9 61.5 52.3 54.0 583.6
mm (inch) (2) (1.3) (1.7) (1.8) (1.9) (2.1) (1.5) (1.9) (2.2) (2.4) (2.1) (2.1) (23)
Districts
See also: Central London, Inner London, and Outer London

Canary Wharf, in London's second financial district,

London Docklands
London's vast urban area is often described using a set of
district names (e.g. Bloomsbury, Knightsbridge, Mayfair,
Whitechapel). These are either informal designations, or
reflect the names of superseded parishes and city wards.
Such names have remained in use through tradition, each
referring to a neighbourhood with its own distinctive character, but often with no
modern official boundaries (the boundaries often overlap, allowing estate agents
some leeway in defining the location of a property).[citation needed]
One area of London which does have a strict definition is the City of London
(usually just called The City), the largest financial district and central business
district (CBD) in Europe.[citation needed] The City has its own governance and
boundaries, giving it a status as the only completely autonomous local authority in
London. London's new financial and commercial hub is the Docklands area to the
east of the City, dominated by the Canary Wharf complex. Other businesses locate
in the City of Westminster, the home of the UK's national government and the
famous Westminster Abbey.
The West End is London's main entertainment and shopping district, with
locations such as Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly
Circus acting as tourist magnets.[citation needed] The West London area is known
for fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, Knightsbridge
and Chelsea — where properties can sell for tens of millions of pounds. The
average price for all properties in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is

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£894,000 (as reported by the BBC in February 2007) with similar average outlay
in most of Central London.
The eastern side of London contains the East End and East London. The East End
is the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant
population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London.[citation
needed] The surrounding East London area saw much of London's early industrial
development; now, brownfield sites throughout the area are being redeveloped as
part of the Thames Gateway including the London Riverside and Lower Lea
Valley, which is being developed into the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics.
[citation needed]

Built environment

The Great Court of the British Museum

The density of London varies, with high employment
density in the central area, high residential densities in
inner London and lower densities in the suburbs. In the
dense areas, most of the concentration is achieved with
medium-rise and high-rise buildings. London's
skyscrapers such as the famous "Gherkin", Tower 42
and One Canada Square are usually found in the two financial districts, the City of
London and Canary Wharf.
In recent years, the development of tall buildings has been encouraged in the
London Plan, which will lead to the erection of new skyscrapers over the next few
years as London goes through a high-rise boom, particularly in the City of London
and Canary Wharf. The 72-storey, 310 m "Shard London Bridge" by London
Bridge station, the 288 m Bishopsgate Tower and around 30 other skyscrapers
over 150 m are either proposed or approved and could transform the city's skyline.
Other notable modern buildings include City Hall in Southwark with its distinctive
oval shape, the British Library in Somers Town/Kings Cross, the Great Court of
the British Museum, and what was formerly the Millennium Dome, now used as
the cover of an entertainment district known as The O2, next to the Thames east of
Canary Wharf. The disused (but soon to be rejuvenated) 1907 Battersea Power
Station by the river in the southwest is a local landmark, while some railway
termini are excellent examples of Victorian architecture, most notably St Pancras
and Paddington (at least internally).[citation needed] Another major local
landmark is The London Ark by Ralph Erskine, in Hammersmith.
London is too large to be overwhelmingly characterised by any particular
architectural style, having accumulated its buildings over a long period of time and
drawing on an inexhaustible range of influences, although it is mainly brick built,
most commonly a warm orange red, often with carvings and white plaster
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mouldings.[citation needed] Many areas of the city are characterised by white
stucco or whitewashed buildings. Few structures predate the Great Fire of 1666,
except for a few trace Roman remains, the Tower of London and a few scattered
Tudor survivors in the City. A majority of buildings in London date from the
Edwardian or Victorian periods.[citation needed]

A great many monuments pay homage to people and events in the city. The
Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area while
commemorating the Great Fire of
London which originated nearby. Marble
Arch and Wellington Arch, at the north
and south ends of Park Lane
respectively, have royal connections, as
do the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column is
a nationally-recognised monument in Trafalgar Square, providing a focal point for
the whole central area.

A panorama of modern London, taken from the Golden Gallery of Saint Paul’s
Cathedral
Parks and gardens
Main articles: Parks and open spaces in London and Royal Parks of London

Greenwich Park, one of London's Royal Parks

Regents Park, in the inner circle

Often called "The Green City," London has a number of open spaces. The largest
of these in the central area are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park and its neighbours
Kensington Gardens and Holland Park Gardens at the western edge of central
London, and Regent's Park on the northern edge. This park is located near the
tourist attractions of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and Baker Street, where the
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fictional Sherlock Holmes lived. Closer to central London are the smaller Royal
Parks of Green Park and St. James's Park. Hyde Park in particular is popular for
sports and sometimes hosts open-air concerts.
A number of large parks lie outside the city centre, including the remaining Royal
Parks of Greenwich Park to the south east, and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to
the south west. Primrose Hill to the north of Regent's Park is a popular spot to
view the city skyline. Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist,
including the 791-acre Hampstead Heath of north London. This incorporates
Kenwood House, the former stately home and a popular location in the summer
months where classical music concerts are held by the lake, attracting thousands of
people every weekend to enjoy the music, scenery and fireworks. Outer South East
London is noted for its open spaces and extensive wooded areas.
History
Main articles: History of London and Londinium
Early London

Westminster Abbey is one of London's oldest

and most important buildings

Although there is some evidence of scattered Brython settlement in the area, the
first major settlement was founded by the Romans in AD 43, following the Roman
invasion of Britain. This settlement was called Londinium, commonly believed to
be the origin of the present-day name, although a Celtic origin is also possible.
The first London lasted for just seventeen years. Around AD 61, the Iceni tribe of
Celts led by Queen Boudica stormed London, burning it to the ground. The next,
heavily-planned incarnation of the city prospered and superseded Colchester as the
capital of the Roman province of Britannia in AD 100. At its height in the 2nd
century AD, Roman London had a population of around 60,000. However, by the
3rd century AD, the city started a slow decline due to trouble in the Roman
Empire, and by the 5th century AD, it was largely abandoned.
By 600 AD, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new settlement (Lundenwic) about 1
km upstream from the old Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden. There
was probably a harbour at the mouth of the River Fleet for fishing and trading, and
this trading grew until disaster struck in 851 AD, when the city's defences were
overcome by a massive Viking raid and it was razed to the ground. A Viking
occupation twenty years later was short-lived, and Alfred the Great, the new King
of England, established peace and moved the settlement within the defensive walls
of the old Roman city (then called Lundenburgh). The original city became
Ealdwic ("old city"), a name surviving to the present day as Aldwych.
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Subsequently, under the control of various English kings, London once again
prospered as an international trading centre and political arena. However, Viking
raids began again in the late 10th century, and reached a head in 1013 when they
besieged the city under Danish King Canute and forced English King Ethelred the
Unready to flee. In a retaliatory attack, Ethelred's army achieved victory by pulling
down London Bridge with the Danish garrison on top, and English control was re-
established.
Canute took control of the English throne in 1017, controlling the city and country
until 1042, when his death resulted in a reversion to Anglo-Saxon control under
his pious step-son Edward the Confessor, who re-founded Westminster Abbey and
the adjacent Palace of Westminster. By this time, London had become the largest
and most prosperous city in England, although the official seat of government was
still at Winchester.
Norman and medieval London
See also: Fortifications of London

The Great Fire of London destroyed

many parts of the city in 1666

Following a victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, the then
Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly-finished
Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. William granted the citizens of
London special privileges, while building a castle in the southeast corner of the
city to keep them under control. This castle was expanded by later kings and is
now known as the Tower of London, serving first as a royal residence and later as
a prison.
In 1097, William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of
the same name. The hall proved the basis of a new Palace of Westminster, the
prime royal residence throughout the Middle Ages. Westminster became the seat
of the royal court and government (persisting until the present day), while its
distinct neighbour, the City of London, was a centre of trade and commerce and
flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London.
Eventually, the adjacent cities grew together and formed the basis of modern
central London, superseding Winchester as capital of England in the 12th century.
London grew in wealth and population during the middle ages. In 1100 its
population was around 18,000, by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000. However
disaster struck during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, when London lost
nearly a third of its population. Apart from the invasion of London during the
Peasants' Revolt in 1381, London remained relatively untouched by the various

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civil wars during the middle ages, such as the Barons' Wars and the Wars of the
Roses.
After the successful defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, political stability in
England allowed London to grow further. In 1603, James VI of Scotland came to
the throne of England, essentially uniting the two countries. His enactment of
harsh anti-Catholic laws made him unpopular, and an assassination attempt was
made on 5 November 1605 — the famous Gunpowder Plot.
Plague caused extensive problems for London in the early 17th century,
culminating in the Great Plague in 1665-1666. This was the last major outbreak in
Europe, possibly thanks to the disastrous fire of 1666. The Great Fire of London
broke out in the original City and quickly swept through London's wooden
buildings, destroying large swathes of the city. Rebuilding took over ten years.
Rise of modern London

Following London's growth in the 18th century, it became the world's

largest city from about 1831 to 1925. This growth was aided from 1836 by
London's first railways, which put countryside towns within easy reach of the city.
The rail network expanded very rapidly, and caused these places to grow while
London itself expanded into surrounding fields, merging with neighbouring
settlements such as Kensington. Rising traffic congestion on city centre roads led
to the creation of the world's first metro system — the London Underground — in
1863, driving further expansion and urbanisation. Because of this rapid growth,
London became one of the first cities in human history to reach a population of
one million, and was the first ever to surpass five million.
London's local government system struggled to cope with the rapid growth,
especially in providing the city with adequate infrastructure. Between 1855 and
1889, the Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion. It was
then replaced by the County of London, overseen by the London County Council,
London's first elected city-wide administration.

A London street hit during the Blitz of World War II

The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe
during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and
flattened large tracts of housing and other buildings
across London. The rebuilding during the 1950s, 1960s
and 1970s was characterised by a wide range of
architectural styles and has resulted in a lack of architectural unity that has become
part of London's character. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded
to take into account the growth of the urban area outside the County of London's
borders. The expanded area was called Greater London and was administered by
the Greater London Council.
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 In the decades following World War II, large-scale immigration from
Commonwealth countries and beyond transformed London into one of the most
racially and culturally diverse cities in Europe. Integration of the new immigrants
was not always smooth, with events such as the Brixton Riots in the early 1980s,
but was certainly smoother than in other English regions and largely lacking in
widespread support for far right organisations, unlike its European or American
contemporaries.
An economic revival from the 1980s onwards re-established London's position as
a preeminent international centre. However, as the seat of government and the
most important city in the UK, it has been subjected to bouts of terrorism.
Provisional Irish Republican Army bombers sought to pressure the government
into negotiations over Northern Ireland, frequently disrupting city activities with
bomb threats — some of which were carried out — until their 1997 cease-fire.
More recently, a series of coordinated bomb attacks were carried out by Islamic
extremist suicide bombers on the public transport network on 7 July 2005 — just
24 hours after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics.

An artist's impression of the City of London skyline in

2012.
Government
See also: Category:London Government and List of heads
of London government
Local government

City Hall at night, headquarters of the Greater

London Authority

Mayor Ken Livingstone (on the left) at a City Hall reception for Hanukkah
The administration of London takes place in two tiers — a city-wide, strategic tier
and a local tier. City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London
Authority (GLA), while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller
authorities.
The GLA is responsible for strategic planning, policing, the fire service, most
aspects of transport and economic development. It consists of two elected parts —
the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, who
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scrutinise the Mayor's decisions and can accept or reject his budget proposals each
year. The GLA is a recent organisation, having been set up in 2000 to replace the
similar Greater London Council (GLC) which had been abolished in 1986. The
headquarters of the GLA and the Mayor of London is at City Hall.
The Mayor of London is Ken Livingstone, who is in his second term of office. He
was elected in 2000 as an independent candidate and again in 2004 as a Labour
candidate. Ken Livingstone was also the leader of the GLC when it was abolished
in 1986.
The 33 local authorities are the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. They
are responsible for local services not overseen by the GLA, such as local planning,
schools, social services, local roads and refuse collection. The London boroughs
each have a council which is elected every four years by local residents. The City
of London does not have a conventional local authority, but is governed by the
historic City of London Corporation which is elected by both residents and
businesses, and which has existed more or less unchanged since the Middle Ages.
The head of the Corporation is the Lord Mayor of London, which is a different
position from that of Mayor of London.

The City of London also has its own police force: The City of London
Police, which is independent of the Metropolitan Police Service which covers the
rest of Greater London.

Health services in London are managed by the national government through

the National Health Service, which is controlled and administered in London by a
single NHS Strategic Health Authority.
National government
The Houses of Parliament at night

London is the home of the Government of the United Kingdom which is

located around the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Many government
departments are located close to Parliament, particularly along Whitehall,
including the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street.
The British Parliament is often referred to as the "Mother of Parliaments"
(although this sobriquet was first applied to England itself by John Bright because
it has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its Acts have
created many other parliaments. Many nations with parliaments have to some
degree emulated the British "three-tier" model. Most countries in Europe and the
Commonwealth have similarly organised parliaments with a largely ceremonial
head of state who formally opens and closes parliament, a large elected lower
house and a smaller, upper house.

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 London is represented in the national Parliament by 74 Members of
Parliament (MPs) who correspond to local parliamentary constituencies. For a list
of London constituencies, see List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater
London. Of these 74 MPs, 44 are from the Labour Party, 21 are Conservatives, 8
are Liberal Democrats and one is from the RESPECT party.

Economy

Further information: Economy of the United Kingdom, Economy of

London, Media in London and Tourism in London

Bishopsgate, in the City of London

HSBC World Headquarters and One Canada Square, Canary Wharf

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The Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom
London is a major centre for international business and commerce and is one of
three "command centres" for the global economy (along with New York City and
Tokyo).. London has recently overtaken New York City as the largest city
economy in the World, this is due to the large amount of banks that have decided
to locate here. [citation needed]
As Europe's largest city economy, year-by-year, London's economy generates
approximately 20% of the UK's GDP (or $446 billion in 2005); while the economy
of the London metropolitan area (also the largest in Europe) generates
approximately 30% of UK's GDP (or an estimated $669 billion in 2005.)
London shifted to a mostly service-based economy earlier than other European
cities, particularly following the Second World War. London's success as a service
industry and business centre can be attributed to many factors:
English is the lingua franca;
its former position as the capital of the British Empire;
its close relationship with the U.S. and various countries in Asia;
its geographic location on the globe which enables its office hours to overlap with
normal office opening hours for other countries across the world that account for
99 percent of world GDP;

English law being the most important and most used contract law in
international business;
the multi-cultural infrastructure (schools, places of worship, cultural and social
organisations);

relatively low taxes, particularly for foreigners (non-UK domiciled

residents do not get taxed on their foreign earnings);
a business friendly environment;
good transport infrastructure, particularly its aviation industry; and
a deregulated economy with little intervention by the government.
Over 85 percent (3.2 million) of the employed population of greater London works
in service industries. Another half a million employees resident in Greater London
work in manufacturing and construction, almost equally divided between both.
[citation needed]
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 London's largest industry remains finance, and its financial exports make it
a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. Over 300,000 people
are employed in financial services in London. London has over 480
overseas banks, more than any other city in the world. More funds are
invested in the City of London than in the next top ten European cities
combined, and more international telephone calls are made to and from
London than any other point on the planet.[citation needed] The City is the
largest financial and business centre in Europe and, has recently begun to
once more overtake New York City, partly due to strict accounting
following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and a tightening of market regulations in
the United States. The Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg has said
that New York risks losing its title of world financial capital to London
because of Britain's more easy going regulatory, legal and immigration
systems.

London is home to banks, brokers, insurers and legal and accounting firms.
Multimillion pound bonuses are commonplace and serve further to drive up house
prices in the capital. [citation needed] A second, smaller financial district is
developing at Canary Wharf to the east of the City which includes the global
headquarters of HSBC, Reuters, Barclays and many of the largest law firms in the
world. London handled 31% of global currency transactions in 2005 — an average
daily turnover of US$753 billion — with more US dollars traded in London than
New York, and more Euros traded than in every other city in Europe combined.

More than half of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and
over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies are headquartered in central London.
Over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area, and
75% of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London.

Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in

London (see Media in London) and the media distribution industry is London's
second most competitive sector. The BBC is a key employer, while other
broadcasters also have headquarters around the city. Many national newspapers
are edited in London, having traditionally been associated with Fleet Street in the
City, they are now primarily based around Canary Wharf. Soho is the centre of
London's post-production industry.

Tourism is one of London's prime industries and employed the equivalent

of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003, while annual expenditure by
tourists is around £15bn. London is a popular destination for tourists, attracting 27
million overnight-stay visitors every year, second only to Paris.
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 From being the largest port in the world, the Port of London is now only the
third-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 50 million tonnes of cargo each
year. Most of this actually passes through Tilbury, outside the boundary of greater
London

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of London and Religion in London

With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the
19th and early 20th centuries, and was the most populated city in the world until
overtaken by New York in 1925. Its population peaked at 8,615,245 in 1939.
There were an estimated 7,684,900 official residents in Greater London in 2007.
However, London's continuous urban area extends beyond the borders of Greater
London and was home to an estimated 9,332,000 people in 2005, while its wider
metropolitan area has a population of between 12 and 14 million depending on the
definition of that area. According to Eurostat, London is the most populous city
and metropolitan area of the European Union.

The region covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres. The population

density is 4,761 people per square kilometre, more than ten times that of any other
British region.

By population of city (proper), London

ranks 15th in the world. Country of Birth Population
By population of metropolitan area, London United Kingdom 5,230,155
ranks 15th in the world. India 172,162
By number of billionaires (United States Republic of Ireland 157,285
Dollars), London ranks 4th in the world with Bangladesh 84,565
19.
Jamaica 80,319
In cost of living surveys, London ranks Nigeria 68,907
as one of the most expensive cities in the Pakistan 66,658
world, alongside Tokyo and Moscow. Kenya 66,311
Sri Lanka 49,932
Ethnicity Ghana 46,513
In the 2001 census, 71.15% of these Cyprus 45,888
seven and a half million people classed their South Africa 45,506
ethnic group as white (classified as White United States 44,622
British (59.79%), White Irish (3.07%) or Australia 41,488
"Other White" (8.29%, mostly Polish, Greek
Germany 39,818
Cypriot, Italian and French)), 12.09% as
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Italy 38,694
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33,831
Uganda 32,082
New Zealand 27,494
Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or "Other Asian" (mostly Sri Lankan, Arab and
other South Asian ethnicities), 10.91% as Black (around 7% as Black African,
4.79% as Black Caribbean, 0.84% as "Other Black"), 3.15% as mixed race, 1.12%
as Chinese and 1.58% as other (mostly Filipino, Japanese, and Vietnamese).
21.8% of inhabitants were born outside the European Union. The Irish, from both
the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, number approximately 200,000, as
do the Scots and Welsh combined.
In January 2005, a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity claimed that
there were more than 300 languages spoken and more than 50 non-indigenous
communities which have a population of more than 10,000 in London.
Foreign born

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, as of 2006,
London's foreign-born population is 2,288,000 (31%), up from 1,630,000 in 1997

The table to the right shows the 'Country of Birth' of London residents in
2001, the date of the last UK Census. (Top 21).
Note that a portion of the German-born population are likely to be British
nationals born to parents serving in the British armed forces in Germany.

It is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the industrialised world,

with more than 300 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities with a
population of more than 10,000 living in London. The 2001 census showed that
27.1% of Greater London's population were born outside the UK, and a slightly
higher proportion were classed as non-white

Religion
See also: List of churches and cathedrals of London
The largest religious groupings in London are Christian (58.2%), No Religion
(15.8%), Muslim (8.2%), Hindu (4.1%), Jewish (2.1%), and Sikh (1.5%). London
has traditionally been dominated by Christianity, and has a large number of
churches, particularly in the City. The famous St Paul's Cathedral in the City and
Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres, while
the head of the Church of England and worldwide Anglican Communion, the
Archbishop of Canterbury has his main residence at Lambeth Palace in the
London Borough of Lambeth. Important national and royal ceremonies are shared
between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is not to be confused with
nearby Westminster Cathedral, a relatively recent edifice which is the largest
Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales. Most London "Christians" are
only nominally so.[citation needed]. Religious practice is lower than any other part
of the UK or Western Europe and is around seven times lower than American
averages.[citation needed]. Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches,
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observance is very low within the Anglican denomination, although in recent years
church attendance, particularly at evangelical Anglican churches in London, has
started to increase.[66] Observance is considerably higher among London's Roman
Catholic and Christian Orthodox communities.

London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish

communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham; the most
important Muslim edifice is London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park.
London's large Hindu community is found in the north-western boroughs of
Harrow and Brent, the latter of which contains one of Europe's largest Hindu
temples, Neasden Temple.[69] Sikh communities are located in East and West
London, which is also home to the largest Sikh Temples in the world, outside
India. The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant Jewish
communities in Stamford Hill (the most Orthodox Jewish area outside New York
City and Israel) and St. John's Wood, Golders Green, Edgware in North London.

Transport
Main articles: Transport in London and Walking in London
{{imagestack|

Paddington Station, one of London's main railway terminals

Eastbound Jubilee Line platform at Westminster tube station

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Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport in terms of numbers of
international passengers
Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London.
However the mayor's financial control is limited and he does not control the heavy
rail network (although in November 2007 he will assume responsibility for the
North London Railway). The public transport network, administered by Transport
for London (TfL), is the most extensive in the world,[citation needed] but faces
congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is
attempting to address, including £7 billion (€10 billion) of improvements planned
for the Olympics. London was recently commended as the city with the best public
transport.
Rail
The centrepiece of the public transport network is the London Underground,
commonly referred to as The Tube, with sixteen interconnecting lines, and plans
for expansion — especially deeper into South London, and at least one new line. It
is the oldest, largest, and most expensive metro system in the world, dating from
1863. The system was home to the world's first underground electric line, the City
& South London Railway, which began service in 1890. Over three million
journeys a day are made on the Underground network, around nearly 1 billion
journeys are made each year. The Underground serves the central area and most
suburbs to the north of the Thames, while those to the south are served by an
extensive suburban rail overland network. The Docklands Light Railway is a
second metro system using smaller and lighter trains, which opened in 1987,
serves East London and Greenwich on both sides of the Thames. Commuter and
intercity railways generally do not cross the city, instead running into fourteen
terminal stations scattered around its historic centre. Since the early 1990s,
increasing pressures on the commuter rail and Underground networks have led to
increasing demands, particularly from businesses and the City of London
Corporation, for Crossrail - a £10 billion east-west heavy rail connection under
central London. Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris
in France, and Brussels in Belgium, in two to three hours, making London closer
to continental Europe than the rest of Britain and tying it into the Euro-core.
Bus
The London bus network is a twenty-four hour service and caters for most local
journeys, carrying even more passengers than the Underground. Every weekday,
the London bus network carries six million passengers on over 700 different
routes. In the year to March 2005, the network's ridership was 1.79 billion
passenger trips. The buses are internationally recognised, and are a trademark of
London transport along with black cabs and the Tube.
Air

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 London is a major international air transport hub. No fewer than eight
airports use the words London Airport in their name, but most traffic passes
through one of five major airports. London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport
in the world for international traffic and handles a mixture of full-service
domestic, European and inter-continental scheduled passenger flights. Similar
traffic, with the addition of some low-cost short-haul flights, is also handled at
London Gatwick Airport. London Stansted Airport and London Luton Airport
cater mostly for low-cost short-haul flights. London City Airport, the smallest and
most central airport, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full
service short-haul scheduled flights and considerable business jet traffic.

Road
Although the majority of journeys involving central London are made by public
transport, travel in outer London is car-dominated. The inner ring road (around the
city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs), and the outer
orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are
intersected by a number of busy radial routes — but very few motorways penetrate
into inner London. A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout
the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled
in the early 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic
volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8
per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of congested central
London. Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a vastly reduced
season pass which is renewed monthly and is cheaper than a corresponding bus
fare.
Cycling
Cycling is an increasingly popular way to get around London. The London
Cycling Campaign lobbies for better provision.
Education
Main article: Education in London

Senate House, in Bloomsbury, is the administrative centre of the University of

London, a federation of London higher education institutions.

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Home to a range of universities, colleges and schools, London has a student
population of about 378,000 and is a centre of research and development. Most
primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of
England.
With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching
university in the United Kingdom and in Europe. It comprises 20 colleges as well
as several smaller institutes, each with a high degree of autonomy. Constituent
colleges have their own admissions procedures, and are effectively universities in
their own right, although most degrees are awarded by the University of London
rather than the individual colleges. Its constituents include multi-disciplinary
colleges such as UCL, King's and Royal Holloway and more specialised
institutions such as the London School of Economics, SOAS, the Royal Academy
of Music and the Institute of Education.
The London School of Economics, Imperial College London, King's and UCL
have been ranked among some of the best universities in the whole world by The
Times Higher Education Supplement: in 2006 Imperial was ranked 9th, the
London School of Economics was ranked 17th, UCL 25th, and King's 46th in the
world.

London's other universities, such as Brunel University, City University,

London Metropolitan University, Imperial College London, Middlesex University,
University of East London, the University of Westminster and London South Bank
University, are not part of the University of London. Some were polytechnics until
these were granted university status in 1992, and others which were founded much
earlier. London is also known globally for its business education, with the London
Business School (ranked 1st in Europe - Business Week) and Cass Business
School (Europe's largest finance school) both being top world-rated business
schools.

London is home to many museums, galleries, and other institutions which

are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The Natural History
Museum (biology and geology), Science Museum and Victoria and Albert
Museum (fashion and design) are clustered in South Kensington's "museum
quarter", while the British Museum houses historic artefacts from around the
world. The British Library at St Pancras is the UK's national library, housing 150
million items. The city also houses extensive art collections, primarily in the
National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern. See the list of museums in
London.
Society and culture
Main article: Culture of London
Leisure and entertainment

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Bond Street, one of Mayfair's main shopping streets
Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its
focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held,
and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre
district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the
city's Chinatown district, and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing
speciality shops. Shoreditch and Hoxton in the East End form a second, less
mainstream, focus of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and galleries. Islington's one
mile (2 km) long Upper Street, extending northwards from The Angel, has more
bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK. It was also the first street in
the UK to have wireless enabled for its cafes.

Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly

one mile (2 km) long — which makes it the longest shopping street in the world
— and home to many shops and department stores including Selfridges. The
adjoining Bond Street in Mayfair is an extremely upmarket location,
complemented by the Knightsbridge area - home to the Harrods department store -
to the southwest, home to fashion, jewellery, and accessories design houses. The
districts of Knightsbridge (Sloane Street), Mayfair (Bond Street, Brook Street),
and Chelsea (King's Road) represent London's prestigious role in the world of
fashion, home to Vivienne Westwood, Galliano, Stella McCartney, Manolo
Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo among others, its renowned art and fashion schools
cementing it an international centre of fashion alongside Paris, Milan and New
York. Top global supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss come from South
London; and actress Sienna Miller was raised in Chelsea. London also has a high
number of street markets, including Camden Market for fashions and alternative
products, Portobello Road for antiques, and vintage and one-off clothes, and
Borough Market for organic and specialist foods.

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 London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse
population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick
Lane and the Chinese food restaurants of Chinatown. Soho's variety of restaurants
includes novelties such as Garlic and Shots - an entirely garlic restaurant, while
more upmarket restaurants are scattered around central London, with
concentrations in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill. Across the city, areas
home to particular ethnic groups are often recognisable by restaurants, food shops
and market stalls offering their local fare, and the large supermarket chains stock
such items in areas with sizeable ethnic groups.

There are a variety of regular annual events. The Caribbean-descended

community in Notting Hill in West London organises the colourful Notting Hill
Carnival, Europe's biggest street carnival, every summer. The beginning of the
year is celebrated with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, while
traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event
celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London
with a procession along the streets of the City, and June's Trooping the Colour, a
very formal military pageant to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday.

Literature and film

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), whose works formed a pervasive image of

Victorian London

London has been the setting for many works of literature. Two writers
closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous for his
eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representation
of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has been a
major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London. James Boswell's
biographical Life of Johnson mostly takes place in London, and is the source of
Johnson's famous aphorism: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life;
for there is in London all that life can afford." The earlier (1722) A Journal of the
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Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great
Plague. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in
London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based in London, and some of his
work - most notably his play The Alchemist - was set in the city. Later important
depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the afore-
mentioned Dickens novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes
stories. Trollope's Palliser novels are largely set in London, vividly depicting
Westminster and its surrounds. The 1933 novel Down and Out in Paris and
London by George Orwell describes life in poverty in both cities. A modern writer
pervasively influenced by the city is Peter Ackroyd, in works such as London: The
Biography, The Lambs of London and Hawksmoor. Along with Bloomsbury, the
hilly area of Hampstead has traditionally been the liberal, literary heartland of
London.

London has played a significant role in the film industry, and has major
studios at Pinewood, Shepperton, Elstree and Leavesden, as well as an important
special effects and post-production community. Many films have also used
London as a location and have done much to shape international perceptions of the
city. See main article London in film.
The city also hosts a number of performing arts schools, including the Central
School of Speech and Drama, whose past students include Judi Dench and
Laurence Olivier, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (educators of
Jim Broadbent and Donald Sutherland among others) and the prestigious Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art (past students including Joan Collins and Roger
Moore).
The London Film Festival is held in the city each October.
Music

The Royal Albert Hall hosts a wide range of concerts and music events
London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and is
home to one of the five major global music corporations, EMI as well as countless
bands, musicians and industry professionals.
Classical music
London is home to many orchestras and concert halls, including:
Barbican Arts Centre (London Symphony Orchestra)
Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
Royal Albert Hall (BBC Promenade Concerts)
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Royal Festival Hall (Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra,
London Sinfonietta)
Wigmore Hall
Opera

London has two main opera houses - the Royal Opera House and the
Coliseum Theatre
Ballet

The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet are based in London and
perform at the Royal Opera House, Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Royal Albert
Hall.
Popular music
As a cultural centre for the United Kingdom, London has had a major role
in many popular music movements. It has numerous famous venues for rock and
pop concerts, including large areans such as Earls Court and Wembley Arena, as
well as more intimate venues, such as Brixton Academy and Hammersmith
Apollo. The area around the northern part of Charing Cross Road in Westminster
is famous for its shops that sell modern musical instruments and audio equipment.
London was home of one of the legs for both the Live Aid and Live 8 concerts.
London and its surrounding Home Counties have spawned iconic and popular
artists. London is home to the first and original Hard Rock Cafe and the famous
Abbey Road Studios. Musicians such asBob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and Freddie
Mercury have lived in London. Famous musicians and groups associated with
London include The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Iron Maiden, Elton John, Elvis
Costello, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones. London was
instrumental in the development of punk music, with figures such as the Sex
Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, and Vivienne Westwood all based in London.
As Britain's largest urban area, London has played a key role in the development
of most British-born strains of "urban" and electronic music, such as drum and
bass, UK garage, grime and dubstep, and is home to many UK hip hop artists.
Sport
Main article: Sport in London

The new Wembley Stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built costing £793
million ($1.6 billion)

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 London has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948. In July
2005 London was chosen to host the Games in 2012, which will make it the first
city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times. London was also the
host of the British Empire Games in 1934.

London's most popular sport (for both participants and spectators) is

football. London has 12 League football clubs, including five in the Premiership
(Arsenal, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Chelsea), plus a
further seven in the remaining three divisions (Barnet, Brentford, Charlton
Athletic, Crystal Palace, Leyton Orient, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers), plus
countless non-league and amateur football teams. Non-league Dagenham and
Redbridge F.C. have been promoted to the Football League for the 2007-08
season, and will bring London's total of League teams to 13.

London has a special place in the history of Association Football. The

playing of football in London has been well documented since it was first
outlawed in 1314. In the sixteenth century the headmaster of St Paul's School
Richard Mulcaster is credited with taking mob football and transforming it into
organised and refereed team football. The modern game of football was first
codified in 1863 in London and subsequently spread worldwide. Key to the
establishment of the modern game was Londoner Ebenezer Cobb Morley who was
a founding member of the Football Association, the oldest football organisation in
the world. Morley wrote to Bell's Life newspaper proposing a governing body for
football which led directly to the first meeting at the Freemason's Tavern in central
London of the FA. He wrote the first set of rules of true modern football at his
house in Barnes. The modern passing game was invented in London in the early
1870s by the Royal Engineers A.F.C.

London also has four rugby union teams in the Guinness Premiership
(London Irish, Saracens, Wasps and NEC Harlequins), although only the
Harlequins play in London (all the other three now play outside Greater London),
as well as a rugby league Super League club in Harlequins RL. London also has
many famous other rugby union clubs in lower leagues, including Richmond F.C.,
Blackheath R.C., Rosslyn Park F.C. and Barnes R.F.C.

Since 1924, the original Wembley Stadium was the home of the English
national football team, and served as the venue for the FA Cup final as well as
rugby league's Challenge Cup final. The new Wembley Stadium will serve exactly
the same purposes. Twickenham Stadium in west London is the national rugby
union stadium, and has a capacity of 82,000 now that the new south stand has been
completed.

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 Cricket in London centres on its two Test cricket grounds at Lord's (home
of Middlesex CC) in St John's Wood, and The Oval (home of Surrey CC) in
Kennington.

One of London's best-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon

Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb
of Wimbledon. Other key events are the annual mass-participation London
Marathon which sees some 35,000 runners attempt a 26.2 mile (~42 km) course
around the city, and the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames
between Putney and Mortlake.
Twinnings
The Greater London Authority has twin and sister city agreements with the
following cities:
Sister cities:
Berlin, Germany (since 2000)
Bogotá, Colombia[citation needed]
New York City, USA (since 2001)
Moscow, Russia
Beijing, China (since 2006)
Partner cities:
Paris, France (since 2001)
Rome, Italy
In addition, the Greater London Authority has a "partnership" agreement
with Tokyo, Japan.
For Borough twinnings see List of twin towns in the United Kingdom#London
Images of London

London skyline view

Tower Bridge on Part of the London with Tower 42, the
the River Thames skyline viewed from Willis Building, the The Palace of
at night. St Paul's Cathedral Gherkin and the Westminster on
Broadgate Tower. the Riv

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 The most well known Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge from the North Bank at dusk

A100 Tower Bridge Road -
Carries
motor vehicles, pedestrians
Crosses Thames
Locale London
Maintained by Bridge House Estates
Bascule bridge, suspension
Design
bridge
Longest span 61 m (200 ft)
Total length 244 m (800 ft)

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Clearance
8.6 m (closed), 42.5 m (open)
below
Opening date 1894
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London,
England over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, which gives it
its name. It has become an iconic symbol of London and is sometimes mistakenly
called London Bridge, though London Bridge is in fact the next bridge upstream.
Tower Bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust
overseen by the Corporation of London.
Design

Elevation, with dimensions

Tower Bridge under construction, 1892

In the second half of the 19th century, increased commercial development
in the East End of London led to a requirement for a new river crossing
downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge could not be built
because it would cut off access to the port facilities in the Pool of London,
between London Bridge and the Tower of London.

The bridge largely replaced Tower Subway, 400 m to the west, the world's
first underground tube railway (1870). Until the bridge was opened, the subway
was the shortest way to cross the river from Tower Hill to Tooley Street in
Southwark.

A Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed in 1876, chaired by A.

J. Altman, to find a solution to the river crossing problem. It opened the design of
the crossing to public competition. Over 50 designs were submitted, including one
from civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. The evaluation of the designs was

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surrounded by controversy, and it was not until 1884 that a design submitted by
Horace Jones, the City Architect (who was also one of the judges), was approved.

Jones' engineer, Sir John Wolfe Barry devised the idea of a bascule bridge
800 feet (244 m) in length with two towers each 213 feet (65 m) high, built on
piers. The central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers was split into two
equal bascules or leaves, which could be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow
river traffic to pass. The bascules, weighing over 1,000 tons each, were
counterbalanced to minimize the force required and allow raising in five minutes.
The two side-spans are suspension bridges, with the suspension rods anchored
both at the abutments and through rods contained within the bridge's upper
walkway.
Construction started in 1886 and took eight years with five major
contractors – Sir John Jackson (foundations), Baron Armstrong (hydraulics),
William Webster, Sir H.H. Bartlett, and Sir William Arrol and employed 432
construction workers. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete,
were sunk into the river bed to support the construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel
provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in
Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to
give the bridge a pleasing appearance.

Jones died in 1887, and George D. Stevenson took over the project.
Stevenson replaced Jones' original brick facade with the more ornate Victorian
Gothic style that makes the bridge a distinctive landmark.

The bridge was opened on 30 June 1894 by the Prince of Wales, the future
King Edward VII, and his wife, Alexandra of Denmark.
Hydraulic system

One of the original steam engines: a horizontal twin-tandem compound engine,

fitted with Meyer expansion slide valves

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 The original raising mechanism was powered by pressurised water stored in
six hydraulic accumulators.

The system was designed and installed by Sir W. G. Armstrong Mitchell &
Company of Gateshead. Water, at a pressure of 750psi, was pumped into the
accumulators by two stationary steam engines, each driving a force pump from its
piston tail rod. The accumulators each comprise a 20-inch ram on which sits a
very heavy weight to maintain the desired pressure.

In 1974, the original operating mechanism was largely replaced by a new

electro-hydraulic drive system, designed by BHA Cromwell House. The only
components of the original system still in use are the final pinions, which engage
with the racks fitted to the bascules. These are driven by modern hydraulic motors
and gearing, using oil rather than water as the hydraulic fluid.

Some of the original hydraulic machinery has been retained, although it is

no longer in use. It is open to the public and forms the basis for the bridge's
museum, which resides in the old engine rooms on the south side of the bridge.
The museum includes the steam engines, two of the accumulators and one of the
hydraulic engines that moved the bascules, along with other related artefacts.
[edit] The third steam engine

During World War II, as a precaution against the existing engines being
damaged by enemy action, a third engine was installed in 1942. This was a 150hp
horizontal cross-compound engine built by Vickers Armstrong Ltd., at their
Elswick works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was fitted with a 9 feet diameter
flywheel weighing 9 tons, and was governed to a speed of 30 rpm.

The engine became redundant when the rest of the system was modernised
in 1974, and was donated to the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum by the
Corporation of the City of London.
Reaction
Although the bridge is an undoubted landmark, professional commentators
in the early 20th century were critical of its aesthetics. "It represents the vice of
tawdriness and pretentiousness, and of falsification of the actual facts of the
structure", wrote H. H. Statham, while Frank Brangwyn stated that "A more
absurd structure than the Tower Bridge was never thrown across a strategic river".
Incidents
At 21:35 on 30 December 1952, a crowded double-decker London bus (an
RT), on route 78 to Dulwich, jumped over the gap when the bridge started to open
while it was halfway across.
Tower Bridge today
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 Tower Bridge in its river setting, looking east from the viewing platform of
The Monument. City Hall is the building shaped like a motorcycle helmet, and
below it is HMS Belfast.

The high-level walkways between the towers gained an unpleasant

reputation as a haunt for prostitutes and pickpockets and were closed in 1910.
They have been reopened as part of the Tower Bridge Experience, an exhibition
mostly housed in the bridge's twin towers. The exhibition also includes photos,
holograms and a film detailing the build, along with access to the original steam
engines that once powered the bridge bascules, housed in a building close to the
south end of the bridge.

A Behind the Scenes tour can be booked in advance, on which it is possible

to see the bridge's command centre, from where the raising of the bascules is
controlled for a vessel to pass through. The bascules are raised around 900 times a
year.[citation needed]

River traffic is now a fraction of what it used to be, but it still takes priority
over road traffic. This nearly caused a diplomatic incident in 1996, when the
motorcade of United States President Bill Clinton got stuck on Tower Bridge

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while the bascules were opened unexpectedly.[citation needed] Today, 24 hours'
notice is required before opening the bridge.

A computer system was installed in 2000 to control the raising and

lowering of the bascules remotely. Unfortunately this has proved less reliable than
desired, resulting in the bridge being stuck in the open or closed positions on a
number of occasions (most recently 2 June 2005)..
Nearby places
The bridge is near the Tower of London, St Katharine Docks, and Shad Thames.
The north end is near Tower Hill tube station, Tower Gateway DLR station and
Fenchurch Street railway station. The south end is about 10 minutes' walk from
London Bridge station.

To the south is Tower Bridge Road, which is part of the London Inner Ring
Road.
Gallery

An extremely high
resolution image of Bridge open to admit
Tower Bridge at Close-up of fully
South view at HMS Northumberland
night opened bascules
dusk (F238)

A slave ship moored by

Interior of high-level Tower Bridge to mark
Tower Bridge
walkway (used as an 200 years since the Low-angle shot
area from the air
exhibition space) Slave Trade Act 1807
(April 2007)

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