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London

Capital of England and the United Kingdom, on the River Thames. Since 1965 its metropolitan area has been known as Greater London (see London, Greater), consisting of the City of London and 32 boroughs; total area 1,580 sq km/610 sq mi; combined population (2001) 7,172,100. London is the biggest city in Western Europe at the heart of the most populous region - 15.5 million people live in London and the South East. The City of London, known as the ‘square mile’, is the financial and commercial centre of the UK; area 2.7 sq km/1 sq mi. Over 21 million people visited London in 2001. Popular tourist attractions include the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey. The Millennium Dome at Greenwich was the centrepiece of Britain's millennium celebrations.

History

Roman Londinium was established soon after the Roman invasion in AD 43; in the 2nd century London became a walled city; by the 11th century it was the main city of England and gradually extended beyond the walls to link with the originally separate Westminster. Throughout the 19th century London had the largest city-based population in the world. (See London: history.)

Features

The Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror on a Roman site, and now houses the crown jewels and the royal armouries; it is a World Heritage Site. Other features include the 15th-century Guildhall; the Monument, a column designed by Christopher Wren, which marks the site in Pudding Lane where the Fire of London began in 1666; Mansion House, the residence of the lord mayor; the Barbican arts and conference centre; the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben; the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court); and the Inns of Court. Covent Garden, once a vegetable market, is now a tourist, shopping, and entertainment area.

Architecture

London contains buildings in all styles of English architecture dating back to the 11th century.

Norman: the White Tower at the Tower of London; St Bartholomew's, Smithfield; the Temple Church.

Gothic: Westminster Abbey; Westminster Hall; Lambeth Palace; Southwark Cathedral.

Tudor: St James's Palace; Staple Inn.

17th century: Banqueting Hall, Whitehall (Inigo Jones); St Paul's; Kensington Palace; many City churches (Sir Christopher Wren).

18th century: Somerset House (Chambers); St Martin-in-the-Fields; Buckingham Palace.

19th century: British Museum (neoclassical); Houses of Parliament; Law Courts (neo-Gothic); Westminster Cathedral (Byzantine style).

20th century: Lloyd's of London (High Tech); Millennium Dome.

Between 1986, when the Greater London Council was abolished, and the year 2000, when the Greater London Authority (GLA) was established, there was no central authority for Greater London. Responsibility is now divided between the Greater London Authority and 32 London boroughs. The Greater London Authority (GLA) is a new form of strategic citywide government for London. It is made up of a directly elected Mayor - the Mayor of London - and a separately elected Assembly - the London Assembly. Ken Livingstone formally took over as the first directly-elected Mayor of London on 3 July 2000. He was declared Mayor on 5 May 2000, and two months later at the headquarters of the GLA at Romney House in Westminster he officially took control of the first city-wide government in London for 14 years. The Mayor prepares strategies to deal with London issues, and co-ordinates action on a London basis. The Assembly scrutinises the Mayor's activities, questioning the Mayor about his or her decisions. The GLA has taken over control of a number of existing government programmes in London. Its main areas of responsibilities are: transport, planning, economic development, environment, policing, fire and emergency planning, culture, and health.

The Corporation of the City of London is the local authority for the City of London, and dates back to the 12th century. Among local authorities the Corporation of London is unique. Not only is it the oldest in the country, combining its ancient traditions and ceremonial functions with the role of a modern authority, but it operates on a non-party political basis. It is governed by the Court of the Common Council, comprising the lord mayor, 24 aldermen, and 130 common councilmen. The lord mayor and two sheriffs are nominated annually by the councillors and elected by the aldermen in November (although in the late 1990s it was proposed that London's mayor should be elected by the people of London). After being sworn in at the Guildhall, he or she is presented the next day to the lord chief justice at the Royal Courts of Justice in Westminster, an event marked by the ceremonial procession of the Lord Mayor's Show. There are over 100 city guilds (livery companies) covering an array of occupations, including, in order of civic precedence, mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers, goldsmiths, merchant taylors, skinners, haberdashers, salters, ironmongers, vintners (wine merchants), and clothworkers. The original purpose of the guilds was to administer apprenticeships and oversee production. Although many of the professions are now in decline, there are still more than 23,000 liverymen entitled to vote at Common Hall, the ruling body of the Corporation of the City of London. The Corporation has the same functions as the boroughs and also runs the City of London Police and the health authority for the Port of London. It is also responsible for health controls on animal imports throughout Greater London, including Heathrow airport, runs the Central Criminal Court and the large markets, and owns and manages public open spaces throughout Greater London.

Commerce and industry

From Saxon times the Port of London dominated the Thames from Tower Bridge to Tilbury. Its activity is now centred outside the metropolitan area, and downstream Tilbury has been extended to cope with container traffic. The prime economic importance of modern London is as a financial centre. There are various industries, mainly on the outskirts. There are also recording, broadcasting, television, and film studios; publishing companies; and the works and offices of the national press. The civil service and education are major employers, and tourism and the service sector is important to the economy.

Some of the docks in the East End of London, once the busiest in the world, were sold to the Docklands Development Corporation, which has built offices, houses, factories, and a railway. The world's largest office development project is at Canary Wharf. The City Thameslink station, the first mainline railway station to be built in London for nearly a century, opened in 1991.

Education and entertainment

London has many museums, including the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Science Museum. Galleries include the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Hayward Gallery, Wallace Collection, and Courtauld Institute. The former Bankside power station, opposite St Paul's Cathedral, has been converted into Tate Modern, a gallery of modern art. The University of London is the largest in Britain. The Inns of Court have been the training school for lawyers since the 13th century. London has been the centre of English drama since its first theatre was built by James Burbage in 1576. A re-creation of the Globe Theatre opened in Southwark in 1996.

Location and climate London lies about 60 km/37 mi from the mouth of the Thames estuary on the North Sea, the principal entry into England from mainland Europe since prehistoric times. Situated in the London Basin, a downfold in the chalk formations lining the course of the River Thames, the city occupies both sides of the river, the larger part being on the left or north bank. It is underlain by a mixture of sands, clays, gravels and alluvium. The original settlement occupied an island of river gravel surrounding the two small rises of Cornhill and Ludgate Hill on the northern bank of the Thames, an area defended by marshland and by tributaries of the Thames, the Lea to the east and the Fleet to the west. The Romans, who wished to bridge the Thames, originally chose this fordable site as one which was accessible from the sea and had a solid soil that would support wooden bridge foundations. Another tract of gravel on the south bank became Southwark. The Thames barrier (1982), the largest movable flood barrier in the world, was constructed to protect London from the threat of high tides.

The average annual rainfall in central London is 594 mm/23 in, while daily sunshine averages about 4.4 hours. January temperatures average 5°C/41°F, and July temperatures 18°C/65°F. The high incidence of smog resulting from domestic fires and industrial furnaces was greatly reduced by the Clean Air Act of 1956, but the incidence of photochemical smogs arising from the reaction of strong sunlight on vehicle exhaust fumes has increased.

Population The population of the Greater London area is 7,172,100 (2001). London is an immensely cosmopolitan city. Almost half the UK's ethnic minority population resides in the Greater London area, representing about 30% of the capital's total population. Nearly a quarter of the 6.7 million people resident in London recorded in the 1991 census, were born outside the UK. Around one in nine of those born in the UK were from ethnic minority groups. Nearly half of those born outside the UK are white, with one in three of these born in the Irish Republic and a further one in three born in other parts of Europe. Nearly quarter of a million Londoners were born in Africa. The East End has been a first base for incoming communities since the late 17th century, when Spitalfields became the sanctuary for thousands of French Protestant Huguenots fleeing religious persecution. As people disperse to other districts, the dominant cultural group changes. London's long-established Jewish community, the majority of whom arrived in the East End at the end of the 19th century to escape the pogroms (massacres) in Russia, is now mainly concentrated in the northern suburbs of Golders Green and Stamford Hill. Brick Lane in Spitalfields is the focal point of the city's Bangladeshi population, and there is also a large Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani population centred on Woolwich. The area around Gerrard Street in Soho is known as London's Chinatown. Immigration from the West Indies after World War II made Brixton the centre of London's Caribbean culture. The City of London's resident population is only around 5,000, but about 300,000 people commute to the area for work.

The inner London population has been gradually declining since World War II. In 1938 the population numbered 6.25 million. Between 1961 and 1971 over half a million people (7%) left; between 1971 and 1981 three-quarters of a million (10%) left; by 1981 Greater London had nearly 2 million fewer people than in 1938. This post-war decline was partly the result of government policies. For example, Patrick Abercrombie's Greater London Plan of 1944 proposed building ten new towns beyond London's Green Belt (among them Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead, Harlow, and Basildon), with the aim of moving people out of London to reduce traffic congestion and tackle problems such as declining housing stock. These new towns were intended to serve both as commuter towns, with people opting to move out of central London and travel to work on a daily basis, and as industrial centres themselves, with new companies being established in the new towns and existing businesses opting to shift their base from the capital to beyond the Green Belt.

From the late 1950s there was a steady decline of rented accommodation in the city and an increase in the number of owner-occupied houses and flats. The ‘gentrification’ of such areas as Highbury and Notting Hill by the middle class resulted in the renovation of declining properties, but also meant fewer people were now occupying each property, resulting in a lower population density. The gentrification also pushed up property prices, forcing more people to leave the capital. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, 350,000 Londoners were leaving the capital every year, with only 250,000 provincials and immigrants moving into the city. However, after decades of decline, London's population is growing again, largely due to immigration.

Inner city landscape The City of London, the oldest part of the capital, lies on the north bank of the Thames between Tower Bridge to the east and London Bridge (last rebuilt in 1964) to the west, the only bridge on the Thames until the late 18th century. It is the financial and business heart of the capital, and contains the law courts of the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) and Royal Courts of Justice. The 11th-century Tower of London stands just outside the southeast corner of the City, beyond the former city walls; St Paul's Cathedral (1675-1710) is in the centre; and the Barbican residential and arts complex (1982) lies to the north.

Just outside Temple Bar, the former western gateway of the City of London leading to the Strand, are the Inns of Court, the hub of the legal profession, including the four private legal societies: Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, and Middle Temple. Following the curve of the river, the Strand runs southwest towards the administrative and government centres of the City of Westminster and Whitehall. It terminates in Trafalgar Square, site of Nelson's Column and the National Gallery. The Houses of Parliament (1840-60), containing the bell-tower of Big Ben (1858), line the riverfront. Westminster Abbey (1050-1745), the coronation and burial place of many of Britain's monarchs, lies nearby. Westminster is also the London seat of the royal court, whose principal residences are Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace. Further to the west are the wealthy residential districts of Knightsbridge and Belgravia.

To the west of the City, London's West End contains most of the capital's hotel, shopping, restaurant, and theatre venues. It is bounded to the north by Regent's Park, to the west by Hyde Park, and to the south by St James's Park. The area incorporates Soho and Covent Garden, notable for their nightlife and restaurants, and Marylebone, Piccadilly, and Mayfair. Further west, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea extends from Notting Hill in the north to the riverfront of Chelsea. Many of the capital's museums are concentrated in South Kensington. Northwest of the City, Bloomsbury's cultural centres include the British Museum and parts of the University of London.

The East End of London includes the boroughs of Hackney to the north and Tower Hamlets to the south, including the Docklands districts of Wapping, Limehouse, and the Isle of Dogs, once the centre of London's port facilities. The area presents a sharp contrast between its traditional small business concerns and low-cost housing, and the multi-million office landscape and exclusive residential facilities of the redeveloped Docklands region. Canary Wharf in the Docklands region, with 50 stories and 245 m/800 ft tall is Britain's tallest building. It is a vibrant new commercial centre, with 27,000 people working there in 10 office buildings, mainly in the areas of banking, the media and industry. There is also retail and residential space.

At the southern end of London Bridge lies Southwark, the oldest borough in London apart from the City, and site of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. Lambeth, to the west, contains the South Bank cultural complex and Lambeth Palace, chief residence of the archbishop of Canterbury since 1200. The South Bank Centre hosts a number of cultural attractions including the Royal Festival Hall and Haywood Gallery, and shares the site with the National Theatre, the National Film Theatre, and the Museum of the Moving Image. Also on the south bank, at 135 m/443 ft, the London Eye is the world's largest observation wheel and London's fourth tallest structure. It was built to mark the millennium. The Millennium Bridge, a footbridge linking St Paul's Cathedral to the new Tate Gallery on the south bank of the Thames, was opened on 10 June 2000; its designers were sculptor Anthony Caro and architect Norman Foster. However it was closed on 12 June 2000 due to greater than expected movement of the bridge while under heavy usage. It was reopened in February 2002 after dampers had been fitted.

Economy Finance, business, and commerce are London's principal economic activities. London's businesses made £128 billion/$205 billion in 1999. London is responsible for nearly a fifth of United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is the world's leading international financial centre, with more than 565 foreign banks. Banking and insurance are concentrated in the City of London, and parts of Finsbury and Holborn. The City is home to the Bank of England (1694), banker to the clearing banks and the UK government. The City of London is the European centre for gold distribution and holds the gold and dollar reserves of the sterling countries, although the bulk of its formerly extensive gold reserves shifted to other countries during World Wars I and II.

The Royal Exchange (1567), London's international stock exchange, is also based in the City. It is the world's largest centre for trading foreign equities, accounting for 32% of global turnover in the late 1990s. In the 1960s London was the world's largest single borrowing source. In 1979 the abolition of foreign exchange controls enabled UK savings institutions to invest money overseas, meaning the London Stock Exchange's member firms were exposed for the first time to competition from overseas brokers, culminating in the ‘Big Bang’ of October 1986. At the same time the name was changed from the London Stock Exchange to the International Stock Exchange and face-to-face dealing on the trading floor was replaced by computerized electronic trading. Many firms were bought by banks, which invested capital. These were boom times, until October 1987, when the stock market crashed and the recession set in. By 1990 losses ran into hundreds of millions of pounds and thousands of redundancies. Nevertheless, London's daily turnover remained higher than that of New York and Tokyo.

The London Futures and Options Exchange moved to St Katharine's Docks in 1987, and then merged with the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, relocating to the City in 1996. Other London-based exchanges include the London Metal Exchange, which, with the Commodity Exchange of New York, is the world's most important market for copper, nickel, and zinc; the Baltic Exchange, which deals with shipping and air freight, and which was the target of an IRA terrorist attack in 1992; and the London Futures and Options Exchange (until 1987 the London Commodity Exchange), which deals in non-metal commodities such as petroleum, coffee, and wool.

London is the location of the world's largest insurance market, with a net premium income of £17.7 billion in 2000. 18.8% of world marine insurance and 39.2% of aviation insurance were traded in London in the late 1990s. Lloyd's of London, established in the 1680s by Edward Lloyd, accounts for almost half of all international insurance premiums underwritten in the London market. Although London was formerly the UK's foremost commercial centre, deriving its prosperity from the vast national and international trade conducted through the Port of London, it now handles only 10% of the country's imports and exports. The port, nevertheless, remains the country's largest and is the eighth largest in Europe, comprising 71 operational independently-run wharves and terminals, overseen by the Port of London Authority. The Authority has jurisdiction from Teddington, 108 km/67 mi inland, to the sea, but, with the growth of container traffic, the bulk of distribution has shifted to container depots downstream, such as those at Chobham Farm and Tilbury. All the docks between Tower Bridge and Barking Creek were shut down, beginning with the East India Dock in 1967 and ending with the Royal Docks in 1981, and many have been the target of commercial and residential redevelopment, including St Katharine's Dock, Tobacco Dock, and Canary Wharf.

Commercial, manufacturing, and professional bodies have congregated in specific areas of inner London over the centuries, although increasing property prices and considerations of access have forced many to relocate to the suburbs and elsewhere. In the post-war years industries that had relied on imperial preference failed to compete against the USA, the post-war economies of France and Germany, and an increase in imports from China and the Pacific Rim. They also found that Britain's failure to join the EEC until 1971 restricted their continental trade. Many of London's traditional employers either collapsed or moved out of the capital, not only to nearby towns such as Basingstoke and Luton, but, in the case of some insurance and banking companies, as far afield as Brighton and Bath, to escape traffic congestion and high office costs. The dispersal of both companies and population from inner to outer London and beyond had a profound effect on the economy. The drain of skilled labour left inner London with a high concentration of unskilled workers and an escalating unemployment problem.

London's wholesale and retail centres include Leadenhall Market, dealing with meat and poultry, and some grocery; Smithfield, the largest meat market in the world; and Hatton Garden, centre of the diamond trade. In 1974 London's fruit and vegetable market moved to Nine Elms in Wandsworth from its original site in Covent Garden, the square subsequently becoming a shopping and restaurant complex notable for its street entertainment. Billingsgate, London's principal fish market, moved from its 900-year-old City site to new premises in the former West India Dock in 1982.

Printing and publishing form a major part of London's economy. Until the mid-1980s Fleet Street was the centre of Britain's newspaper industry, but most of its printing concerns have relocated to other premises in the London region, some to the newly developed Docklands area. Other media-related businesses include television and radio broadcasting, film production, and music-recording. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has a television centre at Wood Lane, a World Service centre at Bush House, and a radio-broadcasting centre at Portland Place. Channel 4, Channel 5, and the Independent Television (ITV) Network Centre are all based in London, as are the television broadcasting companies Carlton UK, GMTV Ltd, and London Weekend Television. 24 radio stations are based in London, nine of which have national coverage, the remainder catering to local listeners.

Although manufacturing has declined, various light industries remain in the London boroughs, including the production of electronic goods, computer software, pharmaceuticals, and beer.

As one of the world's principal historic and cultural centres, tourism is a major industry. Hotel, restaurant, and shopping facilities are chiefly concentrated in the West End. Some of London's most opulent hotels are located in this area, including Claridges Hotel (1855), the Savoy Hotel (1889), the Ritz Hotel (1906), and the Hilton (1963). The main retail areas are Covent Garden; Oxford Street, Bond Street, and Regent Street; and Knightsbridge, Kensington High Street, and King's Road, Chelsea. Soho is the city's most cosmopolitan restaurant area. Dockland developments have also incorporated hotel and conference centres, shops, and other tourist venues.

Medical services, consulting physicians, surgeons, and private clinics are mainly sited in and around Harley Street in Marylebone.

Transport and communications London Transport is a holding corporation with two wholly-owned subsidiaries, London Underground Ltd (LUL) and Victoria Coach Station (VCS). It is responsible for an operating area measuring 1,631 sq km/630 sq mi. A third subsidiary, London Buses Ltd (LBL), effectively ceased to trade in 1994 when ten component companies were sold to the private sector. However, buses remain firmly managed and restricted, so the effect of deregulation has not been as great as in other British cities. Between 1994 and 1997 the number of kilometres travelled by buses rose, but the number of passengers fell. In Central London 8% of commuters use buses, compared with 29% using the ‘tube’. Since 1986 the volume of daily commuters has declined, but the system is still overcrowded.

The London Underground (or ‘tube’) was the world's first underground railway, and is now the world's longest, with 12 lines and over 391 km/243 mi of routes serving the city and its suburbs. Work on the largest single addition to the underground in 25 years, the Jubilee Line Extension, began in December 1993. The extension involves almost ten miles of new line from Green Park to Stratford and 11 new stations, providing a direct link from the International Rail Terminal at Waterloo to Docklands and the Millennium Festival site in Greenwich (see Millennium Dome). The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) was opened by London Transport in 1987 and transferred to the London Docklands Development Corporation in 1992.

Recent developments include an extension of the DLR to Greenwich, and the Croyden Tramlink, a 29 km/18 mi link between East and West Croyden, Wimbledon, Beckenham, and New Addington. Future transport proposals include an extension of the DLR to London City Airport and increased investment in the tram system, including extensions of the Croyden Tramlink, a tramline from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush, and a cross-river tram linking Camden with Brixton.

London is the hub of the UK rail network; seven main lines converge on the capital, and their principal termini are within easy reach of any part of the inner London area. The City Thameslink station (1991) was the first mainline railway station to be built in London for nearly a century. Eurostar, a high-speed train service through the Channel Tunnel, has linked London (Waterloo) to Paris and Brussels since 1994.

River boats travel from Kingston, Charing Cross, Tower Bridge, Westminster, and Greenwich to Gravesend. The Thames is navigable by small boats to Lechlade, Gloucestershire; and the Regent and Grand Union canals connect London to the Midlands. Inland river and canal traffic is now mainly confined to leisure craft. Road access across the Thames is provided by 21 bridges and six tunnels in the Greater London area. London is served by three international airports: Heathrow to the west, Gatwick to the south, and Stansted to the north. The London City airport, built on the former Royal Docks and opened late in 1987, has national and European connections.

Museums and galleries London is one of the world's principal cultural centres, and its long-established collections cover all branches of knowledge and the arts. The oldest museums are the British Museum (1759), the largest in the UK; the Natural History Museum (1856); the Science Museum (1853); the Victoria and Albert Museum (1852), housing one of the world's largest collections of the decorative arts; and the waxworks of Madame Tussaud (1802). London's history is celebrated at the Museum of London (1976), and the development of film at the Museum of the Moving Image. Military museums include the Imperial War Museum (1917), for operations from 1914, and the National Army Museum (1960), covering the period 1485-1914. The Cutty Sark, a tea clipper launched in 1869, and the World War II battleship HMS Belfast are moored in the Thames and are open to the public. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich incorporates the Old Royal Observatory, the point from which Greenwich Mean Time was originally established. The National Gallery (1824) houses pre-20th-century art and the most comprehensive collection of Italian Gothic and Renaissance works outside Italy, and the National Portrait Gallery (1856) is devoted to distinguished British figures. Art from the 17th century to the modern era is displayed at the Tate Gallery (1897), while the Courtauld Institute (1931) is notable for its Impressionist and post-Impressionist collections. The Wallace Collection (1897) contains one of the world's finest displays of 18th-century French art. Contemporary works are shown by the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank, and at the annual summer exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. The Millennium Project includes a permanent collection of contemporary art from the turn of the century which is displayed at the Tate Gallery of Modern Art, which opened in the year 2000. Tate Modern stands at the heart of London, linked to St Paul's Cathedral by the new millennium footbridge. The building is housed in the original Bankside Power Station, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, which has been converted by the leading Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. Tate Modern displays the Tate collection of international modern art from 1900 to the present day, including major works by Bacon, Dalì, Picasso, Matisse, Rothko, and Warhol as well as contemporary work by artists such as Rebecca Horn, Steve McQueen, and Gillian Wearing.

The reference division of the new British Library (1997), St Pancras, houses 12 million volumes; another department, the National Sound Archive (1947), is located in South Kensington.

Music and the performing arts London was the UK's foremost musical centre by the early 16th century, and has been considered a leading international venue since the 18th century. Major foreign composers such as Handel, Bach, and Haydn lived and worked in the city, and Italian opera found an enthusiastic audience. Today the city houses the UK's two leading colleges of music, the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. London has five professional symphony orchestras: the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony. London's main opera and ballet houses are the Coliseum, home of the English National Opera company, and where English National Ballet performs, and the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden). English National Ballet also perform at the Royal Albert Hall. Classical and contemporary dance is performed at Sadler's Wells. London's numerous concert halls include the Royal Festival Hall in the South Bank complex; the Barbican arts centre; the Wigmore Hall recital rooms; and the Royal Albert Hall, from 1895 home to the Henry Wood promenade concerts. Open-air concerts take place in the grounds of Kenwood House, Hyde Park, and Holland Park.

As a centre of English drama since the 16th century, London has many theatres, particularly in and around Piccadilly, Shaftesbury Avenue, and Leicester Square. Historic West End theatres include the Haymarket (1821), Criterion (1874), Drury Lane (1663), and Her Majesty's (1897). Others include the Old Vic (1818), in south London; the Garrick Theatre (1889), in Charing Cross; and the west London playhouses of the Lyric (1870), in Hammersmith, and the Royal Court (1898), in Sloane Square. Modern theatres include the National Theatre (1963) in the South Bank complex, containing three separate houses, and the Barbican. In-the-round stages are found at the New Vic and the 17th-century-style Globe Theatre (1996). London is also the headquarters of the British Film Institute (BFI), established in 1931, and the National Film Theatre (1951), centre of London's annual film festival in November. Half of Britain's actors, film, and television workers live in London. The creative industries contribute around £10.3 billion annually to London's (and the UK's) GDP.

Educational institutions University College was founded in 1826 and King's College in 1828. The University of London was established in 1836 to set examinations and grant degrees to students from both these colleges. The University of London now incorporates 26 colleges and 19 affiliated centres, including the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine (1907), the London School of Economics (LSE), and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Other universities in the Greater London area include the City University (1966), the University of Greenwich (1992), the University of North London (1992), the South Bank University (1992), Thames Valley University (1992), the University of East London (1992), and the London Guildhall University (1993).

Specialist institutions include the London teaching hospitals; the Royal Academy schools of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music; the Royal colleges of music and art; the Architectural Association School of Architecture; the Slade School of Fine Art (1871) at University College; the City and Guilds of London Art School; and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The teaching of law is mainly conducted through the Inns of Court. Although not a statutory authority under the Education Acts, the corporation of the City of London has been engaged in education for more than a century. It maintains two City of London public schools for girls and boys: the City of London Freemen's School, founded for the orphans of freemen; and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Parks, sports, and events London has numerous lakes and parks, many of which were former royal preserves. There is much agricultural land within the Greater London boundary. Over a third of London's land is not built up - most of this land is protected from development by planning laws. London's gardens cover a fifth of its land. The main central parks are Regent's Park, site of London Zoo and an open-air theatre; Hyde Park, containing the Serpentine Lake; Holland Park; and St James's Park. Open areas on the edge of the city include Hampstead Heath; Richmond Park, the largest urban park in Britain; and Kew Gardens (or the Royal Botanic Gardens). Wimbledon is the home of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and site of the international Lawn Tennis championship; the Lord's and Oval cricket grounds host the Test matches; Twickenham is the home of English rugby union; and various sporting and cultural events are held at the international arenas of Wembley Stadium and Crystal Palace. Official ceremonies include the Trooping of the Colour, marking the Queen's official birthday in June, and the Lord Mayor's Show, a procession of over 140 floats led by the golden Lord Mayor's Coach in November. Other annual events are the Notting Hill Carnival, a Caribbean-style street festival held in August; the Boat Race, on the Thames between Putney and Mortlake, held since 1829 between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the London Marathon, established in 1981; and the New Year's Eve celebrations in Trafalgar Square, televised throughout the country.

London has hosted a number of major festivals and sporting events: the Great Exhibition (1851); the Festival of Britain (1951); the Olympic Games (1948); the football World Cup Final (1966); the Rugby Union World Cup Final (1991). The Millennium Festival and Experience were sited at Greenwich for the year 2000. The Millennium Dome, situated on the Greenwich Peninsula on the Meridian Line, was the centrepiece of millennium celebrations. It was open from 1 January 2000 for one year. The biggest of its kind anywhere in the world, it covered 80,000 sq m/861,100 sq ft and hosted the Millennium Experience, a year-long exhibition of British ideas and technology.

Catholic Apostolic Church Great Exhibition

inner city London, Greater

Mall, The St Marylebone

Thames barrier Threadneedle Street

traffic (vehicles) Walbrook