Facts about London

London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic, and is the major hub of the nation's flag carrier, British Airways.

St. Paul’s Cathedral stands on the western edge of the City, while the Tower of London, the repository of the Crown Jewels, lies to the south-east.

Public hangings were common in London, and were popular public events.

Eighteenth century London was dogged by crime, and the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750, as a professional police force.

The Museum of London has exhibits dealing with the development of the capital from its origins to the present day.

London's population continued to grow rapidly in the early decades of the twentieth century, and public transport was greatly expanded.

London also has a vast range of legal, accountancy, management, property, computer, and advertising consultancy services.

West London is also known for fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, Knightsbridge, and Chelsea.

City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority, while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller authorities.

Impulses to the nerve cells are sent from nerve rings that have collected information from the environment of the jellyfish through the rhopalial lappet, which is located around the animal's body.

The Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area while commemorating the Great Fire of London, which originated nearby.

The Docklands Light Railway is a second metro system, which opened in 1987, serving East London and Greenwich on both sides of the Thames.

The eighteenth century was a period of rapid growth for London.

The city boasts four World Heritage Sites: The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church; the Tower of London; the historic settlement of Greenwich; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The Greater London Authority was set up in 2000 to replace the similar Greater London Council which had been abolished in 1986.

The centerpiece of the public transport network is the London Underground—commonly referred to as The Tube—which has 11 interconnecting lines.

London has traditionally been dominated by Christianity, and has a large number of churches, particularly in the City.

Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England.

King's and Royal Holloway and more specialized institutions, such as the London School of Economics, SOAS, the Royal Academy of Music and the Institute of Education.

Printing and publishing accounts for over a quarter of London’s manufacturing employment, reflecting London’s role as an administrative, financial, and media center.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the skyline of London altered dramatically as tower blocks were erected, although these later proved unpopular.

During prehistoric times, London was most likely a rural area with scattered settlement.

London was the most populated city in the world until overtaken by New York in 1925.

In 1989, the remains of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare acted, and the Rose Theatre, where his plays were performed during his lifetime, were excavated in central London.

Subsequently, under the control of various English kings, London once again prospered as an international trading center and political arena.

The City has its own governance and boundaries, giving it a status as the only completely autonomous local authority in London.

Tourism employed the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003.

A majority of buildings in London date from the Edwardian or Victorian periods.

London's skyscrapers such as the notable "Gherkin," Tower 42, and One Canada Square are usually found in the two financial districts, the City of London and Canary Wharf.

London is represented in the national Parliament by 74 Members of Parliament (MPs) who correspond to local parliamentary constituencies.

During World War I, London experienced its first bombing raids carried out by German zeppelin airships; these killed around 700 people and caused great terror, but were merely a foretaste of what was to come.

Between September 1940, and May 10, 1941, London was subjected to 71 separate raids receiving over 18,000 tonnes of high explosive.

William granted the citizens of London special privileges, while building a castle in the southeast corner of the city to keep them under control.

Home to a range of universities, colleges, and schools, London has a student population of about 378,000, and is a center of research and development.

Before the Reformation, more than half of the area of London was occupied by monasteries, nunneries and other religious houses, and about a third of the inhabitants were monks, nuns and friars.

Apart from the invasion of London during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, London remained relatively untouched by the various civil wars during the Middle Ages.

The London Underground is the oldest (1863), longest, and most expansive metro system in the world.

Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Port of London is now only the third-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 50 million tonnes of cargo each year.

By the war's end, just under 30,000 Londoners had been killed by the bombing, and over 50,000 seriously injured, tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless.

London is one of the largest centers for finance in the world, and has the sixth largest city economy in the world after Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Paris.

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, led to a large migration on Huguenots to London.

According to 2005 estimates, 69.6 percent of London's population is classed as white, including White British (58.2 percent), White Irish (2.6 percent), and "Other White" (8.8 percent), the majority of whom are other Europeans.

Senate House, the headquarters of the federal University of London.

An important settlement for two millennia, London's history goes back to its founding by the Romans.

London has a temperate marine climate, like much of the British Isles, with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year—unlike the rest of the United Kingdom and even the nearby coast.

The largest of these in the central area are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park and its neighbor Kensington Gardens at the western edge of central London and Regent's Park on the northern edge.

Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches, observance is very low within the Anglican denomination, although church attendance, particularly at evangelical Anglican churches in London, has started to increase.

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.

Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1579 square kilometers), making it the 37th largest urban area in the world.

The largest explosion in London occurred during World War I: The Silvertown explosion, when a munitions factory containing 50 tons of TNT exploded, killing 73 and injuring 400.

Across London, Black and Asian children outnumber White British children by about six to four.

Royal Holloway, as a part of the University of London, a federation of London higher education institutions.

Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist, including the Hampstead Heath of North London.

At this time the City of London was becoming the world's leading financial center, superseding Amsterdam.

Large-scale immigration from Commonwealth countries and beyond transformed London into one of the most racially and culturally diverse cities in Europe.

London lies within the bowl of the London Basin, 50 miles (80km) upriver from its mouth at the Nore, where the English Channel joins the North Sea.

A number of canals or canalized rivers have been constructed in the London area, mostly in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, originally for goods traffic.

The 2001 census showed that 27.1 percent of Greater London's population were born outside the UK, and a slightly higher proportion were classed as non-white.

Often called "The Green City," London has a number of open spaces.

London’s banking sector accounts for about 20 per cent of total international bank lending.

An economic revival from the 1980s onward re-established London's position.

A large tram network was constructed by the London County Council, through the LCC Tramways.

During World War II, London was bombed extensively by the Luftwaffe as a part of The Blitz.

London boomed from a population of about 50,000 in 1500 to perhaps 140,000 in 1600, and to about 750,000 by 1700.

London revived, and by the eighth century, trade was prospering again across the English Channel and the North Sea.

Eight airports use the words "London Airport" in their name, but most traffic passes through one of five major airports.

The population of London reached an all time peak of 8.6 million in 1939.

The first railway to be built in London was a line from London Bridge to Greenwich, which opened in 1836.

The City of London is on the site where the Roman fort of Londinium, founded in the first century C.E., stood.

London is one of the world's leading business, financial, and cultural centers, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, and the arts all contribute to its status as a major global city.

Large numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing from Nazi Germany, settled in London during the 1930s, mostly in the city's West End.

The administration of London takes place in two tiers—a city-wide, strategic tier and a local tier.

One of the most famous events of nineteenth century London was the Great Exhibition of 1851.

London has about 100 theaters, including the three auditoriums of the Royal National Theatre, the two auditoriums at the City’s Barbican Centre, and the Royal Court Theatre.

During the nineteenth century, London was transformed into the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire.

The Thames, a navigable river flowing west to east across the London Basin, is tidal, rendering London vulnerable to flooding.

London suffered severe unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

London began on the Thames' north bank and for many centuries London Bridge was the only bridge, keeping most of the city on the north bank.

London is a major international air transport hub.

The modern floodplain is around half a mile wide to the west of Greater London, expanding to two miles wide to the east.

In 1700, London handled 80 percent of England's imports, 69 percent of its exports and 86 percent of its re-exports.

London also became home to a sizable Jewish community, and small communities of Chinese and South Asians settled in the city.

London grew in wealth and population during the Middle Ages.

Towards the end of the war, during 1944 and 1945, London came under heavy attack again by pilot-less V-1 and V-2 rockets, fired from Nazi occupied Europe.

Financial and business services sector accounts for about 85 per cent of London’s employment.

Symphony orchestras include the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, and the BBC Symphony.

London, situated in south-eastern England at the head of the River Thames estuary, is the largest urban area and capital of England and the United Kingdom.

London is the home of the Government of the United Kingdom which is located around the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

The largest religious groupings in London are Christian (57.8 percent), No Religion (15.5 percent), Muslim (7.9 percent), Hindu (4.1 percent), Jewish (3.1 percent), and Sikh (1.5 percent).

Another half a million employees resident in Greater London work in manufacturing and construction, almost equally divided between both.

London's new financial and commercial hub is the Docklands area to the east of the City, on the north bank of the Thames, dominated by the Canary Wharf complex.

London is too diverse to be characterized by any particular architectural style.

London's bus network runs 24 hours, with 8000 buses, 700 bus routes, and over six million passenger journeys made every weekday.