London (England), city, capital of the United Kingdom. It is situated in south-eastern
England at the head of the River Thames estuary. Settled by the Romans as an important
shipping point for crops and minerals, it gradually developed into the wealthy
capital of a thriving industrial and agricultural nation. The expansion in the
19th century of the British Empire increased London’s influence still further.
Since World War II the city’s prominence on the international stage has
diminished, but it remains a flourishing financial centre and home to one of the
world’s most important stock exchanges., Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow,
Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton, and Waltham
Forest.
Transport
Transport is essential to the operation of a city such as London. Its very
development was significantly affected by the advent of the railways, and more
recently the construction of roads (particularly the orbital M25 motorway) has
influenced patterns of settlement and economic activity. London has one of the
most extensive urban railway systems in the world; in addition to the Underground
railway, there is a network of suburban railways covering London and the surrounding
region. Most of the passenger-carrying Underground lines in central London were
built before 1914. Suburban extensions were added before and after World War
II. The most recent line, the Jubilee, opened in 1979 and in the 1990s was extended
eastward to Stratford. The Docklands Light Railway connects the City of London
with Docklands and other east London destinations. Most travel is done by rail
and Underground, although there is also considerable commuting by car, particularly
in the outer boroughs. London has about 18,000 licensed taxis. f9y7yb
Railway services from London to Paris or Brussels through the Channel Tunnel
run from the terminal at Waterloo station.
London has three main airports. Heathrow, about 25 km (15 mi) west of London,
is the world’s busiest airport for international passengers and is Britain’s
most important airport for passengers and air freight (handling about 55 million
passengers and over 1 million tonnes of freight in 1996). Gatwick (south of
London) is Britain’s second-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic,
and Stansted (to the north-east, in Essex) is the sixth-busiest. London City
Airport based in the rejuvenated Docklands area, links Docklands and the City
to continental Europe.
The Port of London, covering about 150 km (93 mi) of waterway along the Thames
to the east coast, is the largest port in Britain in terms of total tonnage
of cargo handled and in terms of non-fuel traffic. The total tonnage handled
in 1995 was about 52 million tonnes.
Museums and Art Galleries
London’s museums and art galleries contain some of the most comprehensive
collections of objects of artistic, archaeological, scientific, historical,
and general interest. The British Museum in Bloomsbury is one of the biggest
and most famous museums in the world. Its collections range from Egyptian and
Classical antiquities through Saxon treasures to more recent artefacts.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington is an assembly of fine and
decorative art collections from all over the world. There are magnificent examples
of porcelain, glass, sculpture, fabrics and costume, furniture, and musical
instruments, all set in a building of Victorian grandeur. Nearby are the Museum
of Natural History and the Science Museum. On the other side of London, in the
City it is the Museum of London, which has exhibits dealing with the development
of the capital from its origins to the present day.
The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square contains one of the finest mixed collections
of paintings in the world. Next door is the National Portrait Gallery, whose
collection includes more than 9,000 portraits. The Tate Gallery, situated on
the Embankment between Chelsea and Westminster, houses the largest collection
of British painting from the 16th century to the present day. In 1987 an extension
opened to house the paintings bequeathed to the nation by J. M. W. Turner. There
are plans to establish a new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Southwark, near the
reconstructed Shakespearean theatre, the Globe.
Other important collections in the capital include the Imperial War Museum,
the National Army Museum, the Royal Air Force Museum, the National Maritime
Museum, the Wallace Collection (of paintings, furniture, arms and armour, and
objects d’art), Sir John Soane’s Museum (founded by the architect
of the Bank of England in the City), and the London Transport Museum. The Queen’s
Gallery in Buckingham Palace has exhibitions of pictures from the extensive
royal collection. The Theatre Museum displays the history of the performing
arts, while the Museum of the Moving Image traces the history of film and television.
The British Library, the national library of Britain, has a collection of more
than 150 million separate items. Publishers must deposit in the Library a copy
of everything they publish.
Performing Arts
London is one of the world’s leading centres for theatre, and there are
about 100 theatres in the capital. These include the three auditoriums of the
Royal National Theatre in the South Bank Centre; the two auditoriums in the
London base of the Royal Shakespeare Company at the City’s Barbican Centre;
and the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square, home of the English Stage Company,
which stages work by new playwrights. The largest concentration of commercial
theatres is in the West End, around Shaftsbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road, and
the Strand.
In 1989 the partial remains of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare acted, and
the Rose Theatre, where his plays were performed during his lifetime, were excavated
on the south bank of the Thames in central London: a modern reconstruction of
the Globe Theatre, near its original site, was unveiled in 1996.
The principal concert halls in central London are the Royal Festival Hall in
the South Bank Centre (next to which are the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell
Room, which accommodate smaller-scale performances), the Barbican Hall, the
Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, the Wigmore Hall, (behind Oxford Street); and
St John’s Church in Smith Square, Westminster.
The leading symphony orchestras in London include the London Symphony, the London
Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, and the BBC Symphony.
There are also several London chamber orchestras and choirs. The Royal Opera
and the Royal Ballet, which rank among the world’s finest companies, perform
at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Seasons of opera in English are given
by the English National Opera at the London Coliseum. English Festival Ballet
(founded as London Festival Ballet) performs at the Royal Festival Hall, and
the Rambert Dance Company provides regular seasons of modern dance in the capital.
There is a wide range of cinemas throughout London. The National Film Theatre
on the South Bank, administered by the British Film Institute, annually mounts
the London Film Festival.
Highly respected music, dance, and drama colleges in London include the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art, the Royal College of Music, the Royal Ballet School,
and the London Contemporary Dance School.
Parks
Two thirds of London is intensively built up, yet the capital is well endowed
with parks and open spaces. Hyde Park, adjoining Kensington Gardens, was formerly
known as the “lung of London”. Regent’s Park, to the north
of the West End, is surrounded by elegant buildings designed by John Nash for
the Prince Regent (hence its name) and contains the Zoological Gardens (the
London Zoo). Other important open spaces in London, some of them royal parks,
include Green Park, St James’s Park, Hampstead Heath, Holland Park, Battersea
Park, Parliament Hill Fields, and Primrose Hill. In outer London there are some
extended green areas such as Richmond Park, Bushey Park, Kew Gardens (incorporating
the famous Royal Botanic Gardens), and Greenwich Park.
