City of London

City of London
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Skyline_Merge_Trials02.jpg
Author: Peter Morgan


The City of London, a borough within Greater London, is regarded as the historic core of London. It is a very small area covering only about one square mile. For that reason, it is often called The Square Mile, especially within the UK financial service industry. In medieval times, the City of London was all there was of London. It was distinct from the nearby village of Westminster. Today the village of Westminster has developed to become the City of Westminster. Together, they form two of the thirty-two boroughs of Greater London.

During Roman time, the Romans built a wall around the City of London. That wall has long since disappeared, with only several sections remaining visible today. Sections visible are at St Alphage, London Wall and two sections near the Tower of London.

The City of London has been administered as a separate entity since 886, when Alfred the Great appointed his son-in-law to be Governor of London. It was burned nearly to the ground twice, the first time in 1212, and again in the Great Fire of London, in 1666. The massive air raid mounted on London on the night of 29/30 December destroyed an even greater area than the Great Fire of London of 1666, and was called the Second Great Fire of London.

The City of London is the the major business and commercial heart of the country. To make way for office buildings, many houses were pulled down. As a result, the population of the City of London fell rapidly from the 19th century through most of the 20th century, as people moved out to the suburban areas.

Today the City of London is the second smallest British city in terms of population and size, after St David's in Wales. It is however a global financial centre. Although less than 10,000 live there, it supports a professional workforce of over 300,000 that commutes into it every day.

The first skyscraper arrived in UK in the 1970s with the construction of the 42-storey, 600-ft tall Natwest Tower within the City of London. Since then, a number of additional skyscrapers have been planned, as the financial services industry continues to grow. These include the 63-storey Bishopsgate Tower, 48-storey Leadenhall Building and 46-storey Heron Tower.

The London Stock Exchange, Lloyds of London and the Bank of England are all located within the City of London. To provide more space for the financial services industry, the Docklands were developed in the 1980's.

Canary Wharf is a few miles to the east of the boundary of the City of London. Although there had been some fear that its development may do some damage to the Square Mile, Canary Wharf may have instead helped the City in ensuring that the giant corporations such as HSBC have the space they wanted, or otherwise they might have relocated abroad.

In terms of tourist attractions, there are not that many within the City of London, if compared to the City of Westminster. Quite simply, the City of London is a place where people go to work and make money. They go to the West End to play.

Map of the City of London

Places of Interest in the City of London

Paternoster Square, Paternoster Square, City of London
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paternoster_Square.jpg
Author: gren


Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, City of London
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bank.of.england.arp.750pix.jpg
Author: Adrian Pingstone

Map of London Boroughs

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.