London

Londinium

London is not a city with a center so much as a city with centers — each borough carrying its own identity, its own high street, its own particular relationship to the river and to the rest.

Two thousand years ago, the Romans built Londinium on the northern bank of the Thames — a crossing point, a trading post, and eventually the capital of Roman Britain. William the Conqueror reestablished it as the seat of English power in 1066, building the Tower of London on the river’s edge as both fortress and statement. The city remained mostly within the ancient Roman walls until the 19th century, when it expanded rapidly into the diverse metropolis of Greater London — 33 boroughs radiating outward from the original square mile.

The City of London — the financial core, the original Roman footprint — anchors the east. Westminster anchors the governmental center to the west. Between and beyond them, the city accumulates: South Bank culture, East End creativity, Kensington museums, Notting Hill residential elegance, the parks that give London its particular quality of breathing room.

Boroughs of Greater London

The metropolis of Greater London, the dynamic capital of the United Kingdom located in England, is divided into 32 municipal boroughs (12 inner and 20 outer boroughs) + the City of London, not a London borough, but rather a county and a government district. Each of these smaller districts has distinct characteristics and histories.

Inner Boroughs

City of London + City of Westminster + Kensington and Chelsea + Hammersmith and Fulham + Camden + Islington + Hackney + Tower Hamlets + Greenwich + Lewisham + Southwark + Lambeth + Wandsworth

Rail

Trainline is the site and app I use to make train reservations throughout Europe. Rail Europe is also a great source for making necessary train reservations — find more travel information at Northwestern Europe.

• Eurostar — high-speed train connects London from St Pancras Station to Paris in just over 2 hrs, to Brussels in around 3 hrs, and to Amsterdam in about 4 hrs; reservations are required
• National Rail services London’s 10 major stations and offers airport access via express trains
  • Heathrow Express links directly between London Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station
  • Gatwick Express links directly between London Gatwick Airport and London Victoria Railway Station
  • London Paddington connects to Bristol and Cardiff via the Great Western Railway
  • London Euston connects to Glasgow and Birmingham via Avanti West Coast and to Manchester via Avanti West Coast or Northern
  • London King’s Cross connects to York via Northern, to Newcastle via LNER, and to Edinburgh via on LNER or ScotRail
  • London St Pancras International connects to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, and Sheffield via East Midlands Railway, along with the Eurostar to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam (above)
• Our Eurail passes covered our train travel between cities and villages within our selected countries on the continent
• The London Overground is a network of trains servicing suburban London that interchanges at many Tube stations
• The London Underground, aka “the Tube,” is the local subway

The London Underground

The London Underground — the Tube — is the most efficient way to move across the city. Eleven lines, 272 stations, covering Zones 1–9. Use a contactless card or phone to tap in and out; daily and weekly fare caps apply automatically.

Zone 1 covers the historic center — Westminster, the City, South Bank, Kensington. Zones 2–3 extend into the inner residential boroughs. Most visitor destinations fall within Zones 1–2.

A note on pronunciation: Southwark is “suth-ak”; Greenwich is “gren-ich”; Leicester Square is “lester”. London’s borough names are an education in how English handles its own history.

Signature Moments

• Walking the South Bank from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge — Borough Market, the Globe, Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, St Paul’s across the water — the whole sequence taking half a day and covering two thousand years of the city in a single continuous walk
• Standing in the nave of the V&A’s Cast Courts — plaster reproductions of Trajan’s Column and Michelangelo’s David occupying the same Victorian hall — the ambition of the institution suddenly visible in its full Victorian strangeness
• Kensington and Chelsea in summer — the leaded glass windows of the estates along the residential streets, the Italian Gardens in Hyde Park, the afternoon quiet of Kensington Gardens
• London in December — Covent Garden’s market and Leadenhall’s vaulted Victorian arcade both dressed for Christmas, the cold making the indoor warmth feel earned
• The Tube as urban orientation — emerging from Paddington into Notting Hill, from Bank into the City, from Southwark into the South Bank — each exit a different city

Continue the Journey

London’s architectural range — from the Gothic of Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, to the Neoclassical of the British Museum and St Paul’s Cathedral, to the Victorian Gothic Revival of St Pancras Station — is explored in the Gothic →, Neoclassical →, and Victorian → entries in the Architecture Style Guide.

London is best understood as a series of villages that happen to be connected — each borough worth a half-day of unhurried attention.

Return to England → or explore Manchester → in The Atlas.
Join The Inspired Lens → for early access to the Reading London guide.