London and the City

London was not built as a city in the same way as Paris or New York. It began life as a Roman fortification at a place where it was possible to cross the River Themes. A wall was built around the town for defence, but during the long period of peace which followed the Norman Conquest, people built outside the walls. This building continued over the years. In 1665 there was a terrible plague in London which killed too many people. In 1666 the Great Fire of London ended the plague, but it also destroyed much of the city. Although many people who had fled London during the plague returned to live in the rebuilt city after the plague and the Great Fire; there were never again so many Londoners living in the city centre.

These days London has spread further outwards into the country, including surrounding villages. Today the metropolis of Greater London covers about 610 squire miles (1580 sq. km.), and the suburbs of London continue even beyond this area. Some people even commute 100 miles (over 150 km.) every day to work in London.

The gradual growth of the city helps to explain the fact that London does not have just one centre; it has a number of centres, each with a distinct character: the Government centre in Westminster, the shopping and entertainment centre in West End, the financial and business centre called the City.

The City is rather a small area east of the centre which includes the site of the original Roman town. It is an area with a long and exciting history, and it is proud of its independence and traditional role as a centre of trade and commerce. The City of London is one of the major banking centres of the world and you can find the banks of many nations in the famous Threadneedle Street and the surrounding area. Here, too, the Bank of England, the central bank of the nation, is located. nearby the Stock Exchange, where shares of commercial companies are bought and sold. A little further is Lloyd’s, the most famous insurance company in the world.

During weekends in the City one can see the City gents with their bowler hats, pin-striped suits and rolled umbrellas. This is the «uniform» only of those men involved in banking and business in the City.

During the day the City has a population of half a million; during the night its population isn’t much more than five thousand. So you see that each night the heart of London becomes a desert where Pounds Sterling outnumbers human beings by one thousand to one. Each morning this desert is invaded by a vast army of clerks, civil servants, businessmen, and so on, from the surrounding suburbs which encircle the centre in a broad ring.