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London
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This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. For the city in Canada, see London, Ontario. For other uses, see London (disambiguation).
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London
— City —
From upper left: City of London, Tower Bridge and London Eye, Houses of Parliament
Nickname(s): The Big Smoke
London region in the United Kingdom
Coordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°7′29″W / 51.50806°N 0.12472°W / 51.50806; -0.12472Coordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°7′29″W / 51.50806°N 0.12472°W / 51.50806; -0.12472
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
Region London
Ceremonial counties City and Greater London
Districts City and 32 boroughs
Settled by Romans as Londinium c. AD 43
Headquarters City Hall
Government
- Regional authority Greater London Authority
- Regional assembly London Assembly
- Mayor of London Boris Johnson
- UK Parliament
- London Assembly
- European Parliament 74 constituencies
14 constituencies
London constituency
Area
- London 659 sq mi (1,706.8 km2)
Elevation[1] 79 ft (24 m)
Population (July 2007 est.)[2][3][4]
- London 7,556,900
- Density 12,331/sq mi (4,761/km2)
- Urban 8,278,251
- Metro 12,300,000 to 13,945,000
- Demonym Londoner
- Ethnicity
(June 2006 estimates)[5]
Ethnic groups[show]
69.4% White
58.0% White British
2.5% White Irish
8.9% White Other
3.5% Mixed
1.0% Black Caribbean & White
0.5% Black African & White
1.0% South Asian & White
1.0% Other mixed
13.1% South Asian
6.5% Indian
2.3% Pakistani
2.3% Bangladeshi
2.0% Other South Asian
10.7% Black
5.5% Black African
4.3% Black Caribbean
0.8% Other Black
3.4% East Asian or Other
1.5% Chinese
1.9% Other
Time zone GMT (UTC0)
- Summer (DST) BST (UTC+1)
Postcode district(s) Various
Area code(s) 020 and others
Website http://www.london.gov.uk/
London (play /ˈlʌndən/) is the capital of England and the United Kingdom (UK). It is Britain's largest and most populous metropolitan area. A major settlement for two millennia, its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium.[6] London's core, the ancient City of London, or the 'square mile' financial district, largely retains its mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core.[7] In modern times, the bulk of this conurbation forms the London region[8] and the Greater London administrative area,[9][note 1] with its own elected mayor and assembly.[10]
London is a leading global city being the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City,[11][12][13] and has the largest city GDP in Europe.[14] Central London is home to the headquarters of most of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and more than 100 of Europe's 500 largest. London's influence in politics, finance, education, entertainment, media, fashion, the arts and culture in general contributes to its global position. It is a major tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors. London hosted the 1908 and 1948 Summer Olympics and will host the 2012 Summer Olympics.[15] London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory marks the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and GMT).[16]
London has a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, and more than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries.[17] In July 2007 it had an official population of 7,556,900 within the boundaries of Greater London,[18] making it the most populous municipality in the European Union.[19] The Greater London Urban Area (the second largest in the EU) has a population of 8,278,251.[2] while the metropolitan area (the largest in the EU) has an estimated total population of between 12 million[3] and 14 million.[4] The London Underground network, administered by Transport for London, is the oldest underground railway network in the world[20] and the most extensive after the Shanghai Metro.[21] London Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers[22] and the airspace is the busiest of any urban centre in the world.[23]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
o 1.1 Toponomy
o 1.2 Prehistory and antiquity
o 1.3 Middle Ages
o 1.4 Early modern
o 1.5 Late modern and contemporary
* 2 Governance
o 2.1 Local government
o 2.2 National government
* 3 Geography
o 3.1 Scope
o 3.2 Status
o 3.3 Topography
o 3.4 Climate
o 3.5 Districts
o 3.6 Architecture
o 3.7 Parks and gardens
* 4 Demography
o 4.1 Ethnic groups
o 4.2 Religion
* 5 Economy
* 6 Transport
o 6.1 Railways
o 6.2 Buses and trams
o 6.3 Air
o 6.4 Roads
* 7 Education
* 8 Culture
o 8.1 Accent
o 8.2 Leisure and entertainment
o 8.3 Literature, film and television
o 8.4 Museums and art galleries
o 8.5 Music
* 9 Sports
* 10 Twin cities
* 11 Notes
* 12 References
o 12.1 Footnotes
o 12.2 Bibliography
* 13 External links
History
Main article: History of London
Toponomy
Wide river flanked by tall buildings on either side. There are a number of small boats and one large battleship in the centre of the river. The rooftop dome of St Paul's Cathedral is visible in the skyline to the right
The name London may derive from the River Thames.
The etymology of London is uncertain.[24] It is an ancient name and can be found in sources from the 2nd century. It is recorded c. 121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin.[24] The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae.[24] The name is described as originating from King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.[25]
From 1899 it was commonly accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos; this explanation has since been rejected.[24] Richard Coates put forward an explanation in 1998 that it is derived from the pre-Celtic Old European *(p)lowonida, meaning 'river too wide to ford', and suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London; from this, the settlement gained the Celtic form of its name, *Lowonidonjon.[26] Until 1889 the name officially only applied to the City of London but since then it has also referred to the County of London and now Greater London.[7]
Prehistory and antiquity
In 1300 the City was still confined within the Roman walls.
Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans in 43 AD.[27] This lasted for just seventeen years and around 61, the Iceni tribe led by Queen Boudica stormed it, burning it to the ground.[28] The next, heavily planned incarnation of the city prospered and superseded Colchester as the capital of the Roman province of Britannia in 100. At its height during the 2nd century, Roman London had a population of around 60,000. By the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new settlement called Lundenwic over a mile (2 km) upstream from the old Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden.[29]
It is likely that there was a harbour at the mouth of the River Fleet for fishing and trading, and this trading grew, until the city was overcome by the Vikings and forced to move east, back to the location of the Roman Londinium, in order to use its walls for protection.[30] Viking attacks continued to increase, until 886 when Alfred the Great recaptured London and made peace with the Danish leader, Guthrum.[31] The original Saxon city of Lundenwic became Ealdwic ("old city"), a name surviving to the present day as Aldwych, which is in the modern City of Westminster.[32]
Middle Ages
Westminster Abbey is one of London's oldest and most important buildings as seen in this painting (Canaletto, 1749 A.D.) and a World Heritage Site.
Canute took control of the English throne in 1016, controlling the city and country until 1035, when his death resulted in a reversion to Saxon control under his pious stepson Edward the Confessor, who re-founded Westminster Abbey and the adjacent Palace of Westminster.[33] By this time, London had become the largest and most prosperous city in England, although the official seat of government was still at Winchester. Following a victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, the then Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.[34] William granted the citizens of London special privileges, while building what is now known as the Tower of London, in the southeast corner of the city, to keep them under control.[35]
In 1097, William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. The hall became the basis of a new Palace of Westminster, the prime royal residence throughout the Middle Ages.[36][37] Westminster became the seat of the royal court and government, while its distinct neighbour, the City of London, was a centre of trade and commerce and flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London. In 1100 its population was around 18,000; by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000.[38]
There was an increasing population of Jews,[39] until the edict of King Edward I in 1290, expelled them from England.[39] Disaster struck during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, when London lost nearly a third of its population.[40] Apart from the invasion during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381,[41] London remained relatively untouched by the various civil wars during the Middle Ages.[42]
Early modern
The Great Fire of London destroyed many parts of the city in 1666.
During the Tudor period the Reformation produced a gradual shift to Protestantism, with much of London passing from church to private ownership.[43] Mercantilism grew and monopoly trading companies such as the British East India Company were established, with trade expanding to the New World. London became the principal North Sea port, with migrants arriving from England and abroad. The population rose from an estimated 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605.[43]
In the 16th century William Shakespeare and his contemporaries lived in London at a time of hostility to the development of the theatre. By the end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still very compact. There was an assassination attempt on James I in Westminster, through the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605.[44] London was plagued by disease in the early 17th century,[45] culminating in the Great Plague of 1665–1666, which killed up to 100,000 people, or a fifth of the population.[46][47]
The Great Fire of London broke out in 1666 in Pudding Lane in the city and quickly swept through the wooden buildings.[47] Rebuilding took over ten years and was supervised by Robert Hooke[48][49][50] as Surveyor of London.[51] In 1708 Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral was completed. During the Georgian era new districts such as Mayfair were formed in the west; and new bridges over the Thames encouraged development in South London. In the east, the Port of London expanded downstream.
In 1762 George III acquired Buckingham House and it was enlarged over the next 75 years. During the 18th century, London was dogged by crime and the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police force.[52] In total, more than 200 offenses were punishable by death,[53] and women and children were hanged for petty theft.[54] Over 74% of children born in London died before they were five.[55] The coffee house became a popular place to debate ideas, with growing literacy and the development of the printing press making news widely available; and Fleet Street became the centre of the British press.
“ You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. ”
—Samuel Johnson[56]
Late modern and contemporary
A London street hit during the Blitz of World War II.
London was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925.[57] London's overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics,[58] claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866.[59] Rising traffic congestion led to the creation of the world's first local urban rail network. The Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion. It was replaced in 1889 by the London County Council, London's first elected city-wide administration. The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and destroyed large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. Immediately after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley Stadium, at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war.
In 1951 the Festival of Britain was held on the South Bank. The Great Smog of 1952 led to the Clean Air Act 1956, which ended the "pea-souper" fogs for which London had been notorious. From the 1950s onwards, London became home to a large number of immigrants, largely from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, making London one of the most diverse cities in Europe.
Starting in the mid-1960s, London became a centre for the worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London subculture associated with Carnaby Street. The role of trendsetter was revived during the punk era. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded to take into account the growth of the urban area and a new Greater London Council was created. During The Troubles in Northern Ireland, London was subjected to terrorist attacks by the Provisional IRA. Racial inequality was highlighted by the 1981 Brixton riot. Greater London's population declined steadily in the decades after World War II, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. The principal ports for London moved downstream to Felixstowe and Tilbury, with the London Docklands area becoming a focus for regeneration.
The Thames Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect London against tidal surges from the North Sea. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, which left London as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration. In 2000, London-wide government was restored, with the creation of the Greater London Authority. To celebrate the start of the 21st century, the Millennium Dome, London Eye and Millenium Bridge were constructed. On 7 July 2005, several London Underground trains and a bus were bombed in a series of terrorist attacks.[60]
Governance
Local government
Main articles: Local government in London, History of local government in London, and List of heads of London government
The Greater London Authority is based in City Hall, Southwark
The administration of London is formed of two tiers—a city-wide, strategic tier and a local tier. City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller authorities.[61] The GLA consists of two elected components; the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, who scrutinise the mayor's decisions and can accept or reject his budget proposals each year.
The headquarters of the GLA is City Hall, Southwark; the current mayor is Boris Johnson. The mayor's statutory planning strategy is published as the London Plan, which as of mid-2009 is being revised, for final publication in 2011. The local authorities are the councils of the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation.[62] They are responsible for most local services, such as local planning, schools, social services, local roads and refuse collection. Certain functions, such as waste management, a provided through joint arrangements.
Policing in Greater London, with the exception of the City of London, is provided by the Metropolitan Police Force, overseen by the Metropolitan Police Authority. The City of London has its own police force – the City of London Police.[63] The British Transport Police are responsible for police services on National Rail and London Underground services in the capital.[64]
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for Greater London. It is run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and is the third-largest fire service in the world.[65] National Health Service ambulance services are provided by the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, the largest free at the point of use emergency ambulance service in the world.[66] Her Majesty's Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution operate on the River Thames.[67][68]
National government
London is an important city because the Government of the United Kingdom is located around the Palace of Westminster. Many government departments are located close to Parliament, particularly along Whitehall, including the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street.[69] The British Parliament is often referred to as the "Mother of Parliaments" (although this sobriquet was first applied to England itself by John Bright)[70] because it has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its Acts have created many other parliaments.
Geography
Main article: Geography of London
Scope
Map of Central London
Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London. The small, ancient City of London at its core once contained the whole settlement, but as the urban area grew the City Corporation resisted attempts to amalgamate it with its suburbs, causing "London" to be defined in a number ways for different purposes; and the situation was once open to legal debate.[71] Forty percent of Greater London is covered by the London post town, within which 'LONDON' forms part of postal addresses.[72][73]
The London telephone area code (020) covers a larger area, similar in size to Greater London, although some outer districts are omitted and some places just outside are included. The area within the orbital M25 motorway is normally what is referred to as 'London'.[74] and the Greater London boundary has been aligned to it in places.[75]
Outward urban expansion is now prevented by a metropolitan green belt,[76] although the built-up area extends beyond the boundary in places, resulting in a separately defined Greater London Urban Area. Beyond this is the vast London commuter belt.[77] Greater London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London.[78] The city is split by the River Thames into North and South, with an informal Central London area in its interior. The coordinates of the nominal centre of London, traditionally considered to be the original Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, are approximately 51°30′29″N 00°07′29″W / 51.50806°N 0.12472°W / 51.50806; -0.12472.[79]
Status
Within London, both the City of London and the City of Westminster have city status and both the City of London and the remainder of Greater London are the ceremonial counties.[80] The current area of Greater London has incorporated areas that were once part of the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.[81] London's status as the capital of England, and later the United Kingdom, has never been granted or confirmed officially—by statute or in written form.[note 2]
Its position was formed through constitutional convention, making its status as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten constitution. The capital of England was moved to London from Winchester as the Palace of Westminster developed in the 12th and 13th centuries to become the permanent location of the royal court, and thus the political capital of the nation.[85] More recently, Greater London has been defined as a region of England and in this context known as London.[8]
Topography
West and central London seen from SPOT satellite
Greater London covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres (610 sq mi), an area which had a population of 7,172,036 in 2001 and a population density of 4,542 people per square kilometre. A larger area, referred to as the London Metropolitan Region or the London Metropolitan Agglomeration covers an area of 8,382 square kilometres (3,236 sq mi) has a population of 12,653,500 and a population density of 1,510 people per square kilometre.[86] Modern London stands athwart the Thames, its primary geographical feature, a navigable river which crosses the city from the south-west to the east. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills including Parliament Hill, Addington Hills, and Primrose Hill. The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river with extensive marshlands; at high tide, its shores reached five times their present width.[87]
Since the Victorian era the Thames has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding.[88] The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level by the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound.[89]
In 1974, a decade of work began on the construction of the Thames Barrier across the Thames at Woolwich to deal with this threat. While the barrier is expected to function as designed until roughly 2070, concepts for its future enlargement or redesign are already being discussed.[90]
Climate
Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom
London has a temperate marine climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb), like much of the British Isles, so the city rarely sees extremely high or low temperatures. Summers are warm with a July high of 22.8 °C (73.0 °F) and low of 14.0 °C (57.2 °F).[91] But temperatures can exceed 25 °C (77 °F) on many days, and in almost every year they exceed 30 °C (86 °F) on some days. The highest temperature ever recorded was 38 °C (100 °F) [92] on 10 August 2003 during the 2003 European heat wave.
Winters in London are chilly, but rarely below freezing (although in recent years this has been questionable) with daytime highs around 5 °C (41 °F) – 8 °C (46 °F), while spring has mild days and cool evenings.[92] The lowest ever recorded temperature was −21.1 °C (−6 °F) in January 1795. Autumn is usually mild but often unsettled as colder air from the arctic and warmer air from the tropics meet. London is a relatively dry city with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year, with an average of 583.6 millimetres (22.98 in) every year. This is lower than many cities such as New York, Paris, Sydney and around the same as San Francisco and even Jerusalem.
London receives an average of only 1461 hours of sunshine every year.[91]
Snow is relatively uncommon, particularly because heat from the urban area can make London up to 5 °C (9 °F) warmer than the surrounding areas in winter. Some snowfall, however, is usually seen up to a few times a year. The February 2009 Great Britain and Ireland snowfall was the heaviest London had seen for 18 years.
London is in USDA Hardiness zone 9, and AHS Heat Zone 2.[93] Although extreme weather does not happen very often, deep depressions have been known to pass through like the Great Storm of 1987. Tornados are rare, but the Kensal Green area of the city was hit by the 2006 London tornado causing £10 million of damage and injuring 6 people.
In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, London was noted for its dense fogs and smogs. Following the deadly Great Smog of 1952, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, leading to the decline of such severe pollution in the capital.[94] In 2010, the City of London was ranked as one of the most polluted places in Europe.[95]
[hide]Climate data for London (Greenwich)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 7.9
(46.2) 8.2
(46.8) 10.9
(51.6) 13.3
(55.9) 17.2
(63) 20.2
(68.4) 22.8
(73) 22.6
(72.7) 19.3
(66.7) 15.2
(59.4) 10.9
(51.6) 8.8
(47.8) 14.8
(58.6)
Average low °C (°F) 2.4
(36.3) 2.2
(36) 3.8
(38.8) 5.2
(41.4) 8.0
(46.4) 11.1
(52) 13.6
(56.5) 13.3
(55.9) 10.9
(51.6) 8.0
(46.4) 4.8
(40.6) 3.3
(37.9) 7.2
(45)
Precipitation mm (inches) 51.9
(2.043) 34.0
(1.339) 42.0
(1.654) 45.2
(1.78) 47.2
(1.858) 53.0
(2.087) 38.3
(1.508) 47.3
(1.862) 56.9
(2.24) 61.5
(2.421) 52.3
(2.059) 54.0
(2.126) 583.6
(22.976)
Avg. rainy days 10.9 8.1 9.8 9.3 8.5 8.4 7.0 7.2 8.7 9.3 9.3 10.1 106.6
Sunshine hours 45.9 66.1 103.2 147.0 185.4 180.6 190.3 194.4 139.2 109.7 60.6 37.8 1,461.0
Source: Met Office [91] 2010-04-16
Districts
Main article: List of districts of London
The City of London and the 32 London boroughs
1. City of London
2. City of Westminster
3. Kensington and Chelsea
4. Hammersmith and Fulham
5. Wandsworth
6. Lambeth
7. Southwark
8. Tower Hamlets
9. Hackney
10. Islington
11. Camden
12. Brent
13. Ealing
14. Hounslow
15. Richmond
16. Kingston
17. Merton
London-boroughs.svg
About this image
18. Sutton
19. Croydon
20. Bromley
21. Lewisham
22. Greenwich
23. Bexley
24. Havering
25. Barking and Dagenham
26. Redbridge
27. Newham
28. Waltham Forest
29. Haringey
30. Enfield
31. Barnet
32. Harrow
33. Hillingdon
London's vast urban area is often described using a set of district names, such as Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Wembley and Whitechapel. These are either informal designations, reflect the names of villages that have been absorbed by sprawl, or are superseded administrative units such as parishes or former boroughs.
Such names have remained in use through tradition, each referring to a local area with its own distinctive character, but without current official boundaries. Since 1965 Greater London has been divided into 32 London boroughs in addition to the ancient City of London.[96][97] The City of London is the main financial district[98] and Canary Wharf has recently developed into a new financial and commercial hub, in the Docklands to the east.
The West End is London's main entertainment and shopping district, attracting tourists.[99] West London includes expensive residential areas where properties can sell for tens of millions of pounds.[100] The average price for properties in Kensington and Chelsea is £894,000 with similar average outlay in most of Central London.[101]
The East End is the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London.[102] The surrounding East London area saw much of London's early industrial development; now, brownfield sites throughout the area are being redeveloped as part of the Thames Gateway including the London Riverside and Lower Lea Valley, which is being developed into the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics.[102]
Architecture
Main articles: Architecture of London and List of tallest structures in London
London is experiencing a growth in new high rise development in part due to the advent of the Olympics in 2012
London's architecture ranges from very old to modern
London's buildings are too diverse to be characterised by any particular architectural style, having been built over a long period of time. Notable recent buildings are the 1980s skyscraper Tower 42, the Lloyd's building with services running along the outside of the structure, and the 2004 Swiss Re building, known as "the Gherkin". London's generally low-rise nature makes these skyscrapers and others such as One Canada Square and its neighbours at Canary Wharf and the BT Tower in Fitzrovia very noticeable from a distance.
High-rise development is restricted at certain sites if it would obstruct protected views of St. Paul's Cathedral. Nevertheless, there are plans for more skyscrapers in Central London (see Tall buildings in London), including the 72-storey "Shard of Glass", which will be one of the tallest buildings in Europe. A 'development boom' has started largely in response to the opening of the Olympic Games in 2012, with numerous high-rises such as Bishopsgate Tower and Heron Tower planned for completion before the opening ceremony .[103] Older buildings are mainly brick built, most commonly the yellow London stock brick or a warm orange-red variety, often decorated with carvings and white plaster mouldings.[104]
Many grand houses and public buildings, such as the National Gallery, are constructed from Portland stone. Some areas of the city, particularly those just west of the centre, are characterised by white stucco or whitewashed buildings. Few structures pre-date 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. Wren's late 17th century churches and the financial institutions of the 18th and 19th centuries such as the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England, to the early 20th century Old Bailey and the 1960s Barbican Estate form part of the varied architectural heritage.
Buckingham Palace is the official residence of the British monarch
The disused, but soon to be rejuvenated, 1939 Battersea Power Station by the river in the southwest is a local landmark, while some railway termini are excellent examples of Victorian architecture, most notably St Pancras and Paddington.[105] The density of London varies, with high employment density in the central area, high residential densities in inner London and lower densities in the suburbs.
In the dense areas, most of the concentration is achieved with medium- and high-rise buildings. London's skyscrapers such as "Gherkin", Tower 42, the Broadgate Tower and One Canada Square are usually found in the two financial districts, the City of London and Canary Wharf. Other notable modern buildings include City Hall in Southwark with its distinctive oval shape,[106] and the British Library in Somers Town/Kings Cross. What was formerly the Millennium Dome, located by the Thames to the east of Canary Wharf, is now used as an entertainment venue known as The O2.
The Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area while commemorating the Great Fire of London, which originated nearby. Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, at the north and south ends of Park Lane respectively, have royal connections, as do the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column is a nationally recognised monument in Trafalgar Square, one of the focal points of the centre.
Parks and gardens
Main articles: Parks and open spaces in London and Royal Parks of London
The largest parks in the central area of London are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park, its neighbour Kensington Gardens at the western edge of Central London and Regent's Park on the northern edge.[107] Regent's Park contains London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo, and is located near the tourist attraction of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.[108][109]
St. James's Park
Closer to central London are the smaller Royal Parks of Green Park and St. James's Park.[110] Hyde Park in particular is popular for sports and sometimes hosts open-air concerts. A number of large parks lie outside the city centre, including the remaining Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the south-east[111] and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to the south-west,[112][113] as well as Victoria Park, East London to the east. Primrose Hill to the north of Regent's Park is a popular spot to view the city skyline.
Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist, including the 320-hectare (790-acre) Hampstead Heath of North London.[114] This incorporates Kenwood House, the former stately home and a popular location in the summer months where classical musical concerts are held by the lake, attracting thousands of people every weekend to enjoy the music, scenery and fireworks.[115]
Demography
Main article: Demography of London
Country of Birth[116] Population
(2001)
United Kingdom United Kingdom 5,230,155
India India 172,162
Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland 157,285
Bangladesh Bangladesh 84,565
Jamaica Jamaica 80,319
Nigeria Nigeria 68,907
Pakistan Pakistan 66,658
Kenya Kenya 66,311
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka 49,932
Ghana Ghana 46,513
Cyprus Cyprus 45,888
South Africa South Africa 45,506
United States United States 44,622
Australia Australia 41,488
Germany Germany 39,818
Turkey Turkey 39,128
Italy Italy 38,694
France France 38,130
Somalia Somalia 33,831
Uganda Uganda 32,082
New Zealand New Zealand 27,494
With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was for some time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the most populous city in the world until overtaken by New York in 1925. Its population peaked at 8,615,245 in 1939 immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War. There were an estimated 7,556,900 official residents in Greater London as of mid-2007.[18]
However, London's continuous urban area extends beyond the borders of Greater London and was home to 8,278,251 people in 2001,[2] while its wider metropolitan area has a population of between 12 and 14 million depending on the definition used.[117] According to Eurostat, London is the most populous city and metropolitan area of the European Union and the second most populous in Europe (or third if Istanbul is included). During the period 1991–2001 a net 726,000 immigrants arrived in London.[118]
The region covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres (610 sq mi). The population density is 4,542 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,760 /sq mi),[119] more than ten times that of any other British region.[120] In terms of population, London is the 25th largest city and the 18th largest metropolitan region in the world. It is also ranked 4th in the world in number of billionaires (United States Dollars) residing in the city.[121] London ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the world, alongside Tokyo and Moscow.[122]
Ethnic groups
Main article: Ethnic groups in London
According to the Office for National Statistics, based on 2006 estimates, 69.4 per cent of the 7.5 million inhabitants of London were White, with 58 per cent White British, 2.5 per cent White Irish and 8.9 per cent classified as Other White. Some 13.1 per cent are of South Asian descent, with Indians making up 6.5 per cent of London's population, followed by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis at 2.3 per cent each. 2 per cent are categorised as "Other Asian".
10.7 per cent of London's population are Black, with around 5.5 per cent being Black African, 4.3 per cent as Black Caribbean and 0.7 per cent as "Other Black". 3.5 per cent of Londoners are of mixed race; 1.5 per cent are Chinese; and 1.9 per cent belong to another ethnic group.[5] As of 2008, 40% of London's total population was from an ethnic minority group.[123]
Across London, Black and Asian children outnumber White British children by about six to four in state schools.[124] In January 2005, a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity claimed that there were more than 300 languages spoken and more than 50 non-indigenous communities which have a population of more than 10,000 in London.[125] Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, as of 2006, London's foreign-born population is 2,288,000 (31%), up from 1,630,000 in 1997.[126]
The 2001 census showed that 27.1% of Greater London's population were born outside the UK, and a slightly higher proportion were classed as non-white.[127] The table to the right shows the 'Country of Birth' of London residents in 2001, the date of the last UK Census. (Top 21).[116] A portion of the German-born population are likely to be British nationals born to parents serving in the British Armed Forces in Germany.[128]
Religion
St. Paul's Cathedral
Main article: Religion in London
Religion in London
Religion Percent
Christian
58.2%
No religion
15.8%
Religion not stated
8.7%
Muslim
8.5%
Hindu
4.1%
Jewish
2.1%
Sikh
1.5%
Buddhist
0.8%
Pagan
0.3%
Other
0.2%
The majority of Londoners – 58.2% – identify themselves as Christians.[129] This is followed by those of no religion (15.8%), Muslims (8.5%), Hindus (4.1%), Jews (2.1%), Sikhs (1.5%), Buddhists (0.8%), Pagans/Wiccans (0.3%) and other (0.2%), though 8.7% of people did not answer this question in the 2001 Census.[129]
London has traditionally been Christian, and has a large number of churches, particularly in the City of London. The well-known St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres,[130] while the Archbishop of Canterbury, principal bishop of the Church of England and worldwide Anglican Communion, has his main residence at Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth.[131]
Important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey.[132] The Abbey is not to be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, which is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales.[133] Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches, observance is very low within the Anglican denomination. Church attendance continues on a long, slow, steady decline, according to Church of England statistics.[134]
Baitul Futuh in London, the largest mosque in Western Europe[135]
London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham; the most important Muslim edifice is London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park.[136] Following the oil boom, increasing numbers of wealthy Middle-Eastern Muslims have based themselves around Mayfair and Knightsbridge in west London.[137][138] London is home to the largest mosque in western Europe, the Baitul Futuh Mosque, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
London's large Hindu community is found in the north-western boroughs of Harrow and Brent, the latter of which is home to one of Europe's largest Hindu temples, Neasden Temple.[139] Sikh communities are located in East and West London, which is also home to the largest Sikh temple in the world outside India.[140]
The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant Jewish communities in Stamford Hill, Stanmore, Golders Green, Hampstead, Hendon and Edgware in North London.[citation needed] Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue has the largest membership of any single Orthodox synagogue in the whole of Europe, overtaking Ilford synagogue (also in London) in 1998.[141] The community set up the London Jewish Forum in 2007 in response to the growing significance of devolved London Government.[142]
Economy
Main articles: Economy of London, Media in London, and Tourism in London
The City of London is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City.[11][12][13]
London generates approximately 20% of the UK's GDP[143] (or $446 billion in 2005); while the economy of the London metropolitan area—the largest in Europe—generates approximately 30% of the UK's GDP (or an estimated $669 billion in 2005).[144] London is one of the pre-eminent financial centres of the world and vies with New York City as the most important location for international finance.[145][146]
London's largest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. Around 325,000 people were employed in financial services in London until mid-2007. London has over 480 overseas banks, more than any other city in the world. Due to its prominent global role, London's economy has been affected by the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. The City of London estimates that 70,000 jobs in finance will be cut within a year.[147]
Canary Wharf is the home to some of the United Kingdom's tallest buildings
More than half of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies are headquartered in Central London. Over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area, and 75% of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London.[148] The City of London is home to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, and Lloyds of London insurance market. Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in London and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector.[149] The BBC is a significant employer, while other broadcasters also have headquarters around the City. Many national newspapers are edited in London.
Tourism is one of London's prime industries and employs the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003,[150] while annual expenditure by tourists is around £15 billion.[151] London attracts almost 15 million international visitors per year, making it the world's second most visited city[152] after Paris.[153] London attracts 27 million overnight-stay visitors every year.[154] The Port of London is the second-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 53 million tonnes of cargo each year.[155]
Transport
Portal-puzzle.svg London Transport portal
Main article: Transport in London
Central line - Bethnal Green.ogg
Play video
The London Underground, oldest and largest metro system in the world,[156] known as The Tube, because of the shape of the tunnels
Transport is one of the four main areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London,[157] however the mayor's financial control does not extend to the longer distance rail network that enters London. In 2007 he assumed responsibility for some local lines, which now form the London Overground network, adding to the existing responsibility for the London Underground, trams and buses. The public transport network is administered by Transport for London (TfL) and is one of the most extensive in the world. Cycling is an increasingly popular way to get around London. The London Cycling Campaign lobbies for better provision.[158]
The lines that formed the London Underground, as well as trams and buses, became part of an integrated transport system in 1933 when the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) or London Transport was created. Transport for London (TfL), is now the statutory corporation responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London, and is run by a board and a commissioner appointed by the Mayor of London.[159]
Railways
St Pancras International is served by direct high speed trains to European destinations such as Paris and Brussels
The London Underground — all of which is now commonly referred to as the Tube, though originally this designation referred only to the deep-level lines, as distinct from the sub-surface lines — is the oldest,[20] and second longest[21] metro system in the world, dating from 1863. The system serves 270 stations[160] and was formed from several private companies, including the world's first underground electric line, the City and South London Railway.[161]
Over three million journeys a day are made on the Underground network, over 1 billion journeys each year.[162][163] An investment programme is attempting to address congestion and reliability problems, including £7 billion (€10 billion) of improvements planned for the Olympics.[164] London has been commended as the city with the best public transport.[165] The Docklands Light Railway, which opened in 1987, is a second, more local metro system using smaller and lighter tram-type vehicles serving Docklands and Greenwich.
There is an extensive above-ground suburban railway network, particularly in South London, which has fewer Underground lines. London houses Britain's busiest station – Waterloo with over 184 millon people using the interchange station complex (which includes Waterloo East station) each year. The stations have services to South East & South West London, and also parts of South East and South West England.[166][167] Most rail lines terminate around the centre of London, running into fourteen terminal stations with the exception of the Thameslink trains connecting Bedford in the north and Brighton in the south via Luton and Gatwick Airports.[168]
Since 2007 High-speed Eurostar trains link St Pancras International with Lille, Paris, and Brussels. Journey times to Paris and Brussels of 2h 15 and 1h 51 respectively make London closer to continental Europe than the rest of Britain by virtue of the High Speed 1 rail link to the Channel Tunnel[169] while the first high speed domestic trains started in June 2009 linking Kent to London.[170]
Buses and trams
The red double-decker bus is an iconic symbol of London
London's bus network is one of the largest in the world, running 24 hours a day, with 8,000 buses, 700 bus routes, and over 6 million passenger journeys made every weekday. In 2003, the network's ridership was estimated at over 1.5 billion passenger trips per annum, more than the Underground.[171] Around £850 million is taken in revenue each year. London has the largest wheelchair accessible network in the world[172] and, from the 3rd quarter of 2007, became more accessible to hearing and visually impaired passengers as audio-visual announcements were introduced. The distinctive red double-decker buses are internationally recognised, and are a trademark of London transport along with black cabs and the Tube.[173][174]
London has a modern tram network, known as Tramlink, based in Croydon in South London. The network has 39 stops, three routes and carried 26.5 million people in 2008. Since June 2008 Transport for London has completely owned Tramlink and plans to spend £54m by 2015 on maintenance, renewals, upgrades and capacity enhancements. Since April 2009 all trams have been refurbished.[175]
Air
London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic [176]
London is a major international air transport hub with the largest city airspace in the world. Eight airports use the word London in their name, but most traffic passes through only five. London Heathrow Airport, in Hillingdon, West London, is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic, and is the major hub of the nation's flag carrier, British Airways.[176] In March 2008 its fifth terminal was opened,[177] and plans are already being considered for a sixth terminal.[178] Similar traffic, with the addition of some low-cost short-haul flights, is also handled at London Gatwick Airport, located south of London in West Sussex.[179]
Stansted Airport, situated north east of London in Essex, is the main UK hub for Ryanair and Luton Airport to the north of London in Bedfordshire, caters mostly for low-cost short-haul flights.[180][181] London City Airport, the smallest and most central airport, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full service short-haul scheduled flights and considerable business jet traffic.[182]
Roads
Traffic congestion in Central London
Although the majority of journeys involving Central London are made by public transport, car travel is common in the suburbs. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs), and the outer orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes—but very few motorways penetrate into inner London. The M25 is the longest ring-road motorway in the world at 195.5 km (121.5 mi) long.[183]
A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled in the early 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of congested Central London.[184][185] Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a vastly reduced season pass which is renewed monthly and is cheaper than a corresponding bus fare.[186] London is notorious for its traffic congestion, with the M25 motorway the busiest stretch in the country. The average speed of a car in the rush hour is 10.6 mph.[187]
Education
Main article: Education in London
University College London is part of the University of London
Home to a range of universities, colleges and schools, London has a student population of about 378,000 and is a centre of research and development. Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England—comprehensive schooling. With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the United Kingdom and in Europe.[188] It comprises 20 colleges as well as several smaller institutes each with a high degree of autonomy.
Constituent colleges have their own admissions procedures, and are effectively universities in their own right, although most degrees are awarded by the University of London rather than the individual colleges. Its constituents include multi-disciplinary colleges such as Royal Holloway, Birkbeck, UCL,[189] King's, Goldsmiths, Queen Mary,[190] and more specialised institutions such as the London School of Pharmacy,[191] London School of Economics,[192] SOAS,[193] the Royal Academy of Music, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,[194] the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Institute of Education.[195]
University College London and Imperial College London have been ranked among the top ten universities in the world by Times Higher Education: in 2009 UCL was ranked the 4th best and Imperial the 5th best university in the world.[196] In addition, the London School of Economics has been described as the world‘s leading social science institution for teaching and research, and has the most international student body of any university in the world today.[197]
Brunel University is one of the many universities in London
A number of colleges are dedicated to the fine arts, including the Royal College of Music, Royal College of Art, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. London's other universities, such as Brunel University, City University, London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University, University of East London, University of the Arts London, University of Westminster, Kingston University and London South Bank University are not part of the University of London but are still leaders in their field and popular choices among students both nationally and internationally. Some were polytechnics until they were granted university status in 1992, and others which were founded much earlier. Imperial College London left the federal University of London in 2007.
Since the merger of University of North London and London Guildhall University in 2003, London Metropolitan University is the largest unitary university in the capital, with over 34,000 students from 155 countries.[198] London is also known globally for its business education, harbouring several top-rated business schools: London Business School, Cass Business School and Imperial College Business School.[199] In addition there are three international universities: Schiller International University, Richmond University and Regent's College.
Culture
Main article: Culture of London
Accent
The London accent long ago acquired the Cockney label, and was similar to many accents of the South East of England, of which Cockney rhyming slang is a part. The accent of a 21st century 'Londoner' varies widely; what is becoming more and more common amongst the under 30s however is some fusion of Cockney, Received Pronunciation, and a whole array of 'ethnic' accents, in particular Caribbean, which form an accent labelled Multicultural London English (MLE).[200]
Leisure and entertainment
Main articles: List of annual events in London and West End theatre
The Queen's Theatre in the West End theatre district
Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements.[201] London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district (in Soho), and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops. The United Kingdom's Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Opera and English National Opera are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, the London Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall as well as touring the country.[202]
Islington's 1 mile (1.6 km) long Upper Street, extending northwards from the Angel, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK.[203] Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long—which makes it the longest shopping street in the UK and home to many shops and department stores including Selfridges.[204] Knightsbridge—home to the Harrods department store—lies just to the southwest.
London is home to designers Vivienne Westwood, Galliano, Stella McCartney, Manolo Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo among others; its renowned art and fashion schools make it an international centre of fashion alongside Paris, Milan and New York. London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane and the Chinese food restaurants of Chinatown.[205]
There are a variety of regular annual events in the city. The beginning of the year is celebrated with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, fireworks display at the London Eye, and the world's second largest street party, the Notting Hill Carnival is held during the late August Bank holiday each year. Traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the City, and June's Trooping the Colour, a formal military pageant performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and British armies to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday.[206]
Literature, film and television
Main articles: London in fiction, London in film, List of films set in London, and List of television shows set in London
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
London has been the setting for many works of literature. The literary centres of London have traditionally been hilly Hampstead and (since the early 20th century) Bloomsbury. Writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, noted for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has been a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London, and Virginia Woolf, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th century.[207]
William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based there, and some of his work—most notably his play The Alchemist—was set in the city.[207] A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague.[207] Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are Dickens' novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.[207] Modern writers pervasively influenced by the city include Peter Ackroyd, author of a "biography" of London, and Iain Sinclair, who writes in the genre of psychogeography.
London was the setting for the films Oliver Twist (1948), Peter Pan (1953), The Ladykillers (1955), The 101 Dalmatians (1961), Mary Poppins (1964), Blowup (1966), The Long Good Friday (1980), Secrets & Lies (1996), Notting Hill (1999), Match Point (2005), V For Vendetta (2005) and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2008). The television soap opera EastEnders, first broadcast in 1985, is also set in the city. London has played a significant role in the film industry, and has major studios at Ealing and a special effects and post-production community centred in Soho. Working Title Films has its headquarters in London.[208]
Museums and art galleries
Main article: List of museums in London
The Natural History Museum.
London is home to many museums, galleries, and other institutions, many of which are free of admission charges and are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The first of these to be established was the British Museum in Bloomsbury, in 1753. Originally containing antiquities, natural history specimens and the national library, the museum now has 7 million artefacts from around the globe. In 1824 the National Gallery was founded to house the British national collection of Western paintings; this now occupies a prominent position in Trafalgar Square. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the locale of South Kensington was developed as "Albertopolis", a cultural and scientific quarter. Three major national museums are located there: the Victoria and Albert Museum (for the applied arts), the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. The national gallery of British art is at Tate Britain, originally established as an annexe of the National Gallery in 1897. The Tate Gallery, as it was formerly known, also became a major centre for modern art; in 2000 this collection moved to Tate Modern, a new gallery housed in the former Bankside Power Station.
Music
London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and is home to major music corporations, such as EMI, as well as countless bands, musicians and industry professionals. London is home to many orchestras and concert halls such as the Barbican Arts Centre (principal base of the London Symphony Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Promenade Concerts).[202] London's two main opera houses are the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum Theatre.[202] London is home to the UK's largest pipe organ, at the Royal Albert Hall. Other significant instruments are found at the cathedrals and major churches. Several conservatoires are located within the city: Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music.
The Royal Albert Hall hosts concerts and musical events
London has numerous venues for rock and pop concerts, including large arenas such as Earls Court, Wembley Arena and the O2 Arena, as well as numerous mid-size venues, such as Brixton Academy, Hammersmith Apollo and the Shepherd's Bush Empire.[202] London also hosts many music festivals, including the O2 Wireless Festival. London is home to the first and original Hard Rock Cafe and the Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded many of their hits. In the 1970s and 1980s, musicians like David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Cat Stevens, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Madness, the Jam, the Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, the Police, the Cure, Squeeze and Sade, took the world by storm, deriving their sound from the streets and rhythms vibrating through London.[209]
London was instrumental in the development of punk music,[210] with figures such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash,[209] and Vivienne Westwood all based in the city. More recent artists to emerge from the London music scene include Bananarama, Bush, East 17, Siouxie and the Banshees, the Spice Girls, Jamiroquai, the Libertines, Babyshambles, Bloc Party, Coldplay and Amy Winehouse.[211] London is also a centre for urban music. In particular the genres UK garage, drum and bass, dubstep and grime evolved in the city from the foreign genres of hip hop and reggae, alongside local drum and bass. Black music station BBC 1Xtra was set up to support the rise of homegrown urban music both in London and the rest of the UK.
In the 80's London was the main city in the new wave of British heavy metal era which made bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead famous all around the world.
Sports
Main article: Sport in London
Wembley Stadium is home to English football and is the world's most expensive stadium.[212]
London has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948.[213][214] In July 2005 London was chosen to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, which will make it the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times.[15] London was also the host of the British Empire Games in 1934.[215] London's most popular sport is football and it has thirteen League football clubs, including five in the Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.[216]
London also has four rugby union teams in the Guinness Premiership (London Irish, Saracens, Wasps and Harlequins), although only the Harlequins play in London (all the other three now play outside Greater London, although Saracens still play within the M25).[217] The other professional rugby union team in the city is second division's club London Welsh, that plays home matches in the city. The city has other very traditional rugby union clubs, famously London Scottish, Richmond F.C., Rosslyn Park F.C. and Blackheath F.C..
There are currently two professional rugby league clubs in London – Harlequins Rugby League who play in the European Super League at The Stoop and the Championship One side the London Skolars (based in Wood Green, London Borough of Haringey).
From 1924, the original Wembley Stadium was the home of the English national football team, and served as the venue for the FA Cup final as well as rugby league's Challenge Cup final.[218] The new Wembley Stadium serves exactly the same purposes and has a capacity of 90,000.[219] Twickenham Stadium in south-west London is the national rugby union stadium, and has a capacity of 84,000 now that the new south stand has been completed.[220]
Cricket in London is served by two Test cricket grounds Lord's (home of Middlesex C.C.C) in St John's Wood[221] and the Oval (home of Surrey C.C.C) in Kennington.[222] Lord's has hosted four finals of the cricket world cups. One of London's best-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon.[223] Other key events are the annual mass-participation London Marathon which sees some 35,000 runners attempt a 26.2 miles (42.2 km) course around the city,[224] and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake.[225
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London
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This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. For the city in Canada, see London, Ontario. For other uses, see London (disambiguation).
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London
— City —
From upper left: City of London, Tower Bridge and London Eye, Houses of Parliament
Nickname(s): The Big Smoke
London region in the United Kingdom
Coordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°7′29″W / 51.50806°N 0.12472°W / 51.50806; -0.12472Coordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°7′29″W / 51.50806°N 0.12472°W / 51.50806; -0.12472
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
Region London
Ceremonial counties City and Greater London
Districts City and 32 boroughs
Settled by Romans as Londinium c. AD 43
Headquarters City Hall
Government
- Regional authority Greater London Authority
- Regional assembly London Assembly
- Mayor of London Boris Johnson
- UK Parliament
- London Assembly
- European Parliament 74 constituencies
14 constituencies
London constituency
Area
- London 659 sq mi (1,706.8 km2)
Elevation[1] 79 ft (24 m)
Population (July 2007 est.)[2][3][4]
- London 7,556,900
- Density 12,331/sq mi (4,761/km2)
- Urban 8,278,251
- Metro 12,300,000 to 13,945,000
- Demonym Londoner
- Ethnicity
(June 2006 estimates)[5]
Ethnic groups[show]
69.4% White
58.0% White British
2.5% White Irish
8.9% White Other
3.5% Mixed
1.0% Black Caribbean & White
0.5% Black African & White
1.0% South Asian & White
1.0% Other mixed
13.1% South Asian
6.5% Indian
2.3% Pakistani
2.3% Bangladeshi
2.0% Other South Asian
10.7% Black
5.5% Black African
4.3% Black Caribbean
0.8% Other Black
3.4% East Asian or Other
1.5% Chinese
1.9% Other
Time zone GMT (UTC0)
- Summer (DST) BST (UTC+1)
Postcode district(s) Various
Area code(s) 020 and others
Website http://www.london.gov.uk/
London (play /ˈlʌndən/) is the capital of England and the United Kingdom (UK). It is Britain's largest and most populous metropolitan area. A major settlement for two millennia, its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium.[6] London's core, the ancient City of London, or the 'square mile' financial district, largely retains its mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core.[7] In modern times, the bulk of this conurbation forms the London region[8] and the Greater London administrative area,[9][note 1] with its own elected mayor and assembly.[10]
London is a leading global city being the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City,[11][12][13] and has the largest city GDP in Europe.[14] Central London is home to the headquarters of most of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and more than 100 of Europe's 500 largest. London's influence in politics, finance, education, entertainment, media, fashion, the arts and culture in general contributes to its global position. It is a major tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors. London hosted the 1908 and 1948 Summer Olympics and will host the 2012 Summer Olympics.[15] London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory marks the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and GMT).[16]
London has a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, and more than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries.[17] In July 2007 it had an official population of 7,556,900 within the boundaries of Greater London,[18] making it the most populous municipality in the European Union.[19] The Greater London Urban Area (the second largest in the EU) has a population of 8,278,251.[2] while the metropolitan area (the largest in the EU) has an estimated total population of between 12 million[3] and 14 million.[4] The London Underground network, administered by Transport for London, is the oldest underground railway network in the world[20] and the most extensive after the Shanghai Metro.[21] London Heathrow Airport is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers[22] and the airspace is the busiest of any urban centre in the world.[23]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
o 1.1 Toponomy
o 1.2 Prehistory and antiquity
o 1.3 Middle Ages
o 1.4 Early modern
o 1.5 Late modern and contemporary
* 2 Governance
o 2.1 Local government
o 2.2 National government
* 3 Geography
o 3.1 Scope
o 3.2 Status
o 3.3 Topography
o 3.4 Climate
o 3.5 Districts
o 3.6 Architecture
o 3.7 Parks and gardens
* 4 Demography
o 4.1 Ethnic groups
o 4.2 Religion
* 5 Economy
* 6 Transport
o 6.1 Railways
o 6.2 Buses and trams
o 6.3 Air
o 6.4 Roads
* 7 Education
* 8 Culture
o 8.1 Accent
o 8.2 Leisure and entertainment
o 8.3 Literature, film and television
o 8.4 Museums and art galleries
o 8.5 Music
* 9 Sports
* 10 Twin cities
* 11 Notes
* 12 References
o 12.1 Footnotes
o 12.2 Bibliography
* 13 External links
History
Main article: History of London
Toponomy
Wide river flanked by tall buildings on either side. There are a number of small boats and one large battleship in the centre of the river. The rooftop dome of St Paul's Cathedral is visible in the skyline to the right
The name London may derive from the River Thames.
The etymology of London is uncertain.[24] It is an ancient name and can be found in sources from the 2nd century. It is recorded c. 121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin.[24] The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae.[24] The name is described as originating from King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.[25]
From 1899 it was commonly accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos; this explanation has since been rejected.[24] Richard Coates put forward an explanation in 1998 that it is derived from the pre-Celtic Old European *(p)lowonida, meaning 'river too wide to ford', and suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London; from this, the settlement gained the Celtic form of its name, *Lowonidonjon.[26] Until 1889 the name officially only applied to the City of London but since then it has also referred to the County of London and now Greater London.[7]
Prehistory and antiquity
In 1300 the City was still confined within the Roman walls.
Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans in 43 AD.[27] This lasted for just seventeen years and around 61, the Iceni tribe led by Queen Boudica stormed it, burning it to the ground.[28] The next, heavily planned incarnation of the city prospered and superseded Colchester as the capital of the Roman province of Britannia in 100. At its height during the 2nd century, Roman London had a population of around 60,000. By the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new settlement called Lundenwic over a mile (2 km) upstream from the old Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden.[29]
It is likely that there was a harbour at the mouth of the River Fleet for fishing and trading, and this trading grew, until the city was overcome by the Vikings and forced to move east, back to the location of the Roman Londinium, in order to use its walls for protection.[30] Viking attacks continued to increase, until 886 when Alfred the Great recaptured London and made peace with the Danish leader, Guthrum.[31] The original Saxon city of Lundenwic became Ealdwic ("old city"), a name surviving to the present day as Aldwych, which is in the modern City of Westminster.[32]
Middle Ages
Westminster Abbey is one of London's oldest and most important buildings as seen in this painting (Canaletto, 1749 A.D.) and a World Heritage Site.
Canute took control of the English throne in 1016, controlling the city and country until 1035, when his death resulted in a reversion to Saxon control under his pious stepson Edward the Confessor, who re-founded Westminster Abbey and the adjacent Palace of Westminster.[33] By this time, London had become the largest and most prosperous city in England, although the official seat of government was still at Winchester. Following a victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, the then Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.[34] William granted the citizens of London special privileges, while building what is now known as the Tower of London, in the southeast corner of the city, to keep them under control.[35]
In 1097, William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. The hall became the basis of a new Palace of Westminster, the prime royal residence throughout the Middle Ages.[36][37] Westminster became the seat of the royal court and government, while its distinct neighbour, the City of London, was a centre of trade and commerce and flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London. In 1100 its population was around 18,000; by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000.[38]
There was an increasing population of Jews,[39] until the edict of King Edward I in 1290, expelled them from England.[39] Disaster struck during the Black Death in the mid-14th century, when London lost nearly a third of its population.[40] Apart from the invasion during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381,[41] London remained relatively untouched by the various civil wars during the Middle Ages.[42]
Early modern
The Great Fire of London destroyed many parts of the city in 1666.
During the Tudor period the Reformation produced a gradual shift to Protestantism, with much of London passing from church to private ownership.[43] Mercantilism grew and monopoly trading companies such as the British East India Company were established, with trade expanding to the New World. London became the principal North Sea port, with migrants arriving from England and abroad. The population rose from an estimated 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605.[43]
In the 16th century William Shakespeare and his contemporaries lived in London at a time of hostility to the development of the theatre. By the end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still very compact. There was an assassination attempt on James I in Westminster, through the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605.[44] London was plagued by disease in the early 17th century,[45] culminating in the Great Plague of 1665–1666, which killed up to 100,000 people, or a fifth of the population.[46][47]
The Great Fire of London broke out in 1666 in Pudding Lane in the city and quickly swept through the wooden buildings.[47] Rebuilding took over ten years and was supervised by Robert Hooke[48][49][50] as Surveyor of London.[51] In 1708 Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral was completed. During the Georgian era new districts such as Mayfair were formed in the west; and new bridges over the Thames encouraged development in South London. In the east, the Port of London expanded downstream.
In 1762 George III acquired Buckingham House and it was enlarged over the next 75 years. During the 18th century, London was dogged by crime and the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police force.[52] In total, more than 200 offenses were punishable by death,[53] and women and children were hanged for petty theft.[54] Over 74% of children born in London died before they were five.[55] The coffee house became a popular place to debate ideas, with growing literacy and the development of the printing press making news widely available; and Fleet Street became the centre of the British press.
“ You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. ”
—Samuel Johnson[56]
Late modern and contemporary
A London street hit during the Blitz of World War II.
London was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925.[57] London's overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics,[58] claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866.[59] Rising traffic congestion led to the creation of the world's first local urban rail network. The Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion. It was replaced in 1889 by the London County Council, London's first elected city-wide administration. The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and destroyed large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. Immediately after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley Stadium, at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war.
In 1951 the Festival of Britain was held on the South Bank. The Great Smog of 1952 led to the Clean Air Act 1956, which ended the "pea-souper" fogs for which London had been notorious. From the 1950s onwards, London became home to a large number of immigrants, largely from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, making London one of the most diverse cities in Europe.
Starting in the mid-1960s, London became a centre for the worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London subculture associated with Carnaby Street. The role of trendsetter was revived during the punk era. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded to take into account the growth of the urban area and a new Greater London Council was created. During The Troubles in Northern Ireland, London was subjected to terrorist attacks by the Provisional IRA. Racial inequality was highlighted by the 1981 Brixton riot. Greater London's population declined steadily in the decades after World War II, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. The principal ports for London moved downstream to Felixstowe and Tilbury, with the London Docklands area becoming a focus for regeneration.
The Thames Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect London against tidal surges from the North Sea. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, which left London as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration. In 2000, London-wide government was restored, with the creation of the Greater London Authority. To celebrate the start of the 21st century, the Millennium Dome, London Eye and Millenium Bridge were constructed. On 7 July 2005, several London Underground trains and a bus were bombed in a series of terrorist attacks.[60]
Governance
Local government
Main articles: Local government in London, History of local government in London, and List of heads of London government
The Greater London Authority is based in City Hall, Southwark
The administration of London is formed of two tiers—a city-wide, strategic tier and a local tier. City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller authorities.[61] The GLA consists of two elected components; the Mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, who scrutinise the mayor's decisions and can accept or reject his budget proposals each year.
The headquarters of the GLA is City Hall, Southwark; the current mayor is Boris Johnson. The mayor's statutory planning strategy is published as the London Plan, which as of mid-2009 is being revised, for final publication in 2011. The local authorities are the councils of the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation.[62] They are responsible for most local services, such as local planning, schools, social services, local roads and refuse collection. Certain functions, such as waste management, a provided through joint arrangements.
Policing in Greater London, with the exception of the City of London, is provided by the Metropolitan Police Force, overseen by the Metropolitan Police Authority. The City of London has its own police force – the City of London Police.[63] The British Transport Police are responsible for police services on National Rail and London Underground services in the capital.[64]
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for Greater London. It is run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and is the third-largest fire service in the world.[65] National Health Service ambulance services are provided by the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, the largest free at the point of use emergency ambulance service in the world.[66] Her Majesty's Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution operate on the River Thames.[67][68]
National government
London is an important city because the Government of the United Kingdom is located around the Palace of Westminster. Many government departments are located close to Parliament, particularly along Whitehall, including the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street.[69] The British Parliament is often referred to as the "Mother of Parliaments" (although this sobriquet was first applied to England itself by John Bright)[70] because it has been the model for most other parliamentary systems, and its Acts have created many other parliaments.
Geography
Main article: Geography of London
Scope
Map of Central London
Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London. The small, ancient City of London at its core once contained the whole settlement, but as the urban area grew the City Corporation resisted attempts to amalgamate it with its suburbs, causing "London" to be defined in a number ways for different purposes; and the situation was once open to legal debate.[71] Forty percent of Greater London is covered by the London post town, within which 'LONDON' forms part of postal addresses.[72][73]
The London telephone area code (020) covers a larger area, similar in size to Greater London, although some outer districts are omitted and some places just outside are included. The area within the orbital M25 motorway is normally what is referred to as 'London'.[74] and the Greater London boundary has been aligned to it in places.[75]
Outward urban expansion is now prevented by a metropolitan green belt,[76] although the built-up area extends beyond the boundary in places, resulting in a separately defined Greater London Urban Area. Beyond this is the vast London commuter belt.[77] Greater London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London.[78] The city is split by the River Thames into North and South, with an informal Central London area in its interior. The coordinates of the nominal centre of London, traditionally considered to be the original Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, are approximately 51°30′29″N 00°07′29″W / 51.50806°N 0.12472°W / 51.50806; -0.12472.[79]
Status
Within London, both the City of London and the City of Westminster have city status and both the City of London and the remainder of Greater London are the ceremonial counties.[80] The current area of Greater London has incorporated areas that were once part of the counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.[81] London's status as the capital of England, and later the United Kingdom, has never been granted or confirmed officially—by statute or in written form.[note 2]
Its position was formed through constitutional convention, making its status as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten constitution. The capital of England was moved to London from Winchester as the Palace of Westminster developed in the 12th and 13th centuries to become the permanent location of the royal court, and thus the political capital of the nation.[85] More recently, Greater London has been defined as a region of England and in this context known as London.[8]
Topography
West and central London seen from SPOT satellite
Greater London covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres (610 sq mi), an area which had a population of 7,172,036 in 2001 and a population density of 4,542 people per square kilometre. A larger area, referred to as the London Metropolitan Region or the London Metropolitan Agglomeration covers an area of 8,382 square kilometres (3,236 sq mi) has a population of 12,653,500 and a population density of 1,510 people per square kilometre.[86] Modern London stands athwart the Thames, its primary geographical feature, a navigable river which crosses the city from the south-west to the east. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills including Parliament Hill, Addington Hills, and Primrose Hill. The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river with extensive marshlands; at high tide, its shores reached five times their present width.[87]
Since the Victorian era the Thames has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding.[88] The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level by the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound.[89]
In 1974, a decade of work began on the construction of the Thames Barrier across the Thames at Woolwich to deal with this threat. While the barrier is expected to function as designed until roughly 2070, concepts for its future enlargement or redesign are already being discussed.[90]
Climate
Main article: Climate of the United Kingdom
London has a temperate marine climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb), like much of the British Isles, so the city rarely sees extremely high or low temperatures. Summers are warm with a July high of 22.8 °C (73.0 °F) and low of 14.0 °C (57.2 °F).[91] But temperatures can exceed 25 °C (77 °F) on many days, and in almost every year they exceed 30 °C (86 °F) on some days. The highest temperature ever recorded was 38 °C (100 °F) [92] on 10 August 2003 during the 2003 European heat wave.
Winters in London are chilly, but rarely below freezing (although in recent years this has been questionable) with daytime highs around 5 °C (41 °F) – 8 °C (46 °F), while spring has mild days and cool evenings.[92] The lowest ever recorded temperature was −21.1 °C (−6 °F) in January 1795. Autumn is usually mild but often unsettled as colder air from the arctic and warmer air from the tropics meet. London is a relatively dry city with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year, with an average of 583.6 millimetres (22.98 in) every year. This is lower than many cities such as New York, Paris, Sydney and around the same as San Francisco and even Jerusalem.
London receives an average of only 1461 hours of sunshine every year.[91]
Snow is relatively uncommon, particularly because heat from the urban area can make London up to 5 °C (9 °F) warmer than the surrounding areas in winter. Some snowfall, however, is usually seen up to a few times a year. The February 2009 Great Britain and Ireland snowfall was the heaviest London had seen for 18 years.
London is in USDA Hardiness zone 9, and AHS Heat Zone 2.[93] Although extreme weather does not happen very often, deep depressions have been known to pass through like the Great Storm of 1987. Tornados are rare, but the Kensal Green area of the city was hit by the 2006 London tornado causing £10 million of damage and injuring 6 people.
In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, London was noted for its dense fogs and smogs. Following the deadly Great Smog of 1952, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, leading to the decline of such severe pollution in the capital.[94] In 2010, the City of London was ranked as one of the most polluted places in Europe.[95]
[hide]Climate data for London (Greenwich)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 7.9
(46.2) 8.2
(46.8) 10.9
(51.6) 13.3
(55.9) 17.2
(63) 20.2
(68.4) 22.8
(73) 22.6
(72.7) 19.3
(66.7) 15.2
(59.4) 10.9
(51.6) 8.8
(47.8) 14.8
(58.6)
Average low °C (°F) 2.4
(36.3) 2.2
(36) 3.8
(38.8) 5.2
(41.4) 8.0
(46.4) 11.1
(52) 13.6
(56.5) 13.3
(55.9) 10.9
(51.6) 8.0
(46.4) 4.8
(40.6) 3.3
(37.9) 7.2
(45)
Precipitation mm (inches) 51.9
(2.043) 34.0
(1.339) 42.0
(1.654) 45.2
(1.78) 47.2
(1.858) 53.0
(2.087) 38.3
(1.508) 47.3
(1.862) 56.9
(2.24) 61.5
(2.421) 52.3
(2.059) 54.0
(2.126) 583.6
(22.976)
Avg. rainy days 10.9 8.1 9.8 9.3 8.5 8.4 7.0 7.2 8.7 9.3 9.3 10.1 106.6
Sunshine hours 45.9 66.1 103.2 147.0 185.4 180.6 190.3 194.4 139.2 109.7 60.6 37.8 1,461.0
Source: Met Office [91] 2010-04-16
Districts
Main article: List of districts of London
The City of London and the 32 London boroughs
1. City of London
2. City of Westminster
3. Kensington and Chelsea
4. Hammersmith and Fulham
5. Wandsworth
6. Lambeth
7. Southwark
8. Tower Hamlets
9. Hackney
10. Islington
11. Camden
12. Brent
13. Ealing
14. Hounslow
15. Richmond
16. Kingston
17. Merton
London-boroughs.svg
About this image
18. Sutton
19. Croydon
20. Bromley
21. Lewisham
22. Greenwich
23. Bexley
24. Havering
25. Barking and Dagenham
26. Redbridge
27. Newham
28. Waltham Forest
29. Haringey
30. Enfield
31. Barnet
32. Harrow
33. Hillingdon
London's vast urban area is often described using a set of district names, such as Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Wembley and Whitechapel. These are either informal designations, reflect the names of villages that have been absorbed by sprawl, or are superseded administrative units such as parishes or former boroughs.
Such names have remained in use through tradition, each referring to a local area with its own distinctive character, but without current official boundaries. Since 1965 Greater London has been divided into 32 London boroughs in addition to the ancient City of London.[96][97] The City of London is the main financial district[98] and Canary Wharf has recently developed into a new financial and commercial hub, in the Docklands to the east.
The West End is London's main entertainment and shopping district, attracting tourists.[99] West London includes expensive residential areas where properties can sell for tens of millions of pounds.[100] The average price for properties in Kensington and Chelsea is £894,000 with similar average outlay in most of Central London.[101]
The East End is the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London.[102] The surrounding East London area saw much of London's early industrial development; now, brownfield sites throughout the area are being redeveloped as part of the Thames Gateway including the London Riverside and Lower Lea Valley, which is being developed into the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics.[102]
Architecture
Main articles: Architecture of London and List of tallest structures in London
London is experiencing a growth in new high rise development in part due to the advent of the Olympics in 2012
London's architecture ranges from very old to modern
London's buildings are too diverse to be characterised by any particular architectural style, having been built over a long period of time. Notable recent buildings are the 1980s skyscraper Tower 42, the Lloyd's building with services running along the outside of the structure, and the 2004 Swiss Re building, known as "the Gherkin". London's generally low-rise nature makes these skyscrapers and others such as One Canada Square and its neighbours at Canary Wharf and the BT Tower in Fitzrovia very noticeable from a distance.
High-rise development is restricted at certain sites if it would obstruct protected views of St. Paul's Cathedral. Nevertheless, there are plans for more skyscrapers in Central London (see Tall buildings in London), including the 72-storey "Shard of Glass", which will be one of the tallest buildings in Europe. A 'development boom' has started largely in response to the opening of the Olympic Games in 2012, with numerous high-rises such as Bishopsgate Tower and Heron Tower planned for completion before the opening ceremony .[103] Older buildings are mainly brick built, most commonly the yellow London stock brick or a warm orange-red variety, often decorated with carvings and white plaster mouldings.[104]
Many grand houses and public buildings, such as the National Gallery, are constructed from Portland stone. Some areas of the city, particularly those just west of the centre, are characterised by white stucco or whitewashed buildings. Few structures pre-date 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. Wren's late 17th century churches and the financial institutions of the 18th and 19th centuries such as the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England, to the early 20th century Old Bailey and the 1960s Barbican Estate form part of the varied architectural heritage.
Buckingham Palace is the official residence of the British monarch
The disused, but soon to be rejuvenated, 1939 Battersea Power Station by the river in the southwest is a local landmark, while some railway termini are excellent examples of Victorian architecture, most notably St Pancras and Paddington.[105] The density of London varies, with high employment density in the central area, high residential densities in inner London and lower densities in the suburbs.
In the dense areas, most of the concentration is achieved with medium- and high-rise buildings. London's skyscrapers such as "Gherkin", Tower 42, the Broadgate Tower and One Canada Square are usually found in the two financial districts, the City of London and Canary Wharf. Other notable modern buildings include City Hall in Southwark with its distinctive oval shape,[106] and the British Library in Somers Town/Kings Cross. What was formerly the Millennium Dome, located by the Thames to the east of Canary Wharf, is now used as an entertainment venue known as The O2.
The Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area while commemorating the Great Fire of London, which originated nearby. Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, at the north and south ends of Park Lane respectively, have royal connections, as do the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column is a nationally recognised monument in Trafalgar Square, one of the focal points of the centre.
Parks and gardens
Main articles: Parks and open spaces in London and Royal Parks of London
The largest parks in the central area of London are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park, its neighbour Kensington Gardens at the western edge of Central London and Regent's Park on the northern edge.[107] Regent's Park contains London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo, and is located near the tourist attraction of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum.[108][109]
St. James's Park
Closer to central London are the smaller Royal Parks of Green Park and St. James's Park.[110] Hyde Park in particular is popular for sports and sometimes hosts open-air concerts. A number of large parks lie outside the city centre, including the remaining Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the south-east[111] and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to the south-west,[112][113] as well as Victoria Park, East London to the east. Primrose Hill to the north of Regent's Park is a popular spot to view the city skyline.
Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist, including the 320-hectare (790-acre) Hampstead Heath of North London.[114] This incorporates Kenwood House, the former stately home and a popular location in the summer months where classical musical concerts are held by the lake, attracting thousands of people every weekend to enjoy the music, scenery and fireworks.[115]
Demography
Main article: Demography of London
Country of Birth[116] Population
(2001)
United Kingdom United Kingdom 5,230,155
India India 172,162
Republic of Ireland Republic of Ireland 157,285
Bangladesh Bangladesh 84,565
Jamaica Jamaica 80,319
Nigeria Nigeria 68,907
Pakistan Pakistan 66,658
Kenya Kenya 66,311
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka 49,932
Ghana Ghana 46,513
Cyprus Cyprus 45,888
South Africa South Africa 45,506
United States United States 44,622
Australia Australia 41,488
Germany Germany 39,818
Turkey Turkey 39,128
Italy Italy 38,694
France France 38,130
Somalia Somalia 33,831
Uganda Uganda 32,082
New Zealand New Zealand 27,494
With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was for some time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the most populous city in the world until overtaken by New York in 1925. Its population peaked at 8,615,245 in 1939 immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War. There were an estimated 7,556,900 official residents in Greater London as of mid-2007.[18]
However, London's continuous urban area extends beyond the borders of Greater London and was home to 8,278,251 people in 2001,[2] while its wider metropolitan area has a population of between 12 and 14 million depending on the definition used.[117] According to Eurostat, London is the most populous city and metropolitan area of the European Union and the second most populous in Europe (or third if Istanbul is included). During the period 1991–2001 a net 726,000 immigrants arrived in London.[118]
The region covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres (610 sq mi). The population density is 4,542 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,760 /sq mi),[119] more than ten times that of any other British region.[120] In terms of population, London is the 25th largest city and the 18th largest metropolitan region in the world. It is also ranked 4th in the world in number of billionaires (United States Dollars) residing in the city.[121] London ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the world, alongside Tokyo and Moscow.[122]
Ethnic groups
Main article: Ethnic groups in London
According to the Office for National Statistics, based on 2006 estimates, 69.4 per cent of the 7.5 million inhabitants of London were White, with 58 per cent White British, 2.5 per cent White Irish and 8.9 per cent classified as Other White. Some 13.1 per cent are of South Asian descent, with Indians making up 6.5 per cent of London's population, followed by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis at 2.3 per cent each. 2 per cent are categorised as "Other Asian".
10.7 per cent of London's population are Black, with around 5.5 per cent being Black African, 4.3 per cent as Black Caribbean and 0.7 per cent as "Other Black". 3.5 per cent of Londoners are of mixed race; 1.5 per cent are Chinese; and 1.9 per cent belong to another ethnic group.[5] As of 2008, 40% of London's total population was from an ethnic minority group.[123]
Across London, Black and Asian children outnumber White British children by about six to four in state schools.[124] In January 2005, a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity claimed that there were more than 300 languages spoken and more than 50 non-indigenous communities which have a population of more than 10,000 in London.[125] Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, as of 2006, London's foreign-born population is 2,288,000 (31%), up from 1,630,000 in 1997.[126]
The 2001 census showed that 27.1% of Greater London's population were born outside the UK, and a slightly higher proportion were classed as non-white.[127] The table to the right shows the 'Country of Birth' of London residents in 2001, the date of the last UK Census. (Top 21).[116] A portion of the German-born population are likely to be British nationals born to parents serving in the British Armed Forces in Germany.[128]
Religion
St. Paul's Cathedral
Main article: Religion in London
Religion in London
Religion Percent
Christian
58.2%
No religion
15.8%
Religion not stated
8.7%
Muslim
8.5%
Hindu
4.1%
Jewish
2.1%
Sikh
1.5%
Buddhist
0.8%
Pagan
0.3%
Other
0.2%
The majority of Londoners – 58.2% – identify themselves as Christians.[129] This is followed by those of no religion (15.8%), Muslims (8.5%), Hindus (4.1%), Jews (2.1%), Sikhs (1.5%), Buddhists (0.8%), Pagans/Wiccans (0.3%) and other (0.2%), though 8.7% of people did not answer this question in the 2001 Census.[129]
London has traditionally been Christian, and has a large number of churches, particularly in the City of London. The well-known St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres,[130] while the Archbishop of Canterbury, principal bishop of the Church of England and worldwide Anglican Communion, has his main residence at Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth.[131]
Important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey.[132] The Abbey is not to be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, which is the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales.[133] Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches, observance is very low within the Anglican denomination. Church attendance continues on a long, slow, steady decline, according to Church of England statistics.[134]
Baitul Futuh in London, the largest mosque in Western Europe[135]
London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities. Many Muslims live in Tower Hamlets and Newham; the most important Muslim edifice is London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park.[136] Following the oil boom, increasing numbers of wealthy Middle-Eastern Muslims have based themselves around Mayfair and Knightsbridge in west London.[137][138] London is home to the largest mosque in western Europe, the Baitul Futuh Mosque, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
London's large Hindu community is found in the north-western boroughs of Harrow and Brent, the latter of which is home to one of Europe's largest Hindu temples, Neasden Temple.[139] Sikh communities are located in East and West London, which is also home to the largest Sikh temple in the world outside India.[140]
The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant Jewish communities in Stamford Hill, Stanmore, Golders Green, Hampstead, Hendon and Edgware in North London.[citation needed] Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue has the largest membership of any single Orthodox synagogue in the whole of Europe, overtaking Ilford synagogue (also in London) in 1998.[141] The community set up the London Jewish Forum in 2007 in response to the growing significance of devolved London Government.[142]
Economy
Main articles: Economy of London, Media in London, and Tourism in London
The City of London is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York City.[11][12][13]
London generates approximately 20% of the UK's GDP[143] (or $446 billion in 2005); while the economy of the London metropolitan area—the largest in Europe—generates approximately 30% of the UK's GDP (or an estimated $669 billion in 2005).[144] London is one of the pre-eminent financial centres of the world and vies with New York City as the most important location for international finance.[145][146]
London's largest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. Around 325,000 people were employed in financial services in London until mid-2007. London has over 480 overseas banks, more than any other city in the world. Due to its prominent global role, London's economy has been affected by the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. The City of London estimates that 70,000 jobs in finance will be cut within a year.[147]
Canary Wharf is the home to some of the United Kingdom's tallest buildings
More than half of the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies are headquartered in Central London. Over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area, and 75% of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London.[148] The City of London is home to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, and Lloyds of London insurance market. Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in London and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector.[149] The BBC is a significant employer, while other broadcasters also have headquarters around the City. Many national newspapers are edited in London.
Tourism is one of London's prime industries and employs the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003,[150] while annual expenditure by tourists is around £15 billion.[151] London attracts almost 15 million international visitors per year, making it the world's second most visited city[152] after Paris.[153] London attracts 27 million overnight-stay visitors every year.[154] The Port of London is the second-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 53 million tonnes of cargo each year.[155]
Transport
Portal-puzzle.svg London Transport portal
Main article: Transport in London
Central line - Bethnal Green.ogg
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The London Underground, oldest and largest metro system in the world,[156] known as The Tube, because of the shape of the tunnels
Transport is one of the four main areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London,[157] however the mayor's financial control does not extend to the longer distance rail network that enters London. In 2007 he assumed responsibility for some local lines, which now form the London Overground network, adding to the existing responsibility for the London Underground, trams and buses. The public transport network is administered by Transport for London (TfL) and is one of the most extensive in the world. Cycling is an increasingly popular way to get around London. The London Cycling Campaign lobbies for better provision.[158]
The lines that formed the London Underground, as well as trams and buses, became part of an integrated transport system in 1933 when the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) or London Transport was created. Transport for London (TfL), is now the statutory corporation responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London, and is run by a board and a commissioner appointed by the Mayor of London.[159]
Railways
St Pancras International is served by direct high speed trains to European destinations such as Paris and Brussels
The London Underground — all of which is now commonly referred to as the Tube, though originally this designation referred only to the deep-level lines, as distinct from the sub-surface lines — is the oldest,[20] and second longest[21] metro system in the world, dating from 1863. The system serves 270 stations[160] and was formed from several private companies, including the world's first underground electric line, the City and South London Railway.[161]
Over three million journeys a day are made on the Underground network, over 1 billion journeys each year.[162][163] An investment programme is attempting to address congestion and reliability problems, including £7 billion (€10 billion) of improvements planned for the Olympics.[164] London has been commended as the city with the best public transport.[165] The Docklands Light Railway, which opened in 1987, is a second, more local metro system using smaller and lighter tram-type vehicles serving Docklands and Greenwich.
There is an extensive above-ground suburban railway network, particularly in South London, which has fewer Underground lines. London houses Britain's busiest station – Waterloo with over 184 millon people using the interchange station complex (which includes Waterloo East station) each year. The stations have services to South East & South West London, and also parts of South East and South West England.[166][167] Most rail lines terminate around the centre of London, running into fourteen terminal stations with the exception of the Thameslink trains connecting Bedford in the north and Brighton in the south via Luton and Gatwick Airports.[168]
Since 2007 High-speed Eurostar trains link St Pancras International with Lille, Paris, and Brussels. Journey times to Paris and Brussels of 2h 15 and 1h 51 respectively make London closer to continental Europe than the rest of Britain by virtue of the High Speed 1 rail link to the Channel Tunnel[169] while the first high speed domestic trains started in June 2009 linking Kent to London.[170]
Buses and trams
The red double-decker bus is an iconic symbol of London
London's bus network is one of the largest in the world, running 24 hours a day, with 8,000 buses, 700 bus routes, and over 6 million passenger journeys made every weekday. In 2003, the network's ridership was estimated at over 1.5 billion passenger trips per annum, more than the Underground.[171] Around £850 million is taken in revenue each year. London has the largest wheelchair accessible network in the world[172] and, from the 3rd quarter of 2007, became more accessible to hearing and visually impaired passengers as audio-visual announcements were introduced. The distinctive red double-decker buses are internationally recognised, and are a trademark of London transport along with black cabs and the Tube.[173][174]
London has a modern tram network, known as Tramlink, based in Croydon in South London. The network has 39 stops, three routes and carried 26.5 million people in 2008. Since June 2008 Transport for London has completely owned Tramlink and plans to spend £54m by 2015 on maintenance, renewals, upgrades and capacity enhancements. Since April 2009 all trams have been refurbished.[175]
Air
London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic [176]
London is a major international air transport hub with the largest city airspace in the world. Eight airports use the word London in their name, but most traffic passes through only five. London Heathrow Airport, in Hillingdon, West London, is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic, and is the major hub of the nation's flag carrier, British Airways.[176] In March 2008 its fifth terminal was opened,[177] and plans are already being considered for a sixth terminal.[178] Similar traffic, with the addition of some low-cost short-haul flights, is also handled at London Gatwick Airport, located south of London in West Sussex.[179]
Stansted Airport, situated north east of London in Essex, is the main UK hub for Ryanair and Luton Airport to the north of London in Bedfordshire, caters mostly for low-cost short-haul flights.[180][181] London City Airport, the smallest and most central airport, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full service short-haul scheduled flights and considerable business jet traffic.[182]
Roads
Traffic congestion in Central London
Although the majority of journeys involving Central London are made by public transport, car travel is common in the suburbs. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs), and the outer orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes—but very few motorways penetrate into inner London. The M25 is the longest ring-road motorway in the world at 195.5 km (121.5 mi) long.[183]
A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled in the early 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of congested Central London.[184][185] Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a vastly reduced season pass which is renewed monthly and is cheaper than a corresponding bus fare.[186] London is notorious for its traffic congestion, with the M25 motorway the busiest stretch in the country. The average speed of a car in the rush hour is 10.6 mph.[187]
Education
Main article: Education in London
University College London is part of the University of London
Home to a range of universities, colleges and schools, London has a student population of about 378,000 and is a centre of research and development. Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England—comprehensive schooling. With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the United Kingdom and in Europe.[188] It comprises 20 colleges as well as several smaller institutes each with a high degree of autonomy.
Constituent colleges have their own admissions procedures, and are effectively universities in their own right, although most degrees are awarded by the University of London rather than the individual colleges. Its constituents include multi-disciplinary colleges such as Royal Holloway, Birkbeck, UCL,[189] King's, Goldsmiths, Queen Mary,[190] and more specialised institutions such as the London School of Pharmacy,[191] London School of Economics,[192] SOAS,[193] the Royal Academy of Music, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,[194] the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Institute of Education.[195]
University College London and Imperial College London have been ranked among the top ten universities in the world by Times Higher Education: in 2009 UCL was ranked the 4th best and Imperial the 5th best university in the world.[196] In addition, the London School of Economics has been described as the world‘s leading social science institution for teaching and research, and has the most international student body of any university in the world today.[197]
Brunel University is one of the many universities in London
A number of colleges are dedicated to the fine arts, including the Royal College of Music, Royal College of Art, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. London's other universities, such as Brunel University, City University, London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University, University of East London, University of the Arts London, University of Westminster, Kingston University and London South Bank University are not part of the University of London but are still leaders in their field and popular choices among students both nationally and internationally. Some were polytechnics until they were granted university status in 1992, and others which were founded much earlier. Imperial College London left the federal University of London in 2007.
Since the merger of University of North London and London Guildhall University in 2003, London Metropolitan University is the largest unitary university in the capital, with over 34,000 students from 155 countries.[198] London is also known globally for its business education, harbouring several top-rated business schools: London Business School, Cass Business School and Imperial College Business School.[199] In addition there are three international universities: Schiller International University, Richmond University and Regent's College.
Culture
Main article: Culture of London
Accent
The London accent long ago acquired the Cockney label, and was similar to many accents of the South East of England, of which Cockney rhyming slang is a part. The accent of a 21st century 'Londoner' varies widely; what is becoming more and more common amongst the under 30s however is some fusion of Cockney, Received Pronunciation, and a whole array of 'ethnic' accents, in particular Caribbean, which form an accent labelled Multicultural London English (MLE).[200]
Leisure and entertainment
Main articles: List of annual events in London and West End theatre
The Queen's Theatre in the West End theatre district
Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements.[201] London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district (in Soho), and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops. The United Kingdom's Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Opera and English National Opera are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, the London Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall as well as touring the country.[202]
Islington's 1 mile (1.6 km) long Upper Street, extending northwards from the Angel, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK.[203] Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long—which makes it the longest shopping street in the UK and home to many shops and department stores including Selfridges.[204] Knightsbridge—home to the Harrods department store—lies just to the southwest.
London is home to designers Vivienne Westwood, Galliano, Stella McCartney, Manolo Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo among others; its renowned art and fashion schools make it an international centre of fashion alongside Paris, Milan and New York. London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane and the Chinese food restaurants of Chinatown.[205]
There are a variety of regular annual events in the city. The beginning of the year is celebrated with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, fireworks display at the London Eye, and the world's second largest street party, the Notting Hill Carnival is held during the late August Bank holiday each year. Traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the City, and June's Trooping the Colour, a formal military pageant performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and British armies to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday.[206]
Literature, film and television
Main articles: London in fiction, London in film, List of films set in London, and List of television shows set in London
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
London has been the setting for many works of literature. The literary centres of London have traditionally been hilly Hampstead and (since the early 20th century) Bloomsbury. Writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, noted for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has been a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London, and Virginia Woolf, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th century.[207]
William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based there, and some of his work—most notably his play The Alchemist—was set in the city.[207] A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague.[207] Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are Dickens' novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.[207] Modern writers pervasively influenced by the city include Peter Ackroyd, author of a "biography" of London, and Iain Sinclair, who writes in the genre of psychogeography.
London was the setting for the films Oliver Twist (1948), Peter Pan (1953), The Ladykillers (1955), The 101 Dalmatians (1961), Mary Poppins (1964), Blowup (1966), The Long Good Friday (1980), Secrets & Lies (1996), Notting Hill (1999), Match Point (2005), V For Vendetta (2005) and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2008). The television soap opera EastEnders, first broadcast in 1985, is also set in the city. London has played a significant role in the film industry, and has major studios at Ealing and a special effects and post-production community centred in Soho. Working Title Films has its headquarters in London.[208]
Museums and art galleries
Main article: List of museums in London
The Natural History Museum.
London is home to many museums, galleries, and other institutions, many of which are free of admission charges and are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The first of these to be established was the British Museum in Bloomsbury, in 1753. Originally containing antiquities, natural history specimens and the national library, the museum now has 7 million artefacts from around the globe. In 1824 the National Gallery was founded to house the British national collection of Western paintings; this now occupies a prominent position in Trafalgar Square. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the locale of South Kensington was developed as "Albertopolis", a cultural and scientific quarter. Three major national museums are located there: the Victoria and Albert Museum (for the applied arts), the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. The national gallery of British art is at Tate Britain, originally established as an annexe of the National Gallery in 1897. The Tate Gallery, as it was formerly known, also became a major centre for modern art; in 2000 this collection moved to Tate Modern, a new gallery housed in the former Bankside Power Station.
Music
London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and is home to major music corporations, such as EMI, as well as countless bands, musicians and industry professionals. London is home to many orchestras and concert halls such as the Barbican Arts Centre (principal base of the London Symphony Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Promenade Concerts).[202] London's two main opera houses are the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum Theatre.[202] London is home to the UK's largest pipe organ, at the Royal Albert Hall. Other significant instruments are found at the cathedrals and major churches. Several conservatoires are located within the city: Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music.
The Royal Albert Hall hosts concerts and musical events
London has numerous venues for rock and pop concerts, including large arenas such as Earls Court, Wembley Arena and the O2 Arena, as well as numerous mid-size venues, such as Brixton Academy, Hammersmith Apollo and the Shepherd's Bush Empire.[202] London also hosts many music festivals, including the O2 Wireless Festival. London is home to the first and original Hard Rock Cafe and the Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded many of their hits. In the 1970s and 1980s, musicians like David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Cat Stevens, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Madness, the Jam, the Small Faces, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, the Police, the Cure, Squeeze and Sade, took the world by storm, deriving their sound from the streets and rhythms vibrating through London.[209]
London was instrumental in the development of punk music,[210] with figures such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash,[209] and Vivienne Westwood all based in the city. More recent artists to emerge from the London music scene include Bananarama, Bush, East 17, Siouxie and the Banshees, the Spice Girls, Jamiroquai, the Libertines, Babyshambles, Bloc Party, Coldplay and Amy Winehouse.[211] London is also a centre for urban music. In particular the genres UK garage, drum and bass, dubstep and grime evolved in the city from the foreign genres of hip hop and reggae, alongside local drum and bass. Black music station BBC 1Xtra was set up to support the rise of homegrown urban music both in London and the rest of the UK.
In the 80's London was the main city in the new wave of British heavy metal era which made bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead famous all around the world.
Sports
Main article: Sport in London
Wembley Stadium is home to English football and is the world's most expensive stadium.[212]
London has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948.[213][214] In July 2005 London was chosen to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, which will make it the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times.[15] London was also the host of the British Empire Games in 1934.[215] London's most popular sport is football and it has thirteen League football clubs, including five in the Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United.[216]
London also has four rugby union teams in the Guinness Premiership (London Irish, Saracens, Wasps and Harlequins), although only the Harlequins play in London (all the other three now play outside Greater London, although Saracens still play within the M25).[217] The other professional rugby union team in the city is second division's club London Welsh, that plays home matches in the city. The city has other very traditional rugby union clubs, famously London Scottish, Richmond F.C., Rosslyn Park F.C. and Blackheath F.C..
There are currently two professional rugby league clubs in London – Harlequins Rugby League who play in the European Super League at The Stoop and the Championship One side the London Skolars (based in Wood Green, London Borough of Haringey).
From 1924, the original Wembley Stadium was the home of the English national football team, and served as the venue for the FA Cup final as well as rugby league's Challenge Cup final.[218] The new Wembley Stadium serves exactly the same purposes and has a capacity of 90,000.[219] Twickenham Stadium in south-west London is the national rugby union stadium, and has a capacity of 84,000 now that the new south stand has been completed.[220]
Cricket in London is served by two Test cricket grounds Lord's (home of Middlesex C.C.C) in St John's Wood[221] and the Oval (home of Surrey C.C.C) in Kennington.[222] Lord's has hosted four finals of the cricket world cups. One of London's best-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon.[223] Other key events are the annual mass-participation London Marathon which sees some 35,000 runners attempt a 26.2 miles (42.2 km) course around the city,[224] and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake.[225
History of Saudi Arabia
[edit] Early history
Main article: Pre-Islamic Arabia
People of various cultures have lived in the peninsula over a span of more than 5,000 years. The Dilmun culture, along the Persian Gulf, was contemporaneous with the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, and most of the empires of the ancient world traded with the states of the peninsula. Except for a few major cities and oases, the harsh climate historically prevented much settlement of the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas.[1] About 3500 BC, semitic-speaking peoples of Arabian origin migrated into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia and became the Assyro-Babylonians (see Babylonia and Assyria).
Some archeologists argue that another group of Semites left Arabia about 2500 BC and settled along the Levant, mixing in with the local populations there some of these migrants became the Amorites and Canaanites of later times.[citation needed] Some archeologists argue that the migration instead came from the northern Levant.[citation needed]
[edit] Islamic conquest
Main article: Muslim history
The religion of Islam became predominant beginning in the 7th century. Prophet of Islam Muhammad began preaching at Mecca before migrating to Medina, from where he united the tribes of Arabia into a singular Arab Muslim religious polity. With Muhammad's death in 632, his companions unanimously agreed on nominating Abu Bakr as his successor. Abu Bakr's immediate task was to avenge a recent defeat by Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) forces, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".[2]
The territory of the Caliphate in 750
His death in 632 resulted in the succession of Umar as the caliph, followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. These four are known as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn ("Rightly Guided Caliphs"). Under them, the territory under Muslim rule expanded deeply into Persian and Byzantine territories.[3][4]
When Umar was assassinated in 644, the election of Uthman as successor was met with increasing opposition. In 656, Uthman was also killed, and Ali assumed the position of caliph. After fighting off opposition in the first civil war (the "First Fitna"), Ali was assassinated by Kharijites in 661. Following this, Mu'awiyah, who was governor of Levant, seized power and began the Umayyad dynasty.[5]
These disputes over religious and political leadership would give rise to schism in the Muslim community. The majority accepted the legitimacy of all the four caliphs, and became known as Sunnis. A minority disagreed, and believed that Ali was the only rightful successor; they became known as the Shi'a.[6] After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflict over succession broke out again in a civil war known as the "Second Fitna". Afterward, the Umayyad dynasty prevailed for seventy years, and was able to conquer the Maghrib and Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula, former Visigothic Hispania) and the Narbonnese Gaul as well as expand Muslim territory into the Indian subcontinent.[7] While the Muslim-Arab elite engaged in conquest, some devout Muslims, Zahid, began to question the piety of indulgence in a worldly life, emphasizing rather poverty, humility and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Devout Muslim ascetic exemplars such as Hasan al-Basri would inspire a movement that would evolve into Sufism.[8][9]
For the Umayyad aristocracy, Islam was viewed as a religion for Arabs only;[10] the economy of the Umayyad empire was based on the assumption that a majority of non-Muslims (Dhimmis) would pay taxes to the minority of Muslim Arabs. A non-Arab who wanted to convert to Islam was supposed to first become a client of an Arab tribe. Even after conversion, these new Muslims (mawali) did not achieve social and economic equality with the Arabs. The descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (Raziallah o Anhum) rallied discontented mawali, poor Arabs, and some Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them with the help of their propagandist and general Abu Muslim, inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750.[11] Under the Abbasids, Islamic civilization flourished in the "Islamic Golden Age", with its capital at the cosmopolitan city of Baghdad.[4][12]
Despite its spiritual importance, in political terms Arabia soon became a peripheral region of the Islamic world, in which the most important states were based at various times in such far away cities as Cairo, Damascus, Delhi, Esfahān, and Istanbul. From the 10th century to the early 20th century Mecca and Medina were under the control of the Sharif of Mecca, but at most times the Sharif owed allegiance to the ruler of one of the major Islamic empires based elsewhere.
[edit] First Saudi State (1744-1818)
Main article: First Saudi State
The First Saudi State was established in the year 1744 (1157 A.H.) when Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and Prince Muhammad ibn Saud formed an alliance to establish a religious & political sovereignty determined to cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of perceived heretical practices and deviations from orthodox Islam. It collapsed as a result of the Ottoman-Saudi war.
[edit] Second Saudi State (1824-1891)
Main article: Second Saudi State
Second Saudi State
After a rebuilding period following the ending of the First Saudi State, the House of Saud returned to power in the Second Saudi State in 1824. The state lasted until 1891 when it succumbed to the Al Rashid dynasty of Ha'il. Rashidi Arabia endured from 1891-1902, when Ibn Saud reconquered Riyadh, the first of a series of conquests leading to the creation of the modern nation state of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
[edit] 1900s to 1940s
Main article: Unification of Saudi Arabia
Third Saudi State (present day) (Saudi Arabia)
The Third Saudi state was founded by the late King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. In 1902 Ibn Saud captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between 1913 and 1926.
Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones" created, one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait. On January 8, 1926 Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud became the King of Hejaz. On January 29, 1927 he took the title King of Nejd (his previous Nejdi title was Sultan). By the Treaty of Jeddah, signed on May 20, 1927, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Abdul Aziz's realm (then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd). In 1932, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The discovery of oil on March 3, 1938 transformed the country. The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Taif, which ended a brief border war between the 9 states.
[edit] 1950s to 1960s
The founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz, converses with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on board a ship returning from the Yalta Conference in 1945.
Approximate image showing the land exchanged between Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
King Abdul Aziz died in 1953 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Saud, who reigned for 11 years. In 1964, Saud was forced to abdicate in favour of his half-brother, Faisal, who had served as Foreign Minister.
Because of fiscal difficulties, King Saud had been persuaded in 1958 to delegate direct conduct of Saudi Government affairs to Faisal as Prime Minister; Saud briefly regained control of the government in 1960-62. In October 1962, Faisal outlined a broad reform program, stressing economic development. Proclaimed King in 1964 by senior royal family members and religious leaders, Faisal also continued to serve as Prime Minister. This practice has been followed by subsequent kings.
The mid-1960s saw external pressures generated by Saudi-Egyptian differences over Yemen. When civil war broke out in 1962 between Yemeni royalists and republicans, Egyptian forces entered Yemen to support the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalists. Tensions subsided only after 1967, when Egypt withdrew its troops from Yemen.
In 1965 there was an exchange of territories between Saudi Arabia and Jordan in which Jordan gave up a relatively large area of inland desert in return for a small piece of seashore near Aqaba. Saudi forces participated in the Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967 on the Jordanian side, the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies.
The Saudi economy and infrastructure was developed with help from abroad, particularly from the United States, creating strong links between the two dissimilar countries, and considerable and problematic American presence in the Kingdom. The Saudi petroleum industry under the company of ARAMCO was built by American petroleum companies, U.S. construction companies such as Bechtel built much of the country's infrastruture, Trans World Airlines, built the Saudi passenger air service; the Ford Foundation modernized Saudi government; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the country's television and broadcast facilities and oversaw the development of its defense industry.[13]
[edit] 1970s
Main article: 1970s in Saudi Arabia
The Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone was administratively partitioned in 1971, with each state continuing to share the petroleum resources of the former zone equally. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and Netherlands. A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Saudi Arabia had joined other member countries in moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971. After the 1973 war, the price of oil rose substantially, dramatically increasing Saudi Arabia's wealth and political influence. The location and status of Saudi Arabia's boundary with the United Arab Emirates is not final; a de facto boundary reflects a 1974 agreement.
In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by a nephew, who was executed after an extensive investigation concluded that he acted alone. Faisal was succeeded by his half-brother Khalid as King and Prime Minister; their half-brother Prince Fahd was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Khalid empowered Crown Prince Fahd to oversee many aspects of the government's international and domestic affairs. Economic development continued rapidly under King Khalid, and the kingdom assumed a more influential role in regional politics and international economic and financial matters.
During the 1970s and 1980s, more than 30,000 Saudi students per year went to the United States, while more than 200,000 Americans have lived and worked in the Kingdom since the discovery of oil.[13]
[edit] 1980s
Main article: 1980s in Saudi Arabia
A tentative agreement on the partition of the Saudi-Iraqi neutral zone was reached in 1981. The governments finalized the partition in 1983. King Khalid died in June 1982. Fahd became King and Prime Minister in a smooth transition. Another half-brother, Prince Abdullah, Commander of the Saudi National Guard, was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Fahd's brother, Prince Sultan, the Minister of Defense and Aviation, became Second Deputy Prime Minister. Under King Fahd, the Saudi economy adjusted to sharply lower oil revenues resulting from declining global oil prices. Saudi Arabia supported neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf during periods of the Iran-Iraq war and aided Iraq's war-strained economy. King Fahd played a major part in bringing about the August 1988 cease-fire between Iraq and Iran and in organizing and strengthening the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a group of six Persian Gulf states dedicated to fostering regional economic cooperation and peaceful development.
[edit] 1990s
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (February 2009)
Main article: 1990s in Saudi Arabia
In August 1990, Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait. Iraqi troops began massing on the border of Kuwait and some feared that they were about to invade Saudi Arabia. King Fahd allowed American and Coalition soldiers to be stationed in Saudi Arabia to counter the Iraqi threat. Many Muslims were angered by this move, because it allowed foreign armies to be stationed in their holiest land.
King Fahd played a key role before and during the 1991 Persian Gulf War: Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following year. King Fahd's action also consolidated the coalition of forces against Iraq and helped define the tone of the operation as a multilateral effort to re-establish the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kuwait.
Building #131 after the Khobar Towers bombing, which was the second major terrorist attack against Western troops in Saudi Arabia, 1996
Acting as a rallying point and personal spokesman for the coalition, King Fahd helped bring together his nation's GCC allies, Western allies, and Arab allies, as well as non-aligned nations from Africa and the emerging democracies of eastern Europe. He used his influence as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to persuade other Arab and Islamic nations to join the coalition. During the Persian Gulf War, Iraq fired Scud missiles into Saudi Arabia and even penetrated its northern border. These attacks were repelled, and Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait. American forces as well as some multinational contingents continued to occupy bases in the kingdom. However, American or foreign forces no longer occupy bases in the kingdom.
King Fahd suffered a stroke in November 1995. The foreign military presence caused militants to orchestrate . In June 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 American servicemen at the Khobar towers in Al-Khobar. These bombings caused the monarchy to focus on militancy inside their own kingdom, yet they denied there was much of a problem.
[edit] 2000s
{{Main|2000s in Saudi portions of the boundary with Yemen. The border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar was resolved in March 2001. The border with Oman also is not demarcated. With the largest proven oil reserves in the world, structurally high oil prices due to increasing demand from the emerging industrial giants such as China and India, and the destruction of the neighbouring Iraqi military (which was a threat to Saudi hegemony), Saudi Arabia has become one of the economic powers in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is increasing investments in infrastructure, science and technology which, it is hoped, will lead to further economic growth.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, it became known that 15 of the 19 suspected hijackers were Saudi. Saudi Arabia became the focus of worldwide attention once again, as it was questioned whether the government was indeed cracking down on radicals. The Saudi government pledged their support to the War on Terror, and vowed to try to eliminate militant elements. However, in May 2003, an insurgency in Saudi Arabia began, believed to be conducted by al-Qaeda affiliates. This consisted mainly of attacks on foreigners in an attempt to expel them from the country and hurt the Saudi government. While the number of attacks dropped significantly in 2005, they exposed the vulnerability of the country. Concern was also voiced over the large number of Saudis fighting American soldiers in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
King Fahd died in July 2005. He was succeeded by his brother Crown Prince Abdullah, who had handled most of the day-to-day operations of the government.
Main article: Pre-Islamic Arabia
People of various cultures have lived in the peninsula over a span of more than 5,000 years. The Dilmun culture, along the Persian Gulf, was contemporaneous with the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, and most of the empires of the ancient world traded with the states of the peninsula. Except for a few major cities and oases, the harsh climate historically prevented much settlement of the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas.[1] About 3500 BC, semitic-speaking peoples of Arabian origin migrated into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia and became the Assyro-Babylonians (see Babylonia and Assyria).
Some archeologists argue that another group of Semites left Arabia about 2500 BC and settled along the Levant, mixing in with the local populations there some of these migrants became the Amorites and Canaanites of later times.[citation needed] Some archeologists argue that the migration instead came from the northern Levant.[citation needed]
[edit] Islamic conquest
Main article: Muslim history
The religion of Islam became predominant beginning in the 7th century. Prophet of Islam Muhammad began preaching at Mecca before migrating to Medina, from where he united the tribes of Arabia into a singular Arab Muslim religious polity. With Muhammad's death in 632, his companions unanimously agreed on nominating Abu Bakr as his successor. Abu Bakr's immediate task was to avenge a recent defeat by Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) forces, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".[2]
The territory of the Caliphate in 750
His death in 632 resulted in the succession of Umar as the caliph, followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib. These four are known as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn ("Rightly Guided Caliphs"). Under them, the territory under Muslim rule expanded deeply into Persian and Byzantine territories.[3][4]
When Umar was assassinated in 644, the election of Uthman as successor was met with increasing opposition. In 656, Uthman was also killed, and Ali assumed the position of caliph. After fighting off opposition in the first civil war (the "First Fitna"), Ali was assassinated by Kharijites in 661. Following this, Mu'awiyah, who was governor of Levant, seized power and began the Umayyad dynasty.[5]
These disputes over religious and political leadership would give rise to schism in the Muslim community. The majority accepted the legitimacy of all the four caliphs, and became known as Sunnis. A minority disagreed, and believed that Ali was the only rightful successor; they became known as the Shi'a.[6] After Mu'awiyah's death in 680, conflict over succession broke out again in a civil war known as the "Second Fitna". Afterward, the Umayyad dynasty prevailed for seventy years, and was able to conquer the Maghrib and Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula, former Visigothic Hispania) and the Narbonnese Gaul as well as expand Muslim territory into the Indian subcontinent.[7] While the Muslim-Arab elite engaged in conquest, some devout Muslims, Zahid, began to question the piety of indulgence in a worldly life, emphasizing rather poverty, humility and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Devout Muslim ascetic exemplars such as Hasan al-Basri would inspire a movement that would evolve into Sufism.[8][9]
For the Umayyad aristocracy, Islam was viewed as a religion for Arabs only;[10] the economy of the Umayyad empire was based on the assumption that a majority of non-Muslims (Dhimmis) would pay taxes to the minority of Muslim Arabs. A non-Arab who wanted to convert to Islam was supposed to first become a client of an Arab tribe. Even after conversion, these new Muslims (mawali) did not achieve social and economic equality with the Arabs. The descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (Raziallah o Anhum) rallied discontented mawali, poor Arabs, and some Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them with the help of their propagandist and general Abu Muslim, inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750.[11] Under the Abbasids, Islamic civilization flourished in the "Islamic Golden Age", with its capital at the cosmopolitan city of Baghdad.[4][12]
Despite its spiritual importance, in political terms Arabia soon became a peripheral region of the Islamic world, in which the most important states were based at various times in such far away cities as Cairo, Damascus, Delhi, Esfahān, and Istanbul. From the 10th century to the early 20th century Mecca and Medina were under the control of the Sharif of Mecca, but at most times the Sharif owed allegiance to the ruler of one of the major Islamic empires based elsewhere.
[edit] First Saudi State (1744-1818)
Main article: First Saudi State
The First Saudi State was established in the year 1744 (1157 A.H.) when Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab and Prince Muhammad ibn Saud formed an alliance to establish a religious & political sovereignty determined to cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of perceived heretical practices and deviations from orthodox Islam. It collapsed as a result of the Ottoman-Saudi war.
[edit] Second Saudi State (1824-1891)
Main article: Second Saudi State
Second Saudi State
After a rebuilding period following the ending of the First Saudi State, the House of Saud returned to power in the Second Saudi State in 1824. The state lasted until 1891 when it succumbed to the Al Rashid dynasty of Ha'il. Rashidi Arabia endured from 1891-1902, when Ibn Saud reconquered Riyadh, the first of a series of conquests leading to the creation of the modern nation state of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
[edit] 1900s to 1940s
Main article: Unification of Saudi Arabia
Third Saudi State (present day) (Saudi Arabia)
The Third Saudi state was founded by the late King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. In 1902 Ibn Saud captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty's ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hejaz between 1913 and 1926.
Boundaries with Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait were established by a series of treaties negotiated in the 1920s, with two "neutral zones" created, one with Iraq and the other with Kuwait. On January 8, 1926 Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud became the King of Hejaz. On January 29, 1927 he took the title King of Nejd (his previous Nejdi title was Sultan). By the Treaty of Jeddah, signed on May 20, 1927, the United Kingdom recognized the independence of Abdul Aziz's realm (then known as the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd). In 1932, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The discovery of oil on March 3, 1938 transformed the country. The country's southern boundary with Yemen was partially defined by the 1934 Treaty of Taif, which ended a brief border war between the 9 states.
[edit] 1950s to 1960s
The founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz, converses with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on board a ship returning from the Yalta Conference in 1945.
Approximate image showing the land exchanged between Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
King Abdul Aziz died in 1953 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Saud, who reigned for 11 years. In 1964, Saud was forced to abdicate in favour of his half-brother, Faisal, who had served as Foreign Minister.
Because of fiscal difficulties, King Saud had been persuaded in 1958 to delegate direct conduct of Saudi Government affairs to Faisal as Prime Minister; Saud briefly regained control of the government in 1960-62. In October 1962, Faisal outlined a broad reform program, stressing economic development. Proclaimed King in 1964 by senior royal family members and religious leaders, Faisal also continued to serve as Prime Minister. This practice has been followed by subsequent kings.
The mid-1960s saw external pressures generated by Saudi-Egyptian differences over Yemen. When civil war broke out in 1962 between Yemeni royalists and republicans, Egyptian forces entered Yemen to support the new republican government, while Saudi Arabia backed the royalists. Tensions subsided only after 1967, when Egypt withdrew its troops from Yemen.
In 1965 there was an exchange of territories between Saudi Arabia and Jordan in which Jordan gave up a relatively large area of inland desert in return for a small piece of seashore near Aqaba. Saudi forces participated in the Six-Day (Arab-Israeli) War of June 1967 on the Jordanian side, the government later provided annual subsidies to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria to support their economies.
The Saudi economy and infrastructure was developed with help from abroad, particularly from the United States, creating strong links between the two dissimilar countries, and considerable and problematic American presence in the Kingdom. The Saudi petroleum industry under the company of ARAMCO was built by American petroleum companies, U.S. construction companies such as Bechtel built much of the country's infrastruture, Trans World Airlines, built the Saudi passenger air service; the Ford Foundation modernized Saudi government; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the country's television and broadcast facilities and oversaw the development of its defense industry.[13]
[edit] 1970s
Main article: 1970s in Saudi Arabia
The Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone was administratively partitioned in 1971, with each state continuing to share the petroleum resources of the former zone equally. During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Saudi Arabia participated in the Arab oil boycott of the United States and Netherlands. A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Saudi Arabia had joined other member countries in moderate oil price increases beginning in 1971. After the 1973 war, the price of oil rose substantially, dramatically increasing Saudi Arabia's wealth and political influence. The location and status of Saudi Arabia's boundary with the United Arab Emirates is not final; a de facto boundary reflects a 1974 agreement.
In 1975, King Faisal was assassinated by a nephew, who was executed after an extensive investigation concluded that he acted alone. Faisal was succeeded by his half-brother Khalid as King and Prime Minister; their half-brother Prince Fahd was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Khalid empowered Crown Prince Fahd to oversee many aspects of the government's international and domestic affairs. Economic development continued rapidly under King Khalid, and the kingdom assumed a more influential role in regional politics and international economic and financial matters.
During the 1970s and 1980s, more than 30,000 Saudi students per year went to the United States, while more than 200,000 Americans have lived and worked in the Kingdom since the discovery of oil.[13]
[edit] 1980s
Main article: 1980s in Saudi Arabia
A tentative agreement on the partition of the Saudi-Iraqi neutral zone was reached in 1981. The governments finalized the partition in 1983. King Khalid died in June 1982. Fahd became King and Prime Minister in a smooth transition. Another half-brother, Prince Abdullah, Commander of the Saudi National Guard, was named Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister. King Fahd's brother, Prince Sultan, the Minister of Defense and Aviation, became Second Deputy Prime Minister. Under King Fahd, the Saudi economy adjusted to sharply lower oil revenues resulting from declining global oil prices. Saudi Arabia supported neutral shipping in the Persian Gulf during periods of the Iran-Iraq war and aided Iraq's war-strained economy. King Fahd played a major part in bringing about the August 1988 cease-fire between Iraq and Iran and in organizing and strengthening the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a group of six Persian Gulf states dedicated to fostering regional economic cooperation and peaceful development.
[edit] 1990s
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (February 2009)
Main article: 1990s in Saudi Arabia
In August 1990, Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait. Iraqi troops began massing on the border of Kuwait and some feared that they were about to invade Saudi Arabia. King Fahd allowed American and Coalition soldiers to be stationed in Saudi Arabia to counter the Iraqi threat. Many Muslims were angered by this move, because it allowed foreign armies to be stationed in their holiest land.
King Fahd played a key role before and during the 1991 Persian Gulf War: Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following year. King Fahd's action also consolidated the coalition of forces against Iraq and helped define the tone of the operation as a multilateral effort to re-establish the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kuwait.
Building #131 after the Khobar Towers bombing, which was the second major terrorist attack against Western troops in Saudi Arabia, 1996
Acting as a rallying point and personal spokesman for the coalition, King Fahd helped bring together his nation's GCC allies, Western allies, and Arab allies, as well as non-aligned nations from Africa and the emerging democracies of eastern Europe. He used his influence as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to persuade other Arab and Islamic nations to join the coalition. During the Persian Gulf War, Iraq fired Scud missiles into Saudi Arabia and even penetrated its northern border. These attacks were repelled, and Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait. American forces as well as some multinational contingents continued to occupy bases in the kingdom. However, American or foreign forces no longer occupy bases in the kingdom.
King Fahd suffered a stroke in November 1995. The foreign military presence caused militants to orchestrate . In June 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 American servicemen at the Khobar towers in Al-Khobar. These bombings caused the monarchy to focus on militancy inside their own kingdom, yet they denied there was much of a problem.
[edit] 2000s
{{Main|2000s in Saudi portions of the boundary with Yemen. The border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar was resolved in March 2001. The border with Oman also is not demarcated. With the largest proven oil reserves in the world, structurally high oil prices due to increasing demand from the emerging industrial giants such as China and India, and the destruction of the neighbouring Iraqi military (which was a threat to Saudi hegemony), Saudi Arabia has become one of the economic powers in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is increasing investments in infrastructure, science and technology which, it is hoped, will lead to further economic growth.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, it became known that 15 of the 19 suspected hijackers were Saudi. Saudi Arabia became the focus of worldwide attention once again, as it was questioned whether the government was indeed cracking down on radicals. The Saudi government pledged their support to the War on Terror, and vowed to try to eliminate militant elements. However, in May 2003, an insurgency in Saudi Arabia began, believed to be conducted by al-Qaeda affiliates. This consisted mainly of attacks on foreigners in an attempt to expel them from the country and hurt the Saudi government. While the number of attacks dropped significantly in 2005, they exposed the vulnerability of the country. Concern was also voiced over the large number of Saudis fighting American soldiers in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
King Fahd died in July 2005. He was succeeded by his brother Crown Prince Abdullah, who had handled most of the day-to-day operations of the government.
Historical Places in India
Historical Places in India
India is a land with a rich and varied history. Many different rulers, dynasties and empires have fought over and controlled different parts of the Indian subcontinent during its eventful history. The various rulers and dynasties left behind their legacy in the form of grand monuments and buildings, in different historical places in India.
Most of India's cities have a history worth exploring, for the tales of the past are truly fascinating. The various monuments including palaces, forts, victory pillars and tombs in different historical places in India, tell glorious stories of India's fascinating history.
Delhi
India Gate, Delhi The modern capital of India - New Delhi was built in the location of an ancient imperial capital. Originally the capital of the Tomara clan in the 11th century A.D, Delhi was later the capital of the Delhi sultanate, the mighty Mughal empire and of the British in India. Monuments of Prithviraj Chauhan, the Lodi Tombs, the Siri Fort of Allauddin Khilji, The Red Fort, Jama Masjid and Humayun's Tomb from Mughal times and Rashtrapati Bhawan and Parliament House built in British times are all monuents you will see on your tour of Delhi - one of the most fascinating historical places in India.
Agra
The city of Agra was the imperial capital of the Mughal Empire during the reign of Shah Jahan. He built the beautiful mausoleum - the Taj Mahal - for his consort Mumtaz Mahal after her death in 1631. Agra also has many other Mughal monuments - the Agra Fort, the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, and Akbar's fort at Sikandra near Agra, which make a visit to this historical place in Uttar Pradesh, India, a must see on your tour of the historical places in India.
Aurangabad
Located in Maharashtra on India's west coast Aurangabad is known for being made the capital of the Tughlaq Empire during the reign of Muhammed-bin-Tughlaq. The Devagiri Fort is a historical monument in Auragabad. The city is also near two very important historical places in India - the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora. These Buddhist, Jain and Hindu cave temples are marvels of Indian architecture, carved out of rock in the hills. The frescoes on the Ahjanta Caves and the exquisite carvings of the Ellora Caves have led to their being recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Bodhagaya
Located in Bihar, India, Bodhgaya is known for its association with Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism - a religion, which originated in India and now has followers all over the world. Buddhist pilgrims from around the world, travel to the historical places in India associated with Buddha's life, including Bodhagaya, the site where Buddha gained enlightenment. The Bodhi tree and Mahabodhi Temple are significant landmarks in Bodhgaya.
Gateway of India, Mumbai
Mumbai
A city better known as the modern financial capital of India, Mumbai however does have a rich history. Originally inhabited by Koli fishermen, this collection of 7 islands was part of Portuguese territory in India. Handed over to the British as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza - when she married Charles II of England in 1661, Mumbai has some remarkable colonial architecture and monuments including the Victoria Terminus - now called Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Gateway of India.
Hyderabad
This imperial capital of the Nizams of Hyderabad, is home to many grand monuments including the Charminar, the Golconda Fort, the Qutab Shahi Tombs and the Falaknuma Palace. History and modernity coexist in this city, where a mixture of religions, cultures and architectural styles come together to create one of the most interesting historical places in India.
Jaipur
Built by the astronomer King Sawaii Jai Singh in 1727 and endowed with grand palaces and magnificent forts, Jaipur is one of the most visited historical places in India. The Hawa Mahal, City Palace, Amber Fort and fascinating astronomical instruments at the Jantar Mantar, make Jaipur a must visit historical destination in India.
Jaisalmer
This city in Rajasthan, India, founded by Rawal Jaisal in 1156 A.D., is known for its magnificent golden fortress, historic carved havelis, windswept sand dunes and desert festival - where culture, color and camels provide a feast to the eye.
Udaipur
Sparkling like white pearls in the blue waters of Lake Pichola, the lake palaces of Udaipur are historic and architectural gems of Rajasthan, India. This historic city founded by Maharana Udai Singh, is a delight for tourists and historians alike.
Jodhpur
Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur The majestic Mehrangarh Fort, set on a high hill overlooks this town of blue painted walls and magnificent palaces, including the Umaid Bhawan Palace. Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, was previously the princely state of Marwar. The museums in the fort and the palace are among the best maintained in India and display weaponry, armor, ornaments and palanquins from royal times. Jodhpur is one of the historical places in India where history can be seen even today.
Chittorgarh
A city with a history of valor and sacrifice unequalled by any other, Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, India, was attacked thrice and suffered immense casualties, as the men died defending the fort and the women immolated themselves rather than be taken prisoner.
First attacked by Allaudin Khilji, who sought the beautiful Rani Padmini in 1303, than attacked by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535 and finally by Emperor Akbar in 1567, this historical place in India has seen many gory battles and acts of heroic sacrifice.
Khajuraho
These world famous temples in Madhya Pradesh, India were built between the years 950 and 1050 A.D., during the reign of the Chandella dynasty. The temples are recognized worldwide for the excellence of their sculptures and for the erotic carvings on the temple walls. The Khajuraho temples are one of the most visited and studied historical places in India.
Konarak
The magnificent sun temple of Konarak in Orissa, was built by King Narasimhadeva I in the 13th century, when Konark was a busy port city. The temple, which is Konarak city's best known landmark, is designed in the shape of a giant chariot with 24 wheels, drawn by 7 horses, and set alongside the sea shore. This historic monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an architectural marvel, in this historical place in Eastern India.
Madurai
Known for its most recognizable landmark the towering Meenakshi Temple, Madurai was visited by the Greek historian Megasthenes in the 3rd century B.C. when it was a flourishing town. A busy port under Chola, Pandya and Nayaka rulers, Madurai continues to be an important town in Tami Nadu and one of the most fascinating historical places in India.
Mahabalipuram
Mahabalipuram
This historic seaport on the Tamil Nadu coast, grew to become an artistic center of the Pallava dynasty during the reign of Narasimhavarman Pallava. The five chariot shaped temples or rathas, the shore temple and the carved depictions of episodes from the Mahabharata are artistic highlights of this historic place in South India.
Mysore
The capital of the Wodeyar dynasty that ruled over Mysore, this city is home to the grand Mysore Palace, the Lalitha Mahal Palace, several historic art galleries, the palaces of Tipu Sultan and traditional craftsmen who create fine Mysore silk and products made from sandalwood. Witness south Indian history come alive, in one of the most culturally rich, historic places in India.
Varanasi
Considered to be one of the oldest cities in India, Varanasi attracts thousands of tourists who come to experience its spiritual ambience. The ceremonial Ghats, the university, archaeological museum, and the many temples in Varanasi make it a unique city where history is very much a part of daily life. Varanasi is one of the most important religious and historical places in India.
These are only a few of the well-known historical places in India.
There are many more historical places in India, which you can explore with Tourism in India.
India is a land with a rich and varied history. Many different rulers, dynasties and empires have fought over and controlled different parts of the Indian subcontinent during its eventful history. The various rulers and dynasties left behind their legacy in the form of grand monuments and buildings, in different historical places in India.
Most of India's cities have a history worth exploring, for the tales of the past are truly fascinating. The various monuments including palaces, forts, victory pillars and tombs in different historical places in India, tell glorious stories of India's fascinating history.
Delhi
India Gate, Delhi The modern capital of India - New Delhi was built in the location of an ancient imperial capital. Originally the capital of the Tomara clan in the 11th century A.D, Delhi was later the capital of the Delhi sultanate, the mighty Mughal empire and of the British in India. Monuments of Prithviraj Chauhan, the Lodi Tombs, the Siri Fort of Allauddin Khilji, The Red Fort, Jama Masjid and Humayun's Tomb from Mughal times and Rashtrapati Bhawan and Parliament House built in British times are all monuents you will see on your tour of Delhi - one of the most fascinating historical places in India.
Agra
The city of Agra was the imperial capital of the Mughal Empire during the reign of Shah Jahan. He built the beautiful mausoleum - the Taj Mahal - for his consort Mumtaz Mahal after her death in 1631. Agra also has many other Mughal monuments - the Agra Fort, the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah, and Akbar's fort at Sikandra near Agra, which make a visit to this historical place in Uttar Pradesh, India, a must see on your tour of the historical places in India.
Aurangabad
Located in Maharashtra on India's west coast Aurangabad is known for being made the capital of the Tughlaq Empire during the reign of Muhammed-bin-Tughlaq. The Devagiri Fort is a historical monument in Auragabad. The city is also near two very important historical places in India - the cave temples of Ajanta and Ellora. These Buddhist, Jain and Hindu cave temples are marvels of Indian architecture, carved out of rock in the hills. The frescoes on the Ahjanta Caves and the exquisite carvings of the Ellora Caves have led to their being recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Bodhagaya
Located in Bihar, India, Bodhgaya is known for its association with Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism - a religion, which originated in India and now has followers all over the world. Buddhist pilgrims from around the world, travel to the historical places in India associated with Buddha's life, including Bodhagaya, the site where Buddha gained enlightenment. The Bodhi tree and Mahabodhi Temple are significant landmarks in Bodhgaya.
Gateway of India, Mumbai
Mumbai
A city better known as the modern financial capital of India, Mumbai however does have a rich history. Originally inhabited by Koli fishermen, this collection of 7 islands was part of Portuguese territory in India. Handed over to the British as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza - when she married Charles II of England in 1661, Mumbai has some remarkable colonial architecture and monuments including the Victoria Terminus - now called Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus and the Gateway of India.
Hyderabad
This imperial capital of the Nizams of Hyderabad, is home to many grand monuments including the Charminar, the Golconda Fort, the Qutab Shahi Tombs and the Falaknuma Palace. History and modernity coexist in this city, where a mixture of religions, cultures and architectural styles come together to create one of the most interesting historical places in India.
Jaipur
Built by the astronomer King Sawaii Jai Singh in 1727 and endowed with grand palaces and magnificent forts, Jaipur is one of the most visited historical places in India. The Hawa Mahal, City Palace, Amber Fort and fascinating astronomical instruments at the Jantar Mantar, make Jaipur a must visit historical destination in India.
Jaisalmer
This city in Rajasthan, India, founded by Rawal Jaisal in 1156 A.D., is known for its magnificent golden fortress, historic carved havelis, windswept sand dunes and desert festival - where culture, color and camels provide a feast to the eye.
Udaipur
Sparkling like white pearls in the blue waters of Lake Pichola, the lake palaces of Udaipur are historic and architectural gems of Rajasthan, India. This historic city founded by Maharana Udai Singh, is a delight for tourists and historians alike.
Jodhpur
Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur The majestic Mehrangarh Fort, set on a high hill overlooks this town of blue painted walls and magnificent palaces, including the Umaid Bhawan Palace. Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, was previously the princely state of Marwar. The museums in the fort and the palace are among the best maintained in India and display weaponry, armor, ornaments and palanquins from royal times. Jodhpur is one of the historical places in India where history can be seen even today.
Chittorgarh
A city with a history of valor and sacrifice unequalled by any other, Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, India, was attacked thrice and suffered immense casualties, as the men died defending the fort and the women immolated themselves rather than be taken prisoner.
First attacked by Allaudin Khilji, who sought the beautiful Rani Padmini in 1303, than attacked by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535 and finally by Emperor Akbar in 1567, this historical place in India has seen many gory battles and acts of heroic sacrifice.
Khajuraho
These world famous temples in Madhya Pradesh, India were built between the years 950 and 1050 A.D., during the reign of the Chandella dynasty. The temples are recognized worldwide for the excellence of their sculptures and for the erotic carvings on the temple walls. The Khajuraho temples are one of the most visited and studied historical places in India.
Konarak
The magnificent sun temple of Konarak in Orissa, was built by King Narasimhadeva I in the 13th century, when Konark was a busy port city. The temple, which is Konarak city's best known landmark, is designed in the shape of a giant chariot with 24 wheels, drawn by 7 horses, and set alongside the sea shore. This historic monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an architectural marvel, in this historical place in Eastern India.
Madurai
Known for its most recognizable landmark the towering Meenakshi Temple, Madurai was visited by the Greek historian Megasthenes in the 3rd century B.C. when it was a flourishing town. A busy port under Chola, Pandya and Nayaka rulers, Madurai continues to be an important town in Tami Nadu and one of the most fascinating historical places in India.
Mahabalipuram
Mahabalipuram
This historic seaport on the Tamil Nadu coast, grew to become an artistic center of the Pallava dynasty during the reign of Narasimhavarman Pallava. The five chariot shaped temples or rathas, the shore temple and the carved depictions of episodes from the Mahabharata are artistic highlights of this historic place in South India.
Mysore
The capital of the Wodeyar dynasty that ruled over Mysore, this city is home to the grand Mysore Palace, the Lalitha Mahal Palace, several historic art galleries, the palaces of Tipu Sultan and traditional craftsmen who create fine Mysore silk and products made from sandalwood. Witness south Indian history come alive, in one of the most culturally rich, historic places in India.
Varanasi
Considered to be one of the oldest cities in India, Varanasi attracts thousands of tourists who come to experience its spiritual ambience. The ceremonial Ghats, the university, archaeological museum, and the many temples in Varanasi make it a unique city where history is very much a part of daily life. Varanasi is one of the most important religious and historical places in India.
These are only a few of the well-known historical places in India.
There are many more historical places in India, which you can explore with Tourism in India.
New Perspectives in Harappan Archaeology
New Perspectives in Harappan Archaeology
By Frank Grey
The last sixty years of archaeology in Kutch and Saurashrtra saw a huge collection of data in the sphere of Harappan Civilization. Till mid 1970s it was a phase of discovering sites and delineating their distribution. It transpired that the Harappan cultural spread had under its footprint not only Saurashtra which was initially in the focus of archaeologists like H D Sankalia, S R Rao and P P Pandya but also included Kutch and Gujarat, particularly Northern Gujarat abutting the Ranns.
Archaeological Importance of Kutch
The excavations at Rangpur, Rojdi and Prabhas had given important data regarding the environmental backdrop that had shaped the personality of Harrapan culture in Saurashtra, now called “Sorath Harappan” distinct from “Sindhi Harappan” in its essential make-up. The geographical cul-de-sac that was identified with Kutch culturally proved to be a treasure trove of archaeological settlements ranging from pre-historic (Lower and Middle palaeolithic) to Proto-historic ( Pre-Harappan, Mature Harappan and Late Harappan ie Jhuker) down to Historic culture -Kshtrapa, Solanki and Late Medieval.
Thus in Kutch, a historical scroll unfolds from the dawn of civilization to the present times which has seen Kutch emerge as an industrial powerhouse. So far as the Harappan culture is concerned, more than 60 settlements already dote the map with the possibility of finding more sites. Before the excavations were conducted on Kutchi sites, it was used to be referred to the twin cities of Mohen-jo-dero and Harappa as the pillars of the Indus Valley Civilization. But since the excavations carried out at the settlements of Surkotada, Dholavira and presently at Juni Kuran, it has become clear that Kutch played a vital role in the development of the Harappan civilization.
Hypothesis
The geographical isolation of Kutch has to be explained in cultural terms.
Did the entire dry sandy and briny stretch between Sindh and Kutch actually slice two land masses apart as they do today? Or was the Arabian Sea part of the Ranns and formed an accessible waterway between the two? What was the role played by internal and external trade that led to the flourishing of big urban center like Dholavira? What was the nature of exchange network that the city dominated? What kind of relationship it had with other Harappan centers like Mohen-jo-dero, Harappa and Gunreriwala? Some archaeologists have advanced the hypothesis that from Punjab, Sind down to Kutch and Saurashtra, the Harappan culture had led to the emergence of an urban center at the interval of every 1,000 km.
Dr Rafique Mughal is an advocate of the thesis and this needs to be examined in depth since it can have bearing on the political aspect of the Harappan culture. The excavations at Dholavira are likely to yield newer evidence having a bearing on the origin, development and decline of the Harappan civilization. There are two likely lines of investigation regarding the eclipse of the Harappan cities.
Reasons of Eclipse of Harrapan Settlements
One, the economic aspect which makes it incumbent to examine the economic base of each Harappan city. A careful excavation may shed light upon activity areas and point to the nature of production and human relationships involved. Further the trade and industry could have involved resource gathering or resource collection from the hinterland that may have led to exchange interaction with other people at the mesolithic level of technological development. This would entail site-catchment analysis which is an archaeological technique that is too often ignored. It is possible that while analysing environmental variables of Dholavira, two opposite considerations vie for attention. The arid environment with xerophytic vegetation, and the possibility of existence of an arm of Arabian Sea that now form the Ranns. This would lead to the hypothesis that Dholavira was a port and it was involved in an elaborate trading activity in resources that formed an exchange network wherein local populace had a stake.
And two, it was an entrepot for maritime trade with West Asia particularly Oman and Bahrain. With the decline of West Asiatic trade centers on account of political turmoil during 1800 BC the international trade beginning from 2300 BC might have led to the collapse of Dholavira's economy entailing a slow shrinking in demand and supply of goods and disappearance of the exchange network which led to the fall of other nodal towns and villages on the exchange network by way of domino effect.
This is a hypothesis that needs to be correlated with the evidence that emerges from Dholavira excavations. The environmental background and other ecological aspects may be articulated by examining the evidence available. If the city was near the sea, a great part of the populace might be fish-eaters. The fish bones along with bird bones (migratory) can be helpful in reconstructing a marine environment. So the floral and faunal assemblage may help in rebuilding the environmental backdrop.
Using the Archaeological Finds To UnderstandThe Harappan Culture
There are three areas of habitation in Dholavira: Citadel, Middle Town and Lower Town. Clearly the social division is emphasized in town planning. The ruling class, the traders and producers of goods and the labour class are separately pigeon-holed. This may lead to the rebuilding of the class structure. This, in turn, may bring out the nature of governance and political class. But this hypothesis, too, would need a corelation with available evidence.
So the excavators have collected the evidence but have not examined them in their different contexts which may help in reconstructing the entire gamut of the Harappan culture. The possibilities are endless. Simple digging of the mounds as an archaeological exercise would not help the cause of Harappan history. A holistic approach with readiness to involve other disciplines in articulating the evidence is the only way one can solve the riddle of human existence of thousands of years back.
Second, different excavators working on different mounds of the same culture have different approaches. This leads to too many pipers playing the tunes and the mice run mad circles. What is needed is co-ordinated comparing the data and that would necessitate open-ended discussions. This is now possible by the launch of the websites and internet connectivity.
By Frank Grey
The last sixty years of archaeology in Kutch and Saurashrtra saw a huge collection of data in the sphere of Harappan Civilization. Till mid 1970s it was a phase of discovering sites and delineating their distribution. It transpired that the Harappan cultural spread had under its footprint not only Saurashtra which was initially in the focus of archaeologists like H D Sankalia, S R Rao and P P Pandya but also included Kutch and Gujarat, particularly Northern Gujarat abutting the Ranns.
Archaeological Importance of Kutch
The excavations at Rangpur, Rojdi and Prabhas had given important data regarding the environmental backdrop that had shaped the personality of Harrapan culture in Saurashtra, now called “Sorath Harappan” distinct from “Sindhi Harappan” in its essential make-up. The geographical cul-de-sac that was identified with Kutch culturally proved to be a treasure trove of archaeological settlements ranging from pre-historic (Lower and Middle palaeolithic) to Proto-historic ( Pre-Harappan, Mature Harappan and Late Harappan ie Jhuker) down to Historic culture -Kshtrapa, Solanki and Late Medieval.
Thus in Kutch, a historical scroll unfolds from the dawn of civilization to the present times which has seen Kutch emerge as an industrial powerhouse. So far as the Harappan culture is concerned, more than 60 settlements already dote the map with the possibility of finding more sites. Before the excavations were conducted on Kutchi sites, it was used to be referred to the twin cities of Mohen-jo-dero and Harappa as the pillars of the Indus Valley Civilization. But since the excavations carried out at the settlements of Surkotada, Dholavira and presently at Juni Kuran, it has become clear that Kutch played a vital role in the development of the Harappan civilization.
Hypothesis
The geographical isolation of Kutch has to be explained in cultural terms.
Did the entire dry sandy and briny stretch between Sindh and Kutch actually slice two land masses apart as they do today? Or was the Arabian Sea part of the Ranns and formed an accessible waterway between the two? What was the role played by internal and external trade that led to the flourishing of big urban center like Dholavira? What was the nature of exchange network that the city dominated? What kind of relationship it had with other Harappan centers like Mohen-jo-dero, Harappa and Gunreriwala? Some archaeologists have advanced the hypothesis that from Punjab, Sind down to Kutch and Saurashtra, the Harappan culture had led to the emergence of an urban center at the interval of every 1,000 km.
Dr Rafique Mughal is an advocate of the thesis and this needs to be examined in depth since it can have bearing on the political aspect of the Harappan culture. The excavations at Dholavira are likely to yield newer evidence having a bearing on the origin, development and decline of the Harappan civilization. There are two likely lines of investigation regarding the eclipse of the Harappan cities.
Reasons of Eclipse of Harrapan Settlements
One, the economic aspect which makes it incumbent to examine the economic base of each Harappan city. A careful excavation may shed light upon activity areas and point to the nature of production and human relationships involved. Further the trade and industry could have involved resource gathering or resource collection from the hinterland that may have led to exchange interaction with other people at the mesolithic level of technological development. This would entail site-catchment analysis which is an archaeological technique that is too often ignored. It is possible that while analysing environmental variables of Dholavira, two opposite considerations vie for attention. The arid environment with xerophytic vegetation, and the possibility of existence of an arm of Arabian Sea that now form the Ranns. This would lead to the hypothesis that Dholavira was a port and it was involved in an elaborate trading activity in resources that formed an exchange network wherein local populace had a stake.
And two, it was an entrepot for maritime trade with West Asia particularly Oman and Bahrain. With the decline of West Asiatic trade centers on account of political turmoil during 1800 BC the international trade beginning from 2300 BC might have led to the collapse of Dholavira's economy entailing a slow shrinking in demand and supply of goods and disappearance of the exchange network which led to the fall of other nodal towns and villages on the exchange network by way of domino effect.
This is a hypothesis that needs to be correlated with the evidence that emerges from Dholavira excavations. The environmental background and other ecological aspects may be articulated by examining the evidence available. If the city was near the sea, a great part of the populace might be fish-eaters. The fish bones along with bird bones (migratory) can be helpful in reconstructing a marine environment. So the floral and faunal assemblage may help in rebuilding the environmental backdrop.
Using the Archaeological Finds To UnderstandThe Harappan Culture
There are three areas of habitation in Dholavira: Citadel, Middle Town and Lower Town. Clearly the social division is emphasized in town planning. The ruling class, the traders and producers of goods and the labour class are separately pigeon-holed. This may lead to the rebuilding of the class structure. This, in turn, may bring out the nature of governance and political class. But this hypothesis, too, would need a corelation with available evidence.
So the excavators have collected the evidence but have not examined them in their different contexts which may help in reconstructing the entire gamut of the Harappan culture. The possibilities are endless. Simple digging of the mounds as an archaeological exercise would not help the cause of Harappan history. A holistic approach with readiness to involve other disciplines in articulating the evidence is the only way one can solve the riddle of human existence of thousands of years back.
Second, different excavators working on different mounds of the same culture have different approaches. This leads to too many pipers playing the tunes and the mice run mad circles. What is needed is co-ordinated comparing the data and that would necessitate open-ended discussions. This is now possible by the launch of the websites and internet connectivity.
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