London is a genuinely incredible place. Around every turn there is something iconic and astounding… anyone who ventures into the city cannot help but feel at the very centre of everything. For the past two millennia (and very possibly beyond) London has been expanding and changing. From powerful Roman fortification, to Viking stronghold, to home of dynasties of bejewelled monarchs – London city arguably possesses the richest social history of any city in the world.
This history is amazing in its constant presence in every aspect of the city. London has gone through countless eras of change and, aesthetically speaking, this is obvious in the way the city is built up, layer upon layer. First came the Roman walls, then the era of The Tower of London and Westminster Abbey; whole areas are dotted with classic Medieval black and white dwellings or streets of Georgian townhouses, then came the tower of London and the 18th century revolutions… finally the skyline is completed with the city’s postmodern glass skyscrapers. London’s beauty lies in all these eras existing side by side in a very modern metropolis – like the spectacular Gherkin building rising up from 800 year old cobbled streets – it is truly enrapturing.
London’s status as the centre of the world for much of the 18th and 19th centuries led to a huge amount of immigration into the city; since then people haven’t stopped flocking to the capital and, thus, London has become one of the world’s most multiracial and dynamic cities. This too is visible everywhere in the city and it’s dynamic nature has given rise to what could only be described as many miniature cities within the metropolis.
Aside from the obvious tourist sites (Buckingham palace, houses of parliament etc.) there is by no means a definitive London experience. A visitor could spend afternoons relaxing in the sprawling Hyde Park, then move on to the trendily wild nightlife of Hoxton or Shoreditch - making sure to visit the pulsing Fabric nightclub; or maybe spend an afternoon shopping in the earthy and almost exotic Camden market and then head out to rub shoulders with the rich and famous in upmarket Mayfair. All of which is easily accessible via one of the world most iconic and practical underground systems.
Obviously it is difficult to sum up a place that is essentially the route of the modern-day Western culture; it is a sprawling, enthralling and distinctive place and one that must be visited again and again.
