London city - Capital of the United Kingdom free essay sample

# 1057 ; ity, capital of the United Kingdom and the Centre of the Commonwealth. It lies astride the River Thames in southeasterly England, 50 stat mis ( 80 kilometer ) from the river s estuary on the North Sea. The metropolis was one time the industrial, commercial, and political hub of a wealthy and extended imperium ; it continues to be the United Kingdom s chief Centre of population, commercialism, and civilization. A brief intervention of London follows. For full intervention ( including a map ) , see London. The chalk basin within which London is built is filled with younger deposits including solid stone, littorals, clays, terraced pebble crushed rocks, and Thames alluvial sediment. The clime within the basin is comparatively mild, with January to July average temperatures runing from 37.4 to 72.5 F ( 3 to 22.5 C ) ; rainfall sums to 21 inches ( 533 millimeter ) a twelvemonth. Founded by the Romans as Londinium in the first century AD, the town experienced enormous growing in trade and population during the late 16th and early seventeenth centuries. Extensive edifice undertakings were initiated after the Great Fire of 1666, and London became the dominant Centre non merely of the state but of its spread outing imperium. During the nineteenth century, the jobs caused by rapid industrialisation, such as pollution and disease, were easy remedied through progresss in public wellness and other services. Heavy harm from aerial bombardments during World War II brought the greatest reverse in the history of modern London. Reconstruction and new development restored much of the metropolis s magnificence, and resettlement of fabrication and transportation outside the metropolis shrank its population and hastened its passage to a Centre of international trade and finance. Tourism and retail trade are other major sectors of the metropolis s economic system ; and, because London is the state s capital, authorities services are besides an of import sector. The City of London, about 1 square stat mi ( 2.7 square kilometer ) in country, is the nucleus of an country called Inner, or Central, London, which contains the City of London and 13 of the 33 boroughs of Greater London. The cardinal point in the City of London is an unfastened infinite from which eight streets radiate. On the southern side is Mansion House, abode of the lord city manager of London. Lombard Street, the traditional banking street, is nearby, as are the Bank of England central offices, the Royal Exchange, and the Stock Exchange. To the E is the fortress-castle known as the Tower of London, whose nucleus day of the months from the late eleventh century and is surrounded by buildings from many periods of English architecture. To the West lie the Inns of Court, longtime Chamberss and offices of barristers and lawyers-in-training, and the Royal Courts of Justice, or Law Courts. The City of London and the City of Westminster are linked by the Strand, an avenue upon which a re located two of London s oldest churches, St. Clement Dane s and St. Mary-le-Strand. The City of Westminste R, which stretches along the River Thames, is one of the state s wealthiest boroughs and is famed for its committedness to historic redevelopment. It includes Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the chief authorities offices, of import shopping territories, New Scotland Yard, luxury hotels, the Tate Gallery, and the National Gallery. Retail shopping countries are concentrated around Oxford Street. Kensington High Street and Knightsbridge are besides major shopping territories. The stores spread west and south toward King s Road in Chelsea. London s East End, incorporating vicinities such as Aldgate and Whitechapel, now constitutes the borough of Tower Hamlets. The country is historically associated with the Cockney idiom and became an ill-famed slum during the nineteenth century. The East End was the most to a great extent bombed country of London during World War II and later benefited from extended rehabilitation. Parks, gardens, and Gods acres abound in Inner London. The most famed parklands are the six royal Parkss that sweep through London s West End: St. James s Park, oldest of the six cardinal royal Parkss, bordered on the North by the half-mile-long Mall that terminates at the Queen Victoria Memorial ; Buckingham Palace Gardens, bordered on the E by the royal abode ; Green Park, plainest of the royal Parkss but fringed on the E by munificent, once-private edifices ; Hyde Park, with its celebrated Speakers Corner for soapbox speechmakers ; the more elegant Kensington Gardens, with the Victorian Gothic Albert Memorial and an 80-acre ( 32-hectare ) cultural Centre ; and Regent s Park, place of the Zoological Gardens and Regent s ( Grand Union ) Canal. Squares and diversely molded parks are outstanding characteristics of London s landscape. Of note are Grosvenor Square, site of the F.D. Roosevelt Memorial, and Trafalgar Square, which features a statue of Lord Nelson, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar ( 1805 ) ; the National Gallery borders the square. London s other major cultural establishments include the British Museum, which houses aggregations of antiquities, prints, and manuscripts and the national library ; the Victoria and Albert Museum of cosmetic humanistic disciplines ; and the music and humanistic disciplines complex located on the South Bank of the Thames, begun in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. The development of the metropolis s outlying countries was promoted by the gap of the universe s first electric resistance railroad in 1890. Major roads and rail lines radiate in all waies. Dock activity and river traffic are controlled by the Port of London Authority. The London ( Heathrow ) International Airport is located in the western ranges of Greater London. Area City, 1 square stat mi ( 2.7 square kilometer ) ; Inner London, 124 square stat mis ( 321 square kilometer ) ; Greater London, 610 square stat mis ( 1,579 square kilometer ) . Pop. ( 1992 est. ) City, 3,900 ; Inner London, 2,632,100 ; Greater London, 6,904,600.