London
London is the capital and largest city of England and of the United Kingdom, with a population of 9.1 million people in 2024. Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 15.4 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the site of the national government and parliament for centuries.
Typical weather
1981–presentCity Rhythm
measuredOpening hours, by kind of place
median across mapped venuesVital absurdities
measured · the Anti-AwardsSame time system
by rhythmWhat to do each season
2winter
cool, damp, grey, short days; mean 4-12 °C across the range, snow rare (at least once each winter but rarely heavy); shoulders (Apr-May) brighten but are not a distinct experiential state
- life contracts indoors: pubs, theatres, museums, restaurants
- outdoor drinking culture is dormant; pub gardens empty
- City of London (financial district) is busy weekdays but the entertainment economy thins at weekends
- long-running theatre runs (The Mousetrap since 1952) carry the indoor economy
summer
mild-warm, long days; mean 15-18 °C, July high ~23.5 °C, 31 days/yr >25 °C and 4.2 days/yr >30 °C (urban heat island adds up to 5 °C in the centre)
- parks fill (Hyde, Richmond, Greenwich); the city uses its green space
- outdoor drinking returns; pub gardens and riverside terraces activate
- heatwaves increasingly delete the affordance of being outdoors — the housing stock is not cooled
- festival season, outdoor cinema, open-air theatre (Regent's Park, Shakespeare's Globe)
What it is known for
Important moments in a year
Notting Hill Carnival
- street use
- crowds
- night use of public space
Lord Mayors Show
- pageantry
- street closure
New Year Fireworks
- crowds on the Thames Embankment
London Marathon
- street closure
- crowds
Trooping the Colour
- pageantry
- crowds
On the record
source-trackedIslington's 1 mile (1.6 km) long Upper Street has more bars and restaurants than any other British street.
Europe's busiest shopping area and England's longest shopping street is Oxford Street, nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long.
Gastronomic centres include Brick Lane for Bangladeshi and Chinatown for Chinese food.
Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play, has performed in the West End since 1952.
London has a quarter of the UK's leisure economy.
The London Underground is the world's oldest rapid transit system.
It is the most-visited city in Europe and has the world's busiest city airport system.
London receives 109.6 rainy days on the 1 mm (0.039 in) threshold annually.
As a large city, London has a considerable urban heat island effect, making the centre of London at times 5 °C (9 °F) warmer than the suburbs and outskirts.
The South Bank has long been associated with the arts.
The area immediately surrounding [Old Compton Street] in the southern part of Soho is widely recognised as London's foremost gay village.
Restaurants in Soho (and the rest of London for that matter) can come and go very quickly - a place might be open and thriving one week but shut down the next.
The method behind this atlas — 196 pp. Not published yet.