London

Counties: City of London; Greater London.

Main cities and town: Richmond, Stratford, Romford, Harrow, Bloomsbury, Chelsea, Chiswick, Greenwich, etc.

It may be quite confusing but the name London can be used in different situations for different purposes. Firstly, London is the capital and largest city of England and the UK. Secondly, London is one of the nine counties of England.

Nowadays, London is used for a much wider area than only the City of London - it denotes the 32 London boroughs, in addition to the City.

Greater London

Greater London is a ceremonial county that makes up the majority of the London region which is very often called just Greater London.
It consists of 33 districts (City of London is one of them). Some others include City of Westminster, Southwark (the oldest part of southern London), Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden, Redbridge, Harrow, etc.
Majority of London's attractions are situated here: Tower Bridge (built between 1886 and 1894 and crosses the River Thames), the Palace of Westminster and the Westminster Abbey which are located in the City of Westminster, University College London and many others!

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Palace

Tower Bridge

City of London

The City of London is both a ceremonial county and a city.
It is London's ancient and financial centre that contains the primary central business district (CBO) of London. Nowadays the City is only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, but it still remains a notable part of central London.
The City of London is usually referred to as the City or the Square Mile (it's only 2.90 km2 in area).

The City has many historical places and places of interest to visit! St Paul's Cathedral, Royal Exchange, Mansion House (the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London), Smithfield Market.
The City of London is made up of 25 wards (the wards are a survival of the medieval governmental system that allowed very small areas to exist as self-governing units within the wider city).

St Paul's Cathedral

The City of London itself is fairly ancient. On its place around AD 43, the Romans established a settlement known as "Landinium". The London Wall built around AD 200 as a defensive wall is a great archaeological example of that era, the ruins of which are seen near the Tower Hills gardens and in the Barbican area.

London is unofficially divided in four parts:

- the City of London; - the City of Westminster; - the West End;

- the East End.

All of these areas are called together as "Central London" and each of them is different and notable in their own way.

The City is often referred to as the financial and business part; Westminster is the government centre; the West End is regarded as the shopping and entertainment centre; while the East End is the industrial centre. That's why the British sometimes say that the City is "the money of London", the West End is "the goods of London", and the East End is "the hands of London".

The City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is one of the most important parts of London because most of government offices and Parliament are located here.

The centre of the area is the Westminster Abbey which is historically important. It is the burial place of many English kings and queens, writers, scientists, and many other notable personalities.

Westminster Palace is located just opposite the Abbey. Another interesting place is Downing Street where the official residence of British prime ministers (House 10) can be seen.

Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of the Queen and the Royal family, is a famous destination, as well as the Trafalgar Square, the geographical centre of London which was named in honour to Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Buckingham Palace

The West End

Piccadilly Circus

Madame Tussaud's Museum

West End of London is a place of the most expensive restaurants and hotels, the best shops, cinemas, theatres, casinos and supermarkets. This area is full of art galleries and museums.

The heart of the West End is certainly its famous Piccadilly Circus. It's located on a popular square where sic streets meet with each other. The thing that is quite confusing is the fact that there's no actual circus here. It was named so just because of its shape, it's a road junction ("circus" in Latin means "circle"). In the centre of the square there's a memorial to the Greek god Anteros ("The Angel of Christian Charity").

There are a lot of famous streets: Baker Street is the location of Madame Tussaud's Museum and the Sherlock Holmes Museum; Charring Cross - bookstores; Regent Street - shopping centre.

The districts that are also very popular are Soho and Covent Garden. And of course the West End is specially famous for its parks - Hyde Park, the largest of Royal parks and the most popular one in London; Kensington Gardens, St James's Park, the Regent's Park.

The East End

The East End has historically been a working district. There are still quite a lot of factories, docks and workshops. Many working-class families lived here (and some of them still do), as well as migrants. That's why the language and its accent of the locals are different - the East End is home for the Cockney Dialect, which has some lexical borrowings from Yiddish, Romani, German, etc.

There are many interesting neighbourhoods: Mile End, Brick Lane in Whitechapel where poverty was particularly common, Docklands with its historical docks of the port of London and the Canary Wharf with some of London's tallest building, Limehouse.