London Places

City of London

Information for your London vacation

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London. It is often referred to as the City or the Square Mile, as it is just over one square mile (1.12 mile² / 2.90 km²) in area. These terms are also often used as metonymies for the United Kingdom's financial services industry, which has historically been based here.

In the medieval period, the City was the full extent of London. The term London now refers to a much larger conurbation roughly corresponding to Greater London, a local government area which includes 32 London boroughs as well as the City of London, which is not one of the 32 London boroughs. The local authority for the City, the City of London Corporation, is unique in the United Kingdom, and has some unusual responsibilities for a local authority in Britain, such as being the police authority for the City. It also has responsibilities and ownerships beyond the City's boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, a separate (and much older) office to the Mayor of London.

The City is today a major business and financial centre, ranking on a par with New York City as the leading centre of global finance; in the 19th century, the City served as the world's primary business centre. The City has a resident population of approximately 8,000, but around 340,000 people work there, mainly in the financial services sector. The legal profession form a major component of the western side of the City, in and around the Inns of Court, of which two - the Inner and Middle Temples - fall within the City of London boundary.

Beginning in the west, where the City borders Westminster, the boundary crosses the Victoria Embankment from the Thames, passes to the west of Middle Temple, then turns for a short distance along Strand and then north up Chancery Lane, where it borders Camden. It turns east along Holborn to Holborn Circus, and then goes north east to Charterhouse Street. As it crosses Farringdon Road it becomes the boundary with Islington. It continues to Aldersgate, goes north, and turns east into some back streets soon after Aldersgate becomes Goswell Road. Here, at Baltic Street West, is the most northerly extent of the City. The boundary includes all of the Barbican Estate and continues east along Ropemaker Street and its continuation South Place on the other side of Moorgate, becomes South Place. It goes north, reaching the border with Hackney, then east, north, east on back streets, with Worship Street forming a northern boundary, so as to include the Broadgate estate. The boundary then turns south at Norton Folgate and becomes the border with Tower Hamlets. It continues south into Bishopsgate, and takes some backstreets to Middlesex Street (Petticoat Lane) where it continues south-east then south. It then turns south-west, crossing the Minories, so as to exclude the Tower of London from the City, and then reaches the river. The City's boundary then runs up the centre of the Thames, though the City controls the full spans of London Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge but only half of the river underneath them, a feature which is unique in British local administration.

The boundaries of the City are marked by black bollards bearing the City's emblem, and at major entrances, such as at Temple Bar on Fleet Street, a grander monument, with a dragon facing outwards, marks the boundary.

Official boundary map, with wards.

In some places the financial district extends slightly beyond the political boundaries of the City, notably to the north and east, into the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Islington, and informally these locations are seen as part of the "Square Mile". Since the 1990s the eastern fringe of the City, extending into Hackney and Tower Hamlets, has increasingly been a focus for large office developments due to the availability of large sites there compared to within the City.

(Adapted from Wikipedia)