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Traveldiary

London Fachhochschule Trip 2005

















General Information

Facts about the Travel
location London
date 19.03.2005 - 25.03.2005
country England flag
traveled by plane
average temperature about 18°C to 22°C
currency Pound
Inhabitants 7.500.000
language english
Picturegallery go to the gallery
in combination with -
London (pronounced /ˈlʌndən/) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. An important settlement for around two millennia, London is today one of the world's most important business, financial and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the major global cities. London has a population of 7.5 million within city limits and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. Its population is very cosmopolitan, drawing from a wide range of peoples, cultures and religions, speaking over 300 different languages. London is an international transport hub, with five international airports and a large port. It serves as the largest aviation hub in the world, and its main airport, the multi terminal Heathrow, carries more international passengers than any other airport in the world. [7] London is a major tourist destination, with iconic landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye amongst its many attractions, along with famous institutions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery.
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The Houses of Parliament at night.

Parts of the City

The London region of England, also commonly known as Greater London, is the area administered by the Greater London Authority. The urban sprawl of the conurbation - or Greater London Urban Area - covers a roughly similar area, with a slightly larger population. Beyond this is the vast London commuter belt. At London's core is the small, ancient City of London which is commonly known as "The City" or "Square Mile". Within London, both the City of London and the City of Westminster have City status and both the City of London and the remainder of Greater London are ceremonial counties. The current area of Greater London was historically part of the counties of Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire. Forty percent of Greater London is covered by the London postal area. The London telephone area code covers a larger area, similar in size to Greater London, although some outer districts are omitted and some places just outside are included. The area within the orbital M25 motorway is sometimes used to define the "London area" and the Greater London boundary has been aligned to it in places. Greater London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London. London's metropolitan area ('the metropolis') grew considerably during the Victorian era and again during the Interwar period. Expansion halted in the 1940s because of World War II and Green Belt legislation, and the area has been largely static since. The Metropolitan Police District, city-wide local government area and London transport area have varied over time, but currently broadly coincide with the Greater London boundary. Unlike most capital cities, London's status as the capital of the UK has never been granted or confirmed officially - by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten constitution. The capital of England was moved to London from Winchester after the Norman Conquest. The Romans may have marked the centre of Londinium with the London Stone, still visible on Cannon Street. The co-ordinates of the nominal centre of London (traditionally considered to be the original Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall) are approximately 51°30′29\″N, 00°07′29\″W. Trafalgar Square has also became a central point for celebrations and protests.
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The Great Court, British Museum.

Districts

London's vast urban area is often described using a set of district names (e.g. Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Whitechapel). These are either informal designations, or reflect the names of superseded parishes and city wards. Such names have remained in use through tradition, each referring to a neighbourhood with its own distinctive character, but often with no modern official boundaries (the boundaries often overlap, allowing estate agents some leeway in defining the location of a property).
One area of London which does have a strict definition is the City of London (usually just called The City), the largest financial district and central business district (CBD) in Europe. The City has its own governance and boundaries, giving it a status as the only completely autonomous local authority in London. London's new financial and commercial hub is the Docklands area to the east of the City, dominated by the Canary Wharf complex. Other businesses locate in the City of Westminster, the home of the UK's national government and the famous Westminster Abbey.
The West End is London's main entertainment and shopping district, with locations such as Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus acting as tourist magnets. The West London area is known for fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington and Chelsea - where some properties can sell for £5,000,000 and above.
The eastern side of London contains the East End - the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London. The surrounding East London area saw much of London's early industrial development; now, brownfield sites throughout the area are being redeveloped as part of the Thames Gateway including the London Riverside and Lower Lea Valley, which is being developed into the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics. North London and South London are informal divisions of the capital made by the River Thames, although they can define varying areas.
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The River Thames before sunrise.

Economy

London is a major centre for international business and commerce and is one of three "command centres" for the global economy (along with New York City and Tokyo). As Europe's largest city economy, year-by-year, London's economy generates approximately 20% of the UK's GDP or £219 billion in 2005; whilst the London metropolitan area generates approximately a third of UK GDP. London shifted to a mostly service-based economy earlier than other European cities, particularly following the Second World War. London's success as a service industry and business centre can be attributed to many factors:
* English is the lingua franca;
* its former position as the capital of the British Empire;
* its close relationship with the U.S. and various countries in Asia;
* its geographic location on the globe which enables its office hours to overlap with normal office opening hours for other countries across the world that account for 99 percent of world GDP;
* English law being the most important and most used contract law in international business;
* the multi-cultural infrastructure (schools, places of worship, cultural and social organisations);
* relatively low taxes, particularly for foreigners (non-UK domiciled residents do not get taxed on their foreign earnings);
* a business friendly environment;
* good transport infrastructure, particularly its aviation industry; and
* a deregulated economy with little intervention by the government.

Over 85 percent (3.2 million) of the employed population of greater London works in service industries. Another half a million employees resident in Greater London work in manufacturing and construction, almost equally divided between both.[citation needed] London has five major business districts: the City, Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington and Lambeth & Southwark. London's largest industry remains finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. Over 300,000 people are employed in financial services in London. London has over 480 overseas banks, more than any other city in the world. More funds are invested in the City of London than in the next top ten European cities combined, and more international telephone calls are made to and from London than any other point on the planet. The City is the largest financial and business centre in Europe and has recently begun to reovertake New York City, partly due to strict accounting regulations in the United States of America adopted after accounting scandals. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the US Senate published a report in January 2007 calling on his City and the US to retain its leadership in global financial services to ensure that this trend is reversed and does not 'cast a chill over New York'. London is home to banks, brokers, insurers and legal and accounting firms. Multimillion pound bonuses are commonplace and serve further to drive up house prices in the capital. A second, smaller financial district is developing at Canary Wharf to the east of the City which includes the global headquarters of HSBC, Reuters, Barclays and many of the largest law firms in the world. London handled 31% of global currency transactions in 2005 - an average daily turnover of US$753 billion - with more US dollars traded in London than New York, and more Euros traded than in every other city in Europe combined.
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(click on the image)

Transport

Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London. However the mayor's financial control is limited and he does not control the heavy rail network (although in November 2007 he will assume responsibility for the North London Railway). The public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is attempting to address, including £7 billion (EUR 10 billion) of improvements planned for the Olympics. London has recently been awarded the city for best public transport.

Rail

The centrepiece of the public transport network is the London Underground, commonly referred to as The Tube, with sixteen interconnecting lines, and plans for expansion - especially deeper into South London, and at least one new line. It is the oldest and largest metro system in the world, dating from 1863.[18] The system was home to the world's first underground electric line, the City & South London Railway, which began service in 1890. Over three million journeys a day are made on the Underground network, around early 1 billion journeys are made each year. The Underground serves the central area and most suburbs to the north of the Thames, whilst those to the south are served by an extensive suburban rail overland network. Commuter and intercity railways generally do not cross the city, instead running into fourteen terminal stations scattered around its historic centre. Since the early 1990s, increasing pressures on the commuter rail and Underground networks have led to increasing demands, particularly from businesses and the City of London Corporation, for Crossrail - a £10 billion east-west heavy rail connection under central London. Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium, in two to three hours, making London closer to continental Europe than the rest of Britain and tying it into the Euro-core.

Bus

The London bus network is a twenty four hour service and caters for most local journeys, carrying even more passengers than the Underground. Every weekday, the London bus network carries 6 million passengers on over 700 different routes. In the year to March 2005, the network's ridership was 1.79 billion passenger trips.[54] The buses are internationally recognised, and are a trademark of London transport along with black cabs and the tube.

Air

London is a major international air transport hub. No fewer than eight airports use the words London Airport in their name, but most traffic passes through one of five major airports. London Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic[55] and handles a mixture of full-service domestic, European and inter-continental scheduled passenger flights. Similar traffic, with the addition of some low-cost short-haul flights, is also handled at London Gatwick Airport. London Stansted Airport and London Luton Airport cater mostly for low-cost short-haul flights. London City Airport, the smallest and most central airport, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full service short-haul scheduled flights and considerable business jet traffic.[56]

Road

Although the majority of journeys involving central London are made by public transport, travel in outer London is car-dominated. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs) and an orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes - but very few motorways penetrate into inner London. A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled in the early 1970s. In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of congested central London. Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a vastly reduced season pass which is renewed monthly.