You are not alone if you find yourself confused by the fact that the City of London, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, is actually only a small area within the city known as Greater London. In 1965 the UK government created the administrative area of Greater London which has a total population of around 7,500,000 and covers all the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London (which only has a population of around 5,000).

The Mayor of London

The very first (recorded) Mayor of London was Henry FitzAilwyn, in 1189, but today things get a little confused as there is the “Lord Mayor of the City of London” who is the head of the City of London Corporation, and then there is the “Mayor of London” which covers the area of Greater London and the post to which Boris Johnson was elected on 2 May 2008. The most famous Lord Mayor of London was the fairy-tale character “Dick Whittington” which was based upon Richard Whittingron who was Lord Mayor three times in the 1400’s. It is said that Sir Francis Child, who was Lord Mayor in 1698, founded the banking profession.

The Ancient City of London

The ancient City of London is known to have had seven gates called, Aldersgate, Aldgate, Bishopgate, Cripplegate, Ludgate, Moorgate and Newgate. 1666 is a notorious year in the history of London as this was the year of the Great Fire which started in Pudding Lane, where a 202ft (61.57m) Monument(the tallest free-standing stone column in the world) marks the spot, and caused around four fifths of the city to burn to the ground. This must have appeared as the end of the world to those who witnessed the horror because not long before, in  1664-65, around 100,000 Londoners had perished after suffering the Great Plague.

After the Great Fire of 1666 London had to be rebuilt and one of the finest London buildings, St Paul’s Cathedral, was started and completed in 1710.  The City of London has a great many amazing buildings both historic and new. The National Westminster Tower consists of 52 storeys and was once the tallest building in Europe at 600 feet high.

The City of London has long been known for it’s powerful financial district. The Bank of England was founded in 1694 and the London foreign-exchange market is the largest in the world, trading more than Tokyo and New York combined (about 32% of global turnover). There are over 570 foreign banks in the City of London, more than anywhere else in the world, managing about 50% of the UK banking-sector assets.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 12:55 am and is filed under City of London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.