City of London
The City of London is where, around 2,000 years ago, the Romans founded the settlement they called Londinium. Surrounded by a wall for centuries, this was the historic city which grew into modern London, and the place marked by fire and plague.
Known as the Square Mile, the City of London has by far the lowest population of all 33 London boroughs, at around 8,000 people. But as a financial centre, home to banks, insurers and law firms, in the daytime that number swells to over 500,000.
An estimated 10 million visitors come each year to see sites like the St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Barbican Centre and, from 2026, London Museum.
There’s history around every corner here. Fleet Street is no longer the home of London’s newspapers. But reporters still gather around the Old Bailey, the City’s historic criminal court.
The Barbican estate is an icon of Brutalist architecture in the City of London.
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The lost, lawless tradition of Shrovetide football
Forget pancakes – for hundreds of years, Shrove Tuesday was marked by a chaotic ball game
Lost rivers: The Walbrook
This small but mighty river was vital to life in the Roman and medieval city
The City of London’s last lollipop lady
And the history of London’s traffic stoppers
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A View of London Bridge in the Year 1616, from an Engraving by John Visscher (lithograph)
Visscher, John, Martin, Robert
1840-1860
