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.
Blogs-And-Stories
Peggy Jones: Mudlarking for survival
This mudlark earned her living, and some infamy, scavenging coal along the filthy River Thames
The shadowy dock scenes of Gustave Doré
Romanticised illustrations that conjure up the sweat, clamour and clank of the 19th-century London riverside
How Asian ayahs and amahs arrived in London
These nannies were some of the first Asian women to visit London in the 18th century
London’s Millennium Bridge
After opening with a wobble, this sleek footbridge has become a fixture in its dramatic setting
London’s Millennium Bridge
After opening with a wobble, this sleek footbridge has become a fixture in its dramatic setting
The wild 700-year-long history of Bartholomew Fair
How a yearly cloth fair transformed into a contentious riot of revelry
Mary I & the Smithfield martyrs
This Tudor queen burned Protestants at the stake for their religious beliefs
The 900-year history of St Bartholomew’s Hospital
Caring for London on the same Smithfield spot since 1123
