London began on two small patches of dry land in the middle of a marsh on the north bank of the Thames. That was long before the Romans came. Today London has about 7.5 million inhabitants and is the capital of Great Britain. Actually there are several Londons. First, there is the City of London. It is about one square mile in area and only a few thousand people live there. But it contains the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange, and the headquarters of many of the wealthiest companies and corporations in the world. It is the financial and business centre of Great Britain. During the day the City has a population of half a million;
during the night its population isn't much more than five thousand. So you see that each night the heart of London becomes a desert where Pounds Sterling outnumber human beings by one thousand to one. Each morning this desert is invaded by a vast army of clerks, civil servants, businessmen, and so on, from the surrounding suburbs which encircle the centre in a broad ring. Then there is the County of London composed of about thirty boroughs in addition to the City. Finally, there is Greater London which includes all the above and a great deal more. But London has many other faces. There is the West End, a fashionable shopping and entertaining centre to the west of the City. There is Mayfair - upper class London - stretching from the West End to Hyde Park. There are the Houses of Parliament built on the banks of the Thames at Westminster. This institution is descended from the first of all parliaments in the thirteenth century. More poor people, mainly workers, live in the East End. This is a vast area running eastwards from the City. It includes all the main dock areas and is heavily industrialized. Despite many fine houses built by the council there are still miles of dingy little dwellings. The East End of London is usually contrasted with the wealthy, bourgeois West End and both of them, in different ways of course, can be contrasted with the aristocratic, pompously official area of Westminster. It is in fact the capital of Great Britain. From the tower of the Houses of Parliament the B.B.C. wavebands carry the chimes of Big Ben to all the territories. From Whitehall the circulars, orders and instructions of the different Ministries go out by land, sea, air, telegraph. This is where Downing Street is situated. For more than two hundred years the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain has been No.10 Downing Street. Westminster Abbey is regarded as the centre of the
Westminster area. This is the ancient church of Saint Peter which has been built and rebuilt many times. The most beautiful and oldest part of the Abbey is the Chapel of Henry VII, built at the turn of the fourteenth century. There are also many old individual buildings in the Westminster area. Along Whitehall you can see the two horses standing outside the barracks of the Household Cavalry. If you come here in the morning, you can see the changing of the Royal Guard. If you want to see the Whole ceremony, you must come early to the railings of the Buckingham Palace. You will see a theatrical performance which has been rehearsed
and polished over the years.