The City

The City, as opposed to the city, is the capital's fast-beating financial heart. Easy to walk around, the "Square Mile" also has currency as a religious and political center. St. Paul's Cathedral has looked after Londoners' souls since the 7th century, and the Tower of London—that moat-surrounded royal fortress, prison, and jewel house—has taken care of beheading them.

There are many starting points to explore The City, but Temple Bar Memorial, at the top of the Strand, is the site of the only surviving entry point—the gate itself was moved closer to St. Paul's (brick by brick) in 1878 to widen the road. Fleet Street, the site of England's first printing press, was the undisputed seat of British journalism until the 1980s. The nearby church of St. Bride's, recognizable by its tiered wedding-cake steeple, is another Wren mini-masterpiece and still the church for journalists.

Nestled behind Fleet Street is Dr. Johnson's House, former home of the man who claimed that to be bored of London was to be bored of life and author of Dictionary of the English Language. Eastward, London's most distinctive building, St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, has clear views of the Millennium Bridge, the pedestrian-only steel suspension bridge that links The City to the South Bank of the Thames. The Central Criminal Court (nicknamed Old Bailey,and home to London's most intriguing criminal trials) lies to the north, as does the 800-year-old Smithfield Market, whose Victorian halls are the site of a daily early morning meat market and the ancient church of St. Bartholomew the Great and St. Bartholomew Hospital, both begun in 1123.

The Museum of London, where archaeological displays include a portion of the original Roman Wall that ringed The City, is a gateway to the modern Barbican Centre, a complex of arts venues and apartments. To the southeast lies the Guildhall, the site of the only Roman amphitheater in London. Nearby, the church of St. Mary-le-Bow and the narrow maze of streets just to its south, around Bow Lane, are great shopping haunts.

At the epicenter of The City is a powerful architectural triumvirate: the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, and Mansion House, where the lord mayor of the City of London (not to be confused with the mayor of London, who works from City Hall on the South Bank) lives and entertains. Nearby are another diverting and historic church, St. Stephen Walbrook, and the remains of the Temple of Mithras, at one time devoted to Bacchus, Roman god of wine and intoxication. The Monument was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London of 1666. Northeast of its 202-foot-high tower are excellent views of two unmissable members of The City skyline: the Lloyd's of London Building, and the Swiss Re Tower, popularly known as "the Gherkin." From here, the river leads to one of London's most absorbing and bloody attractions, the Tower of London. Tower Bridge is a suitably giddying finale.

A Brief History

Rising from the mud of the Thames as the Roman settlement of Londinium, in AD 47, this area marks the beginnings of the capital. It gained immediate momentum as a trading center for materials and goods shipped in from all corners of the fledgling colony. Centuries later, William the Conqueror began building the palace that was to become the Tower of London. It went from being Henry III's defensive shelter in the 13th century to, by Tudor times, the world's most forbidding and grisly prison, where two of Henry VIII's six wives were executed. During the Middle Ages, powerful guilds that nurtured commerce took root, followed by the foundation of great trading companies, such as the Honourable East India Company, which started up in 1600.

The City's history has been punctuated by periods of chaos that have threatened to destroy it. The Great Fire of 1666 was the most serious, sparing only a few of the cramped, labyrinthine streets, where the Great Plague of the previous year had already wiped out a huge portion of the population. Yet the gutted wastelands enabled a new start, driving out the plague-carrying rodents that had menaced London since the Middle Ages and forcing an architectural renaissance, led by Sir Christopher Wren. Further punishment came during the Blitz of World War II, when German bombers destroyed many buildings. Today's eclectic skyline reflects every period of its history, some sublime, some hideous.