London

Scattered Brythonic settlements existed in the area, but the first major settlement was founded by the Romans around AD 47, about four years after their invasion. Londinium was burned in Boudica's revolt around AD 61, rebuilt, and by the year 100 had replaced Colchester as the principal city of Roman Britain, with a population of perhaps 60,000 at its height in the 2nd century. After Roman rule collapsed early in the 5th century the walled city was largely abandoned. William the Conqueror built the White Tower after 1066, and medieval London grew from some 18,000 people in 1100 to nearly 100,000 by 1300 before the Black Death took almost a third of them.

The Tudor and Stuart city grew fast, from about 50,000 people in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. The Great Plague of 1665–1666 killed some 100,000 people, a fifth of the population, and in 1666 the Great Fire destroyed much of the wooden city; Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1710, rose in its place. As the Port of London expanded downstream and the City became the leading international financial centre, London became an imperial capital and was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925.

The Blitz of the Second World War killed over 30,000 Londoners and destroyed many buildings. The population fell from an estimated 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s, then rose again with immigration from the Commonwealth and beyond. London hosted the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948 and became the first city to host three Summer Olympics in 2012. On 7 July 2005 three Underground trains and a bus were bombed in a series of terrorist attacks.

London has the most museums, galleries, libraries and cultural venues in the UK, from the British Museum, the National Gallery and Tate Modern to the British Library, and the West End's theatres make it one of the great theatre cities of the world. Opera and ballet are performed at the Royal Opera House, the London Coliseum, Sadler's Wells and the Royal Albert Hall, and the O2 Arena and many mid-sized venues host rock and pop concerts.

It is one of the most diverse cities in the world: a 2005 survey counted more than 300 languages spoken, and in the 2021 census about 40 per cent of residents had been born outside the UK. Immigrants, many from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, have shaped whole districts since the 1940s, and their festivals have become part of the city's calendar — the Notting Hill Carnival every late August bank holiday, and the Boishakhi Mela, the largest open-air Asian festival in Europe, for the Bengali New Year. Cockney, the accent of working-class East London, is still heard across the city, though in multicultural areas it is partly giving way to Multicultural London English.

Ceremony is part of the city's rhythm: Trooping the Colour marks the King's Official Birthday each June, and November's Lord Mayor's Show celebrates the appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City. Sport is followed fiercely, from the FA Cup Final at Wembley and the Wimbledon tennis championships to the London Marathon, and the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur has been played since 1909.

Greater London had a population of just over 9.8 million in 2025, about 13 per cent of the UK's people, and the wider metropolitan area about 15 million. In the 2021 census about 41 per cent of Londoners described themselves as Christian, around a fifth said they had none and 15 per cent were Muslim, with smaller Hindu, Jewish, Sikh and Buddhist communities. Since 2016 the city's elected mayor has been Sadiq Khan of the Labour Party.

London is Europe's largest city economy and one of the world's major financial centres, with banking and insurance concentrated in the City and at Canary Wharf, alongside government, law, media, the creative industries and technology. Its universities draw an international student population of around 110,000, larger than that of any other city.

For most Londoners the day is shaped by the commute: over 4 million journeys are made every day on the Underground, and around 670,000 people use a bicycle every day. Waterloo is Britain's busiest station, with over 184 million passengers a year, and the east–west Elizabeth line opened in May 2022.

London eats the world, but its own working-class traditions survive. Pie and mash, a Cockney classic that began in the docks, is a minced beef pie, once also an eel pie, served with mashed potato and a parsley sauce known as liquor, with malt vinegar on the side; pie and mash shops have been in London since the 19th century and are still common in the East End and south London. Jellied eels, which date from the 18th century, are chopped eels boiled in a spiced stock that cools and sets into a jelly, and are usually eaten cold.

Beigels, the local spelling of the bagel, have been sold in and around Brick Lane since the middle of the 19th century, when the area's Jewish population was growing; the street is now best known for its Bangladeshi curry houses. Southall in west London is home to the largest Punjabi community outside the Indian subcontinent, and Chinatown, around Gerrard Street in the West End, is lined with Chinese restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets.

Borough Market by London Bridge, with a market on the site since at least the 12th century, is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, selling fresh fruit and vegetables, artisanal food, cheese, meat, game, bread and pastry. Rules in Covent Garden, founded in 1798, describes itself as London's oldest restaurant.