Things to do in London

Things to do in London

Why not do some fun stuff in the famous great city. It can be a great place to have fun.

London is the largest urban area and the capital of England and the United Kingdom. An important settlement for two millennia, London's history goes back to its founding by the Romans. Since its settlement, London has been part of many important movements and phenomena throughout history, such as the English Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the Gothic Revival. The city's core, the ancient City of London, still retains its limited medieval boundaries; but since at least the 19th century the name London has also referred to the whole metropolis which has developed around it. Today the bulk of this conurbation forms the London region of England and the Greater London administrative area, with its own elected mayor and assembly.

Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles, making it the 37th largest urban area in the world. Its primary geographical feature is the Thames, a navigable river which crosses the city from the south west to the east. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills such as Parliament Hill, Addington Hills, and Primrose Hill. These hills presented no significant obstacle to the growth of London from its origins as a port on the north side of the river, and therefore London is roughly circular. Many of the highest points in London are located in the suburbs or on the boundaries with adjacent counties.

London can be geographically defined in a number of ways, although the situation was once even more ambiguous than it is now and open to periodic legal debate. At London's core is the small, ancient City of London which is commonly known as 'the City' or 'the Square Mile'. London's metropolitan area grew considerably during the Victorian era and again during the Interwar period.

There are a variety of regular annual events. The Caribbean-descended community in Notting Hill in West London organizes the colourful Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's biggest street carnival, every summer. The beginning of the year is celebrated with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, while traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the City, and June's Trooping the Colour, a very formal military pageant to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday.

As a cultural centre for the United Kingdom, London has had a major role in many popular music movements. It has numerous renowned venues for rock and pop concerts, including large arenas such as Earls Court and Wembley Arena.

London and its surrounding Home Counties have spawned iconic and popular artists.

London is home to many orchestras and concert halls such as the Barbican Arts Centre (principal base of the London Symphony Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Promenade Concerts), the Royal Festival Hall (Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, London Sinfonietta) and Wigmore Hall. London's two main opera houses are the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum Theatre.

Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district, and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops.The United Kingdom's Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, the Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall. Shoreditch and Hoxton in the East End contain a plethora of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and galleries. Islington's one mile long Upper Street, extending northwards from The Angel, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK. Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly one mile long, which makes it the longest shopping street in the world, and home to many shops and department stores including Selfridges. The adjoining Bond Street in Mayfair is an extremely upmarket location, home to fashion, jewellery, and accessories design houses. Knightsbridge, home to the Harrods department store, lies just to the southwest. Together with these, the fashionable shopping areas of Sloane Street, and Kings Road.

London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane and the Chinese food restaurants of Chinatown. Soho's variety of restaurants includes Italian- and Greek-influenced establishments among others, as well as all manner of novelties and oddities. More upmarket restaurants are scattered around central London, with concentrations in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill.

The largest parks in the central area of London are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park and its neighbour Kensington Gardens at the western edge of central London and Regent's Park on the northern edge. This park contains London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo, and is located near the tourist attraction of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Closer to central London are the smaller Royal Parks of Green Park and St. James's Park. Hyde Park in particular is popular for sports and sometimes hosts open air concerts.

London's most popular sport (for both participants and spectators) is football. London has thirteen League football clubs, including five in the Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. London also has four rugby union teams in the Guinness Premiership (London Irish, Saracens, Wasps and Harlequins), although only the Harlequins play in London (all the other three now play outside Greater London). London also has many other rugby union clubs in lower leagues, including Richmond F.C., Blackheath RC, Rosslyn Park FC and Barnes RFC..

There are two professional rugby league clubs in London - Harlequins Rugby League who play in the Super League at the Stoop and the National League 2 side the London Skolars (based in Haringey). In addition London has a strong presence in the Rugby League Conference with sides including the Elmbridge, West London Sharks in Isleworth and South London Storm in Croydon.

In London centres on its two Test cricket grounds at Lord's ( home of Middlesex CCC ) in St John's Wood, and The Oval (home of Surrey CCC) in Kennington. One of London's best-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon. Other key events are the annual mass participation London Marathon which sees some 35,000 runners attempt a 26.2 mile course around the city, nd the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake.

"Home counties" is an informal phrase used to designate the group of counties that border or surround London, England. The term originated in the late nineteenth century, and is probably derived from the Home Circuit of the itinerant Assize Court. The home counties have no official definition but are usually understood as coinciding with the London commuter belt or the London Metropolitan Area, i.e., where people can work in London without living in the city and travel home each evening. The home counties are sometimes also called London and the South East.

London is home to many museums, galleries, and other institutions which are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The Natural History Museum (biology and geology), Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum (fashion and design) are clustered in South Kensington's museum quarter, while the British Museum houses historic artefacts from around the world. The British Library at St Pancras is the UK's national library, housing 150 million items. The city also houses extensive art collections, primarily in the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

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