Cheap London Hotels

Cheap London Hotels

If you want to go to the city of London. You may need to have a hotel to stay in. You may want a cheap hotel which can offer cheap prices but good quality. You may want a hotel near the location you want to visit. You may want to see the sports or entertainment venues of the city. You may want to see the culture of the city.

London is one of the world's leading business, financial and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion and the arts contribute to its status as a major global city. London boasts four World Heritage Sites: The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church; the Tower of London; the historic settlement of Greenwich; and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The city is a major tourist destination both for domestic and overseas visitors.

The River Thames is by far the largest river of the London area, flowing west to east across the London Basin. It is rather larger than would be expected if it only drained the basin, since its headwaters cut into the London basin through the Goring Gap and also drain parts of the Cotswolds and Vale of Aylesbury. Similarly tributaries such as the Mole cut through the North Downs into the basin from the south. Further downstream the flow of the Thames is boosted by springs which open onto the riverbed where this is on chalk.

The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river than it is today. It has been extensively embanked. The Thames is tidal (the Tideway) up to Teddington Lock, and London is vulnerable to flooding by storm surges. The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level, caused by both the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post glacial rebound and the gradual rise in sea levels due to climate change. The Thames Barrier was constructed across the Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal with this threat, but in early 2005 it was suggested that a ten mile long barrier further downstream might be required to deal with the flood risk in the future. Within London a considerable number of rivers and streams flow into the Thames, some large enough to have exerted a significant influence on the geography of the area. Many of the smaller London tributaries now flow underground.

At the largest scale London lies within the bowl of the London Basin, with most of the built-up area lying on the Tertiary and younger sediments, and only a small part of south London (Sutton, Banstead and Croydon) lying on the chalk backslope of the North Downs. The centre of the basin is dominated by the modern valley of the Thames, which forms a level corridor running from west to east. The modern floodplain is around half a mile wide to the west of Greater London, expanding to two miles wide to the east. This is bordered by slightly higher and older terraces often extending several miles from the floodplain, for example in Hounslow and Southwark. Other significant river valleys include those of the Colne, Crane, Brent, Lea (with a floodplain more than a mile wide in places), Wandle and Ravensbourne, which run north and south towards the Thames. There are a few notable hills in Greater London, but none of them more than a few hundred feet high, and they have not impeded the development of the city in all directions. It is therefore very roughly circular.

The hills in the City of London, from west to east, Ludgate Hill, Corn Hill and Tower Hill, are presumed to have influenced the precise siting of the early city, but they are very minor, and most of central London is almost flat. These hills are developed in various gravel terrace deposits of the river Thames.

To the north of the City a ridge capped by sands of the Bagshot formation forms high ground (in places around 130m) including Hampstead Heath and Highgate Hill. The ridge continues eastwards in the London clay to Crouch Hill and Queen's Wood. To the south, fingers of the ridge run down towards Primrose Hill and Parliament Hill. This ridge is a surviving area of Tertiary rocks younger than the London Clay, surrounded by former routes of the Thames where much younger deposits overlie the clay. Smaller outliers of younger Tertiary high ground exist to the west of the main ridge including Harrow Hill where Bagshot sands survive and at Horsendon Hill and Hanger Lane, where the Claygate Beds of the top of the London Clay formation are capped by much younger gravels deposited by the Thames.

Faulting and folding brings the chalk close to the surface just south of the Thames in Lewisham and Greenwich. This has resulted in a notable ridge formed of Palaeocene deposits (the Lambeth Group), which includes Shooter's Hill, Greenwich Park and Blackheath. West of the valley of the Ravensbourne, this ridge continues as Telegraph Hill, Nunhead and Honor Oak, towards Denmark Hill. To the south Crystal Palace and Sydenham Hill lie on another outlier of Claygate beds.

In south-west London the lower terraces of the Thames stop abruptly at a notable bluff cut into the London Clay and running south from Richmond Hill. The higher ground to the east is capped in places by Claygate Beds and older Thames gravels dissected by the valley of Beverley Brook, which separates Richmond Park from Wimbledon Common.

Find a Villa from Across Europe

Grand World Villas - Find a Villa from anywhere in the world

Grand Global Villas - Find Villas from Around the Globe

Planet Villas

An Index with links to almost all our sites

Get a Villa in Spain

Villas in Portugal

Holiday to - Great places to go on Holiday to

Holiday to 2 - More Great places to go on Holiday to

Holiday to 3 - More places to go on Holiday to

Holiday to 4 - More places to go on Holiday to

vacation exotic

Fun Vacations