The City of London

Anyone who is sceptical about the phrase “money talks” need only take a walk through this tiny central area of London to realise how wrong they are.

Ever since Alfred the Great decided to create a special business friendly environment for European merchants, back in 886 A.D. ‘The square mile’, as it is known, has been operating in a world of its own.

It is one of the world’s leading financial centres, home to many of the world’s biggest financial services companies. It has its own police force and is run by its own local government administration, The City of London Corporation. It even has its own, rather undemocratic, electoral system.

Although it sits right in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world, hardly anyone lives there. During the working day more than 500,000 people can be found in offices, shops, restaurants and providing services, but once work stops this number is reduced to just 10,000 permanent residents.

This gives the City a rather eerie quality at the weekends, when its glass and steel skyscrapers empty and the whole area becomes a sort of futuristic ghost town. To really get a sense of the city in full swing it is best to go during office hours between Monday and Friday, if you go at the weekends you’ll find that everywhere is shut including all the pubs, shops and restaurants, so it’s difficult to even buy a bottle of water.

Exploring the Square Mile

A good place to start is Bank St. (catch the Central Line, on the London Underground, to Bank station); this is right in the centre of the City and close to the Bank of England and the London Stock Exchange, plus a whole host of beautiful old buildings that date back centuries.

To really enjoy this area, make sure that you have a good street map, the City is a maze of streets and alleys so without one you’ll soon be lost.

This is because  - even though the City has been redeveloped, rebuilt and redesigned over and over again - it actually still has more or less the same street layout that its always had, ever since the days of the Roman empire.

This is part of what gives the whole place its unique character; you can still explore the hundreds of tiny alleyways, leading to miniature squares, where ancient pubs continue to throng with business people from around the world, networking and cutting deals as they have done for centuries.

There are numerous tiny public gardens and churchyards which you will stumble across, usually full of office workers at lunchtime, taking a break from the rat-race and catching a quiet moment to eat a sandwich.

These squares are surprisingly tranquil places, given what’s going on around them, and many of the churchyards are full of gravestones dating as far back as the 1600s, surrounding the ancient churches that were once the tallest buildings in London, but are now dwarfed by skyscrapers on all sides.

Museums, Galleries & other cultural highlights

The main cultural centre in the City of London is the Barbican, which also happens to be where most of its permanent residents live.

The Barbican has a number of galleries, concert halls and exhibition centres hosting regular world-class events. This is also where you will also find The Museum of London, a small but informative trip through all the different time-zones of this ancient city, including a Great Fire of London exhibition and some real double-decker horse drawn coaches, the first ever London buses.

St. Paul’s Cathedral – nearest underground: St. Paul’s, Central Line
This is a must see building if you are in the City. Go inside and sit down in one of the pews, then tilt your head back and look up at the ceiling; the sheer sense of space is mind boggling.

Tower of London – nearest underground: Tower Hill, District & Circle Line
Hugely famous around the world this vast stone prison was built by William the Conqueror in order to keep the London peasants in line. Today it is one of the city’s most visited attractions, and very busy in the summer.

Tower Bridge – nearest underground: Tower Hill, District & Circle Line
This well known landmark is often mistaken for London Bridge, which is the plain looking boring bridge next-door. You can visit Tower Bridge for walks along the top part of the bridge, called the skywalk, from which you will see incredible views of the river Thames.

St. Katherine’s Docks – nearest underground: Tower Hill, District & Circle Line
This is not officially in the City of London, but lies just on the other side of the main road that runs across Tower Bridge. The old docks were once full of ships and workers, a place where luxury cargos from around the world were unloaded and stored.
Today they are home to multi-million pound apartments, luxury yachts and expensive coffee shops, yet they still manage to retain much of their old charm, and are a great place to spend an afternoon if the weather is ok.