5 ms·
What amazes me is how small London was then compared to the huge thing it is today. What constituted "London" in Wren's plan is like a small bit of one part of
by dvirsky 11y ago
What amazes me is how small London was then compared to the huge thing it is today. What constituted "London" in Wren's plan is like a small bit of one part of the city today. I mean, it makes sense when you think about it, but it was just surprising to see it visualized.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y agoIt's the 'city' proper, i.e. the City of London [1] (sometimes known as the Square Mile) as opposed to the city, London, or the Greater London area. It gets very confusing but, yes, London as most people think of it has got much, much bigger in the last 350 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London
- jeffwass 11y agoLondon itself, as in the City of London, is still only a square mile, it's even called 'The Square Mile'. And the City of London is more-or-less based on the borders of the old Roman city of Londinium. Parts of the Roman city walls are still around today. Greater London is an amalgamation of the neighbouring boroughs that grew and merged into the London metropolis today. Eg, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden, etc. You can see which borough you're in by looking at the street signs.
- sambeau 11y agoCGP Grey has a good explanation of London vs The City of London: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrObZ_HZZUc
- orf 11y agoFunnily enough Westminster is it's own city as well, so London consists of 3 cities really. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Westminster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Westminster
- jeffwass 11y agoGreater London consists of many boroughs or 'cities', way more than three. Each is its own municipality, just like Westminster. The City of London happens to be one of the smallest, and least populous. Edit - on rereading this, I realise you may have been referring to the fact that Westminister has 'City' in its name, whereas most others boroughs use the word 'Borough'. I'm not aware of other boroughs in Greater London that are also 'Cities' in that respect.
- quarterto 11y agoBy far the least populous. In the 2011 census it had a population of 7375.
- darkr 11y agoAlso interesting, those people live only within 4 electoral wards, whereas there are 25 total electoral wards within the City. Within the remaining 21 electoral wards, votes are controlled by businesses (mostly banks and the like), and the amount of votes that each business receives depends on it's size.
- orf 11y agoI'm not aware of any other London boroughs other than Westminster that actually hold the City status though. Being both a borough and a city is pretty unique I think.
- peteretep 11y agoIn any country that didn't have arcane rules about what constitutes a city, each borough would probably be a city
- jeffwass 11y agoEven amongst boroughs, all are not equal. Eg, it's the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_place_names_with_royal_patronage_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_place_names_with_roy...
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoThere are historical maps at the aptly named: https://www.old-maps.co.uk https://www.old-maps.co.uk A lot of the growth happened from 1900 onwards, when Camden was a few streets away from the rural outskirts, and Hammersmith was on the outskirts. After that the suburbs exploded. In some areas they stretch all the way out to the M25.
- pjc50 11y agoJust think how small New York was at that time..