City of London
The City of London is where, around 2,000 years ago, the Romans founded the settlement they called Londinium. Surrounded by a wall for centuries, this was the historic city which grew into modern London, and the place marked by fire and plague.
Known as the Square Mile, the City of London has by far the lowest population of all 33 London boroughs, at around 8,000 people. But as a financial centre, home to banks, insurers and law firms, in the daytime that number swells to over 500,000.
An estimated 10 million visitors come each year to see sites like the St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Barbican Centre and, from 2026, London Museum.
There’s history around every corner here. Fleet Street is no longer the home of London’s newspapers. But reporters still gather around the Old Bailey, the City’s historic criminal court.
The Barbican estate is an icon of Brutalist architecture in the City of London.
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The Smithfield Poultry Market Fire of 1958
Curator Kate Sumnall dives into one of the most dramatic episodes in the rich history of Smithfield Market
Building a Victorian underground railway
Henry Flather’s photos of the Metropolitan District Railway show a transport revolution in action
A timeline of Roman London: Londinium from start to end
How the Romans created London, built temples and baths, then abandoned their city 350 years later
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