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| Big Ben, a famous London landmark |
Just about every London travel guide will tell you that there is nowhere else on earth quite like London. With so many unique events and incredible sights, this city is at the same time big, brash and bustling; cutting-edge, yet traditional; historical, yet modern - it is the quintessential international metropolis - a world city by all accounts. London greets its guests with grand hotels and exquisite restaurants fit even for a queen. What happens here affects every corner of the world. A global centre of commerce, retail, finance, entertainment, fashion, transit and trends, London very often feels like the capital of world. London is also one of the world's most identifiable and emblematic cities - the city of Big Ben, double-decker buses, the Queen and the Tube, it quite rightly asserts itself in global consciousness as one of the greatest cities on earth. It has a plethora of every conceivable activity, and contains something for everyone.
The name London originally referred only to the once-walled 'Square Mile' of the original Roman (and later medieval) city (confusingly called the 'City of London' or just 'The City'). Today, London has taken on a much larger meaning to include all of the vast central parts of the modern metropolis, with the city having absorbed numerous surrounding towns and villages over the centuries. The term Greater London embraces central London together with all the outlying suburbs that lie in one continuous urban sprawl within the lower Thames valley. Though densely populated by New World standards, London retains large swathes of green parkland and open space, even within the city centre. Greater London consists of 32 London boroughs and the City of London that, together with the Mayor of London, forms the basis for London's local government. The Mayor of London is elected by London residents and should not be confused with the Lord Mayor of the City of London. The names of several boroughs, such as Westminster or Camden, are well-known and self-explanatory, others less so, such as Hackney or Tower Hamlets. A traveller's London is better defined by recognized cultural, functional and social districts of varying type and size.
The term Londoner refers to a person born and raised in London, which, in this context, is traditionally defined as the London postal district. However, with increasing immigration and the outward growth of the metropolitan area, the term is now more commonly defined as any inhabitant of Greater London, although those from inner London - especially of the elder generations - may not consider them true Londoners. Conversely, residents of some Greater London boroughs (such as Harrow and Kingston) often identify themselves as coming from these formerly separate towns, and hence list their home county as Middlesex or Surrey, respectively. Although the term Londoner is generally accepted as covering people of Greater London, it is sometimes used more narrowly to mean a Cockney. Therefore, whilst all Cockneys are Londoners, not all Londoners are Cockneys, since to qualify as a true Cockney one must be born within the sound of Bow Bells, the peal of the church bells of the parish church at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London. Despite this, in some parts of the UK the term Cockney is incorrectly used to refer to any Londoner.
