Though London was for more than a century the most populous city on earth, it was also always a collection of villages. Each village used to have a unique quality and some still do. The Government focuses on Whitehall, with power derived from parliament in Westminster - incomplete without the Queen, whose royal and public life is still centred round St James' Park.

Newspapers used to be in Fleet Street, book publishers in Bloomsbury, films in Wardour Street, theatres in Shaftesbury Avenue, fashion in Mayfair and fruit and vegetables in Covent Garden. The City is still a financial centre to match Wall Street and the Far East; the West End is full of shops, restaurants and art galleries; the River Thames, now much cleaner, is a silver thread from Chelsea to Greenwich.