London

The Romans founded Londinium on the north bank of the Thames a few years after the invasion of AD 43, at the lowest point where the river could be bridged. Within two decades it was a trading town, and it was burned to the ground by the rebel queen Boudica around AD 60. The Romans rebuilt it, added a forum and a wall in the second and third centuries, and the line of that wall still shapes the edge of the City. Traces of it survive near the Tower and at Tower Hill.

After the Roman withdrawal the city shrank, then grew again under the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Edward the Confessor built a new abbey and palace at Westminster in the mid eleventh century, a couple of miles upstream from the merchants’ city, which is why London has had two centres since: one for trade and one for government. William the Conqueror was crowned at Westminster on Christmas Day 1066, and every English coronation since has taken place there.

The Great Fire of September 1666 burned for four days and destroyed most of the walled City, including old St Paul’s and around 13,000 houses. Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt St Paul’s and dozens of parish churches, and the Monument beside the river stands close to the spot where the fire began, in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane. Some of the medieval street plan survived under the new brick, which is why the City’s lanes are narrow and twist.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries London became the largest city in the world, with an empire’s wealth and squalor. Cholera and the Great Stink of 1858 forced the engineer Joseph Bazalgette to build the main sewers, which still serve the city. The first underground railway opened in 1863. The Blitz of 1940 and 1941 destroyed large areas, especially in the City and the East End, and postwar rebuilding left a mix of modern blocks and surviving Georgian streets.

The Thames explains London. It is tidal to Teddington, about 30 kilometres upstream, and the tide can rise several metres in the centre, which is why the city built the Thames Barrier in the 1980s to protect it from surge floods. For most of its history the river was the main road: goods came up from the sea to the wharves of the City, and ferries and boats carried people across because bridges were few.

For six centuries London Bridge was the only crossing in the centre. Westminster Bridge opened in 1750, and Blackfriars followed later in the century. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries dozens of crossings were added, from the rail bridges at Charing Cross and Cannon Street to Tower Bridge, finished in 1894, whose bascules rise to let tall ships through. The most recent, the Millennium Bridge, opened in 2000 and was closed for two years after it swayed under the crowds.

The south bank was once the rougher side, with theatres, prisons and bear-baiting outside the City’s control. Shakespeare’s Globe stood at Bankside, and a modern reconstruction stands close to the original site. In the 2000s the south bank was reinvented as a walk, with the Tate Modern in the old Bankside Power Station, the South Bank arts centre and Borough Market, and it is now among the best free walks in Europe.

Today the river is a public path more than a working port. Boats carry commuters and tourists between piers, and the Thames Path runs beside the water for miles. A good simple plan is to walk from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge along the south bank in the afternoon, cross the Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s, and return on the north side.

Getting on the water is easy. Riverboat services run between Westminster, the London Eye, Tower Pier and Greenwich, and sightseeing cruises leave from the same piers with a commentary. A commuter boat with a contactless tap is cheaper than a tour and gives a similar view, and the walk is free. Whichever you choose, go in the late afternoon, when the light on Parliament and St Paul’s is softer and the crowds on the bridges have thinned.

Westminster is where England’s government, church and monarchy meet. The abbey, the palace and the courts sit within a few minutes’ walk, and the arrangement is the product of a thousand years. Edward the Confessor built the first abbey, Henry III rebuilt it in the thirteenth century, and its architecture is mostly Gothic from that period. Coronations, royal weddings and state funerals still happen there.

The Palace of Westminster was rebuilt after a fire in 1834 in a Gothic style by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin, and the clock tower, now the Elizabeth Tower, houses the bell known as Big Ben. Parliament has met here for centuries. Visitors can see the exterior freely and tour the interior on selected days, but Parliament is a working building, and the schedule follows the political calendar.

The monarchy’s London is a short walk away. Buckingham Palace is the King’s residence, and the Changing of the Guard takes place on set days, with a schedule that is announced in advance and can change. St James’s Palace, the Mall and Horse Guards Parade complete the ceremonial route, used for parades such as Trooping the Colour in June.

The City of London, a separate mile-square authority with its own mayor and traditions, is the third power. St Paul’s Cathedral, rebuilt by Wren and finished in 1710, dominates the skyline of the older city, and the towers around it hold much of Britain’s finance. Visitors will notice that the City is quiet at weekends and in the evening, when its offices are empty, and that Sunday is worship-only in both the abbey and St Paul’s.

A visitor who wants to see the machinery of government has options. Parliament runs tours on set days, the Supreme Court and some other public buildings admit visitors, and the Changing of the Guard is free to watch from the street. Open House London, held one weekend in September, opens hundreds of usually closed buildings for free. Check the official sites for dates and any security rules, and expect airport-style screening at most of them.

London’s museums are among its best-known institutions, and most of the national ones are free. The British Museum opened in 1759 in Bloomsbury, built on the collection of the physician Sir Hans Sloane, and it holds objects from Egypt, Greece, Rome and Asia that most visitors know by name, including the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures. It is one of the most visited places in the country.

The National Gallery was founded in 1824 and moved to Trafalgar Square in the 1830s. Its collection covers European painting from the thirteenth to the early twentieth century, and it is best visited by choosing two rooms and leaving. In the nineteenth century the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851 funded a cluster of museums in South Kensington, which is why the V&A, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum sit side by side.

The south bank added a modern layer. Tate Modern opened in 2000 in the former Bankside Power Station, a brick building designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and built in stages from 1947, and its Turbine Hall has hosted large installations. Free entry is a policy choice: the national collections have been free to enter since 2001, with charges only for special exhibitions and for some smaller places.

Plan by theme, not by building. A good day pairs two galleries in one museum and a walk, not five rooms in five places. Museums are warm, dry and often have good cafés, so they are the natural plan for a wet afternoon. Many run late evenings on set days, which are quieter and cooler than the middle of the day.

A few habits make museum days better. Go at opening or after 15:00, when queues are shortest, and use a side entrance if there is one. Carry only a small bag, because cloakrooms have limits. Take a break in a café rather than pushing through fatigue, and check whether the gallery you want is open, since rooms close for rehangs. Children do best with a trail sheet and a single theme, such as dinosaurs, Egypt or armour, rather than a tour of everything.

London’s food is the food of the world. A long history of trade and migration means that curry, Turkish grills, Chinese banquets, Caribbean bakeries and Italian cafés are everyday choices, and some of the city’s best-known dishes are adopted ones. Chicken tikka masala is claimed as a national dish, and the curry houses of Brick Lane in the East End grew out of the Bangladeshi community there.

The older English repertoire is simpler. Fish and chips is a takeaway classic, pie and mash is a working-class staple served with a green parsley sauce called liquor, and the Sunday roast is a weekly family meal served in pubs. The full English breakfast, with bacon, eggs, sausage, beans and toast, is still on café menus. Afternoon tea is a hotel ritual with sandwiches, scones and cake.

The pub is the social centre. You order and pay at the bar, tip if you want, and carry your own drinks to the table. A pint of cask ale, cider or lager costs about £5.50 to £7.50, and most pubs serve food until about 21:00. Old pubs near Westminster and the City have Victorian tiles and etched glass, and many are listed for their interiors.

Markets show how the city eats. Borough Market, close to London Bridge, is the best-known food market, with a history stretching back centuries; Covent Garden’s hall was a fruit and vegetable market until 1974. For visitors, the rule is to eat lunch as the main meal, use markets and pubs to keep costs down, and book the dinner you care about, because good tables fill days ahead.

A few practical rules apply. Read the bill: a service charge of 12.5 per cent is often added, and it is fine to ask if it is optional. Ask for tap water, which is free and safe. Vegetarian and vegan options are widespread, and most menus mark allergens. For a good cheap meal, choose a market stall at 11:30, a meal deal in a park, or a pub lunch on a weekday, and save one evening for a table you booked in advance.

London runs on transport and queues. The tube, the buses and the Elizabeth line move millions of people a day, and a visitor tapping in with a contactless card uses the same system as a commuter. Stand on the right on escalators and walk on the left, let people off before you board, and keep bags off seats in busy carriages. On the pavement, walk on the left where you can and look right before you cross.

Manners are quiet and indirect. People say ‘sorry’ when someone else steps on their foot, ‘cheers’ for thanks, and ‘could I’ or ‘would you mind’ for requests. A queue, whether at a bus stop or a counter, is respected, and jumping one is a serious offence. Conversations on trains are muted, and loud phone calls stand out. Small talk about the weather is a way to be friendly.

Weather is the other daily topic. The climate is mild and damp, with rain spread over the year and a few hot days in summer, and locals dress in layers and carry an umbrella or a light jacket. Winter days are short, with dusk by about four in the afternoon in December. A visitor who plans a museum for every grey afternoon and a park for every bright morning gets the best of both.

The city is expensive but not closed to a budget traveller. Free museums, parks, market lunches and a capped contactless travel fare keep daily costs manageable, and the real costs are beds and dinner. Most people are helpful if you ask, and the police and station staff are approachable. The main things to watch are pickpockets in crowds and phones grabbed by riders on bikes and scooters, so keep your phone away from the kerb.

One last piece of practical advice concerns time. London is bigger than it looks on a map, and a walk that seems short can take an hour in crowds. Plan two clusters a day, keep the tube for the long hops, and leave a gap for a bus ride, which is slow but shows you the city. Check for planned closures on the tube and rail lines at weekends, when engineering works are common, and always have a second route in your phone.