The City of London, with a capital C, is not the same as the city of London, with a small c! The modern city of London is Europe’s most densely-populated area. The City is a small area, covering approximately one square mile just to the north of the River Thames. It was the original London. It was first populated nearly 2000 years ago by the Romans, who called it Londinium. The City has been an important centre of power since Roman times, but it has not been the capital city for a long, long time because the British parliament has been located in the City of Westminster (also part of modern London), since the 12th century. Before that, the capital city was Winchester, a different city entirely!

In mediaeval times, there was a wall around the City to protect it from invaders, and many streets in the area today still have names like “London Wall” and “Bishopsgate”. If you see a street name containing the word “gate” in the City area, this means that there was a gate in the wall on that street.

The famous Tower of London, first built by William the Conqueror in 1078, was actually not in the City of London. It was built by the invading Normans just outside the City walls as a symbol of power and oppression against the people of London. You can learn a bit more about the Normans in last week’s blog about the History of the English Language.

Today, if someone says that they work in the City, they mean that they work in the financial centre of London, because the City is where the major banks and other financial institutions are located. We also call this financial district ‘The Square Mile”, because this is approximately the area that it covers. If you are in London, I recommend that you take a long walk around this area – I’m sure you’ll agree that there is so much history to explore!