The Berkeley Guides:
Berkeley Guide to Europe:
Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
London
London's history is a rich one, evident in the jumbled layers of its buildings. Low 12th-century fortifications are juxtaposed with soaring 20th-century office blocks, and Victorian churches contrast with Roman city walls. Everywhere you look you'll see a confusion of ages, as well as countless images and symbols of the city that have become ingrained in the global subconcious, whether by Defoe, Fielding, and Dickens, or by the Beatles, the Stones, and Elvis Costello. Even people who have never set foot in London have vivid images of Big Ben, Tower Bridge, red double-decker buses, and pale people wearing raincoats and brandishing umbrellas.
But London is not merely a historical pop-up book; it is a living, thriving entity. As empire faded into commonwealth, former subjects relocated to the capital, bringing with them their traditions and beliefs. The presence of so many international influences is changing the very essence of what it is to be British. With a population of almost seven million, London is both quintessentially English and an eccentric aberration. For every traditional pub serving bangers and mash, there's a Bengali, Vietnamese, or Caribbean restaurant vying for tourist dollars. And, for every patriotic Londoner ranting and raving from a Speakers' Corner soapbox about the importance of the monarchy, there are impassioned activists pressing for its abolishment. London has become far more diverse and complex than even Dickens could have imagined.
With all its current problems and turbulent centuries of history, London tends to inspire extreme reactions. American novelist Henry James felt that people could be divided into London-lovers and London-haters, and this is even more true today--though your feelings may change from love to hate day by day or even moment by moment. And if you decide one morning that you hate the city, remember that it is ever-changing. As James put it, "Out of [London's] richness and its inexhaustible good humour it belies the next hour any generalisation you may have been so simple as to make about it."
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