London Guide
The City
The City is where London began. Long established as the financial district, it currently stretches from Temple Bar in the west to the Tower of London in the east – administrative boundaries that are only slightly larger than those marked by the Roman walls and their medieval successors. However, in this Square Mile (as the City is sometimes referred to) you'll find precious few leftovers of London's early days: four-fifths of the area burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666.
What you see on the ground is mostly the product of three fairly recent building phases: the Victorian construction boom; the overzealous reconstruction that followed the Blitz; and the building frenzy that began in the 1980s, which has seen over half the City's office space rebuilt.
When you consider what has happened here, it's amazing that anything has survived to bear witness to the City's 2000-year history. Wren's spires still punctuate the skyline here and there, and his masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, remains one of London's geographical and touristic pivots. At the eastern edge of the City, the Tower of London, begun shortly after the Norman Conquest, survives. Other relics, such as the City's few existing medieval alleyways, Wren's Monument to the Great Fire and London's oldest synagogue and church, are less conspicuous, and even the locals have problems finding the more modern attractions of the Museum of London and the Barbican arts complex. It's also worth checking out some of the new architecture that has shot up within the Square Mile since the 1980s, including the mould-breaking Lloyd's Building by Richard Rogers, and the eye-catching Gherkin by Norman Foster.