A haven for refugees, London has a global resonance, and yet it has an endearing old-world charm. Less English than any English town, London is the universal salad bowl. Londoners today prefer their lattes to Earl Grey and you will see more cafes here than teahouses.
Today's Londoner might wear pagdi or burqa instead of cravat and corset, and it is this democracy that gives London its element. It’s bohemian and stiff-upper lipped, old-fashioned and cosmopolitan, tacky and posh at the same time.
London's charm lies in the fact that it has something for everyone. History, myth, culture, romance, latest street fashions, pop culture, youth culture, music, theatre, media. From uber-chic boutiques to flea markets, from Michelin star
restaurants to humble curry houses, from the latest Hollywood (or Bollywood) flick to avant-garde theatre, from high brow tea parlours to mod
discotheques, from pin striped bankers to purple-haired hippies, London accommodates all and that is why it's a metropolis in the truest sense of the word.
London has a sexy, shimmering cover with its heady melange of nationalities. But at the core, historical London rests with a humble air. Because London has enough history to be declared blue-blooded English – just walk down the beautiful avenues in central London and witness the tomes of the empire - the handsome Georgian and Victorian facades, the lovely old mansions that peep through the tree-shaded boulevards of its wealthy neighbourhoods.
London's beautiful architecture charts the growth of the city from Roman walls and Norman castles to the neo-Gothic Big Ben and post-modern skyscrapers.
This is the city that gave birth to the mini skirt, techno music and punk culture. It has been the home of James Bond and Sherlock Holmes. This is where Shakespeare's plays were more popular than any Hollywood film and Charles Dickens lived here. This is where the Rolling Stones became anti-gods to the Beatles. London has dictated the globe's cultural consciousness for too long. It's been there and it's done that. And now it rests, unassuming, straddling zero degree longitude, at the centre of the world.
