Wandsworth Bridge
Wandsworth Bridge crosses the River Thames in west London. It carries the A217 road between the area of Battersea, near Wandsworth Town Station, in the London Borough of Wandsworth on the south of the river, the areas of Sands End and Parsons Green, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side; the first bridge on the site was a toll bridge built by Julian Tolmé in 1873, in the expectation that the western terminus of the Hammersmith and City Railway would shortly be built on the north bank, leading to a sharp increase in the number of people wanting to cross the river at this point. The railway terminus was not built, problems with drainage on the approach road made access to the bridge difficult for vehicles. Wandsworth Bridge was commercially unsuccessful, in 1880 it was taken into public ownership and made toll-free. Tolmé's bridge was narrow and too weak to carry buses, in 1926 a Royal Commission recommended its replacement. In 1937 Tolmé's bridge was demolished; the present bridge, an unadorned steel cantilever bridge designed by Sir Thomas Peirson Frank, was opened in 1940.
At the time of its opening it was painted in dull shades of blue as camouflage against air raids, a colour scheme it retains. Although Wandsworth Bridge is one of the busiest bridges in London, carrying over 50,000 vehicles daily, it has been described as "probably the least noteworthy bridge in London". Although opposite each other across the River Thames, Fulham on the north bank and Wandsworth on the south bank were isolated from each other; the fast flowing but narrow River Wandle at Wandsworth was well-situated for driving watermills, leading to the rapid spread of industry in the area during the 19th century. Nearby Battersea Railway Bridge opened in 1863, but as the local population grew and London's built-up area began to encroach during the 19th century, pressure from local residents and businesses for a road bridge to be built increased. In 1864, it was expected that the newly formed Hammersmith and City Railway would build its western terminus on the north bank of the river between Chelsea and Fulham.
In 1864, in anticipation of the new railway line generating high demand for a river crossing, an Act of Parliament was passed granting permission to the Wandsworth Bridge Company to build a bridge, to be financed by tolls, with the proviso that the bridge would be at least 40 feet wide and cross the river with no more than three spans. Rowland Mason Ordish designed an Ordish–Lefeuvre Principle bridge to comply with the Act's specifications, of a similar design to his nearby Albert Bridge. Wandsworth Bridge and Albert Bridge were authorised on the same day, the last private tollbridges authorised in London; the company was unable to finance the building of Ordish's design, in 1870 a new Act of Parliament was passed giving the company permission to build a bridge 30 feet wide, crossing the river with five spans. Ordish was asked to design a cheaper bridge to the new specifications but refused to change the design, so Julian Tolmé was appointed designer in his place. Tolmé designed a starkly functional lattice truss bridge of wrought iron.
It cost £40,000 to build, consisted of five identical spans, supported by four pairs of concrete-filled iron piers. The bridge was due to open in early 1873, but the workmen building it went on strike, a third Act of Parliament was necessary to give the company time to resolve the dispute and complete the project. Wandsworth Bridge was formally opened in a small ceremony on 26 September 1873, a celebratory buffet was provided at the nearby Spread Eagle pub. A utilitarian structure made of mismatched materials purchased for cheapness, the new bridge elicited unenthusiastic responses. A 1⁄2d toll was charged on pedestrians, carts were charged 6d. In 1867 the independent Hammersmith and City Railway was absorbed by the Metropolitan Railway and the Great Western Railway, was operated from on by Metropolitan Railway trains; the plan for a terminus in Fulham was abandoned, the line instead turned west at Hammersmith to run over London and South Western Railway tracks to Richmond. Although Wandsworth Town railway station, near the southern end of the bridge, had provided direct connections to central London since 1846, the lack of rail connections opening on the north bank meant the area on the Fulham side remained undeveloped, bridge usage was low.
Tolmé's design was not sturdy enough to carry heavy vehicles, drainage problems on the approach road to the north discouraged vehicles from using Wandsworth Bridge. Wandsworth Bridge never raised enough toll revenue to cover the costs of repairs and maintenance. In 1877 the Metropolis Toll Bridges Act was passed, in 1880 Wandsworth Bridge, along with other London bridges, was taken into the public ownership of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Despite having run at a loss throughout its lifetime, the Board of Works paid £53,313 for the bridge, a substantial premium on its £40,000 construction cost. On 26 June 1880 Edward, Prince of Wales, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, presided over a ceremony abolishing tolls over the three bridges. By the time it was taken into public ownership, the bridge was in poor condition. In 1891 a weight limit of 5 tons was introduced, in 1897 a 10 mph speed limit was imposed. With its narrowness and weight restrictions, by this poi
South Bank
South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark; as such, South Bank may be regarded as somewhat akin to the riverside part of an area known as Lambeth Marsh and North Lambeth. While South Bank is not formally defined, it is understood to bounded by Westminster Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge, to be centred half a mile south-east of Charing Cross; the name South Bank was first used in 1951 during the Festival of Britain. The area's long list of attractions includes the County Hall complex, the Sea Life London Aquarium, the London Dungeon, Jubilee Gardens and the London Eye, the Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, National Theatre, BFI Southbank. In addition to their official and business functions, both the County Hall and the Shell Centre have major residential components. Due to it being waterlogged in winter, the area was slower to develop than the "North Bank" of the Thames.
Throughout its history, it has twice functioned as an entertainment district, interspersed by around a hundred years of wharfs, domestic industry and manufacturing being its dominant use. Restoration began in 1917 with the construction of County Hall at Lambeth replacing the Lion Brewery, its Coade stone symbol was retained and placed on a pedestal at Westminster Bridge and is known as the South Bank Lion. The pedestrianised embankment is The Queen's Walk, part of the Albert Embankment built not only for public drainage but to raise the whole tract of land to prevent flooding. In 1951 the Festival of Britain redefined the area as a place for arts and entertainment, it now forms a significant tourist district in central London, stretching from Blackfriars Bridge in the east to Westminster Bridge in the west. A series of central London bridges connect the area to the northern bank of the Thames Golden Jubilee and Waterloo Bridge. During the Middle Ages this area developed as a place of entertainment outside the formal regulation of the City of London on the north bank.
By the 18th century the more genteel entertainment of the pleasure gardens had developed. The shallow bank and mud flats were ideal locations for industry and docks and went on to develop as an industrial location in a patchwork of private ownership. There was a shift in use when the London County Council required a new County Hall, built between 1917 and 1922 on the south bank near North Lambeth's Lower Marsh; the construction of County Hall returned the first section of river frontage to public use. This was extended eastwards in 1951 when the Festival of Britain caused a considerable area to be redeveloped, it was renamed'South Bank' as part of promoting the Festival. The legacy of the festival was mixed, with buildings and exhibits demolished to make way for Jubilee Gardens, whilst the Royal Festival Hall and The Queen's Walk were retained as part of the Southbank Centre. During the years following the festival the arts and entertainment complex grew with additional facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, other arts venues opened along the river such as the Royal National Theatre.
The South Bank stretches two square miles along the southern bank of the River Thames. The western section is in the Bishops ward of the London Borough of Lambeth, the eastern section is in the London Borough of Southwark where it joins Bankside. There is a significant amount of public open space along the riverside. Between the London Studios and the Oxo Tower lies Bernie Spain Gardens, named after Bernadette Spain, a local community activist, part of the Coin Street Action Group; the South Bank is a significant arts and entertainment district. The Southbank Centre comprises the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and The Hayward Gallery; the Royal National Theatre, the London IMAX super cinema and BFI Southbank adjoin to the east, but are not part of the centre. County Hall is non-administrative and has been converted into The London Marriott Hotel County Hall, Sea Life London Aquarium and the London Dungeon; the OXO Tower Wharf is towards the eastern end of South Bank, houses Gallery@Oxo and boutiques, the OXO Tower Restaurant run by Harvey Nichols.
Gabriel's Wharf is a redeveloped wharf on the South Bank, located at London. It has been converted into a shopping area. Nearby places include Bernie Spain Gardens; the London Studios, the main home of ITV faces the Thames and Rambert Dance Company have their new studios on Upper Ground. The Old Vic and Young Vic theatres are nearby; the Florence Nightingale Museum to nursing and the Crimean War adjoins the'district'. Part of the Southbank Centre under the Queen Elizabeth Hall is known as the undercroft, has been used by the skateboarding community since the early 1970s. An architectural dead-spot, it has become a landmark of British skateboarding culture; the size of the under-croft has been reduced in recent years and was supposed to be returned to original size. This now seems unlikely and the future of the whole space is unsure at present with campaigns for its future survival being fought by the Long Live Southbank campaign. Part of the Southbank Centre has been turned into shops looking out over the river.
The South Bank was the main scene of the 1952 comedy film The Happy Family, set around the Festival of Britain. Part of the success of the area as a visitor attraction is attributed to the high levels of public transport access. Several major
London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
Blackfriars station
Blackfriars known as London Blackfriars, is a 24-hour central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides local Thameslink services from North to South London, limited Southeastern commuter services to South East London and Kent, its platforms span the River Thames, the only one in London to do so, along the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge, a short distance downstream from Blackfriars Bridge. There are two station entrances either side of the Thames, along with a connection to the London Underground District and Circle lines; the main line station was opened by the London and Dover Railway with the name St. Paul's in 1886, as a replacement for the earlier Blackfriars Bridge station and the earlier Blackfriars railway bridge; this increased capacity of rail traffic through the Snow Hill Tunnel to the rest of the rail network. The Underground station opened in 1870 with the arrival of the Metropolitan District Railway; the station was renamed Blackfriars in 1937 to avoid confusion with St Paul's tube station.
It was rebuilt in the 1970s, which included the addition of office space above the station and the closure of the original railway bridge, demolished in 1985. In 2009, the station underwent major refurbishments to improve capacity, which included the extension of the platforms across the railway bridge and a new station entrance on the South Bank; the underground station was rebuilt at the same time, work was completed in 2012. Blackfriars station serves Thameslink rail services, it straddles the River Thames, running across the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge parallel to the A201 Blackfriars Bridge. For this reason, it is geographically based in the City of London and in the London Borough of Southwark; the north bank entrance is on the south side of Queen Victoria Street and the south bank entrance, opened in 2011, is adjacent to Blackfriars Road. The station falls within fare zone 1; the station is run with Transport for London handling the underground platforms. A Thameslink driver depot is in the station building.
London Buses routes 45, 63, 388 and night routes N89 serve the station. The adjacent Blackfriars Millennium Pier provides river services to Canary Wharf; the station was proposed by the London and Dover Railway, given parliamentary power to build a line into the City of London. The company wanted to compete with rivals, the South Eastern Railway, provide the best service into Central London; the line was complete as far as the Thames by 1864. An underground station at Blackfriars was opened by the Metropolitan District Railway in 1870, before any mainline stations; the railway bridge across the Thames was delayed because the City's controlling government, the Corporation of London, were unsure as to what it should look like and how many arches there should be. The station was designed by Joseph Cubitt and had a long roof with walls that stretched up to the riverbank. Cubitt subsequently designed the original bridge, which carried four tracks on a 933 feet lattice girder bridge, supported by sets of stone piers supporting iron columns.
Services began across the bridge on 21 December 1864. Upon completion, trains ended at a temporary terminal, replaced by Ludgate Hill on 1 June 1865. A further station, Holborn Viaduct, opened on 2 March 1874 and the LC&DR line ran via the Snow Hill tunnel to a connection to the Metropolitan Railway near Farringdon on to King's Cross and St Pancras stations; the mainline Blackfriars station was opened by the LC&DR as St. Paul's railway station on 10 May 1886 when the company opened the St. Paul's Railway Bridge across the Thames; the bridge was constructed parallel to the 1864 Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying seven tracks across five arched spans between 175 feet and 185 feet high. It widened past the bridge to the terminus on the south side of Queen Victoria Street; the original station was a small and cheaply designed pink-red brick building, as the LD&CR had financial difficulties throughout its lifetime attempting to drive a railway through Central London. The station's frontage backed onto the District Railway, making a cab access and forecourt impossible owing to lack of space.
It did, allow St Paul's a direct interchange with the rest of the underground, unlike all the other LC&DR stations. On 13 November 1886, a direct connection was made between underground stations. After the opening of St. Paul's station, the earlier Blackfriars Bridge station was closed to passengers but remained as a goods station until 1965. Most mainline trains called including those stopping at Holborn Viaduct. Local commuters continued to use Ludgate Hill where possible, as it was closer to where they were going, but it did not have sufficient capacity. St. Paul's station was renamed by the Southern Railway as Blackfriars on 1 February 1937; this was done to avoid confusion after the London Passenger Transport Board renamed Post Office tube station on the Central line to St Paul's, so that the mainline and underground stations would have the same name. It suffered significant bomb damage during World War II. Overnight on 16–17 April 1941, the signalbox on the south side of the bridge was destroyed, along with a bridge over Southwark Street.
The signals were not restored until 11 August 1946, after the war. After the creation of British Railways in 1948, the station was managed by British Railways; the structure of the original Blackfriars Railway Bridge d
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894. The bridge crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and has become an iconic symbol of London; because of this, Tower Bridge is sometimes confused with London Bridge, situated some 0.5 mi upstream. Tower Bridge is one of five London bridges now owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation, it is the only one of the Trust's bridges not to connect the City of London directly to the Southwark bank, as its northern landfall is in Tower Hamlets. The bridge consists of two bridge towers tied together at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, designed to withstand the horizontal tension forces exerted by the suspended sections of the bridge on the landward sides of the towers; the vertical components of the forces in the suspended sections and the vertical reactions of the two walkways are carried by the two robust towers.
The bascule pivots and operating machinery are housed in the base of each tower. Before its restoration in the 2010s, the bridge's colour scheme dated from 1977, when it was painted red and blue for Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, its colours were subsequently restored to white. The bridge deck is accessible to both vehicles and pedestrians, whereas the bridge's twin towers, high-level walkways and Victorian engine rooms form part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition, for which an admission charge is made; the nearest London Underground tube stations are Tower Hill on the Circle and District lines, London Bridge on the Jubilee and Northern lines and Bermondsey on the Jubilee line, the nearest Docklands Light Railway station is Tower Gateway. The nearest National Rail stations are at London Bridge. In the second half of the 19th century, an advertisement in the East End of London led to a hiring for a new river crossing downstream of London Bridge. A traditional fixed bridge at street level could not be built because it would cut off access by sailing ships to the port facilities in the Pool of London, between London Bridge and the Tower of London.
A Special Bridge or Subway Committee was formed in 1877, chaired by Sir Albert Joseph Altman, to find a solution to the river crossing problem. Over 50 designs were submitted, including one from civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Bazalgette's design was rejected because of a lack of sufficient headroom, design was not approved until 1884, when it was decided to build a bascule bridge. Sir John Wolfe Barry was appointed engineer with Sir Horace Jones as architect. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1885 authorising the bridge's construction, it specified the opening span must give a headroom of 135 feet. Construction had to be in a Gothic style. Barry designed a bascule bridge with two bridge towers built on piers; the central span was split into two equal bascules or leaves, which could be raised to allow river traffic to pass. The two side-spans were suspension bridges, with the suspension rods anchored both at the abutments and through rods contained within the bridge's upper walkways. Construction started in 1886 and took eight years with five major contractors – Sir John Jackson, Baron Armstrong, William Webster, Sir H.
H. Bartlett, Sir William Arrol & Co. – and employed 432 construction workers. E W Crutwell was the resident engineer for the construction. Two massive piers, containing over 70,000 tons of concrete, were sunk into the riverbed to support the construction. Over 11,000 tons of steel provided the framework for the walkways; this was clad in Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and to give the bridge a pleasing appearance. Jones died in 1886 and George D. Stevenson took over the project. Stevenson replaced Jones's original brick façade with the more ornate Victorian Gothic style, which makes the bridge a distinctive landmark, was intended to harmonise the bridge with the nearby Tower of London; the total cost of construction was £1,184,000. The bridge was opened on 30 June 1894 by the Prince of Wales, his wife, The Princess of Wales; the bridge connected Iron Gate, on the north bank of the river, with Horselydown Lane, on the south – now known as Tower Bridge Approach and Tower Bridge Road, respectively.
Until the bridge was opened, the Tower Subway – 400 m to the west – was the shortest way to cross the river from Tower Hill to Tooley Street in Southwark. Opened in 1870, Tower Subway was among the world's earliest underground railways, but it closed after just three months and was re-opened as a pedestrian foot tunnel. Once Tower Bridge was open, the majority of foot traffic transferred to using the bridge, there being no toll to pay to use it. Having lost most of its income, the tunnel was closed in 1898; the high-level open air walkways between the towers gained an unpleasant reputation as a haunt for prostitutes and pickpockets. The walkway reopened in 1982. During the Second World War and as a precaution against the existing engines being damaged by enemy action, a third engine was installed in 1942: a 150 hp horizontal cross-compound engine, built by Vickers Armstrong Ltd. at their Elswick works in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was fitted with a flywheel having a 9-foot diameter and weighing 9 tons, was governed to a speed of 30 rpm.
The engine became redundant when the rest of the system was modernised in 1974, was donated to the Forncett Industrial Steam Museum by the Corpo
Battersea Railway Bridge
The Battersea Railway Bridge is a bridge across the River Thames in London, between Battersea and Fulham. Owned by Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd it connects to the extreme north-east part of Fulham, known as Chelsea Harbour or Imperial Wharf, a 21st century-rebuilt area on the south side of a Chelsea Creek; the bridge is used by the West London Line of the London Overground from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction. The bridge was designed by William Baker, chief engineer of the London and North Western Railway, was opened on 2 March 1863 at a cost of £87,000, it consists of five 120-foot lattice girder arches set on stone piers. A three-arch brick viaduct carries the line on the north side of the bridge, with one arch having been opened to provide a pedestrian route under the railway, as part of the Thames Path. On the south side are four arches, two of which are used as storage for the residents of a houseboat community moored downstream. Completion of a plaza containing a residential/leisure tower, Lombard Wharf is scheduled for 2017 south-west of the bridge.
The plans for which have entailed re-opening an arch of the viaduct to provide a continuous boardwalk. The bridge was strengthened and refurbished in 1969, again in 1992. During a high tide in late 2003, the structure was struck by a refuse-barge damaging some lower structural elements significantly: repairs were completed in early 2004. In November 2013, planning permission was granted for the Diamond Jubilee Footbridge, extending the two central piers of the bridge upstream. Trains crossing are subject to a 20/30 mph speed limit; the bridge was declared a Grade II* listed structure in 2008, providing protection to preserve its special character from unsympathetic development. Crossings of the River Thames List of bridges in London References Notes Loobet, Patrick. Battersea Past. Historical Publications Ltd. p. 49. ISBN 0-948667-76-1. Battersea Railway Bridge at Structurae Coordinates: 51°28′23″N 0°10′45″W
City of London
The City of London is a city and county that contains the historic centre and the primary central business district of London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the agglomeration has since grown far beyond the City's borders; the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it forms one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, it is a separate county of England, being an enclave surrounded by Greater London. It is the smallest county in the United Kingdom; the City of London is referred to as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile, as it is 1.12 sq mi in area. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdom's trading and financial services industries, which continue a notable history of being based in the City; the name London is now ordinarily used for a far wider area than just the City.
London most denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs, in addition to the City of London itself. This wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888; the local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council, such as being the police authority. It is unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries; the Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, an office separate from the Mayor of London. The Lord Mayor, as of November 2018, is Peter Estlin; the City is a major business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the world's primary business centre, it continues to be a major meeting point for businesses. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008; the insurance industry is focused around Lloyd's building. A secondary financial district exists at Canary Wharf, 2.5 miles to the east.
The City work there. About three quarters of the jobs in the City of London are in the financial and associated business services sectors; the legal profession forms a major component of the northern and western sides of the City in the Temple and Chancery Lane areas where the Inns of Court are located, of which two—Inner Temple and Middle Temple—fall within the City of London boundary. Known as "Londinium", the Roman legions established a settlement on the current site of the City of London around 43 AD, its bridge over the River Thames turned the city into a road nexus and major port, serving as a major commercial centre in Roman Britain until its abandonment during the 5th century. Archaeologist Leslie Wallace notes that, because extensive archaeological excavation has not revealed any signs of a significant pre-Roman presence, "arguments for a purely Roman foundation of London are now common and uncontroversial."At its height, the Roman city had a population of 45,000–60,000 inhabitants.
Londinium was an ethnically diverse city, with inhabitants from across the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa. The Romans built the London Wall some time between 190 and 225 AD; the boundaries of the Roman city were similar to those of the City of London today, though the City extends further west than Londonium's Ludgate, the Thames was undredged and thus wider than it is today, with Londonium's shoreline north of the City's present shoreline. The Romans built a bridge across the river, as early as 50 AD, near to today's London Bridge. By the time the London Wall was constructed, the City's fortunes were in decline, it faced problems of plague and fire; the Roman Empire entered a long period of instability and decline, including the Carausian Revolt in Britain. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the city was under attack from Picts and Saxon raiders; the decline continued, both for Londinium and the Empire, in 410 AD the Romans withdrew from Britain.
Many of the Roman public buildings in Londinium by this time had fallen into decay and disuse, after the formal withdrawal the city became uninhabited. The centre of trade and population moved away from the walled Londinium to Lundenwic, a settlement to the west in the modern day Strand/Aldwych/Covent Garden area. During the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, the London area came in turn under the Kingdoms of Essex and Wessex, though from the mid 8th century it was under the control or threat of the Vikings. Bede records that in 604 AD St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht. Sæberht's uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a church dedicated to St Paul in London, as the seat of the new bishop, it is assumed, although unproven, that this first Anglo-Saxon cathedral stood on the same site as the medieval and the present cathedrals. Alfred the Great, King of Wessex and arguably the first king of the "English", occupied and began the resettlement of the old Roman walled area, in 886, appointed his son-in-law Earl Æthelred of Mercia over it as part of their reconquest of the Viking occupied parts of Englan
