LONDON INTRODUCTION, Introduction

Hi, my name’s James, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the wonders of the world: London, the largest city in Europe.

The city you’re visiting today has ruled over the entire world. London was the capital of the British Empire, the largest in history, which began with the first colonies in the 17th century and in 1922 still controlled a fifth of the world’s population and almost a third of the planet. For more than two centuries, it was London that decided the fate of Australia, North America, Oceania, India and almost a third of Africa.

London has maintained the allure of this era intact, as you’ll see in its many magnificent historical buildings, such as Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s residence, or its extraordinary museums, featuring some of the finest collections in the world, often thanks to the objects brought from the colonies.

Londoners have always been adept, however, at combining tradition with progress, and the vibrant city we can see today, with its impressive avant-garde architecture, is just as appealing as it was in the past.

The royal family still lives in Buckingham Palace, and parliament has been meeting in Westminster since 1200, but if you look upwards as you stroll through the City, you’ll find that it’s the futuristic skyscrapers, or the London Eye, the giant Ferris wheel overlooking the Thames, that create the present-day image of London....