Whether it was the nascent rage of the occupy movement, the recent LIBOR rate fixing scandal or the full-on-bank apocalypse that began in 2008, more people than ever are likely to heap scorn upon the captains of finance and law that stalk the boardrooms of the square mile.

City of London, England, UK by Torcello Trio

But why does the majority of the UK’s international financial activity happen in this one little bit of one of the largest and exciting cities in the world? What’s with all the creepy dragon and griffin statues that guard the entrance? Why do UK politicians always equate the interests of ‘the city’ with the interests of everyday Joe and Janes like us?

The answer sounds at first like it could be more then a little Dan Brown, and reveals a strange fact about one of the most well known cities in the world.

The City is Actually a Corporation

The first thing to note is that the City of London is not actually part of the wider urban sprawl that we all know and love as London. Got that? It is actually a city in its own right as well as a ceremonial county that has its own unique style of local authority.

What is now known as the Square Mile was actually the port that was established by the Romans around 47 AD and was granted successive special rights throughout its history until it became the centre of the world’s financial system during the heights of the British Empire.

The municipal governing body of the Square Mile is actually called the City of London Corporation, although the exact date this legal definition was bestowed upon it is unknown (the first royal charter from the corporation dates back to 1067). Many of the antiquated medieval practices and traditions are still carried on to this day.

The Uniqueness of the City of London Corporation

The City has a unique status among the local authorities of the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly, it has its own territorial police force, who are separate from the metropolitan police and even have their own distinctive black and gold badges. Secondly, the corporation is allowed to own properties and assets outside its own borders such as Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath and public spaces in Northern Ireland.

Thirdly, and most intriguingly, the City has its own Lord Mayor (distinct from the Mayor of London) who is flanked by a system of “aldermen” and sheriffs, and must have the blessing of the Court of Aldermen and the Livery (medieval trade guilds). If this sounds strange, that’s because it is.

The Lord Mayor is also expected to make a contribution out of their own pocket each year to the costs of running the City, which gives you some idea of what kind of income bracket you have to be in to be considered for this post.

But Why?

Well, it is hard to know the answer to this question due to the ongoing secrecy of the Corporation. Either it is just the fact that this is the way the City has always been run and it serves to make Bankers and Lawyers feel even more above the rest of us, or there is something else going on.

Possible theories are that the Corporation is actually one huge lobbying organisation or that it functions as a kind of offshore tax haven and enjoys different rates of tax to the rest of us. Either way someone should try and find out or let Dan Brown know all of this so that he can write another bestseller.

So if you ever need to explain to someone why all the bankers, lawyers and accountants in London seem to flock to the Square Mile, tell them it is probably because they are part of one of the oldest and strangest clubs in the world.

James Duvalis a freelance IT expert who didn’t believe what his drunken friend told him about the City of London down the pub, so went an researched it himself. When not working or writing blogs for companies such as Choose Your Accountant, James likes to search out good music and fine ales with his friends.

The post The City Within a City: The Square Mile and the Rest of London appeared first on Europe Explored.

Ancient Beginnings

The city was founded by the Romans in 71AD and was the capital of Britannia Inferior which was an area covering much of northern England. However, archaeological evidence dating back to the Mesolithic era showing that people settled in the area around York between 8000BC and 7000BC.

When the Romans settled here they built a wooden fortress above the River Ouse, which was home to around 6000 soldiers; the remains of the fort are beneath York Minster, the city’s famous and magnificent cathedral which was built in 1408.

York Minster, England, UK by Peter McDermott

A pinnacle moment in York’s history was 1068, two years after the Norman Conquest of 1066, when the people of the city rebelled, but their success was short lived when they were crushed upon the arrival of William the Conqueror.

Confectionary

The north of England is famous for its industry, it was the engine room of the British Empire generating wealth from wool, cotton and steel.

Even now you can see the hallmarks of that glorious past, and it still has an industrial heart with new factory openings and investments hailed as another step back to the glory days. York’s contribution to the influence of the north was not in the heavy industries or textiles, but was in chocolate.

As far back as the late eighteenth century the city has eight confectioners for a town that just has 17,000 people living in it. Even now, the Nestle Chocolate Factory produces millions of sweets, and many of the city’s chocolate loving people have had family members work in the world famous factories of Rowntree, Terry’s, and Cravens.

However, the wonderful confection is not just for the sweet tooth, it played an important part in the survival of the famous explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton.

In 1909 Shackleton led an expedition to the South Pole. Sadly the expedition was abandoned just 97 miles from the pole, and while they abandoned many of their supplies, including dozens of bottles of Scotch whisky, they did return with a now famous tin of Rowntree’s Cocoa which now has pride of place in the York Castle Museum.

The Smell of the wonderful brown stuff permeates through every nook and cranny, with York Hotels, hostels and B&Bs, just a stone throw away from the sort of sweet shops you can only picture in fantasies.

Catherine Halsey writes for a digital marketing agency on a range of subjects. This article links back to https://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/qqyyk-york-marriott-hotel/

The post The Incredible History of York | United Kingdom appeared first on Europe Explored.

Borough Market, London, UK by Garry Knight

Food and Drink

London has followed in the footsteps of its Atlantic cousins (New York, Chicago, California) and has seen an explosion in street food. The absolute abundance of nationalities that live in London combine to make an incredibly ethnic diverse cuisine, served at street level. A lot of people believe that the real food of a city can be found at grassroots, which is not coincidentally the cheapest and also the best.

Whether you’re looking for traditional British pies (Eat My Pies) Korean fusion (Kimchi Cult) or Spannish Churros (Churros Garcia) then you won’t be disappointed walking the streets of London. But if street food isn’t for you, you can feel safe in knowing that you can stumble across Michelin Stars as frequently as you do black cabs.

Things to Do

London is incredibly famous for its markets, whether it’s the local stereotypical cockney “4 for £1″ vegetable stalls, all the way up to Portobello Road; your shopping temptations can be satiated across the city. There’s something unique about the London markets, entirely different from Indian or American; there’s a community sense in even the largest collections of stalls.

Immortalised in the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts film, Notting Hill plays host to a carnival every year which is reason enough to stop by London. Originating from West Indian roots, the carnival has come to encompass everything London and English about the capital; offering parades, music, shopping and incredible feats of open air shopping.

In Southwark, food and shopping combine gloriously in the famous Borough Market. The market is open for wholesalers every weekday in the obscene hours of 2am to 8am but for retail; it opens Thursday to Sunday. The market combines the food from every culture which has settled in London, reflecting the incredible diversity of the city in the medium of delicious food.

If shopping and food isn’t your thing, there are many parts of the city now transformed into tourism paradises. London Dungeons is a great attraction for children, as both entertaining and educating; recreating ghoulish gallows humour around the theme of medieval dungeons in the British capital. The Tower of London, though less for humour, also operates tours with an educational taste.

Photo by Wyemji

Entertainment

Just as New York has Broadway, London has the West End. The theatre shows range from comedies to tragedies, short sharp plays to drawn out epics. The West End is home to some of the longest running plays in the world such as Cats, Les Miserables and The Mousetrap. Such is the power and fame of the theatre of London, you can expect to see international filmstars acting out on small stages in the capital.

London also has an incredible dirge of museums and galleries, with many being free to enter. The British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are but a few of the great educational resources available to those traveling into London. Wars are remembered in vast memory and tribute across a lot of the city, and those with an eye for paint and canvas would do well to visit the Tate Modern, Whitechapel and the Royal Academy.

Photo by robmcm

London is truly Europe’s greatest city, if not just for the fact that the Royal Family of Great Britain reside there. From this seat, vast corners of the globe were controlled in the days of the Empire and though the influence has dwindled; London has risen up to command the respect of nations ten times the size of the British Isles.

Street Food Ref: https://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/apr/24/top-10-london-street-food-stalls

This article was created on behalf of Brunel University, a top London university offering a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

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Hyde Park

The foremost of the London parks and probably the most well-known, Hyde Park is one of the city’s Royal Parks. Covering 350 acres of land in the very centre of London, the park is popular with locals and tourists alike and gives the chance for anyone to take a break from the hustle and bustle of busy city life.

Aerial view of Hyde Park, London, UK by Ben Leto

The park has won awards for urban conservation, and choices made about planting the flower beds, borders and trees have encouraged a great number of songbirds to feed and nest here. Visitors are discouraged from feeding the pigeons and squirrels that also come to the park as the songbirds can’t compete with these sometimes aggressive feral creatures.

The Serpentine is a small lake created in the 1700s as part of the development of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. As well as attracting wildfowl, the Serpentine has the oldest swimming club in the UK and is famous for its Christmas Day swim. Most recently, it’s featured in the London 2012 Olympic Games as the scene of the swimming leg of the triathlon.

Green Park

Green Park is another of the Royal Parks with a history even older than that of Hyde Park. First recorded in the geography of London in 1554, Green Park has a modest area compared to Hyde Park with some 45 acres of land adjacent to Buckingham Palace.

At the Buckingham House entrance to the park you’ll find Canada Gate, installed as part of the memorial to Queen Victoria at the turn of the 20th century to commemorate Canada’s contribution to the then British Empire. An ornate iron gate chased with gold guards the entrance to the park near the Canada Memorial, which pays homage to the Canadian forces who lost their lives in the two World Wars.

Canada Gate at Green Park, London, UK by Ian Dick

Keen Olympics followers will have also seen Green Park as part of the triathlon. The Royal Parks hosted the event, with the cycle leg running along the paths through the park.

Clapham Common

South London has parkland of a different kind to the open spaces north of the Thames. While North London has enclosed parks with ornately planted beds and borders, South London has expanses of common land on which Londoners can stretch their legs and enjoy what sunshine the capital manages to trap.

Clapham Common, London, UK by Justinc

Clapham Common is the best known of the London commons and covers 220 acres between the boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth. The most popular features of the common are the ponds – Eagle Pond and Mount Pond – which are used for coarse fishing and sailing of model boats.

In recent years, the common has hosted a number of music festivals. In 2012, the electronic music festival South West Four is due to take place on the common on the 25th and 26th August, bringing the big names from dance music from around the world together in what organisers hope will be the summer sunshine.

Conclusion

Although densely populated and filled with iconic buildings, London has a surprisingly large amount of open space, see them all from the air at https://www.thelondonhelicopter.com/. On your visit to London, try to check out some of the parks and get a feel for how Londoners spend their outdoor time right within the city limits.

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