Facts...

- London is the biggest city in Britain and in Europe.
- London occupies over 620 square miles
- London has a population of 7,172,036 (2001)
- About 12 per cent of Britain’s overall population live in London
- London has the highest population density in Britain, with 4,699 people per square kilometre,
- London is in the southeast of England.
- London is the seat of central government in Britain.
- The tallest building in London is the Canary Wharf Tower.
- London was the first city in the world to have an underground railway, known as the 'Tube'.
- Some of the most important people from countries all over the world visit the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
- There are over 100 theatres in London, including 50 in the West End. London theatre accounts for 45% of all UK theatre admissions and over 70% of box-office revenues. Source: GLA Economics.
- High levels of unemployment, social exclusion, crime, deprivation and homelessness combine to create major challenges for London’s boroughs.
- Londoners will contribute £625 million to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, six times the contribution of the largest commercial sponsor.
- London's 7.5 million residents account for 12.5 per cent of the UK population.
- 44 per cent of London's residents are aged between 20 and 44 years-old, compared with 35 per cent of the UK population.
- 85 per cent of Londoners say that their local area is a place where people of different backgrounds get on well together.
- There are more than 32,000 music performances a year in London – 621 a week, 17% of which are free!
- London has four UNESCO world heritage sites: Tower of London, Maritime Greenwich, Westminster Palace, Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens.
- London has 40,000 listed buildings and over 150 ancient monuments.
- London has 22 national museums and more than 200 other museums.
- London has twelve specialist arts and culture Higher Education Institutes.
- The new Wembley Stadium is the largest football stadium in the world.
- London has cultural centres run by and dedicated to its Polish, Kurdish, Chinese, Romanian, Hungarian, Bengali, Jewish, Somali, Hindu, and Irish communities.
- London’s 395 public libraries stock 17 million books.
- Nearly a third of all the UK’s archives are in London. These include the National Archives, which provide an unbroken record of Britain's government from the 11th century to the present day.
- 51% of Londoners visited a museum or gallery in the last twelve months, compared to 42% for the UK as a whole.
- The Tate Modern is the world’s most popular modern art gallery.
- It is estimated that 200 festivals take place in London every year.
- Baishaki Mela – the Bengali New Year – is celebrated in Brick Lane and is the biggest Bengali celebration outside Bangladesh and West Bengal.
- The O2 Arena sold two million tickets in 2008 and hosted 140 events, making it the world's most popular music venue.
- There are more than 900 bookshops in London – twice as many as New York.
- There were 14,350 film “shooting days” in London in 2007, making it the third most filmed city in the world.
- London has 105 cinemas and more than 500 cinema screens.
- There are more than 17,000 theatrical performances per year, and more than 50 theatres in London’s West End.
- Around 85% of the UK’s fashion designers are based in London.
- It took seven years and the skills of hundreds of people from five countries to make the London Eye a reality.
- You can see around 40KM (25 miles) from the top as far as Windsor Castle on a clear day on the London Eye.
- The London Eye welcomes an average of 3.5 million customers every year. You would need 6,680 fully booked British Airways Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to move that number of fliers!
- Each rotation on the Eye takes about 30 minutes, meaning a capsule travels at a stately 26cm per second, or 0.9km (0.6 miles) per hour - twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting; allowing passengers to step on and off without the wheel having to stop. The total weight of the wheel and capsules is 2,100 tonnes - or as much as 1,272 London black cabs!
- The London Eye can carry 800 passengers per revolution - equivalent to 11 London red doubled-decker buses.
- Contrary to what many people believe, ‘Big Ben’ in London is not the name of the clock or the tower, but a 13-ton bell inside the clock. The tower is known as St. Stephen’s Tower.
- There are five international airports in London, with the Heathrow airport being the busiest airport in the world.
- The Canary Wharf Tower is the tallest building in London.
- London is a multi-ethnic city and domiciles people speaking over 300 languages.
- Windsor Castle of London is the largest and oldest castle of the world that is still in use.
- According to rumors, ghosts of King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, Mad King George, and Charles I still haunt the Windsor Castle.
- There are more than 100 theaters in London. Moreover, about sixteen percent of the country’s restaurants and food joints are located in London.