Being burned to the ground seems to be something that London was particularly good at: after being rebuilt by the Romans, seized by the Vikings and recaptured by Alfred the Great, London prospered and spread like the Great Plague with which it was afflicted just prior to the Great Fire of London in 1666. It took ten years to rebuild the city after the damage inflicted by the fire, and the buildings were fortunate enough then to pass a few hundred years of relative security before being bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.The Great Fire, which started in Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane near London Bridge, blazed through the dirty, insanitary wooden city of Shakespeare's era for four days, destroying everything in its path. Even St Paul's Cathedral, which had been viewed as immune from the flames, fell victim to the conflagration and the number of people who died as a result of the fire remains unknown to this day. At the time, the death toll was estimated at about eight people, but since then experts have raised the estimate to a possible several thousand; people whose bodies were incinerated by the fire, who fell prey to the violent fear of Dutch or French terrorist attacks, or who simply, but just as irrevocably, died of exposure and hunger after the fire. It has, however, been suggested that the fire was a mixed blessing to the people of London as the plague, or Black Death, had been running rampant in the city the previous year. It could be that the fire, which razed the contaminated dwellings to the ground, along with their accompanying chorus of rats and fleas, also burnt out the disease.



One of the most pervasive images of London, however, comes not from the plague-ridden and soon to be incinerated city inhabited by Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I, but from the lively and evocative descriptions in the works of Charles Dickens. His portrayal of the narrow, grimy and foggy streets of London, of the snow and Victorian pick-pockets has created lasting images in the minds of many people. Surprisingly enough, in spite of the passage of a few hundred years, there are still many areas of London that remain so Dickensian that it comes as something of a shock to see people clad in denims and t-shirts talking animatedly on their mobile phones while their Doc Marten-encased feet tread exactly the same cobbles and pavements as the dirty, bare feet of the fictional David Copperfield or the Artful Dodger.

The modern city of London, however, is still flavoured with strong overtones of the historical city. Ancient buildings rub shoulders with brand new edifices; old Portland stone is just as common a construction material as glass and steel. In spite of the vast urban sprawl of London, the core still retains its medieval boundaries, although the name London refers to the entire metropolis. While London does cover an enormous area, each district has its own distinct flavour and characteristics, and whether you prefer the bohemian lifestyle of Camden Town, or the upmarket shops of Oxford Street