Overview

Overview

As bold as a bright red postbox, as refined as white bone china, as flamboyant as a pantomime dame, and as hearty as pie and mash: London is a complex character of epic proportions. A single day for the London visitor can quite effortlessly include green parks, world-class watercolours, lunch in a contemporary Thames-side restaurant, ale and chips amid the wood-cladding of a traditional English pub, high-end fashion, rooftop cocktails, and cobbled backstreets clattering with market traders.

Today’s typical London street transports you back centuries with its architecture, and across continents with its population. Brimming with photo-friendly British emblems – the ubiquitous black cab; the Houses of Parliament’s soaring limestone peaks – London unites a colourful history and solid traditions with cutting-edge creativity and true multiculturalism.

London is one of the most captivating cities in the world; this year's royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton as well as the upcoming 2012 Olympics enhances its appeal. From the ostentatious hotels of Park Lane to the shabby-chic watering holes of Shoreditch, the words of Britain’s great 18th-century author Samuel Johnson ring truer than ever: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”