Cityscape

A panoramic view of modern London, as seen from the Golden Gallery of Saint Paul’s Cathedral

 Architecture

See also: Architecture in London and List of tallest structures in London

London is too diverse to be characterised by any particular architectural style, having accumulated its buildings over a long period of time and drawn on a wide range of influences. It is, however, mainly brick built, most commonly the yellow London stock brick or a warm orange-red variety, often decorated with carvings and white plaster mouldings. Many grand houses and public buildings (such as the National Gallery) are constructed from Portland stone. Some areas of the city, particularly those just west of the centre, are characterised by white stucco or whitewashed buildings. Few structures pre-date the Great Fire of 1666, except for a few trace Roman remains, the Tower of London and a few scattered Tudor survivors in the City. Most buildings in London date from the Edwardian or Victorian periods. The disused (but soon to be rejuvenated) 1939 Battersea Power Station by the river in the south-west is a local landmark,while some railway termini are excellent examples of Victorian architecture, most notably St Pancras and Paddington (at least internally).

The density of London varies, with high employment density in the central area, high residential densities in inner London and lower densities in the suburbs. In the dense areas, most of the concentration is achieved with medium- and high-rise buildings. London's skyscrapers such as the notable "Gherkin", Tower 42, the Broadgate Tower and One Canada Square are usually found in the two financial districts, the City of London and Canary Wharf. Other notable modern buildings include City Hall in Southwark with its distinctive oval shape, the British Library in Somers Town/Kings Cross, and the Great Court of the British Museum. What was formerly the Millennium Dome, located by the Thames to the east of Canary Wharf, is now used as an entertainment venue known as The O₂.

The development of tall buildings has been encouraged in the London Plan, which will lead to the erection of many new skyscrapers over the next decade, particularly in the City of London and Canary Wharf. The 72-storey, 1,017 feet (310 m) "Shard London Bridge" by London Bridge station, the 945 feet (288 m) Bishopsgate Tower and many other skyscrapers over 500 feet (150 m) are either proposed or approved and could transform the city's skyline. As of July 2008, there are 426 high-rise buildings under construction, approved for construction, and proposed for construction in London.

A great many monuments pay homage to people and events in the city. The Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area while commemorating the Great Fire of London, which originated nearby. Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, at the north and south ends of Park Lane respectively, have royal connections, as do the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column is a nationally-recognised monument in Trafalgar Square, one of the focal points of the centre.

Parks and gardens

Main articles: Parks and open spaces in London and Royal Parks of London

The largest parks in the central area of London are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park and its neighbour Kensington Gardens at the western edge of central London and Regent's Park on the northern edge. This park contains London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo, and is located near the tourist attraction of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Closer to central London are the smaller Royal Parks of Green Park and St. James's Park. Hyde Park in particular is popular for sports and sometimes hosts open-air concerts.

A number of large parks lie outside the city centre, including the remaining Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the south-east and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to the south-west, as well as Victoria Park, East London to the east. Primrose Hill to the north of Regent's Park is a popular spot to view the city skyline. Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist, including the 791-acre (3.2 km²) Hampstead Heath of North London. This incorporates Kenwood House, the former stately home and a popular location in the summer months where classical musical concerts are held by the lake, attracting thousands of people every weekend to enjoy the music, scenery and fireworks.

A panoramic view of East London, as seen from the Greenwich Observatory

 Society and culture

Accent

Traditionally the London accent has been given the famous Cockney label, and was similar to many accents of the South East of England, developing a unique form of slang known as Cockney Rhyming Slang. The accent of a 21st century Londoner varies widely; what is becoming more and more common amongst the under 30s however is some fusion of Cockney, Received Pronunciation, and a whole array of 'ethnic' accents, in particular Caribbean, which form an accent labelled Multicultural London English, with a large amount of slang in use as well.

 Leisure and entertainment

Piccadilly Circus at night

The Trooping the Colour held in 2006 to mark the Queen's 80th birthday.

Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district, and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops. The United Kingdom's Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, the Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Royal Albert Hall. Islington's 1 mile (1.6 km) long Upper Street, extending northwards from The Angel, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK. Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long—which makes it the longest shopping street in the world—and home to many shops and department stores including Selfridges. Knightsbridge—home to the Harrods department store—lies just to the southwest. London is home to designers Vivienne Westwood, Galliano, Stella McCartney, Manolo Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo among others; its renowned art and fashion schools make it an international centre of fashion alongside Paris, Milan and New York.

London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane and the Chinese food restaurants of Chinatown.

There are a variety of regular annual events in the city. The beginning of the year is celebrated with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, while traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the City, and June's Trooping the Colour, a formal military pageant performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and British armies to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday.

Literature and film

See also: London in fiction, London in film, List of films set in London, and List of television shows set in London

Charles Dickens (1812–1870), whose works formed a pervasive image of Victorian London.

London has been the setting for many works of literature. Two writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, noted for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has been a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London. The earlier (1722) A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based in London, and some of his work — most notably his play The Alchemist — was set in the city. Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the afore-mentioned Dickens novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's illustrious Sherlock Holmes stories. A modern writer pervasively influenced by the city is Peter Ackroyd, in works such as London: The Biography, The Lambs of London and Hawksmoor.

London has played a significant role in the film industry, and has major studios at Pinewood, Ealing, Shepperton, Elstree and Leavesden, as well as an important special effects and post-production community centred in Soho in central London. Working Title Films has its headquarters in London. The city also hosts a number of performing arts schools, including the Central School of Speech and Drama (alumni: Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier) and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (alumni: Jim Broadbent). The London Film Festival is held each year in October.

Music

 
The Royal Albert Hall hosts a wide range of concerts and musical events.

London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and is home to major music corporations, such as EMI and Decca Records, as well as countless bands, musicians and industry professionals. London is home to many orchestras and concert halls such as the Barbican Arts Centre (principal base of the London Symphony Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Promenade Concerts). London's two main opera houses are the Royal Opera House and the Coliseum Theatre. London has numerous renowned venues for rock and pop concerts, including large arenas such as Earls Court, Wembley Arena and the O2 Arena, as well as numerous mid-size venues, such as Brixton Academy, Hammersmith Apollo and The London Astoria.

London is home to the first and original Hard Rock Cafe and the illustrious Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles created many of their hits. Musicians such as Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and Freddie Mercury have lived in London. A large number of musical artists originate from or are most strongly associated with London, including David Bowie, Ian Dury, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Madness, The Jam, Blur, Iron Maiden, Elvis Costello, The Yardbirds and The Small Faces. London was instrumental in the development of punk music, with figures such as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Vivienne Westwood all based in the city. Some of the most popular of these festivals include the 02 Wireless Festival and Latitude Festival (held in July). The largest entertainment venture of all time, The Phantom of the Opera, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Sport

Main article: Sport in London

Wembley Stadium is home to English football and is the most expensive stadium in the world.

 
The Wimbledon Championships, a tennis Grand Slam tournament.

London has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948. In July 2005 London was chosen to host the Games in 2012, which will make it the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times. London was also the host of the British Empire Games in 1934.

London's most popular sport (for both participants and spectators) is football. London has thirteen League football clubs, including five in the Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. London also has four rugby union teams in the Guinness Premiership (London Irish, Saracens, Wasps and Harlequins), although only the Harlequins play in London (all the other three now play outside Greater London). There are two professional rugby league clubs in London - Harlequins Rugby League who play in the Super League at the Stoop and the National League 2 side the London Skolars (based in Haringey).

Since 1924, the original Wembley Stadium was the home of the English national football team, and served as the venue for the FA Cup final as well as rugby league's Challenge Cup final. The new Wembley Stadium serves exactly the same purposes and has a capacity of 90,000. Twickenham Stadium in west London is the national rugby union stadium, and has a capacity of 84,000 now that the new south stand has been completed.

Cricket in London centres on its two Test cricket grounds at Lord's (home of Middlesex C.C.C) in St John's Wood, and The Oval (home of Surrey C.C.C) in Kennington. One of London's best-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon. Other key events are the annual mass-participation London Marathon which sees some 35,000 runners attempt a 26.2 miles (42.2 km) course around the city, and the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake.

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German Oceanographic Museum

The German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund, the largest and most popular natural history museum in northern Germany, is a class of its own. Visitors get exciting glimpses of all aspects of life beneath the seas.

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C A N A R Y  I S L A N D S

If you asked for a single word that best describes the Canary Islands, it would be "festive!!" One might think this cloister of seven islands located in the Atlantic, was isolated, quiet, virgin territory- in reality, it is throbbing with music, discos, pubs and nightclubs to cater to the hordes of European tourists who come here to escape their freezing winters.

Canary Islands, without doubt, has some of the best beaches in the world. But it is best not to conjure romantic images that might get washed away with waves of people, all out to make the most of their trip. The country earns most of its revenue from tourism, which probably explains the hideous clusters of apartments on rent, unnatural shorelines and uncountable bars.

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K O N Y A

Konya in Turkey, known as Iconium in Roman days, is among the oldest occupied cities in the world. It was the capital of the Seljuk Turks, and it was here in the 13th century that the poet Mevlana Rumi inspired the founding of the whirling dervishes, one of the Islamic mystical orders. This cult believed that dancing was the way to get close to God. You can see the dervishes whirl in the Mevlana Festival every December.

The outstanding Seljuk buildings are the Buyuk Karatay Muzesi, a Muslim theological seminary earlier, but now a ceramic museum; the Seminary of the Slender Minaret, which is now the Museum of Wood and Stone carving. Mevlana’s tomb has a beautiful green tiled tower.

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History

The earliest known site at this location was Cius, which Philip V of Macedonia granted to the Bithynian king Prusias I in 202 BC, for his help against Pergamum and Heraclea Pontica (modern Karadeniz Ereğli). Prusias renamed the city after himself, as Prusa.

It was later a major city, located on the westernmost end of the famous Silk Road, and was the capital of the Ottoman Empire following its capture from the shrinking Byzantine Empire in 1326. After the city was captured from the Byzantine Empire, many structures were built especially when it was the capital city of the Ottoman Empire. The capture of Didymoteichon and Edirne in 1365 brought that city to the fore as well, but Bursa remained an important administrative and commercial center even after it lost its status as the sole capital. Sortly after it was taken by the Ottomans they developed a school of theology at Bursa. This school attracted Muslim schoolars from throughout the Middle East and continued to function after the capital had been moved elsewhere.

During the Ottoman rule, Bursa was the source of most royal silk products. Aside from the local production, it imported raw silk from Iran, and occasionally China, and was the 'factory' for the kaftans, pillows, embroidery and other silk products for the royal palaces up through the 17th century. Another traditional occupation is knife making and, historically, horse carriage building. Nowadays one can still find hand-made knives as well as other products in rich variety produced by artisans, but instead of carriages, there is a big automobile industry.

Bursa sits on a geologic fault like most of Turkey. The city was partially leveled by strong earthquakes coupled with fires and was rebuilt after each time. Being on the first degree earthquake zone, it was widely affected by the earthquakes which took place in 1855 and 1905.

Ulu Camii (The Great Mosque)

Ulu Camii is the major mosque of Bursa and a landmark of early Ottoman architecture. It was built by Ali Neccar in 1396-1399, at Sultan Bayezid I's command. The mosque is large and rectangular, with twenty domes arranged in four rows of five supported by twelve columns. Supposedly twenty domes are built instead of twenty separate mosques that Sultan Bayezid I promised for winning the Battle of Nicopolis. It has two minarets. Inside the mosque there are 192 monumental wall inscriptions written by famous calligraphers. There is also a fountain (şadırvan) inside the mosque where worshipers can perform ritual ablutions before prayer; the dome over the şadırvan is capped by a skylight, creating a soft, serene light below. The story of the şadırvan inside the mosque, which is unheard of, that the land belong to an old lady who objected to her store taken by padişah.

Interior of Ulu Camii, showing the fountain
(şadırvan) for ritual ablutions.

Because consent is not given for the piece of land, prayer cannot be conducted on it thus a şadırvan is built. Architecturally şadırvan helps to have light inside the mosque that is big.

The horizontally spacious and dimly lit interior is designed to feel peaceful and contemplative. The subdivisions of space formed by multiple domes and pillars create a sense of privacy and even intimacy. This atmosphere contrasts with later Ottoman mosques (see for example the work of Süleyman I's chief architect Sinan). These later mosques have increasingly elevated central domes, which create a vertical emphasis that is intended to be more overwhelming, in order to convey the power and majesty of the Ottoman Empire. It is a beautiful piece of architecture.

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