1. London is the UK's only national metropolis. With a population over 7 million people it is seven times as large as the next largest city, the regional metropolis of Birmingham. Oxford and Canterbury are decently close, large cities that probably became successful because of their proximity to London. London is the 23rd largest city in the world, directly behind New York City by only 100,000 people, and the third largest in all of Europe behind only Istanbul and Moscow.
2. The key features that London adds, that would not be available in a smaller city, are a national government, several international museums, the Bank of England, one of the most vibrant banking industries, and several historical landmarks. Being a national metropolis there are not any cities of higher order than London. It is difficult to find things that London is missing, but is in other cities. It is missing a professional american football team, but that is probably more of a cultural issue than one of size.
No comments:
Post a Comment