What’s it got that we love?
After the Romans moored their galleys on the north bank of the Thames, they built Londinium. This walled citadel, which covers an area of one square mile, is now the City of London – one of the world’s mightiest financial powerhouses.
The walls have largely gone, but the City is still known as “the Square Mile” – and its history is writ large in landmarks such as London Bridge, the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666, Christopher Wren’s exquisite St Paul’s Cathedral, Great St Barts and the 50 or so fine churches tucked between the soaring glass skyscrapers.
“If you live in the City, you’re really in the middle of things,” says Nick Verdi, Savills head for Shoreditch and Clerkenwell. “And it’s more attractive than ever.” Once deserted in the evening and at weekends, the City has now developed a buzzing social scene, as Verdi points out: “There’s so much more to do than 20 years ago – great restaurants and bars, and there are excellent transport links.” When the London Museum opens in Smithfield in 2026, along with the revived Bartholomew Fair – a festival of circus, theatre and dance – the City will be the heart, as well as the head, of London.
Just 10,000 residents call this place home, jostling with a work population of 500,000, and they tend to become ambassadors for the area.