London - Inner Districts & Neighbourhoods

Canary Wharf is an impressive business and leisure complex. Located on the Isle of Dogs in Docklands, this complex is now a thriving area filled with shops, services, restaurants, bars, theatres, leisure facilities, hotels and office buildings. Open public spaces such as parks, squares and promenades are strewn about the complex. Towering over the area is the centrepiece of Canary Wharf - officially called One Canada Square, which is also known as the Canary Wharf Tower.

Between Soho and Leicester Square is bustling Chinatown encompassing Wardour Street, Gerrard Street and Lisle Street. Magnificent Chinese Gates lead visitors through busy streets with the wonderful aroma of food wafting through the air. Considering the long history of London, Chinatown is very young. A run-down and thus inexpensive area in the 1950s, coupled with waves of immigrants leaving China due to hard economic times at home, saw the expansion of catering businesses in the area. Although times were difficult, educated British born children brought success to the area creating the now prosperous neighbourhood. Eclectic markets and shops offer fresh food and unique merchandise.

Prior to 1630, Covent Garden was part of Westminster Abbey but throughout the years the area has become a district in itself and is known for its trendy boutiques and lively atmosphere. Largely a pedestrian area, visitors can enjoy browsing the market stalls and shops or watch the many street performers who daily entertain Londoners and tourists alike. Next to the Covent Garden tube station.

Hammersmith is a suburb of west London that, while living in the shadow of the neighbouring areas of Fulham and Kensington, boasts a number of attractions more than worth a trip on the Piccadilly line. The river Thames is a short walk from the Tube station and can be enjoyed over a drink from the terrace at Riverside Studios or the Dove public house, the oldest riverside pub in London. The Lyric and Apollo theatres have regular plays and concerts, the Hammersmith Palais is a popular late night dancing venue.

An official area called Soho doesn't actually feature on most maps, but it is broadly the area of central London bounded by Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street. The narrow streets of Soho are home to a number of company offices, notably TV and Media production companies. Wardour, Dean and Frith Streets are where most night time action takes place. Bars, pubs and restaurants abound and it's perfectly possible to visit a different one of each on every day of the month. Old Compton Street is a focal point for London's Gay community and in the west of the area, near Regent Street, is Carnaby Street - an important part of London's fashion scene.

Often shortened to RBKC, this is a large area of west-central London that has a rich mix of residential neighbourhoods, shopping districts and entertainment areas. The list of things to see within the borough is impressive; Harrods, Kensington Palace, the Victoria and Albert Museum and King's Road are just the beginning of the sights tourists can visit. Perhaps one of the reasons RBKC is so successful is its diversity, as of 2004 approximately 70% of residents counted themselves as white-British. There is a large Afro-Caribbean community in Notting Hill in particular and a sizeable south Asian influence right through the area.

Located on the south bank of the Thames close to Oxo Tower Wharf, Garbriel's Wharf was created in 1988 as a place where local workers, residents and tourists could escape the city noise and enjoy some shopping and dining. A range of pubs and cafes, as well as jewellery, fashion and home accessory shops are located here.

The borough of Lambeth is on the south bank of the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament. Major attractions in the area include the London Eye, the Imperial War Museum and Lambeth Palace, London Waterloo station is also an important terminal for rail travel. Underneath Queen Elizabeth's Hall is an unlikely skateboarding mecca, the modern architecture of the building proving ideal for London's skating community.

Lying just to the north of the city centre, Camden is at the heart of the large London borough of the same name. Camden has a long association with the alternative scene, punk band The Clash recorded their famous London Calling album here, and it has many club nights dedicated to less mainstream music. The markets in the area do a brisk trade in fashion, books and all kinds of gift items. Away from the buzz of the shops, bars and restaurants is Regent's Park, which features London's highly-rated zoo. The Regent's Canal offers some good walking and cycling routes to other parts of London.

Brixton is a vibrant area in the southern borough of Lambeth that has a large Afro-Caribbean community. Although mostly residential, Brixton is well known for it's contribution to the music scene with the large Brixton Academy a prestigious venue for aspiring bands. Eddie Grant's song Electric Avenue was written as an ode to a part of Brixton market which was one of the first public places in Britain to be illuminated by electric lighting.

The south-western tip of the borough of Hackey borders the ceremonial city of London andit's financial district. This part of the borough contains the fashionable areas of Hoxton and Shoreditch which have re-invented themselves as a centre for artists with a great deal of good restaurants and bars. Much of central Hackney is more working class but there are some interesting sights with the 13th century St. Augustine's tower a highlight. Sport has always been important in the borough, on Hackney Marshes there are 88 football pitches which host much of London's amateur sunday football action. The 2012 Olympics will regenerate some of Hackney's poorer areas.

The area immediately east of the original City of London and north of the river has been known as the East End for centuries. Long known for its dense population, mixed ethnicity and low wage earners, the East End has often been synonymous with poverty and crime, most notably as the haunts of Jack the Ripper and the Krays brothers. As the home of London’s docks, the area was also bombed heavily during the Second World War.

Regent Street, Piccadilly, Shaftesbury Avenue and Haymarket intersect and join together at the Piccadilly Circus. The statue commonly known as Eros has lived here since it was unveiled in 1893. The Piccadilly Circus makes for a great meeting place, or resting spot from the busy streets surrounding it.

The Docklands area in London lies south of the Thames River covering 8.5 square miles of land. There are dozens of attractions in and around the Docklands area, however many of them require seeking out. The Docklands Light Railway, which travels between the Tower of London and Greenwich, is also based in this area.

Whitechapel is best known as the area of London terrorised by Jack the Ripper in the Autumn of 1888, but the district has a long history. Once considered the “other half” of the City of London, its unfortunate position downwind of the city led to the development of breweries, factories (Philadelphia's Liberty Bell was cast in Whitechapel), fish markets and the dockyards. Whitechapel was a source of inspiration for notable figures from George Bernard Shaw to Vladimir Lenin (during his exile from Russia) to Jack London, who wrote The People of the Abyss about the state of life in the Whitechapel.

South of Oxford Street and bordered by Hyde Park, Green Park and Regent Street, Mayfair is one of London's most exclusive addresses. The wide, terraced streets are home to a number of companies and offices who see their businesses as having more cache by being in Mayfair's W1 postcode. There are a number of high fashion boutiques, first class restaurants and luxury hotels in the area. Some foreign embassies can be found here, in particular the US embassy on Grosvenor Square.

Located in Nottinghill, trendy up-and-coming designer boutiques are situated along Portobello Road. This street is also host to the famous Portobello Road Market.

Immortalised in film by Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, the real Notting Hill is a little different from what visitors might have seen at the cinema. Garden squares are dotted around the area, but the famous blue door leading to Hugh's apartment in the film has now gone, auctioned off to raise money for charity. There are plenty of other reasons to visit this vibrant area of west London, in particular the weekly antiques market that appears out of nowhere and spills onto Portobello Road every Saturday and the Notting Hill Carnival which typically takes place over the last weekend of August. It's very busy around here on Saturday when the market is up.

Notting Hill wasn't always the fresh-faced star it is now, after the Second World War the area was a virtual slum that residents of other parts of Kensington and Chelsea would look down at. The large houses were divided into apartments and its affordability was a big reason why a large number of Afro-Caribbean immigrants set up home here during the 1950s and 60s; their colourful celebrations of Caribbean culture evolved into the Notting Hill carnival. This new found celebrity brought a new generation of residents to Notting Hill and as the area slowly became more fashionable, the upper-middle classes returned, attracted by the chance to buy into the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea at bargain prices.

The Underground station, Notting Hill Gate, is naturally the hub of the area and is served by the Central, District and Circle lines. Notting Hill spreads out in a north-westerly direction from here; a walk up Pembridge Road will take visitors past some of the pubs, shops and restaurants. The road forks by the Sun in Splendour Pub and off to the left runs Portobello Road.

Neal's Yard is a tiny, cobblestoned square tucked away in the Covent Garden area and lined with shops and open-air cafes. Once home to a dairy, the square boasts London's best cheese shop as well as the house of the comedic group Monty Python.

Wimbledon is one of the many surrounding towns that has been swallowed up by the ever-expanding metropolitan area of London. It has managed to maintain it's own identity through the fame of the Wimbledon tennis championship, a major event on the world tennis tour. There are a great deal of open spaces in the area, Wimbledon common and Wimbledon park being the most notable. The centre of Wimbledon is served by rail and Tube links with a reasonably sized high street shopping area adjacent to the station.

Baker Street is perhaps most famous as the street on which the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes lived, but that address doesn’t actually exist. Once a high-class residential strip, Baker Street is now dominated by businesses. Over the years the street has been home to Madame Tussaud’s Museum, Marks and Spencer and the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Sitting just at the edge of central London, Upper Street is a popular place for the capital's young professionals to unwind after a hard day in the office. The road itself runs north from Angel Tube station on the Northern line to the Victoria line's Highbury and Islington station.

There are a host of bars, pubs and restaurants to be found here and some shopping options, particularly towards the southern end of the street near Angel, where there is a small shopping mall, the N1 centre. The Granita restaurant at 127 Upper Street is often said to be where Prime Minister Tony Blair hammered out the details of the remodelling of Britain's Labour party with his second-in-command Gordon Brown.

Cuba Libre at number 72 offers Cuban cuisine and a decadent cocktail list. For the traditional pub experience, head for the Jorene Celeste at number 153. Popular with the locals, this establishment has an unusual wooden facade and a welcoming, colonial atmosphere inside.

At number 83 is the Screen on the Green, a popular arthouse cinema offering visitors a chance to catch something other than big budget blockbusters. Back down towards Angel, on the eastern side of the road there are a series of antique shops that offer an interesting couple of hours browsing for bargain hunters.