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Madonna starred in the film Swept Away, directed by Ritchie. Released direct-to-video in the UK, the film was a commercial and critical failure. In May 2002 she appeared in London in the West End play Up For Grabs at the Wyndhams Theatre (billed as 'Madonna Ritchie'), to universally bad reviews and was described as "th...
Following Die Another Day, Madonna collaborated with fashion photographer Steven Klein in 2003 for an exhibition installation named X-STaTIC Pro=CeSS. It included photography from a photo shoot in W magazine, and seven video segments. The installation ran from March to May in New York's Deitch Projects gallery. It trav...
Madonna gave another provocative performance later that year at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, while singing "Hollywood" with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott. Madonna sparked controversy for kissing Spears and Aguilera suggestively during the performance. In October 2003, Madonna provided guest ...
The next year Madonna and Maverick sued Warner Music Group and its former parent company Time Warner, claiming that mismanagement of resources and poor bookkeeping had cost the company millions of dollars. In return, Warner filed a countersuit alleging that Maverick had lost tens of millions of dollars on its own. The ...
In mid-2004 Madonna embarked on the Re-Invention World Tour in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. It became the highest-grossing tour of 2004, earning around $120 million and became the subject of her documentary I'm Going to Tell You a Secret. In November 2004, she was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame as one of its ...
Her tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, was released in November 2005. Musically the album was structured like a club set composed by a DJ. It was acclaimed by critics, with Keith Caulfield from Billboard commenting that the album was a "welcome return to form for the Queen of Pop." The album won a Grammy...
Madonna embarked on the Confessions Tour in May 2006, which had a global audience of 1.2 million and grossed over $193.7 million, becoming the highest-grossing tour to that date for a female artist. Madonna used religious symbols, such as the crucifix and Crown of Thorns, in the performance of "Live to Tell". It caused...
While on tour Madonna participated in the Raising Malawi initiative by partially funding an orphanage in and traveling to that country. While there, she decided to adopt a boy named David Banda in October 2006. The adoption raised strong public reaction, because Malawian law requires would-be parents to reside in Malaw...
Madonna released the song "Hey You" for the Live Earth series of concerts. The song was available as a free download during its first week of release. She also performed it at the London Live Earth concert. Madonna announced her departure from Warner Bros. Records, and a new $120 million, ten-year 360 deal with Live Na...
Madonna released her eleventh studio album, Hard Candy, in April 2008. Containing R&B and urban pop influences, the songs on Hard Candy were autobiographical in nature and saw Madonna collaborating with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams and Nate "Danja" Hills. The album debuted at number one in thirty sev...
"4 Minutes" was released as the album's lead single and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. It was Madonna's 37th top-ten hit on the chart—it pushed Madonna past Elvis Presley as the artist with the most top-ten hits. In the UK she retained her record for the most number-one singles for a female artist; "4...
Life with My Sister Madonna, a book by Madonna's brother Christopher, debuted at number two on The New York Times bestseller list. The book caused some friction between Madonna and her brother, because of the unsolicited publication. Problems also arose between Madonna and Ritchie, with the media reporting that they we...
Controversy erupted when Madonna decided to adopt from Malawi again. Chifundo "Mercy" James was finally adopted in June 2009. Madonna had known Mercy from the time she went to adopt David. Mercy's grandmother had initially protested the adoption, but later gave in, saying "At first I didn't want her to go but as a fami...
Madonna performed at the Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief concert in January 2010. In April she released her third live album, Sticky & Sweet Tour. It was her first release under Live Nation, but was distributed by Warner Bros. Madonna granted American TV show Glee the rights to her entire cat...
Madonna released the Material Girl clothing line, which she designed with her daughter, Lourdes. The 1980s inspired clothing line, borrowed from Madonna's punk-girl style when she rose to fame in the 1980s, was released under the Macy's label. Madonna also opened a series of fitness centers around the world named Hard ...
In 2012, Madonna performed at Super Bowl XLVI halftime show, visualized by Cirque Du Soleil and Jamie King and featured special guests LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and Cee Lo Green. It became the then most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history with 114 million viewers, higher than the game itself. It was also revea...
The MDNA Tour, which further promoted the album, began in May 2012 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The tour has received positive critical reception, but featured controversial subjects such as violence, firearms, human rights, nudity and politics. Lawsuits threatened against Madonna have also been engaged from the tour. It was a...
By 2013, Madonna's Raising Malawi organization built ten schools to educate 4,000 children in Malawi at a value of $400,000. When Madonna visited the schools in April 2013, President of Malawi Joyce Banda expressed criticism of the star and her charity, accusing her of exaggerating her charity's contribution. Madonna r...
Working with photographer Steven Klein, Madonna completed a 17-minute film called secretprojectrevolution. The BitTorrent company was selected by Madonna to release the film as part of a Madonna bundle. It was released on September 24, 2013, and consisted of the 17-minute film, its stills, a Vice interview, and a messa...
From the beginning of 2014, Madonna began to make multiple media appearances. She appeared at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in January 2014, performing "Open Your Heart" alongside rappers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and singer Mary Lambert, who sang their single "Same Love", as 33 couples were wed onstage, officiated by Qu...
Madonna also began work on her thirteenth studio album, with collaborators including Avicii, Diplo and Natalia Kills. In December 2014, thirteen demos recorded for the album leaked onto the Internet. She posted in response that half of the tracks would not be used on the final release, while the other half had "changed...
Madonna's music has been the subject of much analysis and scrutiny. Robert M. Grant, author of Contemporary Strategy Analysis (2005), commented that what has brought Madonna success is "certainly not outstanding natural talent. As a vocalist, musician, dancer, songwriter, or actress, Madonna's talents seem modest." He ...
Throughout her career Madonna has been involved in writing and producing most of her own music. Madonna's early songwriting skill was developed during her time with the Breakfast Club in 1979. According to author Carol Gnojewski, her first attempts at songwriting are perceived as an important self-revelation, as Madonn...
Before emerging as a pop star, Madonna has spent her early years in rock music alongside her bands, Breakfast Club and Emmy. While performing with Emmy, Madonna recorded about 12-14 songs which resemble the punk rock of that period. Her early rock roots also can be found on the demo album Pre-Madonna. Stephen Thomas Er...
Her mature artistic statement was visible in True Blue (1986) and Like a Prayer (1989). In True Blue, she incorporated classical music in order to engage an older audience who had been skeptical of her music. Like a Prayer introduced live recorded songs and incorporated different genres of music, including dance, funk,...
Madonna experimented with more folk and acoustic music in Music (2000) and American Life (2003). A change was noted in the content of the songs in Music, with most of them being simple love songs, but with an underlying tone of melancholy. According to Q magazine, American Life was characterized by "a thumping techno r...
Possessing a mezzo-soprano vocal range, Madonna has always been self-conscious about her voice, especially in comparison to her vocal idols such as Ella Fitzgerald, Prince, and Chaka Khan. Mark Bego, author of Madonna: Blonde Ambition, called her "the perfect vocalist for lighter-than-air songs", despite not being a "h...
Besides singing Madonna has the ability to play several musical instruments. She learned to play drum and guitar from her then-boyfriend Dan Gilroy in the late 1970s before joining the Breakfast Club line-up as the drummer. This helped her to form the band Emmy, where she performed as the guitarist and lead vocalist. M...
According to Taraborrelli, the defining moment of Madonna's childhood was the tragic and untimely death of her beloved mother. Psychiatrist Keith Ablow suggests her mother's death would have had an immeasurable impact on the young Madonna at a time when her personality was still forming. According to Ablow, the younger...
As they grew older Madonna and her sisters would feel deep sadness as the vivid memory of their mother began drifting farther from them. They would study pictures of her and come to think that she resembled poet Anne Sexton and Hollywood actresses. This would later raise Madonna's interest in poetry, with Sylvia Plath ...
In 1985, Madonna commented that the first song to ever make a strong impression on her was "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" by Nancy Sinatra; she said it summed up her own "take-charge attitude". As a young woman, she attempted to broaden her taste in literature, art, and music, and during this time became interested...
Madonna's Italian-Catholic background and her relationship with her parents are reflected in the album Like a Prayer. It was an evocation of the impact religion had on her career. Her video for the title track contains Catholic symbolism, such as the stigmata. During The Virgin Tour, she wore a rosary and prayed with i...
During her childhood, Madonna was inspired by actors, later saying, "I loved Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe. They were all incredibly funny ... and I saw myself in them ... my girlishness, my knowingness and my innocence." Her "Material Girl" music video recreated Monroe's look in the song "Diamond...
Influences also came to her from the art world, most notably through the works of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The music video of the song "Bedtime Story" featured images inspired by the paintings of Kahlo and Remedios Varo. Madonna is also a collector of Tamara de Lempicka's Art Deco paintings and has included them in ...
Madonna is dedicated to Kabbalah, and in 2004 she adopted the name Esther which in Persian means "star". She has donated millions of dollars to New York and London schools teaching the subject. She faced opposition from rabbis who felt Madonna's adoption of the Kabbalah was sacrilegious and a case of celebrity dilettan...
In The Madonna Companion biographers Allen Metz and Carol Benson noted that more than any other recent pop artist, Madonna had used MTV and music videos to establish her popularity and enhance her recorded work. According to them, many of her songs have the imagery of the music video in strong context, while referring ...
Madonna's initial music videos reflected her American and Hispanic mixed street style combined with a flamboyant glamor. She was able to transmit her avant-garde downtown New York fashion sense to the American audience. The imagery and incorporation of Hispanic culture and Catholic symbolism continued with the music vi...
Academics noted that with her videos, Madonna was subtly reversing the usual role of male as the dominant sex. This symbolism and imagery was probably the most prevalent in the music video for "Like a Prayer". The video included scenes of an African-American church choir, Madonna being attracted to a statue of a black ...
Madonna's emergence occurred during the advent of MTV; Chris Nelson from The New York Times spoke of pop artists like Madonna saying, "MTV, with its almost exclusively lip-synched videos, ushered in an era in which average music fans might happily spend hours a day, every day, watching singers just mouth the words." Th...
To allow for greater movement while dancing and singing, Madonna was one of the earliest adopters of hands-free radio-frequency headset microphones, with the headset fastened over the ears or the top of the head, and the microphone capsule on a boom arm that extended to the mouth. Because of her prominent usage, the mi...
Various music journalists, critical theorists, and authors have deemed Madonna the most influential female recording artist of all time. Author Carol Clerk wrote that "during her career, Madonna has transcended the term 'pop star' to become a global cultural icon." Rolling Stone of Spain wrote that "She became the firs...
According to Tony Sclafani from MSNBC, "It's worth noting that before Madonna, most music mega-stars were guy rockers; after her, almost all would be female singers ... When The Beatles hit America, they changed the paradigm of performer from solo act to band. Madonna changed it back—with an emphasis on the female." Ho...
Madonna's use of sexual imagery has benefited her career and catalyzed public discourse on sexuality and feminism. As Roger Chapman documents in Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices, Volume 1 (2010), she has drawn frequent condemnation from religious organizations, social conservatives and pa...
Madonna has received acclaim as a role model for businesswomen in her industry, "achieving the kind of financial control that women had long fought for within the industry", and generating over $1.2 billion in sales within the first decade of her career. Professor Colin Barrow from Cranfield School of Management descri...
Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. The Guinness World Records acknowledged her as the best-selling female recording artist and the fourth best-selling act of all time, behind The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is...
Madonna holds the record for the most number-ones on all combined Billboard charts, including twelve number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and eight number-one albums on the Billboard 200. With 45 songs topping the Hot Dance Club Songs chart, Madonna became the artist with the most number-one songs on an active Bil...
London i/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south eastern part of the island of Great Britain, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. It was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of...
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism, and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is one of the world's leading financial centres and has the fifth-or sixth-...
London has a diverse range of peoples and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken within Greater London. The Office for National Statistics estimated its mid-2014 population to be 8,538,689, the largest of any municipality in the European Union, and accounting for 12.5 percent of the UK population. London's ur...
London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory, Greenwich marks the Prime Meridian, 0° longitude, and GMT). Other famous land...
From 1898, it was commonly accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos; this explanation has since been rejected. Richard Coates put forward an explanation in 1998 that it is derived from the pre-Celtic Old European *(p)lowonida, meaning 'river too wide to ford', and ...
Two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area. In 1999, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the foreshore north of Vauxhall Bridge. This bridge either crossed the Thames, or went to a now lost island in the river. Dendrology dated the timbers to 1500 BC....
Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans after the invasion of 43 AD. This lasted only until around 61, when the Iceni tribe led by Queen Boudica stormed it, burning it to the ground. The next, heavily planned, incarnation of Londini...
With the collapse of Roman rule in the early 5th century, London ceased to be a capital and the walled city of Londinium was effectively abandoned, although Roman civilisation continued in the St Martin-in-the-Fields area until around 450. From around 500, an Anglo-Saxon settlement known as Lundenwic developed in the s...
The Vikings established Danelaw over much of the eastern and northern part of England with its boundary roughly stretching from London to Chester. It was an area of political and geographical control imposed by the Viking incursions which was formally agreed to by the Danish warlord, Guthrum and west-Saxon king, Alfred...
By the 11th century, London was beyond all comparison the largest town in England. Westminster Abbey, rebuilt in the Romanesque style by King Edward the Confessor, was one of the grandest churches in Europe. Winchester had previously been the capital of Anglo-Saxon England, but from this time on, London became the main...
Following his victory in the Battle of Hastings, William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. William constructed the Tower of London, the first of the many Norman castles in England to be rebuilt in stone, in the southeastern corner of the city, ...
During the 12th century, the institutions of central government, which had hitherto accompanied the royal English court as it moved around the country, grew in size and sophistication and became increasingly fixed in one place. In most cases this was Westminster, although the royal treasury, having been moved from Winc...
During the Tudor period the Reformation produced a gradual shift to Protestantism, much of London passing from church to private ownership. The traffic in woollen cloths shipped undyed and undressed from London to the nearby shores of the Low Countries, where it was considered indispensable. But the tentacles of Englis...
During the English Civil War the majority of Londoners supported the Parliamentary cause. After an initial advance by the Royalists in 1642 culminating in the battles of Brentford and Turnham Green, London was surrounded by defensive perimeter wall known as the Lines of Communication. The lines were built by an up to 2...
In 1762, George III acquired Buckingham House and it was enlarged over the next 75 years. During the 18th century, London was dogged by crime, and the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police force. In total, more than 200 offences were punishable by death, including petty theft. Most childr...
London was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925. London's overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics, claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866. Rising traffic congestion led to the creation of the world's first local urban rail network. The Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure exp...
Primarily starting in the mid-1960s, London became a centre for the worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London subculture associated with the King's Road, Chelsea and Carnaby Street. The role of trendsetter was revived during the punk era. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded to take int...
Greater London's population declined steadily in the decades after the Second World War, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. The principal ports for London moved downstream to Felixstowe and Tilbury, with the London Docklands area becoming a focus for regeneration, includin...
The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, which left London as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration. In 2000, London-wide government was restored, with the creation of the Greater London Authority. To celebrate the start of the 21st century, the Millennium Dome, London Eye and...
The administration of London is formed of two tiers—a city-wide, strategic tier and a local tier. City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller authorities. The GLA consists of two elected components; the Mayor of London, who has e...
The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for Greater London. It is run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and is the third largest fire service in the world. National Health Service ambulance services are provided by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) NHS Trust, the largest free...
London is the seat of the Government of the United Kingdom. Many government departments are based close to the Palace of Westminster, particularly along Whitehall, including the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street. The British Parliament is often referred to as the "Mother of Parliaments" (although this sob...
Policing in Greater London, with the exception of the City of London, is provided by the Metropolitan Police Service, overseen by the Mayor through the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). The City of London has its own police force – the City of London Police. The British Transport Police are responsible for...
Outward urban expansion is now prevented by the Metropolitan Green Belt, although the built-up area extends beyond the boundary in places, resulting in a separately defined Greater London Urban Area. Beyond this is the vast London commuter belt. Greater London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer Lond...
Within London, both the City of London and the City of Westminster have city status and both the City of London and the remainder of Greater London are counties for the purposes of lieutenancies. The area of Greater London has incorporated areas that were once part of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, E...
Greater London encompasses a total area of 1,583 square kilometres (611 sq mi), an area which had a population of 7,172,036 in 2001 and a population density of 4,542 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,760/sq mi). The extended area known as the London Metropolitan Region or the London Metropolitan Agglomeration, compr...
Summers are generally warm and sometimes hot. London's average July high is 24 °C (75.2 °F). On average London will see 31 days above 25 °C (77.0 °F) each year, and 4.2 days above 30.0 °C (86.0 °F) every year. During the 2003 European heat wave there were 14 consecutive days above 30 °C (86.0 °F) and 2 consecutive days...
London's buildings are too diverse to be characterised by any particular architectural style, partly because of their varying ages. 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 character...
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. ...
In the dense areas, most of the concentration is via medium- and high-rise buildings. London's skyscrapers such as 30 St Mary Axe, Tower 42, the Broadgate Tower and One Canada Square are mostly in the two financial districts, the City of London and Canary Wharf. High-rise development is restricted at certain sites if i...
The London Natural History Society suggest that London is "one of the World's Greenest Cities" with more than 40 percent green space or open water. They indicate that 2000 species of flowering plant have been found growing there and that the tidal Thames supports 120 species of fish. They also state that over 60 specie...
Among other inhabitants of London are 10,000 foxes, so that there are now 16 foxes for every square mile (2.6 square kilometres) of London. These urban foxes are noticeably bolder than their country cousins, sharing the pavement with pedestrians and raising cubs in people's backyards. Foxes have even sneaked into the H...
Other mammals found in Greater London are hedgehogs, rats, mice, rabbit, shrew, vole, and squirrels, In wilder areas of Outer London, such as Epping Forest, a wide variety of mammals are found including hare, badger, field, bank and water vole, wood mouse, yellow-necked mouse, mole, shrew, and weasel, in addition to fo...
Herds of red and fallow deer also roam freely within much of Richmond and Bushy Park. A cull takes place each November and February to ensure numbers can be sustained. Epping Forest is also known for its fallow deer, which can frequently be seen in herds to the north of the Forest. A rare population of melanistic, blac...
The 2011 census recorded that 2,998,264 people or 36.7% of London's population are foreign-born making London the city with the second largest immigrant population, behind New York City, in terms of absolute numbers. The table to the right shows the most common countries of birth of London residents. Note that some of ...
The region covers an area of 1,579 square kilometres (610 sq mi). The population density is 5,177 inhabitants per square kilometre (13,410/sq mi), more than ten times that of any other British region. In terms of population, London is the 19th largest city and the 18th largest metropolitan region in the world. As of 20...
Across London, Black and Asian children outnumber White British children by about six to four in state schools. Altogether at the 2011 census, of London's 1,624,768 population aged 0 to 15, 46.4 per cent were White, 19.8 per cent were Asian, 19 per cent were Black, 10.8 per cent were Mixed and 4 per cent represented an...
The 2011 census showed that 36.7 per cent of Greater London's population were born outside the UK. The table to the right shows the 30 most common countries of birth of London residents in 2011, the date of the last published UK Census. A portion of the German-born population are likely to be British nationals born to ...
London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Jewish communities. Notable mosques include the East London Mosque in Tower Hamlets, London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park and the Baitul Futuh Mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Following the oil boom, increasing numbers of wealthy Hindus and...
The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant Jewish communities in Stamford Hill, Stanmore, Golders Green, Finchley, Hampstead, Hendon and Edgware in North London. Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City of London is affiliated to London's historic Sephardic Jewish community. It is the only synagogue in Euro...
There are many accents that are traditionally thought of as London accents. The most well known of the London accents long ago acquired the Cockney label, which is heard both in London itself, and across the wider South East England region more generally. The accent of a 21st-century 'Londoner' varies widely; what is b...
London's largest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. Around 325,000 people were employed in financial services in London until mid-2007. London has over 480 overseas banks, more than any other city in the world. Over 85 percent (3.2 million) of the...
Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in London and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector. The BBC is a significant employer, while other broadcasters also have headquarters around the City. Many national newspapers are edited in London. London is a majo...
London is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world and in 2015 was ranked as the most visited city in the world with over 65 million visits. It is also the top city in the world by visitor cross-border spending, estimated at US$20.23 billion in 2015 Tourism is one of London's prime industries, employing the...
Transport is one of the four main areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, however the mayor's financial control does not extend to the longer distance rail network that enters London. In 2007 he assumed responsibility for some local lines, which now form the London Overground network, adding to the existin...
London is a major international air transport hub with the busiest city airspace in the world. Eight airports use the word London in their name, but most traffic passes through six of these. London Heathrow Airport, in Hillingdon, West London, is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic, and is the ma...
Stansted Airport, north east of London in Essex, is a local UK hub and Luton Airport to the north of London in Bedfordshire, caters mostly for cheap short-haul flights. London City Airport, the smallest and most central airport, in Newham, East London, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full service s...
There are 366 railway stations in the London Travelcard Zones on an extensive above-ground suburban railway network. South London, particularly, has a high concentration of railways as it has fewer Underground lines. Most rail lines terminate around the centre of London, running into eighteen terminal stations, with th...
Some international railway services to Continental Europe were operated during the 20th century as boat trains, such as the Admiraal de Ruijter to Amsterdam and the Night Ferry to Paris and Brussels. The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 connected London directly to the continental rail network, allowing Eurostar s...
London's bus network is one of the largest in the world, running 24 hours a day, with about 8,500 buses, more than 700 bus routes and around 19,500 bus stops. In 2013, the network had more than 2 billion commuter trips per annum, more than the Underground. Around £850 million is taken in revenue each year. London has t...
London's first and only cable car, known as the Emirates Air Line, opened in June 2012. Crossing the River Thames, linking Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks in the east of the city, the cable car is integrated with London's Oyster Card ticketing system, although special fares are charged. Costing £60 million to b...
Although the majority of journeys involving central London are made by public transport, car travel is common in the suburbs. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs), and the outer orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) encircle the city and are i...
In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £10 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of central London. Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a greatly reduced season pass. London gov...
London is a major global centre of higher education teaching and research and its 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. According to the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, London has the greatest concentration of top class universities in the world and the internati...