In 1843, London really was very different from any other city.

It was much bigger than any other

It was already a city with a long history, of course. London had become the British capital in
Roman times, but since then, it had been built and destroyed and rebuilt so many times that
there were few traces left of the capital city of Roman Britain, except deep below the ground.
Today, the oldest buildings in London include the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey,
which are almost a thousand years old.
Though the Tower was always a part of London, Westminster Abbey was once over a mile from
the capital city. For centuries, "London" just covered the area corresponding more or less to the
Roman city. Today, this part of London is still called the City of London, and is the heart of the
bigger "London".
Until recently, "the City" was home to hundreds of thousands of people; but today its
population is actually well less than ten thousand! Today the City is the heart of London's
financial district, full of bankers and businessmen by day, almost deserted by night.
Back in the Middle Ages, the City was already becoming too small. In the 11th
century, monks built a big new abbey at Westminster, and King Cnut began to build a palace
beside it. King Ethelred, his successor, then decided to move his court from the city of
Winchester, to the palace of Westminster. Westminster has been the seat of the English, then
British, parliament since 1265, and London has been the capital city for even longer.
While the parliament was established in Westminster, the City's growing population
kept spreading to other villages all round. Villages like Chelsea and
Hackney eventually became swallowed up by the metropolis which kept growing and growing.
Today, Westminster, which contains Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Piccadilly
Circus, Trafalgar Square, and London's most famous shopping district, is part of the "West End'
of Central London. Nearby, Chelsea is an expensive residential area, and Hackney is a working-
class district: they are all parts of London.

Poverty in London around 1870, seen by the artist Gustave Doré

In spite of its age, Central London does not have many very old buildings. The City itself
was burnt to the ground in the terrible fire of 1666, and was almost totally rebuilt after it. Large
parts of London were also rebuilt in the nineteenth century and have been rebuilt again since
then, for different reasons.
Charles Dickens, the author of Oliver Twist and other famous novels, lived in the London that
Théophile Gautier visited, and has left us with terrible descriptions of the conditions in which the
poor of London lived and worked in those days. Millions of people worked in the great city, with
its docks, its offices and shops, and its services. In those days most people who lived in cities
were poor, and lived in squalid conditions. But a new "middle class" was growing, specially in
London, where there were lots of jobs. In this way, London, the biggest city in the world, was
also the first "modern" city.
It remained the world's biggest city until after the second world war.
Since then it has continued to change, but got smaller; but with over seven million inhabitants
, today's "Greater London" is, with Paris, one of the two biggest cities in Europe; and also one of
the most fascinating.
 New Bond Street

London is one of the richest cities in Europe, and lots of people in London have plenty of
money to spend. But like almost every big city, London has its prosperity but also its poverty.
Most tourists visit the "West End", with its shops, cinemas, theatres and monuments. This is
London's front window, where the streets are clean and most people, including the tourists,
have jobs, and money to spend.
Harrod's store, in Knightsbridge, claims it is the most famous shop in the world; in theory you
can buy anything there, from an elephant to a pencil (though naturally, they would have to order
the elephant specially for you, there are none on the shelves!)
In the small streets behind Regent Street, there are all sorts of specialist shops, selling high-
quality products to people who can afford them. "Gentlemen's tailor since 1788," says the sign
outside a tiny shop with beautiful suits in its window. Expensive suits. Most of this
shop's customers are businessmen, celebrities and diplomats; here at least, the foreign
customer, after his first English lesson, can say "my tailor is rich".

Two miles to the north east of Regent Street, the scene is very different. Here you are in the
"inner city" district of London, where many of the streets are dirty, the shops look cheap, and the
people do not look rich.
Few tourists visit Islington, Bethnal Green, Brixton and London's other depressed areas. A lot
of the inhabitants here are from minorities — mostly West Indian or Asian — and many of
them do not have any work. Those who do have work are often in unskilled jobs which do not
pay well; cleaners, dustmen, shop assistants.
Nevertheless, though these areas of London are poor, they cannot be described as ghettoes,
and while levels of crime are above average in many parts of the inner city, these are not
dangerous areas. Ten years ago, there was rioting in Brixton, but since then things have been
generally calm.

Assignment 4

Total marks 12

Name

Section

Read the given passage in detail and answer the given questions.

Q.1. Give a title to the given passage (1)

Q.2. What did French traveller Theophylline Gautier say about London (1.5)

Q.3. Oldest cities in London include and

which are almost years old.(1.5).

Q.5 Write a few lines on Central London. (2)

Q.6.Write a few lines on problems related to London.(2)

Q.7 Write a few lines about shopping in London. (2)