ABSTRACT

London is one of the world’s great capital cities. Founded by the Romans in AD 43, their settlement, Londinium, on the north bank of the River Thames, has grown into the largest city in Europe, and for several hundred years was the seat of government of an empire which ruled a quarter of the world’s population. In the nineteenth century, fuelled by the industrial revolution and the expansion of the British Empire, London became the largest city in the world. At ground level the ramp continues, drilling into the ground to create an open circular space below the council chamber, which is paved with a map of London. The assembly chamber retains the traditional first floor location, raising not the assembly members, but the process, above the level of ordinary day-to-day street life.