London

London is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, on the River Thames in southeastern England. Harry Beck drew the diagram map of its Underground in the 1930s, and transit maps in many cities have followed his design since.

The Romans founded Londinium at a bridge over the Thames in the 1st century, and it became the main town of the province of Britannia. William the Conqueror began the Tower of London after his coronation in 1066, and the city grew rich on the wool trade and the charters of medieval kings. The Great Fire of 1666 burned most of the medieval city, and Christopher Wren rebuilt St Paul's Cathedral and dozens of parish churches in stone. In the 19th century London became the center of the British Empire, and the first underground railway opened beneath its streets in the 1860s. The city held the Summer Olympic Games three times, in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Unilever, known for Dove soap and Hellmann's mayonnaise, has its headquarters in the city, as does Diageo, which makes Johnnie Walker whisky and Guinness. GSK develops vaccines and medicines from its base in London.

The clock tower of the Palace of Westminster holds Big Ben, the great bell that has rung the hours since the 1850s. The British Museum, opened in the 18th century as the first national public museum, holds the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures. Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the open-air playhouse of William Shakespeare, rebuilt in the 1990s near its original site on the south bank of the Thames. The Tower of London keeps the Crown Jewels, and its Yeoman Warders have guarded it for more than five centuries.