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London Fog Industries, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History

1332 Londontown Boulevard
Eldersburg, Maryland 21783-5399
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

London Fog's mission is to be the international leader in developing and marketing fashionable clothing to keep customers warm and dry at a high level of profitability.

History of London Fog Industries, Inc.

London Fog Industries, Inc. is a major designer and distributor of raincoats and outerwear. Its own brands include London Fog, Towne, W by London Fog, Pacific Trail, Black Dot, and Inside Edge, which are made in Asia and Columbia. It also produces sportswear and outerwear under license for Sperry Top-Sider and Docker's. London Fog brands are sold in department and specialty stores and in its own chains of Weather Stores, Weather Clothing Company, and London Fog outlet stores. London Fog licenses stores in China and its subsidiary, Pacific Trail, Inc., licenses stores in Japan. A group of investment firms control the private company.

A Clothing Manufacturer: 1922--53

Israel Myers was 16 years old in 1923 when he went to work as a part-time stenographer at the Londontown Clothing Company. Londontown, which had been founded in Baltimore, Maryland, a year earlier, made finely tailored men's clothing and topcoats. The relationship between Myers and Londontown would last more than 40 years, but it almost did not survive the Depression.

Londontown failed in 1930, but Myers bought the name and the physical assets in 1931, and kept the company making men's clothing. In the process he become president and chairman. As he told the Baltimore News American in 1971, "If I [had] had a good job offer, I probably would have taken it. But there were no jobs available, [and] I had worked hard and saved my money."

When the United States entered World War II, Myers accepted a Navy contract to make rubber-based waterproof coats for enlisted men, even though he knew nothing about the procedure for doing so. When the war ended, Myers changed the name of his company to Londontown Manufacturing Company and continued to make raincoats. At that time, raincoats were considered by manufacturers and consumers as anything that would keep the water off, and Myers obviously saw possibilities.

He wanted to make the raincoats a fashionable part of the wardrobe, and to do that, he had to find a material that would be both waterproof and comfortable. When that proved impossible with conventional fabrics, he tried a new synthetic polyester developed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. The friction from his sewing machines, however, melted the fibers. Finally, Du Pont and Reeves Brothers, Inc., a fabric maker, created a cotton and Dacron material that did not melt during the sewing process, was water-repellent, and remained so even when put through a washing machine.

Raincoat Innovations: 1954--65

The company designed its new line of men's raincoats after the World War I "trench coats," with epaulets, sleeve straps, and a belt. Myers reluctantly agreed to use the name London Fog, having originally rejected it because he did not think it sellable. Saks Fifth Avenue was the first store to offer the raincoats, introducing London Fog in a New York Times ad on March 7, 1954. The ad described the coat as "The perfect answer to everything a man can ask for in a raincoat. Remarkably lightweight and wrinkle-free ... it actually resists creasing even after packing." The 100 coats sold out immediately, even though the $29.75 price was more than double that of other men's raincoats.

The following week, the New York Times called London Fog the perfect name. The "Advertising and Marketing Fields" column in the March 13, 1954 edition stated: "Every once in a while a name comes along for a product that is exactly right. It describes the product exactly and does a selling job that even the legendary 10,000 words cannot do. Such a one is London Fog."

Londontown quickly followed up this first wash-and-wear raincoat for men with a second innovation. After watching women customers buy London Fog coats for themselves, John Wanamaker's, the leading Philadelphia department store, asked Londontown to make a raincoat for women. Using the same design but adding two darts at the chest and moving the buttons to the left side, Londontown introduced the first line of women's raincoats in 1955, and Wanamaker's quickly sold all 90 produced.

During the 1950s and mid-1960s, Londontown appeared particularly attuned to what customers needed. It designed the first full, removable liner. With a simple zip, what had been winter raincoats could be used year-round. Londontown patented a process to keep buttons from falling off and an inner barrier to keep shoulders drier. Several of its innovations became commonplace, such as including replacement buttons and sewing washing instructions to the inside of its coats.

In 1961 Myers took Londontown public and soon began signing foreign licensing agreements. In 1966 the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Changes Occur: 1968--75

Jonathan P. Myers, Israel's son, assumed the presidency of Londontown in 1969, the year after coat sales fell by a quarter. Blaming the problems on the company's lack of attention to women's changing clothing styles, he spent the next five years working to gain back women customers. While maintaining its tradition for classic coats, the company began producing raincoats designed specifically for women.

The design of women's coats was not the only area in which Jon Myers made changes. He acquired Star Sportwear Manufacturing Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, a prominent maker of men's leather and suede garments, opened the first London Fog outlet store, and introduced the Clipper Mist label of well-made men's and women's rainwear, priced less expensively than the London Fog line. Clipper Mist, incidentally, was one of the names rejected by his father in 1954. By 1975, about two-thirds of all mid-priced and better raincoats sold in the United States carried the London Fog label.

Londontown also moved heavily into licensing agreements with U.S. companies, averaging nearly a license agreement a year between 1968 and 1983. Customers were able to buy London Fog accessories and clothing ranging from umbrellas and rainhats to sweaters, dress slacks, belts and billfolds, handbags, luggage, briefcases, sport shirts, flannel shirts, girl's and boy's outerwear, and even sunglasses.

Part of Interco Corp.: 1976--88

In 1976 Londontown had sales of $71 million and agreed to be bought by Interco Inc. of Saint Louis in a stock swap worth about $33.3 million. Interco was the parent company of Ethan Allen furniture and Florsheim shoes, among others.

Jon Myers remained president until 1980, when he was named chairman and CEO. Mark Lieberman, who had joined the company in 1978, became president and, in 1981, assumed the CEO position. Among his first moves was to merge the Clipper Mist and Startown subsidiaries, which began operating as Star Sportwear Manufacturing Corp.

During the 1980s, domestic rainwear companies came under greater pressure from cheaper imported raincoats. In 1983 Londontown introduced its London Towne brand, a less expensive line of raincoats, made overseas. The company hired actress Stephanie Powers for a television ad campaign, which saw sales "explode," according to Lieberman.

At the same time, department stores and other retailers wanted more diversity in their rainwear departments. Customers with more disposable income wanted both a classic raincoat and lines offering a wider variety of fabrics and colors. During 1983 and 1984, Londontown sold more than half its merchandise in fashion rainwear, according to a January 22, 1985 WWD article.

In 1985 Londontown bought Milford Sportwear, Inc., its licensee for men's knit shirts. By 1987, the company had 3,000 workers and was the world's largest manufacturer of raincoats and outerwear, with six domestic manufacturing plants.

In July 1988 Interco announced that it would sell its clothing manufacturing group in a restructuring undertaken to fight a takeover bid. Near the end of December, Londontown CEO and president, Lieberman, along with four other top executives, organized as Eldersberg Acquisition Corp. and acquired Londontown Corp. for $178 million, taking it private in a leveraged buyout. Total financing came to $311 million. Sales for the year ending February 28, 1989 were about $231 million, more than triple the $71 million in sales for 1976, the year Interco bought Londontown.

New Management and a New Image: 1989--90

The new owners laid off some workers in a cost reduction necessitated by the huge debt Londontown had, but increased budgets for advertising, design, and marketing. The strategy was to emphasize the company's lines of women's and fashion-oriented raincoats and outerwear and styles to attract younger customers.

In June 1989 Londontown went public, using proceeds from the sale of $75 million in junk bonds to pay part of the debt from the buyout. Sales for the year increased to $265.1 million, with the company selling more jackets and outerwear than raincoats, and women's apparel accounted for 52 percent of overall sales. Fifteen years earlier, in 1975, rainwear had represented 85 percent of sales, with 65 percent in men's categories.

New Owners: 1990--92

In June 1990 management sold a 90 percent interest in Londontown Holdings, the company's parent, to Merrill Lynch Capital Partners, Inc., which paid a reported $275 million. That amount included assumption of about $180 million in debt. Merrill Lynch gained three seats on Londontown's 11-member board, but Lieberman and Londontown's other officers remained responsible for day-to-day operations.

Lieberman moved more aggressively into wool coats for women. "People need coats for the rain and the cold, no matter what the retail cycle is," he told Women's Wear Daily in 1990. "Our high name recognition--98 percent of consumers recognize the London Fog brand&mdash′etty much insures that we will get a substantial share of the markets in which we sell."

In 1992 the company began selling London Fog raincoats in the United Kingdom and continued to expand beyond rainwear. It introduced Gold Fog, a line of high-priced, fashion outerwear including a gold lamé jacket and a cotton velvet jacket with gold studs and fox fur trim. It also expanded its lower-priced Towne by London Fog line of rainwear and hired actress Stephanie Powers again for a $4 million national television campaign.

The company had sales for the year of $318 million, but a loss of $262,000. The company was still the largest raincoat maker in the United States, but its share of the rainwear market had dropped to around 60 percent.

New Leadership: 1993--94

The following year, 1993, Lieberman created London Fog Corp., a holding company, with Londontown Corp. as its sole subsidiary. He retired in June, selling his interest in the company.

Three months later, in September, Arnold Cohen, from catalog clothing company J Crew, was hired to be the new president and CEO. Over the 11 months of his tenure at Londontown he made several major changes. He moved company headquarters from Maryland to Darien, Connecticut, near his home, laid off 1,000 people, closed five plants, and shifted almost all manufacturing overseas. He also mounted a big marketing campaign, started to push the company into children's sportswear, and increased the use of new fabrics and styles, including, finally, microfibers, which were by then dominating the outerwear market.

One of his most critical undertakings was to prohibit stores from marking down London Fog coats until the second week of December. This move greatly angered retailers whose best raincoat business traditionally occurred during their Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and Thanksgiving promotions. Many were further incensed because London Fog was selling its coats at discount at its 100 outlet stores. Department store orders dropped significantly.

In April 1994 Cohen merged London Fog Corp. with Seattle-based Pacific Trail, Inc., which had been making ski jackets and other outerwear since 1945, and was owned by GKH Partners. The merger gave GKH a 36 percent share of London Fog. Around this time, the company's name was changed to London Fog Industries.

New Leadership: 1994--95

London Fog's debt stood at $425 million. It had poor relations with its large retailers and was barely breaking even on cash flow. In August 1994 Cohen was ousted and James Milligan, a seasoned troubleshooter, was named CEO and charged with rescuing the company.

Milligan relaxed the ban on discounts, and although he did not eliminate it completely, he helped repair relations with the department stores. He also moved the company back to Eldersburg, Maryland and went after the discount and chain store customer, with five separate labels. The company ended the fiscal year with a loss of $125 million in operations alone, not counting debt payments.

New Leadership: 1995--96

With the company not able to make all of its debt payments, Merrill Lynch and GKH brought in turnaround specialist Robert A. Gregory from Gitano Group to head the company. In March 1995 Gregory negotiated a debt restructuring, avoiding bankruptcy. He stretched out loan payments and had the banks forgive one-third of the $317 million debt in exchange for control of the company. Merrill Lynch and GKH gave the banks 88 percent of London Fog's preferred stock and 80 percent of the common stock. As CEO, Gregory closed the children's clothing divisions and established a mission to refocus London Fog and Pacific Trail on making and selling outerwear. He also invested $2 million in the sole remaining manufacturing plant, in Baltimore.

In 1996 the company relaunched its FOG (Functional Outerwear Gear) label as a new line of performance outerwear for men and women in their 20s. Marketed as "functionality with a fashion twist," the line included light outer shells in a variety of styles, insulated vests, and jackets made from fleece, goose down, and nylon.

November saw the introduction of a new retail venture, with the opening of two Weather Stores. Located at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and in the Pittsburgh (PA) Airport, the stores sold London Fog raincoats and weather-related accessories and were aimed at the travel-oriented customer.

In his first year with London Fog, Gregory reduced the operating loss to $13 million, and in his second year produced a profit, the first for the company since 1991. But the price paid for the ongoing recovery included the closing of the last London Fog manufacturing plant.

Leadership Continuation: 1997--98

Gregory expanded the company's retail concepts during 1997, opening seven London Fog superstores of 25,000 square feet. Featuring all the London Fog merchandise and accessories, the stores were located in strip malls in New York and Ohio. In addition, the company operated some 120 outlet stores. That same year London Fog signed licensing agreements with the Stride Rite Corp. to produce Sperry Top-Sider casual and performance outerwear. The company also introduced a new proprietary insulation technology called nrg 2000, which had been developed by Thermore Technologies of Milan. London Fog claimed nrg 2000 was lighter, less bulky, and more flexible than Thinsulate and Thermoloft, products by 3M that London Fog (and most other outerwear manufacturers) had been using. For the fiscal year ending February 28, 1998, London Fog had annual sales of $335.6 million and earnings of $155.7 million.

During 1998, Gregory again restructured London Fog's long-term debt, giving eight million shares of newly issued stock to several dozen creditors. He discontinued the FOG label, folding its activewear styles into the core London Fog line, and introduced a new label, W for London Fog. This line offered rainwear in luxury fabrics lined with Thermostat 37, another new proprietary climate-control insulation. He also signed a new distribution license in China, opening some 25 in-store shops in major department stores in Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities, and entered the shoe business, teaming up with Atsco Footwear Inc to introduce London Fog brand foul-weather shoes and boots in department stores.

Meanwhile, Pacific Trail, under the presidency of Bill Dragon, Jr., was having sales of nearly $100 million. The subsidiary designed and distributed women's outerwear and women's and men's performance outerwear for skiing and snowboarding under the Inside Edge and Black Dot labels. It also produced Dockers men's and women's outerwear under license for Levi Strauss & Co. and had Pacific Trail stores in Japan, selling men's and boys' clothing.

At the end of 1998, Gregory introduced a new chain of stores called Weatherwear Clothing, selling casual outerwear and sportwear, including khakis, polo jackets, and shirts. Some of the company's superstores were converted into Weatherwear Clothing shops.

1999 to the Present

Having completed the final year of his four-year contract, Gregory resigned in March 1999, as did President C. William Crain. Bill Dragon, Jr., who headed Pacific Trail, was named president and CEO of London Fog Industries. Crediting Gregory and Crain with having stopped the bleeding, Dragon told the Baltimore Sun, "There was a need to put more emphasis on outerwear as opposed to rainwear. Today, we're in a much better financial position."

Dragon indicated he wanted to stay true to the London Fog brand and improve internal sourcing and customer service functions. But financial problems still existed for the venerable raincoat and outerwear maker. The company remained highly leveraged, with outstanding debt of $224.4 million, and Gregory's hoped-for public offering had not yet materialized. Relatively warm weather also contributed to a dismal outerwear market. Only time would tell whether Dragon's experience at Pacific Trail would be enough to continue London Fog's rebuilding.

Principal Subsidiaries: Pacific Trail, Inc.

Related information about London

51°30N 0°10W, pop (2001e) 7 172 000 (Greater London), 3300 (City of London). Capital city of England and the UK; on the R Thames in SE England.

Greater London consists of 32 boroughs and the City of London, area 1579 km²/610 sq mi; from 1st–5th-c, a Roman town (AD c.43), situated where the Thames narrowed to its lowest convenient crossing; sacked by Boudicca (c.61); later surrounded by a defensive wall, fragments of which remain (c.350); developed as the leading trade and administrative centre of England; received charter privileges in 1067; mayoralty established in 1191; major building programmes in Middle Ages; extended W, especially in 16th-c; Great Plague (1665), Great Fire (1666), followed by major reconstruction; many squares laid out in 17th–18th-c; in 17th-c developed into a major trade centre and became one of the world's largest cities; severe damage especially to City and East End in World War 2 (the Blitz), with much subsequent rebuilding; administered by London County Council (1888–1963), and by the Greater London Council until 1986, its functions then transferring to the boroughs and other bodies; City of London, occupying site of the old mediaeval city N of the Thames, is the financial and business centre, including the Bank of England, Stock Exchange, and Royal Exchange; City of Westminster is the administrative and judicial centre, including the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and government departments; the West End is the main shopping and entertainment centre, around Oxford Street, Piccadilly, and Regent Street; outer boroughs comprise mixed residential and industrial developments; extensive dockland, much now scheduled for redevelopment. Transport: headquarters of Port of London Authority; major railway terminuses (Euston, King's Cross, Paddington, St Pancras, Victoria, Waterloo); extensive underground system (known as ‘the Tube’) run by London Transport Executive; main airports at Heathrow (W) and Gatwick (S), also at London City, Luton (N), and Stansted (E); central bridges across R Thames include Westminster (1750), Blackfriars (1769), Waterloo (1817), and Southwark (1819); Tourism: markets (Billingsgate, Smithfield; Nine Elms at Vauxhall, replacing Covent Garden, now a tourist centre); parks (Battersea / Hyde / Regent's / St James's Parks, Kensington Gardens); zoological gardens at Regent's Park; leading cultural centre, with many theatres, museums (British / London / Natural History / Science / Victoria and Albert), galleries (National / National Portrait / Tate Galleries, Courtauld Institute), concert halls (Albert / Queen Elizabeth / Royal Festival / Wigmore Halls, Barbican Centre), churches and cathedrals (Saint Paul's / Westminster Cathedrals; Westminster Abbey and St Margaret's Church, a world heritage site); London Eye; South Bank development includes (from W to E) Royal Festival Hall, National Theatre, National Film Theatre, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe; BBC Symphony / London Philharmonic / London Symphony / Royal Philharmonic Orchestras; Opera House (Covent Garden) / Ballet (Sadler's Wells) / Academy of Music / College of Music / Academy of Dramatic Art; centre for radio (Broadcasting House), television, and the press (traditionally at Fleet Street, now largely elsewhere); Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey), Planetarium, Madame Tussaud's; Millennium Dome at Greenwich; Trooping of the Colour on the Queen's official birthday (Jun); procession to the Royal Courts of Justice (Lord Mayor's Show) (Nov). Educational centre: several constituent colleges of London University (from 1836), and many other institutions, including City and Brunel Universities (both 1966); University of East London (1992, formerly Polytechnic), London Guildhall University (1992, formerly City of London Polytechnic), Middlesex University (1992, formerly Polytechnic), University of North London (1992, formerly Polytechnic), South Bank University (1992, formerly Polytechnic), Thames Valley University (1992, formerly Polytechnic of West London), University of Westminster (1992, formerly Polytechnic of Central London), University of Greenwich (1992, formerly Thames Polytechnic); leading medical centre, with several major hospitals, and Harley Street (private practices). Sport: football league teams, Arsenal (Gunners), Charlton Athletic (Valiants), Chelsea (Blues), Crystal Palace (Eagles), Fulham (Cottagers), Leyton Orient (‘O's’), Millwall (Lions), Queens Park Rangers (‘R's’), Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs), Watford (Hornets), West Ham United (Hammers), Wimbledon (Dons); scene of 1934 British Empire Games; new Wembley Stadium under construction (2003– ).Infobox London

London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom. An important settlement for around two millennia, London is today one of the world's most important financial and business centres and its involvement in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion and the arts contribute to its status as one of the key global cities.

London is the most populous city and metropolitan area in the European Union.

London is an international transport hub, with five international airports and a large port.

London is a major tourist destination - counting iconic landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye amongst its many attractions, along with famous institutions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery.

Defining London

Area

Today, "London" usually refers to the area known as Greater London which is co-terminous with the London region of England. London's metropolitan area grew considerably during the Victorian era and again during the Interwar period with expansion halted in the 1940s by World War II and Green Belt legislation and has been largely static since.

The extent of the London postal district, Metropolitan Police District, local government area, London transport area, urban sprawl, coverage of the London telephone area code and metropolitan area have rarely been coterminous and are not currently. London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London.

The co-ordinates of the centre of London (traditionally considered to be the original Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall) are approximately . Officially, London is a region containing two smaller cities within its built-up area: the City of London and the City of Westminster (see City status in the UK).

Unlike most capital cities, London's status as the capital of the UK has never been granted or confirmed officially ? Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the UK's unwritten constitution.

Geography and climate

Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²)making it one of the worlds largest cities by area. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills such as Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill. It has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames Barrier was constructed across the Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal with this threat, but a more substantial barrier further downstream may be necessary in the near future.

London has a temperate climate with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. The warmest month is July, with an average temperature range at Greenwich of 13.6 °C-22.8 °C (56.5?73.0 °F). Accessed 15 July 2006. Snow is uncommon, particularly because heat from the urban area can make London 5 °C hotter than the surrounding areas in winter.

Districts

Main articles: Central London, City of London, West End, East London, East End, Docklands, West London, North London, South London

London's vast urban area is often described using a large set of district names (e.g. Bloomsbury, Mayfair, Whitechapel). One area of London which does have a strict definition is the City of London (usually just called The City), the largest financial district and central business district (CBD) in Europe. London's other financial hub is the Docklands area in the east of the city, dominated by the Canary Wharf complex, whilst many other businesses locate in the City of Westminster which is the home of the UK's national government.

The West End (actually in Central London, in the City of Westminster) is London's main entertainment and shopping district, with locations such as Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus acting as tourist magnets. The West London area, further out from the centre, is now known for fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, Kensington and Chelsea ? now, brownfield sites throughout the area are being redeveloped, including areas along the Thames (the Thames Gateway) and up the Lower Lea Valley, which is being developed into the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics. North London and South London are informal divisions of the capital made by the River Thames, although they can define varying areas.

Built environment

The density of London varies, with high employment density in the city centre, high residential densities in inner London and lower densities in the suburbs. Thus, skyscrapers such as the City's "Gherkin", Tower 42 and Canary Wharf stand out due to both their height and their relative rarity.

However, developments of tall buildings are encouraged in the London Plan, which will lead to the erection of many new skyscrapers over the next few years as London goes through a high-rise boom, particularly in the two financial centres, the City of London and Canary Wharf. The 72-storey, 310 m "Shard London Bridge" by London Bridge station, the 288 m Bishopsgate Tower and around 30 other skyscrapers over 150 m are either proposed or approved and could transform the city's skyline.

The buildings of London are a collection of different styles accumulated mostly over the time since the Great Fire in 1666. The largest of these in the central area are the Royal Parks of Hyde Park and its neighbour Kensington Gardens at the western edge of central London, and Regent's Park on the northern edge. A number of large parks outside the city centre are also notable, including the remaining Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the south east, and Bushy Park and Richmond Park to the south west. Around AD 61, the Iceni tribe of Celts led by Queen Boudica stormed London, burning it to the ground. The next, heavily-planned incarnation of the city prospered and superseded Colchester as the capital of the Roman province of Britannia in AD 100. However, by the 3rd century AD, the city started a slow decline due to trouble in the Roman Empire, and by the 5th century AD, it was abandoned.

By 600 AD, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new settlement (Lundenwic) about 1 km upstream from the old Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden. In a retaliatory attack, Aethelred's army achieved victory by pulling down London Bridge with the Danish garrison on top, and English control was re-established.

Canute took control of the English throne in 1017, controlling the city and country until 1042, when his death resulted in a reversion to Anglo-Saxon control under his pious step-son Edward the Confessor, who re-founded Westminster Abbey and the adjacent Palace of Westminster.

Norman and medieval London

Following a victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, the then Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly-finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. This castle was expanded by later kings and is now known as the Tower of London, serving first as a royal residence and later as a prison.

In 1097, William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. Eventually, the adjacent cities grew together and formed the basis of modern central London, superseding Winchester as capital of England in the 12th century.

After the successful defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, political stability in England allowed London to grow further. His enactment of harsh anti-Catholic laws made him unpopular, and an assassination attempt was made on 5 November 1605 ? the famous Gunpowder Plot.

Plague caused extensive problems for London in the early 17th century, culminating in the Great Plague in 1665-1666. The Great Fire of London broke out in the original City and quickly swept through London's wooden buildings, destroying large swathes of the city (and killing off much of the disease-carrying rat population). It was then replaced by the County of London, overseen by the London County Council, London's first elected city-wide administration.

The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and flattened large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. The expanded region was called Greater London and was administered by the Greater London Council.

In the decades following World War II, large-scale immigration from British Commonwealth countries and beyond, transformed London into one of the most racially and culturally diverse cities in Europe. IRA bombers sought to pressure the government into negotiations over Northern Ireland, frequently disrupting city activities with bomb threats ? City-wide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), whilst local administration is carried out by 33 smaller districts.

The GLA is responsible for strategic planning, policing, the fire service, transport and economic development. The GLA is a recent organisation, having been set up in 2000 to replace the similar Greater London Council (GLC) which was abolished in 1986.

The current Mayor of London is Ken Livingstone, who is in his second term of office.

The City of London also has its own police force: The City of London Police, which is independent of the Metropolitan Police Service which covers the rest of Greater London.

Health services in London are managed by the national government through the National Health Service, which is controlled and administered in London by five Strategic Health AuthoritiesStrategic Health Authorities > Map Search {London}, National Health Service. URL accessed on 3 June 2006.).

National government

London is the home of the Government of the United Kingdom which is located around the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Many government offices are located close to Parliament, particularly along Whitehall and including the Prime Minister's famous residence on Downing Street.

London is represented in the national Parliament by 74 Members of Parliament (MPs) who correspond to local parliamentary constituencies. Of these 74 MPs, 44 are from the Labour Party, 21 are Conservatives, 8 are Liberal Democrats and one is from the RESPECT party.

Economy

London is a major centre for international business and commerce and is one of three "command centres" for the global economy (along with New York City and Tokyo).

As Europe's largest city economy, London generated £181 billion in 2004 which was 19% of the UK's GDP,"London's Place in the UK Economy, 2005-6", p8, Oxford Economic Forecasting on behalf of the Corporation of London. PDFlink whilst the entire London metropolitan area generated approximately £280 billion ? Greater London has 26,721,000 sq m of office space (2001).


Business District	Office Space (sq m)	Business Concentration
The City	7,740,000	finance, broking, insurance, legal
Westminster	5,780,000	head offices, real estate, private banking, hedge funds, government
Camden & Islington	2,294,000	creative industries, finance, design, art, fashion, architecture
Canary Wharf	2,120,000	banking, media, legal
Lambeth & Southwark	1,780,000	accountancy, consultancy, local government

London's dominating industry remains finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments."Financial Services", UK Trade & Investment, 11 May 2006. A second, smaller financial district is developing at Canary Wharf to the east which includes the global headquarters of HSBC, Reuters, Barclays and the largest law firm in the world, Clifford Chance. with more US dollars traded in London than New York, and more Euros traded there than every other city in Europe combined."Triennial Central Bank Survey", Bank for International Settlements, March 2005. Over 70% of the FTSE 100 are located within London's metropolitan area, and 75% of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London.

Along with professional services, media companies are concentrated in London (see Media in London) and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector."London's Place in the UK Economy, 2005-6", p19, Oxford Economic Forecasting on behalf of the Corporation of London. Many national newspapers are edited in London, having traditionally been associated with Fleet Street in the City, but they are now primarily based around Canary Wharf. Soho is the centre of London's post-production industry.

Tourism is one of London's other prime industries and employed the equivalent of 350,000 full-time workers in London in 2003,"London is the HR centre of opportunity in the UK", PersonnelToday.com, 15 February 2005. PDFlink

From once being the largest port in the world, the Port of London is now only the third-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 50 million tonnes of cargo each year."Trade Statistics", Port of London Authority, Annual Report and Accounts 2005.

Demographics

With increasing industrialisation, London's population grew rapidly throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, and was the most populated city in the world until overtaken by New York in 1925.

There were an estimated 7,517,700 people living in the Greater London area in mid-2005.Population time-series - City of London www.nomisweb.co.uk However, London's continuous urban area extends beyond the borders of Greater London and was home to 8,278,251 people at the 2001 UK census,KS01 Usual resident population: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas www.statistics.gov.uk whilst its wider metropolitan area has a population of between 12 and 14 million depending on the definition of that area. World: metropolitan areas www.world-gazetteer.com Southest England Population by Area from 1891 www.demographia.com

It is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the industrialised world, with more than 300 languages spoken and 50 non-indigenous communities with a population of more than 10,000 living in London."Every race, colour, nation and religion on earth", Guardian Unlimited, 21 January 2005. URL accessed on 3 June 2006.

In terms of religion, London is historically dominated by Christianity, and consequently has a large number of churches, particularly in the City. The famous St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres, whilst important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. Despite all of this, observance is very low within the Anglican denomination and yet considerably higher among London's Roman Catholic and Christian Orthodox communities."Anglican Church Attendance Figures" "Catholic Church Attendance Figures"

London is also home to sizeable Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish communities. London's large Hindu community is found in the north-western boroughs of Harrow and Brent, the latter of which contains one of Europe's largest Hindu temples, Neasden Temple."Hindu London", BBC, 6 June 2005. The majority of British Jews live in London, with significant Jewish communities in Stamford Hill and Golders Green in North London."Jewish Communities in London", BBC, 1 March 2006. The public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is one of the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is attempting to address, including £7 billion (?10 billion) of improvements planned for the Olympics.

The centrepiece of the public transport network is the London Underground, the oldest metro system in the world, dating from 1863. The Metro system was home to the world's first underground electric line, the City & South London Railway, which began service in 1890.Schwandl, Robert (2001) London Underground UrbanRail.net, Accessed September 24, 2006. Nearly 1 billion journeys are made each year on the London Underground system."How to Best Use the London Underground", The Travel Insider, 4 July 2004 (last updated: 8 May 2006). The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (in the suburbs) and an orbital motorway (the M25, outside the built-up area) circuit the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes ? A plan for a comprehensive network of motorways throughout the city (the Ringways Plan) was prepared in the 1960s but was mostly cancelled in the early 1970s due to vociferous objections from the population and the huge costs. Accessed 17 September 2006. such traffic is also handled at Gatwick, whilst Stansted and Luton cater mostly for low-cost short-haul flights. Accessed 17 June 2006. Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium.

On a small note, Biggin Hill is counted as London's sixth airport. Most primary and secondary schools in London follow the same system as the rest of England.

With 125,000 students, the University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the United Kingdom and in Europe."About the University", University of London, 20 February 2006. Its constituents include multi-disciplinary colleges such as UCL, King's and Queen Mary and more specialised institutions such as Imperial, the London School of Economics, SOAS, the Royal Academy of Music and the Institute of Education.

London's other universities, such as City University, London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University, UEL, the University of Westminster and London South Bank University, are not part of the University of London. Some were polytechnics until these were granted university status in 1992, and others which were founded much earlier.

London is home to a number of important museums and other institutions which are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum (dealing with fashion and design) are clustered in South Kensington's "museum quarter", whilst the British Museum houses historic artefacts from around the world. URL accessed on 3 June 2006. The city also houses extensive art collections, primarily in the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

Society and culture

Leisure and entertainment

Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district, whilst just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops and London's "Avenue of Stars" which honours achievers in the entertainment industry. The adjoining Bond Street in Mayfair is a more upmarket location along with the Knightsbridge area - home to the Harrods department store - to the southwest. Furthermore, London has a number of markets, including Camden Market for fashions, Portobello Road for antiques and Borough Market for foods.

London offers a huge variety of cuisines as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Soho offers a variety of relatively cheap international restaurants, whilst more upmarket restaurants are scattered around central London, with concentrations in Mayfair. Across the city, areas home to particular ethnic groups are often recognisable by restaurants, food shops and market stalls offering their local fare, and even the large supermarkets stock such items in areas with sizeable ethnic groups.

The Caribbean-descended community in Notting Hill in West London organises the colourful Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's biggest street carnival, every summer. The beginning of the year is celebrated with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, whilst traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the City, and June's Trooping the Colour, a very formal military pageant to celebrate the (official) Queen's Birthday. Two writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous among other things for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets is a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London. James Boswell's biographical Life of Johnson mostly takes place in London, and is the source of Johnson's famous aphorism: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; Along with Bloomsbury, the hilly area of Hampstead has traditionally been the literary heartland of London.

Traditionally, London has played a significant role in the film industry, and boasts major studios at Pinewood and Shepperton, both just outside West London, as well as an important special effects and post-production community. See main article London in film.

The city also hosts a number of performing arts schools, including the Central School of Speech and Drama, whose past students include Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (educators of Jim Broadbent and Donald Sutherland amongst others) and the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (past students including Joan Collins and Roger Moore).

Sport

London has hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1908 and 1948. URL accessed on 3 June 2006. London was also the host of the British Empire Games in 1934.

London's most popular sport (for both participants and spectators) is football.Football (from London), Encyclopædia Britannica. London also has four rugby union teams in the Guinness Premiership (London Irish, Saracens, Wasps and NEC Harlequins), although just the Harlequins plays in London (all the other three now play outside Greater London), as well as a rugby league Super League club in Harlequins.

Wembley Stadium (which is currently being rebuilt) has traditionally been the home of the English national football team, and serves as the venue for the FA Cup final as well as rugby league's Challenge Cup final. Twickenham Stadium in west London is the national rugby union stadium.

Cricket in London centres on its two Test cricket grounds at Lord's (home of Middlesex CC) in St John's Wood, and The Oval (home of Surrey CC) in Kennington.

One of London's most well-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon. Other key events are the annual mass-participation London Marathon which sees some 35,000 runners attempt a 42 km course around the city, and the Oxford vs. Cambridge Boat Race. URL accessed on 6 June 2006.

New York City since 2001
Moscow, Russia
Berlin, Germany (since 2000)
Paris, France
Beijing, China (since 2006)
Tokyo, Japan (since 2006)

References

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