London Neighborhoods

Visiting London is like visiting any major city. It can at first appear overwhelming, intimidating and incredibly exciting all at once.

London is big, without question. But London neighborhoods vary enormously and the city is generally safe for tourists and locals alike.Like any city, it’s as safe as you make it.

Places in London can top the scale in terms of world-class luxury (Mayfair, Piccadilly, St James, Green Park, for example), rank comfortably among the average environs of any big city or perhaps shine amongst the world’s brightest tourist hotspots.

So use this guide to London neighborhoods as you plan your visit to England’s remarkable capital. We aim to help you as you decide where to stay, where to visit, and the places in London we think you ought to avoid.

Most overseas visitors to London will understandably spend most of their time in the center of the city.

And for the roughest guide to London neighborhoods, consider this: most of the big money is in the city center and just to the west and south-west, while traditionally the East End (where the Olympic Park is situated) has been the poorer cousin. The arrival of the Olympics, which will be focused around Stratford, east London, will of course go some way to redress the balance.

Just in case you’re interested in history, here’s why the richest London neighborhoods are in the west – it’s to do with the direction of the prevailing wind in London and the city’s industrial past. (The wind in the British Isles generally blows in from the south-west).

Basically, the moneyed classes didn’t want to breathe the polluted air all those old factories used to create with their chimneys billowing dirty smoke, so they made sure they lived and worked up-wind of it, ie west of it so the air they breathed was always clean.

This is one reason why Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and all the top hotels are located where just to the west and south-west of the bright lights of Soho.

Also, here are the “headline areas” – those London places you will almost certainly have heard of:

• The West End – including Covent Garden, Soho, Theatreland, Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus
• The City of London, aka “The Square Mile” – the financial district, where relatively few people actually live. It’s chock-full of banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and the like
• Bloomsbury and Holborn sit between the West End and City