Londres Access

Begin in the Square Mile. Here, the Romans built a wall. The Victorians built palaces of industry. The glass-and-steel towers of the 21st century now lean over narrow, cobbled lanes named "Pudding Lane" (where the Great Fire started) or "Bread Street." You can touch a stone from 100 AD and, thirty feet later, step into a Michelin-starred restaurant that used to be a warehouse for tobacco.

On the 73 bus from Oxford Circus to Stoke Newington, you will hear Yoruba, Polish, Gujarati, Cockney rhyming slang, and Australian upspeak. London is no longer a purely English city; it is the capital of the world. Londres

London is not easy. It is expensive, sprawling, and the Tube is a sweatbox in July. It will test your patience and your wallet. But it will never bore you. Begin in the Square Mile

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the queue at the pie and mash shop is getting short, and I’m not missing that. The glass-and-steel towers of the 21st century now