Poplar, East London

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 Canary Wharf – 1 mile from Poplar

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Lives on the Line – Life Expectancy by tube
station

Poplar

Canary Wharf

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Why
London?
London is a world
city, globally
connected through
business and finance
to cities around the
world. It is the capital
city of the United
Kingdom and has
been an important
settlement since
Roman times.

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Why is London in an important location?
Site
Roman London was originally built as a
bridging point on the River Thames,
which also meant it developed a port
function.

Situation
The flat land gave the city room for
expansion, with farm land beyond the
walls. All travel across the river came
through the city so the Romans could
A reconstruction of Londinium – the Romans
control South-East England. were at this site around the years 47–50 CE.

.
Activity
1. Watch this history of London.
2. Create a timeline of key events in the development of the modern city.
© Geographical Association, 2020
Greater London
 Why is London an important city?
‘London’s role as a port declined in the twentieth century but it Task
remained the main hub for the UK transport network. Read and highlight
Motorways converge on London, such as the M1. The UK’s two the text to show
busiest airports – Heathrow and Gatwick – are both close to the importance of
London. The Palace of Westminster is the home of the UK London:
Government. • local reasons –
use green
London is the UK’s capital and is by far its wealthiest city. The • national
gap between London and the rest of the UK has widened as reasons– use
both earnings and house prices have risen faster in London yellow
than elsewhere. In London the average salary is £34,473 • global reasons
compared to the UK average of £22,044. The average house use red.
price in London is £514,000 compared to the UK average of
£272,000. London is a ‘world city’ – along with New York, it is
one of the most important financial centres in the world. The
headquarters of many large international and British companies
are based there, such as KPMG. The city also attracts
investment and migrants from all around the world’.
© Geographical Association, 2020
 Why is London an important city?
‘London’s role as a port declined in the twentieth century but it
remained the main hub for the UK transport network. Motorways
converge on London, such as the M1. The UK’s two busiest
airports – Heathrow and Gatwick – are both close to London. The
Palace of Westminster is the home of the UK Government.

London is the UK’s capital and by far the wealthiest city. The gap
between London and the rest of the UK has widened, as both
earnings and house prices have risen faster in London than
elsewhere. In London, the average salary is £34,473 compared to
the UK average of £22,044. The average house price in London is
£514,000 compared to the UK average of £272,000. London is a
‘world city’ – along with New York, it is one of the most important
financial centres in the world. The headquarters of many large
international and British companies are based there, such as
KPMG. The city also attracts investment and migrants from all
around the world.’

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Assess means
estimate the value of
something based on Exam practice
evidence. You need
to make a judgement

Assess the relative importance of London on a global scale (6).

TIPS

• Mention London is a world city

• Acknowledge the importance of London as a financial hub.
• Use data/evidence to support your points
• Develop all points fully
• MAKE A JUDGEMENT. IS LONDON IMPORTANT?

© Geographical Association, 2020

What are the Strengths / Weaknesses of the
answers below:
A: London is an important city B: London is the UK’s capital city and is
because it is very populated and an essential part of the UK’s
has lots of people living there. economy. Companies are attracted to
the city because of its excellent
There are lots of companies transport links e.g. rail and road. Over
in london which is good for the 20% of the UK’s income comes from
economy. It’s got lots of banks London. As well as being a local hub,
there in particular and so London is also a major world city. With
is important financially.  a population of 8.6 million, it is one of
two alpha++ cities. It is an
important financial centre in the world,
with a high number of foreign banks
(more than anywhere else in the
world). Company headquarters are
often located in London and trade
internationally which creates both jobs
and higher wealth. 
 Year Population: millions
1801 1.0
How has London
1811 1.3 changed over time?
1821 1.5 London has grown and
1831 1.8 declined over time.
1841 2.2
1851 2.6 Activity
1861 3.2 1. Recap your notes on the definitions
1881 4.7 of urbanisation,
1891 5.6
counter-urbanisation and
1911 7.2
1921 7.4 re-urbanisation.
1931 8.1
1951 8.2 2. Create a line graph to show how
1961 8.0 London’s population has changed
1971 7.4 over time. Annotate the graph with
1981 6.5 the key terms. Give it a title.
1991 6.7
2001 7.2
2011 8.2 3. Describe the pattern shown on
© Geographical Association, 2020
 What processes have led to population
change in London?
9,000,000
A line graph to show population change in London 1801–2011
8,000,000

U CO N
O
7,000,000 RB U
ATI
AN N IS
d IS TER N
6,000,000 an AT - A
TH N IO RB
-U
POPULATION

W IO N E
5,000,000 RO SAT R
G I
N N
B A BA
4,000,000 R R
U U
3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

0
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

YEAR

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 What processes have led to population
change in London?
As areas of London became
London grows due to redeveloped, and new jobs
9,000,000
migration and ‘ A line graph to show population change inavailable, more people are
London 1801-2011
natural
8,000,000 increase’. London attracted Uin.C N
RB OU I O
physically
7,000,000
grows at the edges AN N
T IS
AT
IS ER AN
through the process of ‘ an
d AT -
IO R B
H N -U
suburbanisation’.
6,000,000 T
W IO
N RE
RO SAT
POPULATION

G I
5,000,000
N
A B A N As traffic, crime and
RB UR pollution increase, the
4,000,000
U
wealthy move out of the
3,000,000
city, and make use of the
2,000,000 transport links to commute
to the city.
1,000,000

0
1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

YEAR

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 What is London’s age structure?

Fewer older people

possibly indicates
counter-urbanisation
to retirement (rural or
coastal) locations.

Large numbers of
young adults in their
20s living and
working in the vibrant
city. They are the
ones having the
young children.

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Tower Hamlets & Merton 2018
Which population pyramid belongs to
which borough? Justify your reasoning.

© Geographical Association, 2020

 How do different parts of London compare?
Activity – GIS enquiry
The Datashine website loads up an interactive map, showing layers of data from
the 2011 Census.
1. Choose two places, one in Richmond and one in Newham. Change the ‘data
chooser’ to collect specific data about the two places.
2. Contrast these two areas of London.
Richmond Newham
(TW9) (E15)
Employment (professional occupations)
Education (qualification gained, degree)

Health (general health)

Housing (5 or more bedrooms)

Factors of your own choice:

© Geographical Association, 2020

 What is London’s cultural mix?
International migration has created Activity
multicultural communities living in London. 1. Watch this video about
multiculturalism in London.
Different cultural groups are concentrated
2. List the reasons for the
in specific areas of the city, such as the
presence of the Caribbean
Caribbean community in Brixton, or the community in Brixton and
South Korean community in New Malden. how the area reflects the
needs of the community.
Over time, these communities will start
businesses of their own which often cater
for the specific needs of that community,
such as shops selling certain types of food.
Building functions can also change (setting
up religious buildings, for example). This
means the area can take on a specific
‘identity’ linked to different cultural groups.
© Geographical Association, 2020
 What challenges does
London face?
1. Inequality: London is the wealthiest city in the
UK, but social deprivation affects 2 million people
(lack of decent services, housing, income or
employment). Projects such as redevelopment (see
later slides) can help to address these problems.

2. Housing: The Mayor of London’s office has

calculated 66,000 new homes are needed each
year; recent new building has averaged 20,000 per
year. New homes can be built on ‘brownfield’ sites
(old industrial wasteland) or ‘greenfield’ sites
(open space on the edge of urban areas).
© Geographical Association, 2020
 What challenges does London face?
3. Transport: Around 3 million people use the London underground
train network every day, and millions more use the buses. With
population increase this will put the transport network under
considerable strain. 

4. Pollution and Waste: Air pollution from cars means 2 million

Londoners (including 400,000 children and 450 schools) live in
areas of pollution above international pollution limits. A quarter of
London’s waste still goes to landfill rather than recycling...

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Practice question
Evaluate the success of attempts to redevelop an urban area in a
high income country you have studied.

Your answer might include:

• Evaluate: this means look at things that went well and things that did not
go so well. You could also look at social, economic and environmental
aspects.
• Place-specific detail: it needs to sound like the Olympics-led regeneration
of East London. You need names of places, key dates and numbers.
• Answer the question! Make sure you are writing about redevelopment in
London, and the successes of it. Be critical too, to evaluate successfully.

© Geographical Association, 2020

 Glossary
• Counter urbanisation: The movement of people out of built-up areas and into
the countryside.
• Migration: The movement of people from one area to another.
• Natural increase: A situation where more babies are being born than the
number of people dying which increases population.
• Re-urbanisation: The movement of people back into an urban area, after a
period of population decrease.
• Site: The physical characteristics of the location of a city.
• Situation: The location of the place in relation to its physical and human
surroundings.
• Suburbanisation: The growth of residential areas at the edge of a town or
city.
• TNCs: Transnational companies- businesses that work in more than one
country.
• Urbanisation: The process by which an increasing proportion of people live in
towns
© Geographical and cities.
Association, 2020