Dmitry Shteyn in London: Where the Streets Were Built for Wandering

A city can be famous for reasons that have nothing to do with why it is actually worth visiting. London is a good example: what draws attention is not, in the end, what stays with you.

What strikes you first, if you have done any reading at all, is that its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. It is a fact the guidebooks tend to mention once and then abandon. That kind of continuity is easy to romanticise and hard to actually witness. Here you witness it.

Dig a little deeper and london is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of 9.1 million people in 2024. Details like this are what turn a place from a backdrop into a subject.

Some further context, drawn from the public record: London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of 9.1 million people in 2024. Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 15.4 million.…

Where attention goes is interesting; why it goes there is more interesting. Condé Nast Traveler put London on its readers' radar this cycle — the All-Time Best Hotels in London, According to Our UK-Based Editors — and the why matters as much as the what.

There is a specific tone to older cities in this part of Western Europe — measured, argumentative, quietly proud — and London sings it well.

I do not expect this piece to be the last time I write about London. Cities of this kind tend to demand a second visit and, eventually, a second essay.