Editors of Time Out - Time Out London

For practical information, including visas, disabled access, emergency numbers, lost property, useful websites and local transport, please see the .

Addresses, phone numbers, websites, transport information, hours and prices are all included in our listings, as are selected other facilities. All were all checked and correct at press time. However, business owners may alter their arrangements at any time, and fluctuating economic conditions can cause prices to change rapidly.

The very best venues in the city, the must-sees and must-dos in every category, have been marked with a red star (). In the Sights chapters, weve also marked venues with free admission with a FREE symbol.

The area code for London is 020, but within the city, dialling from a landline, you only need the eight-digit number as listed.

From outside the UK, dial your countrys international access code (011 from the US) or a plus symbol, followed by the UK country code (44), 20 for London (dropping the initial zero) and the eight-digit number as listed in the guide. So, to reach the British Museum, dial .

We welcome feedback on this guide, both on the venues weve included and on any other locations youd like to see featured in future editions. Please email us at guides@timeout.com.

Over the 2,000 years since London began life as a small trading station by a broad and marshy river, the city has faced plagues and invasions, fires and wars, religious turbulence and financial turmoil. There have been natural disasters and acts of terrorism, all borne by Londoners with a characteristic upbeat pessimism until the moment arrives when the frenzy of commerce can begin again. More than anything, this citys past is a tale of resilience.

The citys origins are hardly grand. Celtic tribes lived in scattered communities along the banks of the Thames before the Romans arrived in Britain, but theres no evidence of a settlement on the site of the future metropolis before the invasion of the Emperor Claudius in AD 43. During the Roman conquest, they forded the Thames at its shallowest point (probably near todays London Bridge) and, later, built a timber bridge there. A settlement developed on the north side of this crossing.

Over the next two centuries, the Romans built roads, towns and forts in the area. Progress was halted in AD 61 when Boudicca, the widow of an East Anglian chieftain, rebelled against the imperial forces who had seized her land, flogged her and raped her daughters. She led the Iceni in a revolt, destroying the Roman colony at Colchester before marching on London. The Romans were massacred and their settlement razed.

After order was restored, the town was rebuilt; around AD 200, a two-mile, 18-foot wall was put up around it. Chunks of the wall survive today; the early names of the original gates Ludgate, Newgate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate are preserved on the map of the modern city, with the street known as London Wall tracing part of its original course. But through to the fourth century, racked by invasions and internal strife, the Roman Empire was clearly in decline, see . In 410, the last troops were withdrawn, and London became a ghost town.

During the fifth and sixth centuries, history gives way to legend. The Saxons crossed the North Sea; apparently avoiding the ruins of London, they built farmsteads and trading posts outside the city walls. Pope Gregory sent Augustine to convert the English to Christianity in 596; Mellitus, one of his missionaries, was appointed the first Bishop of London, founding a cathedral dedicated to St Paul inside the old city walls in 604.

From this period, the history of London is one of expansion. Writing in 731, the Venerable Bede described Lundenwic as the mart of many nations resorting to it by land and sea. Yet the city faced a new danger during the ninth century: the Vikings. The city was ransacked in 841 and again in 851, when Danish raiders returned with 350 ships. It was not until 886 that King Alfred of Wessex, Alfred the Great, regained the city, re-establishing London as a major trading centre.

Throughout the tenth century the city prospered. Churches were built, parishes established and markets set up. However, the 11th century brought more harassment from the Vikings, and the English were forced to accept a Danish king, Cnut (Canute, 1016-35), during whose reign London replaced Winchester as the capital of England.

After a brief spell under Danish rule, the country reverted to English control in 1042 under Edward the Confessor, who devoted himself to building Englands grandest church two miles west of the City on an island in the river marshes at Thorney: the West Minster, or . Just a week after the consecration, he died. London now had two hubs: Westminster, centre of the royal court, government and law; and the City of London, centre of commerce.