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Money Issues in The City? – London’s Business and Financial Districts

The last time we were in London, we hadn’t had a chance to check out its most famous business district: the City. I was curious to explore this neighbourhood, a metonym of the United Kingdom’s financial centre, with a very high concentration of finance, broking, insurance and legal firms.

For a district that is after all mostly office space, the City is less boring than it sounds. First, the skyline, best seen from Tower Bridge across the River Thames, is quite unique. Easy-to-recognize skyscrapers such as 30 St Mary Axe (nicknamed “the Gherkin”) or The Heron Tower (the tallest building in the City) pop up from otherwise old-looking streets with historical buildings, such as the Royal Exchange. A number of new buildings around “the Gherkin”—that building looks like a missile head to me!—seemed to be a work in progress, and in other cases, construction had clearly been halted. Money trouble in the financial centre?

We were in the City around lunchtime and took the time to observe Londoners’ eating habits. I was amazed by the number of franchises such as EAT, Prêt-à-Manger and other sandwich retail chains—they are as ubiquitous as Tim Hortons here in Canada! I also noted Londoners also seem to be very fond of these “triangle sandwiches” (often nicknamed “sandwich SNCF” in France, after the national state-owned railway company that sell rather cheap sandwiches) on white soft bread. They are sold just about anywhere and any supermarket or sandwich shop carries a very large selection.

After hanging out in the City, we headed to Canary Wharf, another new place for us. Despite its quite poetic name, it is another major business centre that specializes in banking, media and legal. We soon realized how huge it was getting lost in the shopping mall attached to the station—it felt like La Défense in Paris!

In The Heart of The City
In The Heart of The City
Old and New in The City
The City’s Futuristic Skyline
The City’s Futuristic Skyline
The Royal Exchange
Lunch Break in The City
The City
In The Streets of The City
Bankers Bike to Work?
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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