About the Area for SilverDoor Serviced Apartments in London - Fitzrovia

London is the capital of England and of the United Kingdom. On 6th February 1952, Elizabeth Windsor became Queen Elizabeth II upon the death of her father King George VI and Buckingham Palace in Westminster remains her principal home. London is also home to approximately 7.5 million people and until the early 20’s was the most populous city in the world.

London was established as a civilian town by the Romans about seven years after the invasion of AD43, however there is evidence of prehistoric settlement in London dating from at least a thousand years before that. The name Londinium is thought to be pre-Celtic in origin and although there has been no academic consensus, it probably means "the flowing river".

During London’s 2,000 years of recorded history, it has experienced plague, devastating fire, civil war and two world wars; yet, it has still grown to become one of the most important business, financial and cultural capitals in the world.

The city is a major tourist destination, with four world heritage sites and numerous iconic landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye amongst its many attractions, along with famous institutions such as the British Museum and the National Gallery.

London is made up of 32 boroughs, plus the City of London borough, and about 22 per cent of London's population were born outside of the UK, which is what makes it such an ethnically-mixed and culturally-diverse city.

Travel around London on public transport is easy and frequent. The London Underground (more commonly known as “The Tube”) serves 275 stations and there are hundreds of bus routes serving the city and suburban areas. London has five main train stations:-Waterloo, Victoria, St. Pancras, Paddington and Euston, with trains running to all of Britain’s major cities. Waterloo station is also the terminus for the Eurostar train to Paris.

With a large port and five international airports, London is a major international transport hub. Its main airport at Heathrow carries more international passengers than any other airport in the world.

Fitzrovia is an area of central London, just north of the West End. It is an informally designated area lying partly in the London Borough of Camden to the east and partly in the City of Westminster to the west. It is bounded to the north by Euston Road, to the east by the Tottenham Court Road, to the south by Oxford Street and to the west by Great Portland Street.

Fitzrovia's name is obscure compared to those of most central London areas, including its neighbours such as Soho to the south and Bloomsbury to the east. The area was unnamed until the mid-twentieth century when, in the light of the area's burgeoning reputation as the home of bohemian and literary London, it adopted the name of its most renowned public house and literary salon, the Fitzroy Tavern. Fitzroy Square is the most distinguished architectural feature of the district, having been designed in part by Robert Adam.

Charlotte Street was for many years the home the British advertising industry and is now known for its excellent and diverse restaurants. Today the district still houses the illustrious Saatchi & Saatchi and TBWA advertising agencies. A number of television production companies are based in the area including Nickelodeon and CNN Europe. London's Time Out magazine and City Guide is created and edited on Tottenham Court Road on the eastern side of Fitzrovia.

Several notable structural engineering consultants are based in offices on Newman Street and the world headquarters of Arup Associates is on Fitzroy Street. A handful of embassies (El Salvador, Mozambique, Turkmenistan and Croatia) nestle amongst the many and varied public houses. Retail use spills into parts of Fitzrovia from Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road which are two of the principal shopping streets in central London. Oxford Street's 100 Club is a major hot-bed for music from the Sixties to the present day and is close by.

Fitzrovia is served by several London Underground stations:

Great Portland Street ,

Goodge Street,

Oxford Circus,

Tottenham Court Road,

Warren Street.

This section’s writer lived there for several years and can highly recommend the area for the freedom of access not only to the British Museum but also to the nightlife of Soho. With direct links by rail to the north from Euston or King’s Cross Stations, one can escape to Scotland within 4 hours.