London is well connected
As the world’s most connected city, London offers the ideal base for international business. Its five airports combine to serve more destinations and traffic than any other city in the world.
Heathrow is the world’s second busiest airport, serving 66 million passengers every year, while City Airport provides a direct connection between the City of London and Europe’s other financial capitals.
The sheer volume of air traffic means Londoners benefit from the cheapest fares in Europe.
But London is also investing heavily in its rail links. High Speed 1 is a new high-speed rail connection which links London directly to Paris and Brussels, and plans are afoot for High Speed 2, a high-speed rail network linking London to England and Scotland’s other major cities.
Crossrail, due for completion in 2017, will provide a high-frequency railway serving London and the South East including fast links between Heathrow Airport, the West End, the City of London and Canary Wharf.
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Map by Morag Myerscough showing London’s air and rail connections to the rest of the world.
London reinvents its public space
London is home to some 7.56 million people, almost a third of whom were born outside the UK. The city's population is predicted to grow by 600,000 over the next decade.
The city is working to create new public spaces and enhance existing ones to meet the needs of an increasing, and increasingly diverse, population.
Spaces which were lost or under used are being transformed into space for relaxation, sport and play; for demonstrations and celebrations; for conversation or solitude.
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The courtyard of Somerset House on the River Thames has been transformed from a car park into a public square that changes character throughout the year.
In July 2008, for the launch of the London Festival of Architecture, Somerset House Courtyard was transformed into London's Largest Living Room by design company Supergroup. The Courtyard has provided the setting for London Fashion Week since September 2009.
In winter, the courtyard becomes a public ice rink. Peephole suitcase designed and made by Mark Garside.
London gets green infrastructure
London boasts more parks and open spaces than any other city of its size in the world, with eight royal parks totalling over 5,000 acres of land, seven city farms, one wetland centre, 135 parks and gardens and over 200 city squares.
Its natural habitats are diverse; from marshland and mud flats to trees in the street; from manicured parkland to neglected canals.
The East London Green Grid is the first phase of a project to enhance their intrinsic qualities and to create a network of living spaces across the city.
As well as providing places for recreation, the grid will improve provision for pedestrians and cyclists, increase biodiversity and alleviate flood risk by restoring natural river banks.
The initiative is to be extended across the city, providing beautiful diverse green infrastructure for London's people and wildlife.
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Postcard cabinet illustrating the variety of individual projects that make up the East London Green Grid.
The spaces range in scale from ambitious new parks to low-key initiatives to make neglected areas more accessible or attractive.
London grows within fixed boundaries
London is surrounded by open countryside; the city boundaries are protected by law.
All development and growth has to be accommodated within the existing footprint of the city calling for increased density and intensification of use.
London's Government is encouraging the development of the city's under-developed sites by remediating brownfield land, establishing high-quality infrastructure and making potential development sites available for investment.
The aim is to create mixed-use and multicultural neighbourhoods which reflect the aspirations and needs of London's diverse population the city is home to more than 300 nationalities and are sustainable in both social and environmental terms.
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Model by Studio Myerscough illustrating London's green-belt policy and its strategy of creating increasingly dense and diverse neighbourhoods within its existing boundaries.
London is shaped by small interventions and big ideas
London is reinventing itself on a strategic scale, using visionary thinking and a masterplan-led approach to bring about major transformations.
But the scale of its ambition is underpinned by an understanding of the importance of considered interventions at the community and human scale.
Large-scale regeneration and development goes hand in hand with a raft of small-scale design proposals designed to enliven and enrich the city at a human scale.
But together they constitute a significant transformation of the urban realm.
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High Street 2012, an ambitious project to reinvigorate the route which links central London to the Olympic Park and the Thames Gateway regeneration area beyond.
The overarching long-term vision for the area is underpinned by a series of small-scale initiatives, many of which are deliverable within the shorter term.
The Deptford train carriage, transformed by Morag Myerscough into a community art space, represents a strategy of activating dead space and transforming the public realm.
This modest project has become a focus for the community and has come to represent the regeneration of the area as a whole.