There are several Londons. But there are only 2 real cities that bear this name. One is in England and the other is in Canada. London has not taken off as the name for world cities despite England’s Empire. There are many Moscows but few Londons.
The confusion gets complicated because there are actually 2 Londons in London. There is the City of London, which is a limited area, and London itself. They are not the same thing. Greater London is a major world capital and the second city in the world to reach a population of 1 million inhabitants. The first was Rome in 133 BC. London, England, achieved this population in 1810. The city of London in England now contains 32 boroughs. One of its boroughs is the old city of London that was a fortified Roman settlement about 2,000 years ago. It was called Londinium, was about one square mile behind a wall, and stretched from the Tower of London to Chancery Lane and Liverpool Street. It had about 10,000 residents, its own Lord Mayor, and was England’s financial capital. How Brexit will affect this historical London is yet to be determined.
There are 15 London’s in the United States. Only 3 of them, the ones in Ohio, Kentucky, and Arkansas, are of any size. The rest are unincorporated communities even though a few of them have thousands of citizens living in them like the Londons in California and Michigan. Most of them have the word New before theirs names. For example, the London in Missouri is New London and is in the Hannibal area. London, Arkansas, has a population over 1,000 and is actually called London. London, Kentucky, is known as a racing capital and has a population over 8,000. London, Ohio, is southwest of Columbus, its capital, and has a population of more than 10,000.
London, Ontario, is a large city in Canada. It’s home to more than half a million Canadians and is on the Thames River. We used to love going to this new London and sampling its restaurants and attractions. It’s the 2nd largest city in the world with this name.
There’s a London Island in South America’s Chile, and the capital of the Pacific Island Nation of Kiribati is London. There are said to be several Londons in Africa, but many of them were colonial cities and London is now their 2nd name. There’s a town called Jakobstad in Finland with a population of more than 20,000 that has a suburb called London. The Australian island called Christmas has a settlement named London.
Then there’s New London, Connecticut. This once upon a time whaling port on the American Thames River is an important city in this Original Colony. New London was named after London, England, and received this name long before The Revolutionary War.
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