[CyberEric]

Originally Posted by nito

Boris is the 'Mayor of London' however this is London defined as 'Greater London'; the 1,572 km2 area that stretches from Heathrow in the west, to Dagenham in the east, and Enfield in the north, to Croydon in the south. Greater London is composed of the 32 London Boroughs and the City of London. However it should be noted that the area is smaller than either the urban or metro area.

Technically, and rather confusingly Greater London contains two cities: the City of London (2.90km2) which is the original Londinium settlement, and the City of Westminster (21.48km2).

Since 1189 the City of London has had its own mayor, however with the creation of the Mayor of London role covering Greater London, this title is now referred to as the Lord Mayor or London. The Lord Mayor of London (currently David Wootton) is effectively a manager for the City of London Corporation who's jurisdiction is focused on the financially-focused Square Mile.

Thanks, I moved to London a few months ago and found this confusing, I appreciate the info. Are there actually official boundaries to Greater London that can be found on any map?

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Britain and France are quite unique in the sense of the gap between the primary city and the others. I can't think of any other countries so dominated by their primary city.

There is a huge drop off between London and the secondary cities (is Manchester or Birmingham next on the list? Glasgow? In Canada, you never hear about secondary British cities unless for soccer or the Beatles [Liverpool]).

Ditto for Paris and the secondaries (Lyon, Marseille, etc.)

The other country I can think of is Argentina with Buenos Aires being perhaps even more dominant than Paris and London respective to the country in which it's found. Apologies for straying off topic.