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The centre of London. The pigeons banished and north side pedestrianized but here is the monumental hotch-potch heart of the beast, with Nelson on his column and the National Gallery to boot.

The main road between Westminster and the City, east out of the Square, where the admin office blocks of Empire sprang up after the 18th century, the first at Somerset House, overlooking the 19th century’s great sanitary achievement: the Victoria Embankment.

The diminutive showbiz epicentre of the West End boasts a statue of Shakespeare unfazed by the movie premieres all around, the theatrical first nights on Shaftesbury Avenue, the bookselling bonanza on Charing Cross Road and Chinese cuisine next door.

The West End’s late-night party zone sleezily converts the film, music and TV frenzy here by day into some of the best restaurants, gay bars, cinemas and drinking clubs in the capital.

Just north of the Strand is a tourist honeypot: a sympathetic conversion of central London’s beautiful old covered market into a boutique shopping mall with no traffic and a hint of culture: the Royal Opera House, Theatre and Transport Museums.

West of Soho beyond the glorified sweep of big-name retailers on Regent Street, Mayfair remains the most moneyed, swanky and occasionally discreet home of haute couture, cuisine and hospitality.

The land that time forgot. Beyond the neon hoardings of Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly heads west with panache, freighted with Fortnum and Mason’s, the Royal Academy and the Ritz, dividing Mayfair from the gentleman’s clubland of St James’s and Buckingham Palace.

London’s not very prepossessing High Street, just north of Soho, lined with department stores and all the big names in retail. Shopping here reaches fever pitch at least three times a year: during the run-up to Christmas, and with the January and July sales.

Just south of Trafalgar Square on the river stands the seat of central government in the UK: the sub-Venetian grandeur of Whitehall, the golden Victorian pinnacles of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, beside the crowning Gothic glory of Westminster Abbey.

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