the Provincial Asylum for the Insane, Victoria and Saint Joseph's hospitals, two orphanages, Conservatory of Music and Harding Hall, a college for young ladies and a collegiate institute. London is the seat of Roman Catholic and Anglican bishoprics. Pop. 58,056.

LONDON, England, the largest city in the world, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Empire, situated on both banks of the Thames River, about 40 miles from its mouth, the latitude and longitude of Saint Paul's Cathedral being respectively 51° 30′ 48′′ N. and 0° 5′ 48′′ W. Modern London consists of the city of London as the nucleus, and the occupied surrounding parts of about 120 square miles taken from the counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent. In 1855 the Metropolis Management Act was passed, defining for sanitary purposes, outside the nucleate city of London with 675 acres, 85 parishes, the whole, including the city, covering an area of 75,379 acres, 31,422 acres being the county of Middlesex, 23,893 acres in Surrey and 20,064 acres in Kent. By the Local Government Act of 1888 this area was constituted the administrative county of London. In 1899, by the London Government Act of that year, the boundaries of the county were slightly altered, and the whole, with the exception of the city of London, was divided into 28 metropolitan boroughs, including the city of Westminster. The area of the administrative county is now 74,816 acres, including 31,652 acres formerly in Middlesex, 23,100 formerly in Surrey and 20,064 formerly in Kent. See LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.

Table of the metropolitan boroughs, with their acreage and population in 1901 and 1911:

limits the urban aggregation extends, with numerous large and connected towns, to 15 miles around Charing Cross. These are embraced in the boundaries of the metropolitan and city police districts and constitute Greater London, bringing the total area to 443,424 acres with a population (1901) 6,581,402, (1911) 7,251,358; estimate of 1914, 7,419,704.

Climate. London is one of the healthiest of the large cities of Europe. The death rate per 1,000 living in 1841-50 was 24.8; 1851-60, 23.7; 1861-70, 24.4; 1871-80, 22.5; 1881-90, 20.5; 1891-1900, 19.1. The death rate for 1914 was 15 per 1,000, and the birth rate 24.8 per 1,000. The mean annual temperature is about 50° and the general range of the thermometer is from 20° to 81°; the highest and lowest markings being, for the most part, in August and January respectively. The prevailing wind is the southwest, and there are few places in the kingdom where less rain falls. In the beginning of winter London is occasionally enveloped in fogs, which are especially dense in the lower parts, and greatly aggravated by the perpetual pall of smoke-laden air overhanging the metropolis. This pall is occasioned by the general domestic and industrial use of bituminous coal. Even when this smoke-cloud does not take the unpleasant form of fogs it keeps the sunshine away to quite a considerable extent, in winter robbing London of fully half the sunshine it ought to enjoy, and giving to the metropolis that general gloom and begrimed aspect of buildings which are so depressing to visitors.

General Aspect, River, Bridges, Main Thoroughfares, etc.- London stands on alluvial deposits consisting of beds of clay and gravel, below which is the hard clay stratum known to geologists by the name of the "London clay," in the middle of the great chalk basin extending from Berkshire to the east coast. On the north bank of the Thames, where the principal part of London stands, the site rises gradually at the rate of 36 feet per mile, while on the opposite bank the houses cover a nearly uniform and extensive flat, lying in some places several feet below the highest tides. Within the limits of London the Thames varies considerably in width. At Putney it is 550 feet, at Battersea 960, at Vauxhall 630, at Westminster 275 feet, at Waterloo 1,140 feet, while at Blackfriars it narrows down to 830 feet. At London Bridge, it is 800 feet wide, and at Woolwich 1,470 feet wide. The bridge farthest down the river is Tower Bridge, just below the Tower of London a bascule bridge, which allows the passage of large vessels. London Bridge connects the city at King William street with Southwark at the junction of Wellington street and Tooley street. About 500 vards further up the river stands Southwark Bridge, connecting the city and Southwark. About half a mile farther west Blackfriars Bridge, connecting the city at Bridge street with Southwark at Blackfriars road, was widened in 1908. Waterloo Bridge, nearly half a mile above the former, is a granite structure of 9 elliptical spans, and is 1,240 feet long between the abutments. It is perfectly level, and connects the Strand with the Waterloo road. Westminster Bridge crosses the river at the north end of the Houses of Parliament from Westminster to

Lambeth. Further up the river Westminster and Lambeth are again connected by Lambeth and Vauxhall bridges. The Chelsea Suspension bridge connects Chelsea and Pimlico on the north side with Battersea to the west of Battersea Park; and the Battersea Bridge unites Chelsea and Battersea a littler further west. Putney Bridge, a magnificent structure of granite, connects Fulham and Putney; and Hammersmith Bridge, the last in London, connects Hammersmith with Barnes. There are also six railway bridges across the Thames. One of them, at Charing Cross, displaced the old Hungerford Suspension Bridge, but is provided with a footway on one side. The two railway bridges at Pimlico, which look like one, belong to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company and the London, Chatham and Dover. The latter company owns a bridge close to Blackfriars Bridge. The modern bridge at Vauxhall is said to be as notable a combination of art and utility as the famous Alexander III bridge in Paris. The once famous Thames tunnel, two miles below London Bridge, opened in 1843 as a roadway under the river, now serves as a railway tunnel. A subway under the river, lined with iron hoops, connects Tower Hill and Tooley street, Southwark; and there is a great tunnel for footpassengers and vehicles between Blackwell and East Greenwich and one for foot-passengers only between the Isle of Dogs and Greenwich. A tunnel for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic between Shadwell and Rotherhithe was opened in 1908. Three underground electric railways pass under the river. There is a free steamboat ferry between North and South Woolwich.

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Since the passing of the Metropolis Management Act of 1855 great changes have been made in the condition of London. The gigantic operations connected with the sewerage of London and the embankment of the Thames, from Blackfriars to Chelsea on the north side, and from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall on the south, have produced great changes, while important lines of streets have opened up districts formerly almost inaccessible. These operations have also absorbed the former little rivers and rills, leaving only a corner, an alley or a street for example, Fleet street—with their name for a monument. In all the districts of London, and particularly in the city and west end, there has been great improvement in the quality of architectural decoration and in public buildings, and stone has to a considerable extent replaced brick and plaster, though not so far as to change the aspect of some localities. Though some of the leading streets are wide, others are narrow and irregular. The decorative character of the streets about Lombard street, and the Mansion House in the city, has been fostered by the growth of numerous banking and insurance companies, while the new office and store buildings in various quarters, especially the one opposite Saint Mary-leStrand, the hotels and apartment-houses on the American steel structure plan, have added an entirely new style of brick architecture.

"The City" the historic centre of London -is bounded south by the Thames; it extends north to Charterhouse Square, east to Middlesex street and west to the New Law Courts. Till 1878 this last boundary was marked by

Temple Bar, an old gateway crossing Fleet street near the Temple; but in that year this structure was removed, and a memorial .was erected on the site. The portion of the city inside the area of the former mediæval walls is known as "London within the walls"; and all the wards are bounded by the site of the old walls; the portion outside extends irregularly all around and is known as "London without the walls."

Of the streets that run through modern London the most important from west to east is that which enters from Kew into Hammersmith, and passing through Kensington forms the finest of all the approaches to London. It stretches on through Brompton, Knightsbridge and Piccadilly, past fashionable Belgravia, with Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and Paddington on the north, and with Apsley House and numerous other palatial edifices facing the Green Park, which constitutes its south boundary for about half the length of Piccadilly. This line is broken at the east end of Piccadilly, but passes by Regent street (or by the Haymarket) and Trafalgar square into the Strand, which continues it farther east and much nearer the river, and it stretches on past the Temple, along Fleet street, Ludgate Hill, Saint Paul's Churchyard, where it runs into Cannon street, leading to the Tower on one side, and on the other into Cheapside, Poultry, Lombard street, Fenchurch street, Aldgate and by Whitechapel road and Mile-end road through the congested poorer districts to the county boundary at Bow. The next great artery between the west and east extends along the Uxbridge road from Acton, entering the county boundary at Shepherd's Bush and passing through Notting Hill, along Oxford street, through Holborn and Newgate street, where it joins the more south line above described, at the west end of Cheapside. Farther north is a third line, extending from near Kensington Gardens, through Oxford and Cambridge Terrace along the Marylebone, Euston, Pentonville road, to Islington, and thence by the city road to Finsbury square. Among the leading thoroughfares running north and south the extreme west is Edgeware road, which enters the county at Kilburn, terminating at its south extremity in Oxford street, from which it runs northwest, but communicating through Park lane with Piccadilly, a little to the west of which, from Hyde Park Corner place, Grosvenor place leads down to Buckingham Palace road, from which Vauxhall road forms a connecting line with the river. Park lane and Grosvenor place on this line contain many of the most select residences of the aristocracy. East of the Edgeware road, Regent street with Portland place, Tottenham Court road with Charing Cross road, and other connecting lines leading to Westminster, Pimlico and Chelsea, Gray's Inn road, and the line of Chancery lane, Farringdon street, etc., leading to Fleet street and Blackfriars Bridge, form some of the most important communications in this direction. Piccadilly and Pall Mall, running east and west, Bond street, Regent street and Saint James' street, north and south, are among the most fashionable streets in the West End, each with its own distinctive character. Bond street contains the shops most patronized by the aristocracy; Regent street, according to some tastes