London

London is too large to summarise and too layered to exhaust. It has been a Roman settlement, a medieval trading port, the capital of an empire, and a post-industrial city that reinvented itself through culture, finance, and immigration — often simultaneously. What this history produces, for the traveller, is a city of extraordinary density: the British Museum holds the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone within walking distance of the Inns of Court and the medieval church of St Bartholomew the Great. The Tower of London, where Anne Boleyn was executed in 1536, is a 10-minute walk from the glass towers of the City financial district. The contrasts are not accidental — they are the point.

London is one of the most Muslim-friendly cities in Europe. Halal food is available across every borough, from the Bangladeshi curry houses of Brick Lane to the Lebanese restaurants of Edgware Road, the Turkish grill houses of Dalston, and a growing number of certified restaurants throughout the West End and South Bank. The East London Mosque in Whitechapel is one of the largest in Europe. Navigating the city is straightforward: the Underground covers most of what a visitor needs, the Oyster card system is simple, and the distances between major sights are shorter than the map suggests.

Four nights is a reasonable minimum for a first visit — enough to cover the central sights, spend time in one or two neighbourhoods properly, and not spend every hour in transit. Return visitors tend to pick a different part of the city each time: Shoreditch and Hackney for the contemporary culture, Greenwich for the maritime history, Kew for the gardens. London rewards the traveller who approaches it as a collection of distinct places rather than a single destination to be checked off.