> The secret City of London which is not part of London

The City is part of London under any normal person's interpretation of that word. Being as charitable as possible, it is true that the ceremonial county of Greater London does not contain the City. But the Greater London administrative area does.

It's also not "secret". Many people aren't aware of it, but that's through ignorance on their part rather than secrecy on the part of the City. The City plasters its logo all over the place: on all street signs in the City, on police uniforms, on statues, etc. Even the bollards in the City bear the colors of the City's flag. It's impossible not to notice that the City is different from the rest of London.

So that's two mistakes in the headline alone.

> The mayor of Greater London has nothing to do with the original City of London, which still has separate governing bodies and a mayor.

This is wrong. The Mayor of London has authority over the City of London, through the Greater London Authority (although some power is delegated to the Corporation, in the same way it is to borough councils).

There is indeed also a mayor of the City (confusingly called the Lord Mayor of London), but that mayorship is largely ceremonial in nature.

> Oddly enough, if the monarch wants to enter the City of London, she first must ask the Lord Mayor for permission.

This is just an urban myth, no such permission is required. In fact, the sovereign has precedence over the Lord Mayor (in the context of formal events and such like).

CGP Grey has a delightful video explaining this:

"The Secret City inside of London Revealed" (2012) https://youtu.be/LrObZ_HZZUc

Highly recommended.

I used to live in the City of London at the top end of Chancery Lane. I could therefore be in a different city (City of Westminster) by crossing the street to the west and leave the city entirely by crossing to the north (London Borough of Camden).

For me, the wildest fact about the City of London (the small, walled part), is that when the Romans left, some buildings were smashed up, but the roads and walls remained, and then the whole area was abandoned... for 470 years.

Also some pretty interesting tax and voting rules there ... Corporations get a vote, pretty much meaning they run the place.

https://www.thecollector.com/what-makes-the-city-of-london-u...

There's a good book called "treasure islands" all about tax havens... The city definitely features.

"In fact, the City of London is so independent that it has its own flag, crest, police force, ceremonial armed forces, and a mayor who has a special title, the Right Honorable, the Lord Mayor of London. Oddly enough, if the monarch wants to enter the City of London, she first must ask the Lord Mayor for permission"

Are there some books that comprehensively cover several aspects around the City of London?

The City of London appeared quite often in Lee Kwan Yu's memoirs

Interesting anecdote: the city of Baltimore, MD, USA is administratively distinct from the County of Baltimore, MD. The area is collectively referred to as Baltimore, but the county has no jurisdiction within the city. [1]

https://www.greektownbaltimore.org/what-the-difference-betwe...

The FT did a recent - and very good - expose with more on how the city works in “Undemocratic, anachronistic, fantastic. How the City of London survives” [1] Paywalled but accessible via Google.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/2b96763f-5cb2-475b-b20c-7c2d02050...

A person I know reasonably well is currently the Lord Mayor of London.

I suspect I could get him to do an AMA here if people would like to hear more about the City and its fascinating ways.

Seriously, we could actually do this!

I was hoping it would be Oscar-nominated “Passport to Pimlico” (Ealing Studios, 1949).

The City of London is sort of a lobbying organization for the UK financial community. Or at least it thinks it is.[1] Its police force is not ceremonial - there's a sizable Economic Crime Directorate, handling fraud cases. They claim a 75% clearing rate.

[1] https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/plans-policies/our-...

City of London is a separate legal entity to England but still under the king. Hence all the banking industry is located there, to add another step in the money train to tax heavens.

Some beautiful old Roman buildings around near Threadneedle. There always seems to be some construction work going on around there though.

The city within a city inside of a country inside of a country (London, London, England, UK)

I find the City of London (formerly the Corporation for London) to be fascinating for many reasons.

For one, the exact origins are unknown. the earliest record we have is from 1067 CE with the William Charter [1]. William granted the City rights in exchange for not attacking and the City recognizing him as King, which this article sort of mentions. But the interesting part is that William was simply recognizing the rights of something that already existed. For how long? Nobody knows. It's likely somewhere in the 7th or 8th century when Anglo-Saxons resettled the previously abandoned Roman walled city of Londinium after their departure in 410 CE.

It's also fascinating because it's managed to survive for nearly 1000 yaers since then, largely recognizable from its earlier form although there have been various changes and reforms. There have been efforts to disband it too but obviously they failed.

It also survived uncertain times like the Vikings would cojme along every now and again and burn down London Bridge.

London's development as a financial center goes back to 1066 too and a key part was likely due, at least in part, to the arrival of Jews during William's reign [2].

Why was this important? Well, Jews were prohibited from charging interest to other Jews. Muslims and Christians had similar constraints. But an oddity of Judaism was that Jews could charge interest to non-Jews [3]. This later likely contributed to conspiracy theories about Jews (eg blood libel) and antisemitism.

So ancient civil institutions like the Court of Aldermen still exist and certain rights given to the Freemen of the City of London still exist, like the ancient right to bring sheep in to the City over the bridge [4].

[1]: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-her...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England...

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loans_and_interest_in_Judaism

[4]: https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/09/27/unbaalievable-sh...

I’m probably being overly pedantic but it’s not a secret