London

London resists the single-paragraph summary. It has been, at various points, the capital of the known world, the epicentre of industrialization, the city that survived the Blitz, the birthplace of punk, and the financial engine of post-imperial Britain. That it has somehow absorbed all of these identities — and continues to absorb new ones — without losing coherence is London's defining characteristic.

The city runs on layers. Tudor timbers survive inside Victorian brick facades. The Roman wall emerges from the side of a building in the City of London where traders check phones above 2,000-year-old stone. In Southwark, the Globe Theatre sits 200 metres from the original site where Shakespeare's actors performed the same plays — rebuilt, but still rooted. London is not nostalgic. It simply hasn't finished with its past.

What distinguishes London from Paris or Rome — the other great European capitals — is the scale of its contemporary ambition. East London's galleries and music venues compete with anything in the world. The restaurant scene, built from the cooking of every country that has ever touched British shores, is legitimately extraordinary. And the museums: most of the world's great collections of human civilization are housed here, free to enter, open to anyone.

Johnson's line has aged better than most 18th-century pronouncements. The city he described in 1777 was already vast and contradictory and inexhaustible — qualities that London has only amplified in the intervening centuries. Come with time to waste and a willingness to walk. The best parts of London are the parts between the landmarks, and they yield themselves to no one in a hurry.

London is not one city but five centuries of cities stacked on top of each other. Each era left a distinct architectural and cultural signature that you can read in the streets if you know what you're looking for.

This itinerary moves outward from the historic core — Westminster and the City first, then the villages and markets, then the outer boroughs and day trips. Ten days is enough to build genuine familiarity rather than just accumulating landmarks.

British food's reputation was earned honestly — and then left behind. Contemporary London cooking draws on the largest concentration of cuisines in the world, filtered through a British sensibility that values honest ingredients over ceremony. The six dishes below span the traditional and the multicultural, because London is both.

London is a walking city — 8 to 12 miles a day is normal for an engaged visitor — in a climate that provides rain at unpredictable intervals year-round. Your packing list should optimize for feet and weather above everything else.