London is formed by two ancient cities, the City of London and City of Westminster, both cities forming the region of Greater London.

There are more languages spoken in London than in any other city in the world.

If London was a country it would be the 8th biggest in Europe.

Western Europe’s longest escalator with 318 steps is in Angle Tube Station, London.

The Tower Bridge, which opens about 1,000 times a year, takes 61 seconds to open.

Marble Arch was originally built as the entrance to Buckingham Palace, but was never used and has a tiny office inside it once used as a police station.

The Canary Wharf Tower in Canary Wharf, which is part of the London Docklands, is the tallest building in London and the UK, at 244 metres or 800 feet and was built in 1991.

The Houses of Parliament also known as the Palace of Westminster, has over 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases and 3 miles (5 km) of corridors, as well as 19 bars and restaurants.

The London Underground known as the ‘Tube’ was built in 1863, and is the first metro of the world.

Big Ben is not actually the name of the clock or the tower but the 13-ton bell inside the clock. The tower is known as St Stephens Tower.

The biggest clock face in London belongs to Shell Mex house in The Strand, once the London head office of the Shell petroleum company, opened in 1933.

The London eye has 32 pods and each pod represents one of the London boroughs.

1^st City Van Hire, Barnet Lease Hire, H H Van Hire, and Reward Van Hire are some of the local companies offering Van Hire services in London.

London, the capital of the Great Britain, is very densely populated area. Officially there are over 7.5 million people living in the city, but considering also the inhabitants of metropolis area, almost 14 million residents make it 25^th largest city and 18^th largest metropolitan region in the world. Being described as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world, there are over 300 languages spoken and around 50 non-indigenous communities with more than 10,000 members.

London’s diversity means that approximately 31% of population is referred as an ethnical minority; moreover, only 57.7% of people living there may consider their selves as “white British”. Most common minority is South Asian, with 12% altogether. Mostly they are Indians (6.5%), Pakistani (2.4%) and Bangladeshi (2.3%). Next big sub-group is Black, having around 5.5% of Black Africans and 4.3% Black Caribbean. Also East Asians are preset with 1.5% of Chinese. These are only the biggest main nationalities, the real diversity is far greater as all these physiological appearance aspects vary greatly and cultural richness is just unimaginable. Therefore a one’s picture of London may vary greatly depending on the places visited and the time of the visit. For example, normally calm and busy Chinese District and its Chinese community will become alive when it’s Chinese New Year’s Day.

Living in a multicultural and ethnically diverse society offers a great cultural experience as it is possible to see a lot of different traditions in a very short amount of time. Also it might be useful to master various languages as the opportunity of practice is near. Well-developed large cities over the world have become to a magnets attracting lots of minorities from very different locations. Hope for a better life qualities as well as a stable political and religious situation motivate more and more people to look for a chance to settle down in different culture.

If you wish to see London’s diverse ethnical situation, then a rental car seems to be a good idea. To offer a diverse range, like the London itself, the best choice would be Sixt, Avis, Hertz, Alamo, National, Dollar, Thrifty, Payless, E-Z, Simply Wheelz, Enterprise or Europcar.

London like the most of the England is well-known for its foggy and rainy weather due to the nature of coastal climate. Moreover, in the period of great industrialization England became famous of its thick black smoke from various manufacturing plants and other industrial facilities using coal as the source of energy.  Thick, fast-moving grey clouds have been covering Great Britain for so long period that no local pays attention to it, quickly changing weather is a normal British occurrence.

There have been periods of intense smog in history, but what happened in December 1952 was extraordinary. Later called as The Great Smoke of ’52 or just Big Smoke, it was the most tragic incident considering modern era air pollution.

What happened was that during unusual weather conditions London was covered with a layer of extremely cold air, while warmer air remained above it as it is lighter. As a result of the cold weather, people started to burn more coal; therefore more chimney smoke was produced. Post-WW II domestic coal was not so high-quality, which made the situation even worse. In addition to smoke from households and factories, a current of polluted continental European air faded in. The worst part is that the anticyclone, which caused the cold air presence, also did not bring any wind. That means the extremely polluted air with even visible particles of tar and ashes remained for days without a change or clearance.

Danger of this incident was not acknowledged before a week, when suddenly 4000 people died and more than 100 000 got ill due to the smog’s damage to the human respiratory system. This incident pointed out the problem of air pollution and lead to many awareness campaigns. As it was the first time when a large number of victims were affected directly from the smog, this led industries no other option than to start using air filters.

Visiting London is a great idea in any way, even more the air is many times cleaner nowadays due to the modern technology. If you wish to have the best experience and use the latest, least polluting engines you should consider Sixt, Avis, Hertz, Alamo, National, Dollar, Thrifty, Payless, E-Z, Simply Wheelz, Enterprise, and Europcar.

As London is a major tourist centre, one needs to choose the best mode of transportation which is not only suitable to travel but should also be comfortable and travelling through van is one such option. So, the tourists without any second thought can opt for the van hires that are operated by the best van hire companies, the details of them being mentioned below.

1^st City Van Hire:

The 1^st City Van Hire Company in London offers a comprehensive van hire services with flexible and low prices suitable for all people, with fast and efficient services. The hire requests by the travelers are responded soon by the professionally dedicated staff and offer the customers with the suitable and large fleet of vehicles.

• Provides with both short and long term van hires with no hidden extra costs.
• Offers unlimited mileage and full breakdown cover.
• Discounts are also given for the long term hires along with the insurance facility.
• Business users find it more flexible with its features like company image, changing of vehicles, special offers etc.

H & H Van Hire Ltd:

H & H Van Hire Ltd. is a successful growing business offering good value van hire services across the London, by renting vehicles of various kinds like small vans, medium vans, large vans, crew vans, mini bus and grand voyagers.

It features competitive rates for long term hires along with 24 hour drop off facility. Great services are rendered by the company by offering the customers with no hidden extra charges, unlimited mileage, large discounts and insurance facility. The customers can make direct bookings and can also choose for online bookings which are an easy process.

Easy Van:

Easy Van is the successful low cost van hiring company operating its remarkable services from more than 160 convenient locations throughout the UK. It operates wide range of vans with a choice of sizes suitable for the customers like, medium, large and small vans with much load space and facilities including unlimited mileage, road assistance, theft insurance and free cancellation within 24 hours. Direct bookings and online bookings both are made available.

SIXT:

SIXT offers standard and wide range of van rental vehicles from top manufacturers like Ford, LDV and Volkswagen. It provides vehicle of small, medium and large sizes with quality services like affordable prices along with discounts, unlimited mileage, insurance, free breakdown cover, reservations, and free cancellations. It also offers a SIXT trade card which allows the customers for a free rental service for a day. Online booking services are made available 24/7.

Enterprise:

Enterprise Van Rental Company is a leading network with a strong emphasis offering best deals. It provides all classes of vehicles like vans, mini buses and cars of different sizes with affordable and cheaper prices with air condition, automatic transmission, cruise control, power locks and FM/CD player facilities. The company also operates dropping and pick up services.

The reasonable prices which are charged for a vehicle include unlimited mileage, third party insurance, no hidden or extra charges, and no cancellation charges.