About City The City, which lies on the north bank of the River Thames, covers about one square mile. Which is why The City is also sometimes known as the Square Mile. With boundaries of the Tower of London, the Temple Bar in the West, the River Thames to the South and Smithfield to the North. The City is also the oldest part of London, being the site where the Romans first founded the city of Londinium in AD43. Throughout its long history the district has had strong links with royalty and with business and it has always been an area of status. With the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the German bombing in the Blitz of the Second World War, The City has been through near total destruction, only to be rebuilt and restored to become the country’s centre of wealth and finance. Our own equivalent of Wall Street. With 300,000 odd people commuting away from the area every evening and weekend.