It is often said that one of the glories which distinguishes London as a major world city is that, rather than some vast, faceless, sprawling metropolis, the British capital is a city of villages. Our neighbourhoods developed from medieval and even older communities which – as London became one of the most important political, economic and social hubs of the entire world – all expanded to meet one another and create the Greater London we all know today. The human scale is somehow preserved, despite all the advantages and disadvantages of a city on a global scale.