City of London

Often confused (by the layperson) with Westminster or Greater London, the City of London represents the inner district of the largest conurbation in Britain. It is a distinct municipality in it's own right. It has a separate police force, hospitals, fire service no local council. The laws pertaining to what may and may not be considered acceptable are noticeably different. For example, while there are countless premises licensed to retail alcohol there are no (legal) massage parlours or head shops. For those particular vices, the average City worker must hop on a bus or a tube and nip out to Shoreditch. Fortunately some cunning town planning mandarins of olde created the parish of Shoreditch in a location that intersects the boroughs of Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets. This facilitates licensing anomalies which basically mean that Shoreditch provides a round the clock playground for the cash rich traders and brokers of the financial district.

The entire area is the private property of the Corporation of London. The political structure has not changed in many centuries. Instead of councillors and council officials, the City has Aldermen who represent the various wards of the area. While these Aldermen are elected, it is conducted according to what can only be described as medieval democracy. They are nominated by the many 'Livery Companies' all of whom include the term 'Worshipful' in their title. At the top of this hierarchical structure is the office of Lord Mayor of London. The districts, wards or 'Aldremanries' forming the City are as follows; Aldersgate, Aldgate, Bassishaw, Billingsgate, Bishopsgate, Bread Street, Bridge and Bridge Without, Broad Street, Candlewick, Castle Baynard, Cheap, Coleman Street, Cordwainer, Cornhill, Cripplegate, Dowgate, Farringdon Within, Farringdon Without, Langbourn, Lime Street, Portsoken, Queenhithe, Tower, Vintry, Walbrook.

Esoterically speaking, the City of London is part of a global trinity of City States. The other two being the Vatican and Washington DC. The human soul has been defined as the mind, the will and the emotion. In the global trinity The City of London would represent the mind. 

In terms of architecture, The City is home to some of the oldest buildings in Britain with Roman walls and the ruins of Saxon piers.  Much of the contemporary architecture includes effigies and symbolism which adheres to the language of chivalry, a complex system of denoting affiliation and provenance.

On a financial level, The Corporation of London is phenomenally wealthy. It is impossible to estimate exactly how much money it controls. As it predates the Norman Conquest of 1066, it is exempt from having to report it's profits to His Majesties Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Some have estimated that the Bridge Trust, one of the property portfolio management bodies owned by the Corporation of London has assets in excess of a trillion pounds. While this figure may follow the US standard of a trillion being the number one followed by twelve zeros, the British standard prior to 1974 would be a thousand times more. Given their obsession with antiquity, it's entirely feasible that this figure does indeed represent the equivalent of a million billion.