The historic core of London – simply the City, as it is called – is also referred to as 'the Square Mile'. It is now the financial district and has only some 8000 inhabitants and some 340,000 workers. (In fact, its population peaked at about 210,000 in 1700.) But, no where else in London provides such a richness of history and modernity intermixed as one. No where else has such a richness of architectural variety. The Half-Day City tours begin at the St Paul's City information pavilion designed by MAKE – a breakaway firm from Foster's, set up by Ken Shuttleworth (who was the partner-in-charge of the Gherkin and City Hall projects).

The full-day tours with a coach begin at the New London Architecture centre in Store Street, where the guide will use the large model on exhibition tom explain London's architectural geography. Tours not using a private coach will begin at Tower Hill. The building next door belongs to about 1900 but was converted by Imagination, using Ron Herron as its architect.

For most of its long history the City of London has had two key characteristics: making money by extrovert, entrepreneurial activity; and, so far as the London urban settlement has been concerned, trying to keep to itself, i.e., to be introverted. Anything affecting its trading power and wealth – including control of the River Thames (until 1857). Against this background its population has slowly decreased as the people moved westward and outward, commuting back in to the City’s offices. In 1700 the population was about 210,000; by 1900 it was 27,000. By 1991 the population was down to some 5500! But it was then – during the 1980s – that banking deregulation prompted a massive change, not only bringing in foreign banks and foreign architects (mostly from the USA) but turning the City outward in a massive expansion that went east to Canary Wharf, west into Flete Street, next to the areas of the Inner and Middle Temple where lawyers have been since the Middle Ages, and leap-frogging a more recently cleaned-up River Thames to the southern side of the river (e.g. at More London).

Stand at Tower Hill and one can see some 2000 years of history – from medieval walls on Roman foundations, to the Tower of London and the recent City Hall. The Tower of London first constructed by William the Conqueror in 1066 is to bee appreciated as his outpost on the dge of an alien settlement hostile to his intentions. Meanwhile, William was setting up his court at Westminster. Now a World Heritage Site, its approach areas were recently completed by Stanton Williams and the place actaullt houses a small population who live in what amounts to a tiny village in the north-east corner of the site. Nearby, there is a Foster office block and another by Rogers, on the edge of St Katherine's Dock – the last of the great docks to be completed (1828) and the first to be converted when the docks closed in 1968.

The two most notable buildings in the City are by the former partners: Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, now both barons. Lloyds was completed in 1986 (as its thrid custom-designed building) and the Gherkin in 2004 and both are exceptional. The second LLoyds building was recently demolished to make way for another Foster tower: the Willis building (for the same client that brought him to fame with the building designed for Willis in Ipswich).

Wren designed many small churches in the City in the period between the Great Fire of 1666 and the time that St Paul's was compleetd in 1710. Of these, 23 of these remain in various states. Among these, St Stephen Walbrook is one of the finest – and it is near to Nicholas Hawksmoor's St Mary Woolnoth. In fact, being at Bank, it is surrounded by notable works of architecture.

Broadgate was a notable development of the later 1980's, master-planned by Peter Foggo and executed by Foggo Associates and SOM (Skidmore Owings & Merrill), then a new firm in London. Since then it has recently had a large and tall tower added to the development and this is being complemented by another tower designed by KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox). A key part of the Broadgate development was Liverpool Street Station, above and around whose rail lines the development was constructed. Part of the interest in the area derives from its City-edge location, adjacent to Hoxton and Spitalfields – over which the new Broadgate Tower hovers.

The Barbican is where a substantial part of the relatively few people in the City of London live. As a scheme it was developed after the adjacent Golden Lane complex was design, but the latter is social housing while the barbican – for City workers – quickly became middle class and, with the right-to-buy policy of the 1980s, became entirely private. The Barbican is also interesting because it is on a raised podium and – as the name suggest – enjoys an historical theming, with ‘gateways’ up onto its deck. At the northern edge there is a cultural centre. Beyond that is Clerkenwell and Old Street – an area full of architects.

The Wood Street area is where the Romans located their fort. It is also here that one caan count some six churches and churchyards, as well as recent buildings by Terry Farrell, Eric Prry, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Nicholas Grimshaw, all on the edge of the Barbican. And it is all adjacent to the Guildhall complex and other buildings by Bennett Associates, HOK and Jim Stirling.

Paternoster is a development adjacent to St Paul's whose difficult history possibly belongs to a former era, but it makes a fascinating study in how to build adjacent to what is possibly London’s most important building: St Paul’s Cathedral. It is another interesting exercise in creating public spaces and is being added to by a nearby Jean Nouvel development that supplements one from the mid-1990s from Michael Hopkins.

The peripheral northern and eastern edges of the City of London provide a radical urban change from the character of the historic core itself. Areas such as Hoxton, Spitalfields and Whitechapel provide a readily accesible but different character right on the doorstep of where bankers earn their bonuses.

There are two versions of the tour: a half-day and a full day. Whether the tour is during the week or at the weekend will affect the details of the itinerary. Prices: A half-day tour without coach is 490 Euros. The full day is 870 euros. Prices are inclusive. For all non-standard tours please make an inquiry.