Torn City travel destinations: London, United Kingdom

Thank you, EVIL_2K_BUST [235123] for providing the info about the items which can be purchased here

Welcome to Great Britain! Please enjoy a cup of tea with some scones while browsing this page. You may be interested in the tourist information and an overview of items you can purchase in our empire.

Tourist information

Welcome to London, the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom, and also the most populous city in the European Union.

Having been an important settlement for nearly two millennia, London is now an international leader in finance, and its involvement in politics, education, entertainment, fashion, media and the arts contribute to its status as a major global city.

London has an estimated population of 7.5 million (as of 2005) and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. Its population is very cosmopolitan, drawing from a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, speaking over 300 different languages.

Culture

Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district.

A short distance to the east, Covent Garden is a popular tourist destination with its covered market and speciality shops, as well as the Avenue of Stars — London's answer to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, honouring those who have made notable achievements in the entertainments industry. On the northern edge of the West End is the main shopping district, which includes the busy Oxford Street and its upmarket neighbours, Bond Street and Regent Street. Knightsbridge, not far to the southwest, is home to the famously posh Harrods department store and many boutiques.

The boutiques in these areas and the elite men's tailors of Savile Row in Mayfair sell the wares of London's high-profile fashion industry, which exhibits its newest creations during the biannual London Fashion Week. London's designers include Burberry, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Stella McCartney.

London has a variety of markets, including the gastronomically popular Borough Market, the famous Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill which is known for antiques and clothing, the popular Camden Markets which focus on alternative fashions, and Petticoat Lane and Brick Lane in Shoreditch.

Performing Arts: London hosts a number of performing arts schools, some of which boast many famous alumni. Such schools include the Central School of Speech and Drama (whose past students include Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier), the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (educators of Jim Broadbent and Donald Sutherland amongst others) and the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (past students including Joan Collins and Roger Moore).

film:Traditionally, London has had a thriving film industry, based around Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios, both just outside West London. Their most famous productions include the James Bond films along with two of the Aliens films, Batman and Superman amongst others. Ealing Studios in west London, which claim to be the oldest film studios in the world, have produced a lengthy number of comedy films (the Ealing comedies), as well as more famous films such as Notting Hill along with music videos.

Some films have used London as a critical element of their story. Adaptations of Dickens and the Sherlock Holmes novels are numerous, depicting Victorian London (often as a foggy, lamp-lit world). Crime films have used the London underworld to great effect, ranging from the 1960s The Krays and Let Him Have It to more modern films such as Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which put the grittier parts of London on show, in stark contrast to the upmarket image projected by the popular Notting Hill. Disaster films use imagery of a deserted or decaying London as a contrast to its real-life bustling streets, such as Danny Boyle's horror film 28 Days Later.

Literature: London has been the setting for many works of literature. Two writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous among other things for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire, and Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets is a major influence on people's vision of early Victorian London. James Boswell's biographical Life of Johnson mostly takes place in London, and is the source of Johnson's famous aphorism: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

The earlier (1722) A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague. Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the afore-mentioned Dickens novels, and Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes stories. The 1933 novel Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell describes life in poverty in both cities. A modern writer pervasively influenced by the city is Peter Ackroyd, in works such as London: The Biography, The Lambs of London and Hawksmoor.

Geography, Climate and Weather

Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²). Its primary geographical feature is the Thames, a navigable river which crosses the city from the southwest to the east. The Thames Valley is a floodplain surrounded by gently rolling hills such as Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill. These hills presented no significant obstacle to the growth of London from its origins as a port on the north side of the river, and therefore London is roughly circular.

The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river with extensive marshlands. It has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding. The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level by the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound. The Thames Barrier was constructed across the Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal with this threat, but a more substantial barrier further downstream may be necessary in the near future.

London has a temperate climate with regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. Snow is uncommon, particularly because heat from the urban area can make London 5°C hotter than the surroundings.

Getting around

Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, but the mayor's financial control is limited. The public transport network, administered by Transport for London (TfL), is one of the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues, which a large investment programme is attempting to address, including 7 billion pounds (approximately $10 billion) of improvements planned.

The centrepiece of the public transport network is the London Underground, the oldest metro system in the world, upon which nearly 1 billion journeys are made each year. The Underground serves the central area and most suburbs to the north of the Thames, whilst those to the south are served by an extensive suburban rail network. Commuter and intercity railways generally do not cross the city, instead running into fourteen terminal stations scattered around its historic centre. The London bus network caters for most local journeys and carries even more passengers than the Underground.

Although the vast majority of journeys involving central London are made by public transport, travel in outer London is car-dominated. An inner ring road (the North and South Circular) and an orbital motorway (the M25) are intersected by a number of busy radial routes — but very few motorways penetrate inner London. In 2003, the congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay £8 per day to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of central London.

London is an international transport hub, with five sizeable airports and a cross-channel rail service. Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world for international traffic; such traffic is also handled at Gatwick, whilst Stansted and Luton cater mostly for low-cost short-haul flights. London City, the smallest and most central airport, is focused on business travellers.[22] Eurostar trains link London Waterloo station with Lille and Paris in France, and Brussels in Belgium.

More info

Go to the Visit London website for more information

Items sold
Image	Item	class	item name	Cost	Sellingprice
	Item	Special	Nessie plushie	$200	$150
The Nessie is a/an Special Item - Hidden in the depths of the Loch. Seeing this mythical creature will leave a lasting impression.
	Item	Special	Red Fox plushie	$1,000	$750
The Red Fox Plushie is a/an Special Item - Small dark red fox plushie, will serve as a momento from your trip to Britain, and your participation on a local Fox Hunt
	Item	Special	Heather	$5,000	$4,000
The Heather is a/an Special Item - Believed to bring good luck to who possess it.These spiky purple and white flowers cover the hillsides of Scotland.
	Weapon	Temporary	Grenade	$10,000	$7,000
The Grenade is a/an Temporary Weapon - A small hand-held bomb designed to be thrown by hand.
	Weapon	Temporary	Stick Grenade	$8,000	$6,500
The Stick Grenade is a/an Temporary Weapon - Stick grenades are less powerful and have shorter fuses than their British counterparts, but weigh significantly less, making it easier to carry several into fights.
	Weapon	Melee	Claymore Sword	$100,000	$75,000
The Claymore Sword is a/an Melee Weapon - The claymore is the mother of all broadswords. It's a huge, two-handed thing, aprox 4ft long. Do you have the strength to weild this monster?
	Weapon	Secondary	Crossbow	$900	$750
The Crossbow is a/an Secondary Weapon - A crossbow has more impact damage than a normal bow and is capable of easily piercing metal.
	Weapon	Primary	Enfield SA-80	$250,000	$200,000
The Enfield SA-80 is a/an Primary Weapon - A good thing about the L85 is its SUSAT 4X telescope sight, which is quite good and allows for accurate shooting
	Item	Drug	Cannabis	varies	--
The Cannabis is a/an Drug Item - Said to improve ones Concentration and Happiness. Experienced users in TC report only low effects, sometimes an increase of 2 nerve points. Aftereffects last about 60-90 minutes.
	Item	Drug	Extacy	varies	--
The Extacy is a/an Drug Item - Improves ones Happiness and Awareness. Effect last 10 minutes. When on XTC, your happiness is double, resulting in an estimated 25% extra stat increase when using the gym (percentage is higher when in a house lower than palace). It also improves your changes of finding items in the city. Aftereffects last between 200 and 230 minutes.
	Item	Drug	Ketamine	varies	--
The Ketamine is a/an Drug Item - Raises ones Defence temporarily, resulting in lower Speed and Dexterity Effect last 10 minutes. Aftereffects are reported to last for an hour. This drug is not very often used in Torn City, so if you have any more info, please report it to Wollongong [12833]
	Item	Drug	PCP	varies	--
The PCP is a/an Drug Item - Momentarily improves ones Strength and Dexterity
	Item	Drug	Shrooms	varies	$--
The Shrooms is a/an Drug Item - Said to increase ones Happiness at the cost of some Energy. The effect lasts for approximately 5-10 minutes, making it only usefull if you want to try a risky crime. After effects last between three and four hours.
	Item	Drug	Vicodin	$30	$25
The Vicodin is a/an Drug Item - Decreases the Energy one needs to fight someone for a temporary time. Attacking will only cost 25 energy (normal: 50 energy) for about an hour. Aftereffects last for 220-360 minutes. Also said to temporarily reduce your battle-stats.
	Item	Drug	Xanax	varies	--
The Xanax is a/an Drug Item - Increases ones Energy by 250. Beware: this drug is heavily addictive.