City of contradictions: Stepping inside London's mix of ideas

At the passenger exit of Heathrow Airport, a small poster reads: "London just isn't what it used to be. It is a blend of old and new, pace and buzz alongside peace and tranquility."

On my visit to London, I saw how that was the essence of the city that welcomed me with a jolt of contrasts, from hijab-wearing Muslim women and stores hawking Persian rugs to Victorian era buildings and haute couture fashion houses.

You can travel along newly widened express roads and a century-old subway. Gaze up at the showy glass mansions and the traditional buildings. Grab a sundowner at the small and typical England pubs or a caffeine fix at one of the Starbucks popping up in many streets and lanes. In London, I soon found out you can find almost anything even the world.

Blend of old and new

Stepping out of the airport, my friend Karen picked me up in her car. The motorway connecting Heathrow and her home only has two lanes in one direction, but cars moved very quickly because there was no toll station.

Shortly after we passed by various industrial facilities neighbouring the airport, the motorway was encircled by large areas of greenery dotted one after another with small towns made up of two-storey houses.

Virtually none of the townhouses along the motorways were new. Most of them were built in the 1920s and 1930s, yet none of them showed their true age. Green vines crawled from the courtyard to the wall and the windows, merging with the plants in the flowerpots on the windowsill.

Such vitality also exists in downtown London.

Along the main streets of London, you can find four-and five-storey buildings stout, thick and proud.

Most of them were first built during Victorian era (1837-1901) when the British Empire was the superpower of the world. Most buildings are deep red, but the colour has not faded with time.

Although the buildings are old, city developers have not stopped renovating their facilities. Within century-old buildings, 20-year-old telephone lines, as well as 10-year-old cable and five-year-old broadband connections are common.

Shortly after my tour boat sailed out of downtown London along the River Thames, the banks were lined with newer apartment buildings, about five to six stories high. Most were decorated with black framed windows and soft-curved balconies.

Even amid the new apartment buildings, old mansions can still be found. One of the old buildings was a huge factory, with black walls and four towering chimneys. Interestingly enough, the old workshop has been transformed into an avant-garde art gallery and luxury apartments on four storeys.

The big hall on the ground floor is used to display art works while the luxury apartments upstairs come with an expensive price tag due to its location.

What gives London buildings their verve is not only window panes, technology and arts however. Fashion houses from Armani to Gucci and multicultural communities offering anything from Persian carpets to Chinese herbal tonics also define the city. Few of the buildings are new, but most of their big advertising boards or shop boardings are newly decorated.

Most of the shops open for business from about 8 am until 9 pm, when British people with their charming accents tend to customers.

"If you want, you can buy foods from across the world in London, although some of them have been adapted to London tastes," said my friend Karen.

David Cohen, a columnist of London-based newspaper Evening Standard, cited the 2002 London census to say that among the 8 million residents in the British capital, one in four people were born abroad.

In London, some 150 languages are spoken in about 250 different ethnic communities.

Astonishingly, I was told that all the different ethnic communities coexist harmoniously, with few reports of prejudice.

London's streets are full of people of different colours and cultures dressed in a rainbow of garment styles. Most of the non-white people seem to be from South Asia and the Middle East, with some wearing white Islamic veils or the hijab while others dress in colourful robes.

The city of London has long been welcoming to newcomers, new thoughts and new commodities.

Medieval and modern history show that kind of spirit is the very basis of London's prosperity, both economically and culturally, according to the writing of historian David Nash Ford in the Encyclopedia Britannia.

The spirit of tolerance continued in London and enabled the city to experience a peaceful and nearly bloodless Religious Reformation in the 16th Century, where most of the aristocracy co-operated in bringing about a gradual shift to Protestantism.

The tolerant religious atmosphere made London an ideal place to attract immigrants from other parts of the world.

In 1572, the Spanish destroyed the great commercial city of Antwerp, the Protestant Netherlands city. This gave London its leading status among the North Sea ports. People arrived in London not just from all over England and Wales, but also from abroad, such as the Franch Huguenots.

Another religious conflict, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, led to a large migration of Huguenots to London, where they established the silk industry in London's east end. At this time, London was becoming the world's leading financial centre, superseding Amsterdam.

The tolerant and coexistent religious and political atmosphere in London fostered not only business but also architecture and culture.

One of the landmark buildings in London was the Catholic Saint Paul's Cathedral. A group of French and Italian Catholic buildings were built in the city and became the spotlight of the city's architecture.

The blending of architectural styles that makes buildings look so unique can be traced from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the UK parliament, which was described by Rowan Moore, writer of the book "Panoramas of London," as a paradoxical compound, just like the institutions it serves.

"Just as Britain is governed by a curious combination of elected and unelected individuals, the House of Parliament is symmetrical and asymmetric, Gothic and Classical, grand and domestic. No one should be surprised that it is the work of two architects," Moore wrote.

The orderly part of the grand palace and the rhythmic composition of the river frontage were planned by Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860). The Gothic detail which covers the entire 11-acre building comes from the talented Augustus Pugin (1812-18).

Barry was trained as an architect in Italy (1817-20). Influenced by the architects of the Italian Renaissance, he built the Palace of Westminster in an Italian style. Pugin, on the other hand, was a passionate advocate of Gothic architecture. Serious conflicts between the two leading architects can be imagined.

However, no such records have been left, indicating that even if there were some conflicts, the contradiction might not have been sharp enough to delay the palace's construction. Like London's buildings and residents before the palace's construction and after it, a spirit of tolerance again brewed the harmonious co-existence of two different styles.

Changing era

Before arriving in London, I had planned to visit Fleet Street, a name synonymous for newspaper industry.

Surprisingly, no newspapers remain in the narrow street in downtown London.

With the rapid economic development and urban renovation, which pushed land prices higher and higher, many newspapers and magazines chose to leave. Even the Financial Times left the traditional home of newspapers and moved down river.

My host, David Dickson, director of London-based online science media SciDev.Net, said he began his journalistic career some 30 years ago on a medical journal in Fleet Street. But now, all the familiar buildings have mostly been occupied by big financial institutions.

On other streets banks, luxury stores and lawyer's offices in Fleet Street, Starbucks and pubs dot the area.

At about 4 pm, people have filled the small spaces of bars and pubs. They will often drink the same brands of wines everyday and talk about the workday just passed and often recycle the same jokes.

Yet in the casual atmosphere, the ideological dominance of mainstream media is gone.

The decadence of mainstream media's influence has been described by conservative critics as one factor leading to the July bombings in London, which were carried out by UK citizens from ethnic minorities. The suicide bombers, who have driven by radical religious beliefs, caused 56 deaths.

Conservatives therefore called for the stronger presence of mainstream thought in the British society.

But other left-wing, activists and politicians insist on the importance of maintaining religious freedom and cultural pluralism.