Financial Adviser London
Selecting a financial adviser in London can be a tortuous process. The Chatsworth Practice provides Independent Financial advice in London. Our family practice has provided financial advice in London for over 30 years.
Our Independent Wealth Adviser London manages high net worth clients investment portfolios to help achieve best long term returns. Our services include investment advice in London and pension advice London.
A history of London
London is the financial capital of the UK and Europe. It is the UK’s largest city with a population of over £9million people. Originally London referred only to the walled city. In the modern world, the term London now refers to a much larger area. Greater London is a term often used to refer to much of Middlesex, Surrey, Essex and Kent.
London is a centre for many developments in money, business, culture, theatre and literature. It is well known throughout the world for being a centre of the arts.
London has several world Heritage sites: the Tower of London, Kew Gardens, the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and St Margaret’s Church. The centre of London in particular is known worldwide for being a hub for tourists. Many people around the world want to visit London during their lifetime.
London is an ancient name originally known as Londinium in Roman times. It seems that a settlement of some sort in the London area predates Roman occupation by thousands of years.
Archaeologists have found remnants of a large timber structure dating back to almost 5000 BC near Vauxhall Bridge. It is unclear what this large structure was used for but signifies the River Thames being central to life in Britain prior to the Roman invasion. Given its geographical location and proximity to France, it may have been a trading centre even then.
The first major settlement that we know of, was founded by the Romans after their invasion in 43 A.D. These structures were short lived. Queen Boudicca’s Iceni tribe set raging fires which burnt Roman structures to the ground. Rome rebuilt Londinium and at its height had a population of over 60,000 people.
When the Roman Empire collapsed and withdrew from Britain, London ceased to be the capital city. London largely fell into ruin. From about 500 A.D., it appears several settlements grew up on the edges of modern London, but there is little evidence of significant settlement. For many years, Winchester was the capital of Anglo-Saxon England. It was not until Alfred made London a centre in 886 A.D. that the City of London once again thrived. By the 11th century London was once again the largest town in England, prospering from its proximity to mainland Europe, benefiting trade.
William the Conqueror retained London as his centre. He built Westminster Abbey and several castles in and around London to secure the city against attack. Under Norman rulers, an increasing amount of power and control was exercised from London. The royal treasury was moved there and it developed as the principal commercial centre of the UK.
The church had always been among the largest landowners in London until the Reformation in Henry VIII’s time when Henry ordered church property and lands to be seized and sold off to private English aristocrats. This change of ownership did increase the business element within London as it made it easier for companies and wealthy individuals to purchase property or land in London to use as a base for their enterprises.
The Industrial Revolution resulted in unprecedented growth in urbanisation. London’s overcrowded conditions led to cholera and other epidemics in the 1800s. Rising congestion led to the creation of the world’s first local urban rail network resulting ultimately in the London Underground.
Some areas of greater London are known in their own right. Royal Palaces at Hampton Court and the now destroyed palace at Richmond made these areas particularly well thought of. Twickenham, Teddington and Kew also retain a certain cache due to their proximity.
London as a financial centre
London is one of the key financial centres of the world. It has high concentration of companies providing banking, asset management insurance and financial markets. The International monetary fund classes London along with New York City and Tokyo as major financial centres of the world.
News agency Reuters still rates London as the top global financial centre overall, but is outgunned by New York and Singapore in access to talent. A recent study measuring innovative ecosystems, reach of financial activity, resilient business infrastructure, access to talent and skills and enabling regulatory and legal environment ranked London overall as the best and biggest financial centre. The main downside for the UK according to the study is that it is no longer considered as such an attractive business environment for new international talent. Withdrawal from the EU, and ends to freedom of movement have made it less easily accessible and less popular.
By the 1990s, one in six members of London’s workforce was in financial or business services according to I Encyclopaedia Britannica. One third of Britain’s total employment in these sectors. The square mile claimed to have the largest concentration of financial employment in the world.
London’s role as a world financial centre dates back centuries and relates to the British Empire. At the end of the 19th century, over half the world’s trade was financed in pounds sterling. Even after the decline of the British Empire, it rim remained a global leader in finance. Exchange controls were relaxed in 1958 and the euro currency and Eurobond markets were developed in the 1950s. Further deregulation of capital and securities markets occurred in the 1980s.
Banking, insurance, maritime services, commodities and stockbroking are each associated with particular districts within the City of London.
See Reuters article
