LONDON - No contest. You can go through the city from park to park and feel like you're not even in a city. The architecture and history amazing.

The politeness of Londoners is a new one to the rest of us in the UK!

London has lots of little parks, as well as the large ones mentioned here. London is so full of trees it’s technically a forest. United Nations definition states that a forest is somewhere with at least 20 percent trees. London has 21 percent. There are 8.4 million trees across the city- nearly one for each of 8.6million Londoners.

Greater London has 2 cities within it, the City of London and the City of Westminster. The City of London even has a separate police force to the rest of London.

Love that you're surprised by the population of London and New York, but just casually throw in the population of Norway as a more relatable reference 😅

I lived in London for a few years. It is staggering how around every corner is some amazing history. There is so much to do and see there. It is a city that rewards you for walking: you see so much.

One of the important travel advantages of London is that you can get a Eurostar train to Paris, Lille, Brussels and Amsterdam, and connect to other railway services across Europe.

He's completely wrong about public transport in London. It's 24/7. It's just a reduced service after about 1am, until about 6am but there are still tube trains running and buses everywhere.

The historical City of London is also known as the 'square mile' - it was the original city and the traditional centre of the banking sector. It is a city within the larger city of London that we all refer to and think of. Even Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament are outside the old 'City of London' aka the square mile, the old financial centre. Hope that makes things clearer! The 'new' financial district is now centred around Canary Wharf (further east along the River Thames) with its characteristic skyscrapers and is situated in a part of London's old docklands area.

I live in London my whole life and love it so much. I've been to New York once and while it was ok, the buildings made it so you could hardly ever see the sky. Also, we went in November and it was freezing.

Black Cab taxi drivers in London have to pass a very strict test called 'The Knowledge' where they have to know all the streets, museums, embassies, hotels etc like the back of their hands before being issued a taxi driver's licence. I don't know how easy it is to become a cab driver in New York, but I'm guessing it's a lot easier there.

The tube has a number of 24/7 lines but only Friday and Saturday night. There are night buses that run to most towns in the outer reaches of Greater London. The reason for the non 24/7 transport is they do maintenance work on the oldest subway in the world during the 4/5 hours of closure each night.

I feel like in London I was never more than a 10 minute walk away from a park. There were 3 parks (two quite big, with cafés) within 5 minutes walk from my house.

When we visited NYC with my daughters three years ago, my eldest thought that Manhattan looked “derelict and deprived” and my youngest was really upset to see so many homeless people. We did like the people, though. Very friendly.

London has about 3,000 green space parks. Quite significant compared to New York. 😂

40 percent of London's area is comprised of green or open spaces and parks. In NYC that percentage is just 14 percent, or just a little over a third as much.

Hi from the U.K. must say that my family and I were so overwhelmed crossing the street in NYC - the line of people at the pavement side was massive! It was so strange to see! The extremely high rise buildings seemed to trap the air, making it feel thick and heavy. The lack of greenery was surprising too. We enjoyed the experience though as the folks were really friendly and welcoming towards us.

"I have seen the cities of the world and heard the salutations of their crowds, but London is incomparable. Its massiveness overwhelms me; it is a sea, a vast ocean of brick and stone." Hermann Göring in 1937.

I think that what London has is a mix of everything. You can be right in the middle of hustle and bustle, or find a quiet place to chill. Sometimes within walking distance. New York just looks too crowded for me - I find London busy enough!

An interesting fact about Central Park, is that it was modelled on a park in a town in the north west of the U.K., the town is called Birkenhead (if you’re a native of Birkenhead or Liverpool, you pronounce it Bearkenead!) its not far from Liverpool, and John Lennon bought an apartment overlooking Central Park precisely because it reminded him of home.

One thing that always strikes me about London, compared to other European cities, is the amount of houses, as opposed to flats, within the city centres and the suburbs.

The area known as the city of London "Square Mile" was the original settlement of the Romans around 2000 years ago & the original wall can still be seen from street level. The wall that surrounds the city of London was the boundary for the original city

Great video as usual. I’m a Brit and been to London and NYC many times. I love both cities. Americans love London for the architecture and Brits love NYC for the skyscrapers. New Yorkers are certainly a different breed, it’s true that they could come across as rude, if that is the correct phrase, but they are in a rush and it’s compact. I’ve been to many American cities and the people are different in NYC than in other American cities as well as London. As a Brit I’ve always said anyone has to visit NYC at least once in their life. Maybe that’s the same for London.

In England we see London as large, that is until you go to Tokyo - when I went to Tokyo I found it hard to get my head around just how big the place was….over 30 million people in one city.

You can get a train from London to Paris and be there in a couple of hours. You can fly from London to the west of Ireland for about $30 and taking about 90 minutes. In that 90 minutes you can also get to Spain, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway etc.

What put me off is when an American chef legit thought pizza was invented in the US. After showing him a picture of the Italian flag, he doubled down and said "yeah they stole it from us, in fact I don't think that's a country"

While I don't live in London, I visit the city centre most weeks for business. I live in the "friendlier" north of England, so I think I have a good perspective as a "foreigner" to London. Londoners are not that reserved, there's a lot in common with New Yorkers tbh. I would say Londoners on the whole are a little more polite and genuine, but the city is always going to be a bit more "rude" and boisterous because that's just how it keeps functioning. There are vibrant parts and communities in London that aren't as "reserved", and there's a very active/musical/sporting/creative culture in many parts of the city. Like any other major City in the world, the people you meet there depend on where you go, what you're doing, and who you choose to talk to.

Having lived in both London transport is miles and miles better overall. Buses are actually really reliable too. We have Night buses and during the week they're fast and mostly empty. Actually doesn't add much to your journey time. Night tube runs all night on busiest evenings 24/7. Just trains getting in and out of London are amazing too. It's infrastructure is miles ahead.

Although there's a lot to see and do in London, visitors can also use the Eurostar train service through the Channel Tunnel and be in Paris (France) in 2 and a half hours, Brussels (Belgium) in under 2 hours, Amsterdam (Netherlands) in less than 4 hours or Koeln (Germany) in 6 and a half hours.

To be a registered Black Cab (Hackney Carriage) driver in London you must pass a test known as “The Knowledge” to pass this you must be able to describe the route between any two points in Greater London. You can rely on a Black Cab driver to get you to your destination. As far as I know this skill is not required by a NYC Taxi Driver. Black Cab's in London have their charges regulated. P.S. these rules do not apply to UBER Taxis.

According to a sustainablity organisation called 'Treehugger', as of July 2019, New York has about 1,700 green spaces available to the general public. These parks occupy an area of approximately 81sq m. London, on the other hand, for comparison, has around 3,000 green spaces for the general public, occupying a total surface area in excess of 183sq m!

New York is twice the density of London - not the other way around. NY has the same amount of people in half the amount of space so is twice as dense. I'm British and never been to NY but I would imagine this is mostly because people live in apartments in tall buildings so you can get more people living into a smaller footprint (sq.mile)?

I’m a Londoner but moved out to the shires and I’ve been to NYC. I always remember a line from Crocodile Dundee, when Mick says, 8 million people all wanting to live together? Bewilderment as an Aussie from the bush where people are spread out over 1000s of miles 😊

I love how they illustrated London pubs with footage of an American hotel bar.

I’ve lived in both New York and London. When I first went to New York to take a taxis I told the driver my destination. He drove the car round the block and brought me literally back to the same road I found him, but across the street. Not impressed! It’s a great city but I have to say London beats it’s. The transportation is better. Food is better and there are so many parks and greenery to see. More open spaces. Feels less occupied and open. Where as New York feels extremely built up. It’s not full of high buildings like New York. London shopping is better. It has a better array of shops. Easier access to anywhere across the UK as well as Europe. My husband is American and he prefers London. I do t find Londoners friendly )I’m from the north of England) where as I found the New Yorkers more welcoming and friendly.

You need to react to the Secret City of London - very interesting stuff which some Brits aren’t even aware of

I (🇸🇪) have been to both cities for different reasons ❤️, I’m truly grateful for my experiences in both of them. Not at all alike but so awesome in their own way. I’m more familiar with the UK in general so every trip to the US has felt slightly more exotic (it’s such a huge country with so many differences in itself).

London/Greater London is huge . Each area ( North, south, east and west) are completely different and has a unique character. There are city area, town areas and even village /rural areas .

The UN has stated that the UK (and mainly London) has the widest (and most) diversity of restaurants in the whole world!

For one hundred years London was the biggest city in the world until the 1930's.

lol I love how the narrator is giving both of the cities a pass for not being clean by saying it's difficult because of their respective size, yet Tokyo manages to be extremely clean even though it's much larger than both cities and is the most populous metropolitan area in the world.

Sometimes people are impolite in London, as they are in many cities in the world. It depends on the day. I lived in London for three years back in 1984, and still adore it ☺. Every time I go back it feels like going home ♥. Sometimes Londoners are particularly kind. Two punk rockers in scary attire once gave me money when I lost my handbag. I was on my way to my best friend's wedding, in Central England, by train via the tube. My ticket was in my handbag, along with my purse, which slipped off my shoulder whilst I was on the tube. I left for the mainline station, the doors closed behind me, I realized my bag was gone and turned to see it on the seat I had just vacated 😔. Via monitors staff at the station tried to track my bag, but by the time we were able to observe what had happened two stations had passed and the bag was long gone. Still they were very kind, and I was allowed free travel to Victoria Station, where I hoped the bus company would help. On the way I spoke to the scary looking punk rockers. They listened to my story. We reached Victoria station and I hurried off the train. They ran after me and gave me the bus fare. It was an incredible act of kindness I will never forget. Loosing my bag was crap but the kindness of strangers, who would normally have scared me, made me realize how much goodness there is left in the world, and that I should never judge a book by its cover. Obviously, having said that, I'm not likely to trust someone with a demented expression, handcuffs and an axe, but you get my drift.

London has an extensive network of night busses, so any clubber etc can get home no problem. I used them all the time, so transport is 24/7. The tube is clean, safe, and frequent, and busses go everywhere. The overground train network is very efficient, but it’s all quite expensive. But it is all clean, safe, frequent - easy to navigate - and extensive.

Ye you can buy stuff from all over the world in London. I bought some Egyptian perfume from a market stall in London once, we plus there are German and French markets that pop up. There are Chinese and Indian stalls. You can literally but things from anywhere’s in the world if you know where to go.

London is pushing 10million residents, thanks to a greater number of hi-rise blocks in inner london (nine elms , from industry to residential as an example) and new developments in Docklands / Barking Riverside / Dagenham to come. However the City of London at weekends is much quieter, with lesser numbers of residents than I think you would find in NYC.

The City of London and the City of Westminster are areas bang in the centre of London where most of the tourist attractions are to be found.

The ancient City of London founded by the Romans and is itself its own borough. Then the Metropolitan area grew around it and became a County of London and Greater London County and is divided into another 32 boroughs.

London! It has virtually everything anyone could want. The variety is staggering. From hi-tech, VR and immersive shows and dinning experiences to old skool historic buildings, 2 Opera Houses (+ 100s of theatres) and natural spaces. I love this city and couldn't imagine living anywhere else for too long. Luckily I have a home that looks over most of London from Westminster Palace and the London Rye to Tower Bridge and the Millennium O2 Dome in Greenwich. Also, people are friendlier. I was escorted out of The Metropolitan Museum in NY because someone complained about my fabulous fashion sense (the guard's words). That would never happen in a London Museum. London! The Land of the Free!

OK. This is confusing for people. The full built area of London is known as Greater London. It is not a city; it is a "conurbation". There are, however, two cities inside it: the City of London and the City of Westminster. The City of London is the historic centre founded by the Romans. It is a little over one square mile in extent. When someone refers to the City of London, they are not referring to London as a whole, but only to this square mile. The Houses of Parliament, and many of London's more famous landmarks are are not in the City of London; they are to the west of it in the adjacent City of Westminster. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London on the other hand are also outside the city of London but to the east of it in The East End. The City of London, (often referred to as "The Square Mile") is London's financial centre. Very few people live there. The City of London won its independence from the rest of the London in the medieval period. As a result it has its own separate police force and its own independent political structure. The King has to ask permission from the Mayor of London to enter its boundaries.

You mentioned shopping and the closeness of other countries, if you are in London and you fancy some shopping in Paris just hop on a train and you can be there in 2 hours.

I think that was a fair and balanced comparison. Two great cities of the world.

Yes London is seen as one of the greenest cities. There are public parks for everyone and private parks/gardens where only locals can get into or only the houses that back onto it can get into. There are also several roof top gardens in London.

I believe London has the largest amount of parks of any city in the world, the largest being Richmond on the edge of south west London, it took me nearly a whole day to walk round it

When you've spent a good amount of time in both London and NYC, you really realise there's little competition. London is significantly greener, much safer, much cleaner and things generally work much more efficiently. TfL is light years ahead of MTA - to the extent that MTA even head hunted the TfL boss to come to NYC and sort out the MTA. I think many of these problems are not unique to NYC though but are problems with the US in general (e.g homelessness/lack of social care). Walk around both cities, and walk around the average US city vs the average UK/EU city and its easy to see that the latter are much better maintained.

This has major vibes of a non-english speaking video translated into english, definitely some strange choices.

607 Square miles sounds legit, Greater London is huge. The 2 Square miles bit likely only refers to the original city, today's City of London corporation

Being a Londoner I like New York. The positives are the shopping, I found everyone either really friendly and helpful or totally insane 😂. The portion suze of food is huge and your bacon is cooked so crispy it's easy to break a tooth! The taxi drivers I found unfriendly to the point of being really rude. In London taxi drivers are friendly and will always have a conversation with you if you want. It's very easy to find your way around in NY because all the streets and avenues go North to South and East to West so you can't get lost. I hated crossing NY roads though because although a Green hand shows when safe to cross cars are still allowed to turn into the side streets when it's on Green. I found this confusing and dangerous.

Londoner's are very polite & helpful. If people are saying otherwise they do not live here.

The difference between London and New York? London: Age: About 1,976 years. Founded: 47 AD by the Romans. New York: formerly known as New Amsterdam. Founded in 1624 by the Dutch trading company WIC (West India Company), a fortified settlement in the province of New Netherland that would later develop into what is now the city of New York, remained in Dutch hands until November 1674, when it finally fell to the English. was ceded by the Peace of Westminster.

Greater London is a conurbation of former towns and districts. The City of London itself is approximately a mile square and is not actually a city but a corporation. Its jurisdiction is apart from the rest of England, it has its own mayor and police (the City of London police, not the Met.). The ruling monarch must seek permission to enter the City. It is also home to the Temple Bar legal establishment (not to be confused with law - oh no, they’re two entirely different things) having links dating back to the Knights Templar. Anyone wishing to study the true power structures of the world should consider the City of London, Washington DC and the Vatican. All are separate jurisdictions within their host nations, and having identical architectural symbolism. London is the finance centre, Washington DC is military, and the Vatican is controlled faith and banking. There you have it. Global control. And most people believe that sits with governments.

As a londoner, I can confirm some trains run through the night and night bus's are running all night just a much slower service

Actually there are two cities in London. The City of London and the City of Westminster. The City of London actually has it's own Police Force, separate from the Metropolitan Police.

London is over twice the size of NYC, London has history spread out over 20 miles, London is not as dense but imho it’s better. Cleaner, safer, transport, climate, cost of living, friendlier

To be fair NYC used to be a very beautiful city until they started tearing down all the stunning Beaux Arts buildings and replacing them with modern glass boxes from the 1950's onwards.

The population density of New York is largely skewed by Manhattan. London is more uniformly dense throughout its area.

If it "goes without saying" then just don't say it!

“London” means Greater London, the same way “New York” means all of New York City and not just New York County (Manhattan). The “City of London” is the oldest and smallest part of Greater London, and is effectively the continuation of the Roman city of Londinium.

London and New York are chalk and cheese.Totally different, both completely as you expect them to be because of films and tv. New York taxis DO appear as soon as you raise an arm, and London black cab drivers DO know where everywhere is because of the exhaustive “ knowledge” exam they have to pass in order to get a licence. Tourist attractions ,again, are exactly as you expect. Both cities are brilliant !

London has more Michelin starred restaurants than New York City and the 4th most of any city in the World! Only Tokyo, Paris and Osaka have more. As for fast food, or takeaway food, it's absolutely everywhere. I don't live in the centre of London, yet within a couple of minutes walk, from my front door, I have 3 Chinese restaurants, 1 Vietnamese restaurant, 1 Japanese restaurant, 3 Indian restaurants, 1 Thai restaurant,1 Caribbean restaurant, 1 Greek restaurant, 1 fried chicken/burger restaurant, 1 pizza restaurant, 1 fish and chips takeaway, 2 kebab takeaways, 1 KFC, 1 MacDonald's, I Greggs, 1 Sandwich shop and 2 local cafes. Not to mention all the pub food, or the food stalls in the local market. :)

London can be really hard to find decent, affordable food. It’s not that it’s not there, it’s just one of those things where you have to know. A big touristy street will have big chained that are all booked up but a small hidden side street will have loads of hidden treats. It’s worth doing a bit of research on an area. In NY I found you could just wander and find loads of cheap, decent options.

Personally I love both cities, they are very different. I was surprised by manhattan when visiting how small it was. The food was great. Shopping not so much, we have far better in my opinion over here. The architecture was not out of the ordinary, I can see why the New Yorker we met were proud of it. I would go back to visit anytime and would recommend it. As for London, we visit every year, spend 5 days in the city, sightseeing, just love it.

I am so glad that we had world class education in 🇿🇦 in the 1970s, before outcomes based education diluted it. We learnt so many facts.

Your best phrase there was "part of the experience". Both big cities are a different culture and that is what makes them worth seeing.

47% of Greater London is green belt land, there are many vast open spaces aside from the royal parks. It's designated as an urban forest. London is also statistically drier than Paris Rome New York and Sydney it's the western part of Great Britain that gets the majority of the UK's rainfall.

London has history everywhere. New York on the other hand is like a film set. Everywhere you look you can see a film. I've been to both and they are both amazing cities. (I live in the UK)

The picture with the column in the centre was Trafalgar Square, it was Nelson Column.

20:16 that nelson's column in Trafalgar spuare Lord Horatio Nelson was a very famous British admiral, that's his statue at the top of the column.

The language used in the original video is a little odd. This is because it was produced using onlne data (travel guides, wikipedia, etc,.). The narration was obviously written by a non-native English speaker, who doesn't quite grasp the nuances and grammar of the language.

The "city" of London roughly refers to the area of Londinium founded by the Romans. It has grown a bit since then !

It's around 5 miles from Trafalgar Square which is in the area most people would associate with London to Canary Wharf which is in the area classed as the City of London.

Cleanliness in the UK is because we have lots of bins at bus stops ,outside public buildings ,in parks and recreation areas and we are encouraged to take our picnic waste home for disposal and in certain areas of the UK, waste is turned into pellets and burnt in a eco friendly power stations that supply electricity to the locals .

London: there's less public transport at night, but it certainly doesn't stop at midnight! (related: the night bus in Harry Potter!)

On the few times I have been to NYC, I have always found a very similar vibe between London and New York. I'd argue they are the two most iconic cities in the world. Perhaps the pace is a littdifferences

The City of London used to be called the financial sector of London because the Bank of England and all the major Bank HQs used to be there. The City of London was the original London in medieval times when the rest was just countryside. Over the years London has expanded out to the size it is today. So the City of London small,the whole of London big.

TRANSPORT: There are indeed Night Busses in London, working from midnight to 6 in the morning. Also, on Fridays and Saturdays, certain main Tube Lines (Central, Northern and Victoria) work also throughout the night.

New York spans 783.8 square kilometres, while Metropolitan London covers an impressive 1,572 square kilometres. New York has five boroughs - The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. London, on the other hand, has 32 boroughs. When it comes to population, London has a population of 9,748,000 compared to New York's 8,260,000. Data is May 2024.

This video you watched must be old. A 24-hour service now runs on the Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly underground lines on Fridays and Saturdays.

within London itself there are approx 22 bridges across the Thames

As cities NYC is more densely populated than London but as countries it's the opposite. Great Britain/UK is approx 8 times more densely populated than the US.

I go to London 1 or 2 a year. Love it. I wouldnt live there but its such a fascinating and fun city. I party in Camden alot at pubs and clubs and love going to Soho and China Town for delicious food. Thought its a expensive place thankfully I have friends I can stay with. Even costs money to visit Londons Highgate cemetery. I been to massive cemeteries in Europe and they dont charge a ticket to enter. I live in a small city Leipzig near Dresden and Berlin. Berlin is a big capital city too though I go there less than London despite being closer and easier to get there. Though I appreciate here in European cities the amount of green spaces and parks there are. It makes the air quality better and offers people a calm relaxing area to get in touch with nature. I have a friend in London in Blackheath a borough south of the Thames and it does not even feel like being in a city. It seems like a small town and surrounded by alot of green space. I definitely think if you ever want to visit London you should. I am American and have family near NYC but never yet been. Theres never been a whole lot about NYC that appeals to me. I lived close to LA a couple years and that was a fascinating place at least in terms of things to see and do. At least a little easier to get around the inner city by car though yes the freeway traffic can be absolutely horrendous at rush hr.

Very polite with a pinch of sarcasm from the narrator 😁.

London....hands down...

One thing I wish it had compared was population mix. For example, about half of London is made up of other cultures than British, such as Indian, Arab, East European, Russian, West Indian, African etc. It all adds to the richness.

I love how you remind me of a Labrador pup putting it's head side to side when it's confused , but hey it's all part of the show, we know you're not stupid....keep up the good work bro 👊🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿😎

London is an endless supply of treasure

I had an uncle and aunt, now passed, who lived in London for 5 yrs. Come Friday afternoon, they would hop in the car, catch the ferry to Calais, and tour Eorope. I was eagerly awaiting their postcards and letters. That was 50 yrs ago. ❤️🌹🐝

When you hear the word Greater in front of a city name it's the same as Metro Area in the USA. Chicago is the city, Chicago Metro area is the same as Greater London. Greater London is all the suburbs as well as the city itself. There is actually a City of London inside the city that is called London but that's a story for another day. CGP grey has a good video on that.

One thing that makes london more fun is that there are casinos and adult arcades ( coin pusher and roulette machines) which can be great fun. In NY you will have to travel outside of the city to do any sort of legal gambling other than lottery tickets.

They should do a comparison of the second cities. Birmingham v Los Angeles.

The actual city of London is the ancient boundary, when it was a walled city. That's the 2 square miles bit. But all the town and villages got absorbed into London. If you look at a map from 1000 years places like Wandsworth, Hanwell, Acton, Chiswick... they were all their own villages or hamlets but now are parts of greater London.