The
Greater London Urban Area is the
conurbation or continuous urban area based around
London, in south east
England with an estimated population of 8,505,000 in 2005
[1] It can be considered as part of the city, although it is not controlled by the mayor of London. The urban area measured 1,623.3
km² as of the 2001 Census.
The Greater London Urban Area includes most, but not all of Greater London (for example excluding Biggin Hill, which is surrounded by countryside), while taking in many surrounding areas such as Hemel Hempstead, Woking and Dartford that aren't generally considered parts of London itself and lie outside London's borders. It is a wholly urban area, so it is not as large as the metropolitan area. The urban area does not include places such as Slough, Luton and Potters Bar, that have gaps of countryside in between the towns themselves and the main urban area of London. The Metropolitan area has a population of 12-14 million, depending on which borders are used. The figure used by Government agencies as the area to which people commute in to London from for work is also slightly different and is known as the Travel to Work Area.
The growth of the urban area's physical extent has largely been curtailed since the development of the Metropolitan Green Belt in 1938, which limited development within a ring of countryside around London. As London's economy has grown and house prices have risen this has led to the growth of the London commuter belt - the London urban area, plus a ring of towns that are physically separate from the urban area but still functionally operate largely as suburbs, with large proportions of their populations dependent on the urban area for employment. Most of the population growth of the Greater London Urban Area is the result of brownfield development and increasing population density.
At the time of the 2001 Census, the Office for National Statistics defined the Greater London Urban Area as being made up of the following localities.
