MyCity: LONDON

A NOTE FROM 2040

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LONDON IS A CITY ABOVE ALL OTHERS; IT IS A GLOBAL FINANCIAL TITAN WITH A WEALTH OF HISTORY REACHING BACK TWO MILLENNIA.

With the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street and other keys locations across the city now in place, this has allowed London to flourish. A proportion of buildings that were previously occupied by offices across The City and Canary Wharf have been repositioned to offer student accommodation, healthcare services and affordable places for young professional to live – no one could have envisaged what a positive impact this would have on London back in the 2020s.” Health and wellbeing continue to be paramount for people working, living and visiting London. The green spaces and parks across the capital play a key role and allow people to exercise and de-stress in a pleasant safe environment. The large scale investment that both public and private sectors have made over the past 20 years, since 2020, in improving open spaces has definitely had an impact on our wellbeing and the way London operates.

Its resilience is truly remarkable. Had you been asked 20 years ago what the next two decades would mean for London, your answer could not have contained the words “COVID”, “Brexit” or “Global Financial Crisis.” Yet London has been through all of these in that relatively short period of time, emerging, yet again, as the international powerhouse it has always been. Its scale is also immense – to put this in context, Reading is a very important UK town, and it has more or less the same population as Southwark, just one of London’s 32 boroughs. London has taken huge leaps forward with every Industrial Revolution. The First Industrial Revolution introduced steam and waterpower to produce goods mechanically. The Second Industrial Revolution saw the use of rail and telegraph to speed up communications and the movement of people and goods. The Third (Digital) Industrial Revolution took place towards the end of the 20th century, characterised by the mass rollout of computing power, data collection and globalisation that enabled London to thrive as a global centre of the service economy. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, happening now, mixes the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT) are just some of its key components. These changes are so deep and so fast that they will radically disrupt every aspect of life, including the life of London.

DOMINIC BOUVET REGIONAL MANAGER PARTNER LONDON & SOUTH EAST

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MYCITY / LONDON |