The concept of ‘city’ is vast and hard to define clearly: is it
about people? businesses? buildings? There are simplistic
interpretations which aren’t very interesting (“it’s where you
get the big buildings!”) and there are other viewpoints which
would take a whole thesis to cover in only the vaguest detail
(“How does a city become a city?” for instance). I’m tempted to
wax on about what makes a city a city but there are probably
much better pieces of writing out there on the subject than I
can muster here.  Having grown up in London (a big city) and
then relocated to Perth (a tiny city) I feel quite a personal
connection to the concept of city, and to London in particular,
so I thought I‘d offer up a more personal view of ‘city’.  The
big city  gherkin-city.jpgI said I grew up in London: that’s not
strictly true. London’s a huge, sprawling place that expands
beyond the city centre and encompasses many suburbs. I grew up
about 10km from the city centre which is still close enough to
consider myself a city boy