While the Tube goes underground and does long trips quicker, buses can be handy for short hops. This one—like any bus going in this direction—is heading directly into the historic core of London, that one-square-mile district locals call “The City.”

The City was the center of London back in the days of Shakespeare and Dickens. Its historic borders are marked by griffins like this. These days, fewer than 10,000 people actually live here, but its 9-to-5 crowd numbers half a million. Today, this is Britain’s Wall Street, busy with bankers and lawyers, thriving with big-time commerce, and packed with heritage.

Fleet Street was famous for publishing. Home of early printing presses and newspapers, this was a state-of-the-art center of the original Information Age. And The City has long been a global center of finance—hosting hundreds of banks, both international and English.

This district helped create the first great capitalist economy. At London’s original stock exchange, stock—yeah, actual livestock, like cattle and sheep—was exchanged right here.

The Bank of England serves as this country’s Fort Knox, guarding a national fortune of gold bars. Its free museum is fascinating, and offers an unforgettable chance to actually hold on to a 28-pound gold bar—at today’s exchange rates worth well over a million dollars.

Rick: Wow! Yeah, a million bucks.

But these days bank headquarters have moved out and many of the elegant original bank buildings have morphed into fancy pubs—their vaults now filled with kegs of real English ale.

Refreshed and back out on the street, more history awaits. This Tudor-style building is one of the few that survived London’s Great Fire of 1666. Before that, back in Shakespeare’s day, the entire city was made of wood, half-timbered, and looked a lot like this.

This monument commemorates that devastating fire that started here and burned down nearly all of London. These reliefs show, in heroic terms, how the king and city leaders came together, determined to rebuild. A young, ambitious architect named Christopher Wren was chosen to spearhead the project.

The city that rose from the ashes was re-built of stone—much safer. And that city was decorated by the Wren-designed spires of some 50 churches featuring Wren’s signature style: soaring spires and geometrical simplicity outside, and, under barrel-vaulted ceilings, practical, uncluttered interiors—seating galleries overlooking the nave, clear windows enhancing the interplay of light and dark, and artfully carved woodwork throughout. Christopher Wren spent four decades—the rest of his life—working on his grand vision.

The centerpiece? This mighty cathedral, St. Paul’s. It’s the symbol of London’s resilience, its rise from the Great Fire, and how London survived the Blitz of World War II.