London is widely cited as being the culture capital of the world, and because of the capital’s continual effort to maintain its internationally-recognised reputation; few cities can rival or dispute this claim.

Take a look at some of the ways London maintains its position as world city of culture.

1. London is home to a whopping 395 libraries, which collectively stock more than 17 million books!

2. As if having almost 400 libraries wasn’t enough, London boasts more than 900 active bookshops that is twice as many as New York.

3. Approximately 85% of the leading fashion designers in the United Kingdom are based in London.

4. Attracting more than 5,000,000 visitors each year, London’s Tate Modern is the most popular art gallery in the world.

5. The Baishaki Mela festival, which is celebrated each year on Brick Lane in celebration of the Bengali New Year, is the biggest Bengali festival to take place outside West Bengal and Bangladesh.

6. The British capital has a momentous 40,000 listed buildings and more than 150 ancient monuments.

7. There are four UNESCO World Heritage sites in London – Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Tower of London, Maritime Greenwich and Westminster Palace.

8. London has a total of 22 national museums and more than 200 international museums, and during 2010 51% of Londoners had visited a museum during the last 12 months, which was considerably more compared to the 42% of people who had visited a museum during the last 12 months in the UK as a whole.

9. You can forget the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid or San Siro Stadium in Milan, as the new Wembley Stadium is the largest football stadium in the world.

10. London is home to many cultural centres that are ran by and dedicated to the capital’s diverse cultural community, including Chinese, Jewish, Somali, Irish, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish and Kurdish communities.