London Swallowed a City but Couldn't Digest It.

CGP Grey has a delightful video explaining this: "The Secret City inside of London Revealed" (2012) ▶ this video Highly recommended.

CGP Grey's "The (Secret) City of London" are great videos on the topic of the City of London (vs. London) Part 1: ▶ this video Part 2: link

The short answer is "no". The longer answer is "well, kinda, but not really". There have been a couple of convictions, but these were guilty pleas - people who have either been advised incorrectly by their solicitors (most probably because they were not experts in copyright law) or just really did not want to go through a trial. The copyright industry has tried to completely side-step copyright law entirely and use the offence of "conspiracy to defraud" with very dubious legal basis. It's been far from common, though. There have only been a handful of attempted prosecutions, and usually only because the copyright industry (via FACT[0]) has leant on the police. Most recently they've c̶o̶r̶r̶u̶p̶t̶e̶d̶ err, co-opted the City of London Police. This is the force that polices the square-mile City of London in the heart of London (See CGP Grey's excellent video[1] for more about the City of London vs the city called London). [0] The 'Federation Against Copyright Theft' - an absurd name for an absurd organisation - link [1] ▶ this video

This is the police force for the ancient financial district in London called the City of London. Best explanation: ▶ this video

For those interested in learning more about the City of London there is a youtuber, CGP Grey, who has to great 10 min vids on what it is why it exists and how it operates. Link here: ▶ this video

The "City Of London" (a small part of central London) has something like this. They have a resident population of <10,000 people, but somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million people commute there for work. Companies get to nominate some of their workforce as voters for the council (called "The Corporation Of London"). For historical reasons ("The City" is much older than the UK itself), things are much more complicated than simply "People who work there get to vote", so I'm not sure it's a very comparable situation. The best explanation I've found is ▶ this video

GCP Grey does a great video on this: ▶ this video Jay Foreman does another great video on the very weird situation with the House of Lords: link

I don’t know whether this is true because I never looked into it really, but a colleague of mine in the ndustry told me I could join the banker’s guild. His words were that because I lived in the city[1] at the time, and also worked for a bank in the city, I’d be eligible for membership if the bank would nominate or sponsor me as a representative. I’m hazy on the details, it was years ago, and I don’t really know whether it’s true since as mentioned I never checked it out. I kind of regret not doing so now though, since moving out of the city I’ve learned much more of it’s (weird and interesting) history and it would’ve been fun to at least try to see some of this from the inside. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, but would’ve been fun to try. For anyone looking for a fun little intro to the weirdness of the city and it’s history, I recommend CGP Grey’s channel and particularly his videos on the City of London[2][3]. [1]: for the benefit of people who might not be aware – “the city” is a colloquialism for the City of London, which is a small somewhat autonomous part of London, situated east of what most people (who don’t know this) probably think of when you say the city of London. [2]: ▶ this video [3]: link

There are a lot. I thought this one was really funny [0]. This one I found very interesting [1]. Somewhat different, is the Hello Internet [2] podcast, which is by Grey and Brady Haran who you might know from the Numberphile youtube channel [3]. It's basically the 2 of them chatting about random stuff, but I find it very entertaining. [0] link [1] ▶ this video [2] link [3] link

If anyone cares to know more about the City of London, CGP Grey did a nice two-parter video describing its history, its privileges and how to become mayor if you care to. The (Secret) City of London, Part 1: History ▶ this video The (Secret) City of London, Part 2: Government link

CGP Grey does a really good job giving an overview of the history of The City of London. ▶ this video Along with another video about the governing structure of The City of London. link

I find your comment somewhat alarmist, and lacking historical context. The City of London (from which the Temple end of the Garden Bridge starts) is many many hundreds of years older than the UK itself, and has always been privately owned and governed by shadowy, corporate and arcane processes. Traditionally even the Queen is not allowed to enter the City of London without the say-so of the Lord Mayor. This "private place operating as a public space" has been operating for centuries and stewarded the emergence of London as a leading global financial centre and until recently capital of the largest Empire the world has ever seen. I admit it's reasonable to debate the pros and cons of private ownership of public spaces in city centres, but my point is that in this case The City of London is both historically unique and important, and by many measures been a huge success for the host nation. Informative/fun video on the subject: ▶ this video