[EFreethought]

I had a hard time remembering that distinction when I first read about the "City of London".

Here is the US, the "city of Chicago" is the same as "Chicago".

[turbonaut]

For further confusion, ‘London’ does not exist at all as a well defined entity and the UK has no de jure capital.

[4ndrewl]

For further confusion there are two cities within the (historical) county of London - the city of Westminster and the city of London.

[globular-toast]

For even further confusion "London" actually contains two cities: London and Westminster. London was a walled city but Westminster was not. So "London" was we know it today is more like Westminster than London.

[umanwizard]

> ‘London’ does not exist at all as a well defined entity

I think it does: the territory administered by the Greater London Authority; i.e. the 32 places called "London Borough of X", plus the City.

[Scarblac]

What is the exact job of the mayor of London then?

[wat10000]

New York is an obvious example of two entities of the same name, with the “City of” version being a small part of the larger version. It’s just on a much bigger scale.

[onionisafruit]

New Orleans is a city, but City of New Orleans is a train

[qingcharles]

Eh. If you live in Schaumburg and someone from England asks where you live, you'd probably just say Chicago.

The Windy City does have a kind of "get out" in that people refer to the larger metro area as "Chicagoland" whereas London is still just London thirty miles out from the financial district.

[dboreham]

See also: The Loop