London IS a big city
Michael and Carole were talking last night, first about Dublin, then about their favorite cities. I added a comment that London was a big city, like New York. I then got nothing but grief, as they both went on and on about how many skyscrapers there were in New York, and that London didn't have nearly as many tall buildings, and how you could walk for miles in New York and become claustrophobic in the urban canyons, and I didn't know because I hadn't been to either city for decades.
As they went on about it, I chose not to press my argument - they were having fun and I was grumpy after a long day at work. If I had kept at it, I would have told them that London may not have as many skyscrapers as New York, but its population, population density, cultural impact, status as a financial center of the world, and drawing power for visitors makes it comparable to New York as world-class, big cities.