The West End of London is an area of Central London, England, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, businesses, and administrative headquarters. It also includes most of its major theatres, and indeed the term "West End" has become synonymous with London's commercial theatre (see West End theatre). Colloquially and symbolically, the West End can be seen as one of three poles in central London: the City for finance (and to a lesser extent business in general), Westminster for government (Whitehall and Parliament), and the West End for entertainment and retail.

Location
Taking a fairly broad definition of the West End, the area contains the main concentrations of most of London's metropolitan activities apart from financial services, which are concentrated primarily in the City of London. There are major concentrations of the following buildings and activities in the West End:
The annual New Year's Day Parade takes place on the streets of the West End. West End Live, a showcase of musical theatre, takes place in Leicester Square in June.

Art galleries and museums
Company headquarters outside the financial services sector (although London's many hedge funds are based mainly in the West End)
Educational institutions
Embassies
Government buildings (mainly around Whitehall)
Hotels
Institutes, learned societies and think tanks
Legal institutions
Media establishments
Places of entertainment: theatres; cinemas; nightclubs; bars and restaurants
Shops Activities
Using the broadest definition, these are the inner districts of the West End, which were all developed by about 1815:
The districts to the south, north and west of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens were developed between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the late 19th century, in some cases based on existing villages. The more fashionable of them were generally regarded as being in the West End at that time, but the extension of the term to these areas west of Park Lane is less common nowadays. The last two listed especially are fringe cases:

Bloomsbury
Covent Garden
Fitzrovia
Holborn
Marylebone
Mayfair
Seven Dials
Soho
St. James's
Westminster
Knightsbridge
Belgravia
Pimlico
Chelsea
South Kensington
Bayswater
Paddington
Notting Hill
Holland Park Districts in the West End

Albemarle Street
Baker Street
Bond Street
Carnaby Street
Charing Cross Road
Gower Street
Great Marlborough Street
Great Portland Street
Harley Street
Haymarket
High Holborn
Kingsway
Old Compton Street
Oxford Street
Park Lane
Piccadilly
Regent Street
Shaftesbury Avenue
The Strand
Tottenham Court Road
Wardour Street See also
London Underground Stations in the West End
National Rail Station in the West End

Baker Street
Bond Street
Charing Cross
Covent Garden
Embankment
Goodge Street
Great Portland Street
Green Park
Holborn
Hyde Park Corner
Leicester Square
Marble Arch
Oxford Circus
Piccadilly Circus
Regent's Park
Temple
Tottenham Court Road
Warren Street
Westminster
Charing Cross Station.