London is the paramount example of a city that is not bounded by its geography and cannot be grasped in isolation. The U.K.'s national capital and the prime focus for business, finance and creative industries, London also transcends the U.K.'s borders as a hub of the world economy. This paper argues that London, a city riddled by the socioeconomic contradictions of its success, provides unparalleled opportunities for active experiential and inquiry-based learning which transcend the conventional study abroad agenda. The authors outline some of the ways in which students' conceptions of London as a study abroad destination can be transformed by their active investigation of its global nature. London is shaped in multiple ways by its connections with the wider world, and in turn shapes the world through the decisions which are made there--a "factory" of globalization. London's distinctive global nature can be identified in terms of historicity and spatiality, located in both the legacy of its imperial dynamic and its contemporary place in the networks of the world capitalist economy. The authors discuss principal dimensions of London's "globality," which provide the contextual framework for its value as a learning laboratory. (Contains 3 notes.)