(CNN)

With apologies to Elvis Presley, 14 million London fans can't be wrong. That's how many out of towners hit the British capital during the first nine months of 2016.

London is a global leader in banking and financial services, so the city of 8.7 million residents attracts a steady stream of business travelers. With 43 universities -- the highest concentration of higher education in Europe -- it's popular with international students and scholars.

More than half of the live births (58%) in the city in 2016 were to mothers born overseas. According to some dedicated foodies, London has the best Indian food in the world outside of Birmingham. But for all that is changing, London has retained the classic elements that set it apart from every other city in the world.

From ancient icons like the Tower of London to more recent phenomena such as Adele, this sprawling wonder of humanity has a near endless string of attractions.

We capped our list at 50, but feel free to drop your own reasons to love London in the comments section below.

To cross Waterloo Bridge is to almost guarantee the Kinks in your head blasting "Waterloo Sunset." Or walk up Primrose Hill and the Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill" will run through your mind.

Wandering the city at random, your inner soundtrack might include "Streets of London" (Ralph McTell), "West End Girls" (Pet Shop Boys), "Home Town Glory" (Adele) and most anthemic of all, "London Calling" (don't you dare ask who did it).

It's a soundscape city filled with record shops and music venues in which you can live/relive the music it's inspired down the years.

It's comforting to know that there will always be at least one corner of the world where "heart-healthy omelets" and Mongolian wheatgrass shakes are rightly considered culinary atrocities. Inside London's greasy spoon cafes, you can ask for calories with a side of saturated fat and hold the guilt, please.

Just don't expect it in Carnaby Street or on the Kings Road. These days you have to go east, young person.

91 Brick Lane, E1; Sundays only.

The smell of eau de cologne and bay rum hang in the air. It is allegedly here that Johnny Depp came to study shaving technique for his role in "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

9 Curzon St., W1; +44 (0)20 7499 1850

No matter how many millions of fawning bloggers "discover" them, no matter how many adoring travel articles they're the subject of, no city's cabbies (or cabs for that matter) are as classy as London's. You almost feel privileged shelling out about $19 (15) for a lift down the street.

You don't have to buy one of the city's muckraking tabloids to be entertained by sidewalk screamer headlines like, "How do you solve a problem like Korea?" (about North Korean nuke testing) and the Scottish Sun's immortal, "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious," which appeared above a report on an Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-0 victory over Celtic in 2000.

31-35 Great Ormond St., WC1; +44 07478 733 723

Like the bistros of Paris, the pubs of London are having a hard time of it. Their role as the working classes' living room can no longer compete with cable TV and cheap beer from the supermarket.

There's a certain machismo attached to vindaloo, the hottest curry on offer, but well-spiced doesn't have to mean pulse-quickening, sweat-pouring heat.

Nowhere is that clearer than at Veeraswarmy, where the exquisitely prepared Lucknowi dishes might give you a chili kick, but the rice laced with lemon restores calm in short order.

London has to be only place where it can rain all summer, yet local government still enforces a hosepipe ban, leaving those beautiful chamomile lawns to wither come the crispy dryness of fall. No one likes government officialdom, but at least here you can laugh at it.

Somebody with nothing better to do worked out that for every soul living in London today, there are 15 ghosts.

In most cities you don't notice them, but in London you do. The dead and the fictional ghosts of Shakespeare, Falstaff, Sherlock Holmes, Dickens, Oliver Twist, Dr. Johnson and Samuel Pepys are all around.

Londoners love a meaty banger. They have them sandwiched for breakfast, with mash for lunch and all the trimmings for dinner.

Spotted dick.

Eggs on toast, bacon roll or the full English -- egg, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, chips, toast -- taken with strong tea and the world becomes a kinder, gentler place.

One of the best caffs with this fare is The Regency. For 55 years, it's has been dishing up fried comfort food and putting the world to rights.

Blue plaques on houses commemorate the famous people who once lived within. You won't have heard of most of them, but it gives you a reason to look up on a gray day.

There are some amusing juxtapositions, such as the house on Brook Street that accommodated Jimi Hendrix and Handel. Not at the same time, but still ...

No, not the London band (though big love to them as well). We're talking about the overlooked half of that dynamic duo known as fish and chips.

Done to British tastes, the chip is square cut and plump, and double fried in beef fat. One of the best versions is at The Golden Hind, where the chips are the thickest, the brownest, the bestest. You might quibble with the grammar, but not the sentiment behind it.

11 Langley St., WC2H 9JJ; +44 (0)20 7420 9390

The Shard: everyone hates it, that big pointy monstrosity slicing up the skyline, but finally we can stop banging on about Westminster Palace and St. Paul's for our architectural kicks.

If you're flying in with EasyJet you can even get one inflight before touchdown.

Within the boundaries of the capital, 300 different languages are regularly spoken.

Want to go to India? Head to Brick Lane. Fancy a trip to Jamaica? Brixton is your best bet.

But for a truly foreign experience there's no better place than Fulham. English they may be, but if you can make out what Tarquin is communicating to Ralph (pronounced "Rafe") when he says, "Yah, I don't know what her chap is but she's not getting any of mine! Snort," you're doing better than us.

The Santander Cycles are also known as "Boris bikes," after Boris Johnson, the mayor-turned-foreign-secretrary who launched the scheme. They cost only a few quid and London is a surprisingly good biking city.

Apparently the debate comes down to the bread, which is less roof-of-mouth scrapingly crisp in the London version.

Although when talking Vietnamese in London it's hard to ignore the Viet hotspot of Kingsland Road, where restaurant after restaurant offers steaming bowls of deliciousness for a few quid.

13 Kingly St., W1; +44 (0)20 7324 7731

Yes, there's often a wait for everything from tables at restaurants to public services. But, unlike 90% of the rest of the world, at least the locals know how to form orderly queues without cutting in front or milling about in ill-defined packs like wild dogs circling a kill.

An easy way to get Londoners to lose their biscuits is to stand to the left of an escalator, go to the front of a queue or try to get on a packed tube before everyone's gotten off. Cue the aggressive tutting.

Back in 2012 London hosted the Olympics. Four years later, newspapers-worth of opinions have been written about the Games' epic cultural legacy.

It's also a delicious dessert. In British politics men that attended the elite Eton public school are caricatured as blustering red-faced bullies and buffoons.

The current coalition government has many old Etonians in its number. But the words Eton Mess were coined long before this political era and describe a melange of meringue, strawberries and cream first made and sold in the Eton tuck shop.

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2; +44 (0)20 7747 5942

If someone suggests going for a drink after work, they mean drink and nothing else. Booze will be bought in quantity and at no time will the issue of dinner raise its ugly head.

To avoid a woozy stagger home via a frightening fast food outlet, the sensible socialite takes dietary precautions.

It is acceptable to order pre-packaged bar snacks such as crisps (potato chips) or peanuts to soak up some of the alcohol. In some bars you may see something called "pork scratchings" for sale. These are not for you.

The secret to blending in with locals lies solely in the use of one word -- "innit" -- a colloquial abbreviation of "isn't it?"

Confusingly, although "innit" implies a query, this uniquely London method of punctuating sentences is purely rhetorical. Thus, "time for drink, innit?" is wrong, but "I've had four pints and no dinner, innit" is grammatically perfect.

Almost a millennia after London was founded, the Thames is still the soul of the city. You can have a beer on its banks, walk its length or stand on a bridge and stare into its murky depths, feeling all the layers of history from the Romans to Ricky Gervais.

You can even see the mudlarks of Dickens' day at work at low tide, only now they use metal detectors rather than rakes and hands.

One of the best and longest established speakeasies is New York import Milk and Honey.

63 Worship St., EC2; +44 (0)20 7247 0015

A shop with a big crest outside, also known as a royal warrant, means that the establishment has supplied goods for at least five years to HM The Queen.

Despite massive crowds and dense population, it's easy to find privacy. The sardine-tin peak-hour tube ride is the best place for some personal time.

Despite a briefcase, knee, elbow or arse pressing into you, no Londoner will dare bother or even look at you, allowing you to focus on the morning's paper (conveniently left on the train by a previous passenger) without distraction.

Thinking of eating Sunday lunchtime in a place overlooking the river or bordering a park? This month? Good luck, mate!

Sunday lunch is a main event, and also something very specific -- roast meat, roast potatoes and a green all drowned in gravy and followed by a sturdy pudding.

Street art has turned the entire city into an exhibition space.

Best places to spot a Banksy, El Chivo or a Robbo, which taken indoors and hung on a wall would sell for thousands, are along the banks of the Regents canal, around Old Street or in the Waterloo arches, which hosts the annual "war of the cans."

Spanish restaurateurs have taken over London in a way that makes the conquistadores look like folk dancers.

Peruvian restaurants are springing up over the West End, but the eponymous one that started the trend for ceviche and sours still rules.

Ceviche, 17 Frith St., W1; +44 (0)20 7292 2040

Savile Row is where the suit was invented. And its tailors still make them better than anywhere else.

A bespoke suit requires four to six fittings, takes five months to complete and prices start from roughly $4,400 (3,500) for a two-piece.

Shocking sticker, but they do last forever and you do look the dog's bollocks (local vernacular for very good, sir).

A few blocks from Savile Row is the chicest little clutch of shops where the best of British couture is closeted.

321 Kings Road, SW3 +44 (0)20 7352 5857

Sumner St., SE1; +44 (0)20 7887 8888

To see what happens when "tea" meets cutting edge molecular cuisine, there's the spectacular Sketch (9 Conduit St, W1).

Europe's largest annual street party, Notting Hill carnival carries on for three days of the August bank holiday in a riot of noise, color and 24-hour dub reggae.

Also, sometimes, actual riot.

This means heavy police presence, leading to inevitable front-page pictures of straight-laced London bobbies with Caribbean beauties -- one spangle and two feathers between them -- booty rubbing against the crisp uniforms of London's finest.

Many a blood feud has been sparked by disagreement about which gin goes best with which tonic -- Hendricks and Fevertree anyone?

69 Colebrooke Row, N1; +44 07540 528593

Attempting to reunite with family or friends who live across town requires an advanced degree in public transport and calendar planning. Sorting out a multileg, around-the-world holiday is simpler than working out when and how to meet up with friends in Islington if you happen to live in, say, East Putney.

All this makes London the perfect staycation. Why spend all that time and bother going to France when you could use it instead to go to Cockfosters?

Nose-to-tail dining is having a moment in London's eateries. Fergus Henderson started it with his highly lauded restaurant, St. John.

26 St. John St., EC1

His flashiest creation, The Flintlock, which contains gin and gunpowder tea tincture and is presented in a bright flash of light, is setting the world ablaze.

What better way to light up the world's greatest city?

St. John's Square 86-88, Clerkenwell Road, EC1M; +44 (0)20 7324 4455

Editor's note: This article was previously published in 2012. It was reformatted, updated and republished in 2017.

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50 reasons London is the world's greatest city - CNN