Welcome to cyber-London

An online version of the capital, complete with Big Ben and Marble Arch, is featured on the 3D virtual world website Second Life.

The online city boasts five areas of London –— Mayfair, Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster and Hyde Park.

Users who sign up free of charge can create an avatar of themselves, and can walk or fly around while interacting with other users via text or speech.

From today, it will be available from the home page on Second Life, which was set up in 2003 and now has two million avatars.

When new visitors arrive in Second Life, they will appear in the virtual Hyde Park, where experienced users will be on hand to explain to them how the game works.

"It's an amazing recreation of London, and very accurate," said Katharine Hannaford of gadget magazine T3.

"Second Life has become extremely popular, and people who use it spend an awful lot of time there.

"It has attracted a lot of businesses as well, and a lot of people are making real money from Second Life. However, it remains to be seen just how much — I'm not sure the profits are that big."

One real business which has also appeared in virtual form is the Greyhound pub in Kensington.

A replica of the pub appears online, and the real-life pub has even held evenings where real visitors interact with the virtual Greyhound, which is displayed on large screens in the bar.

"It has proved very popular, and thousands of people every day are visiting virtual London now," said Julius Sowu of the Greyhound. "We have also been getting a lot of people in real life who come for our virtual link-ups — the last one we ran in March had over 40 people here, and many more online."

Mr Sowu, who also helps run the entire Virtual London area, also claims many firms are now making money through Second Life.

In Mayfair, several jewellery firms have bought their actual locations, and sell virtual versions of clothes and accessories, using Linden Dollars, Second Life's own currency.

Mr Sowu believes this has also led to real-life purchases. "Firms do sell virtual clothes and that kind of thing, but I think the real opportunity is to drive real' purchases through Second Life and other virtual worlds."

The online world recently hit the headlines when the first real-life divorce took place after it was found a husband was "virtually cheating".

There have, however, been several Second Life proposals as well as a marriage.