This article is about a term for the centre of the British Empire. For other uses, see Metropol.

The metropole (from the Greek metropolis for "mother city") is the British metropolitan centre of the British Empire; i.e., the United Kingdom itself. It is sometimes used even more specifically to refer to London as the metropole of the British Empire, insofar as its politicians and businessmen determined the economic, diplomatic, and military character of the rest of the Empire. By contrast, the was the rest of the Empire, outside the United Kingdom itself.