'Silicon Roundabout' was what Matt Biddulph, of social network Dopplr, sarcastically dubbed the drab Old Street and City Road junction in July 2008. London's fume-filled, concrete roundabout may not have had the glamour or scale of California's Silicon Valley, but the label helped pinpoint a new generation of tech talent that included music site Last.fm and printworks Moo.com.

Two and a half years later and the joke has worn thin. Comparisons with the sun-soaked US technology scene no longer feel relevant to a startup community that's thriving in London and in pockets of energetic industry across the UK and Europe.

Back at that Old Street roundabout, an outfit called TechHub had created a focal point for the startup community long before the government's Tech City plans emerged. Co-founder Elizabeth Varley says that TechHub has supported more than 200 entrepreneurs, and that the model has proved so popular that there are plans for TechHubs in Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Seoul and Sydney."It's not really helpful to be compared to Silicon Valley," she says. "It's about looking for elements of that ecosystem that could help here – like introducing students and graduates to entrepreneurs, which we've done."