< Introducing London

The History of London

A painting of Henry VIII with his third wife, Jane Seymour, and their son, Prince Edward, circa 1545.

Although there was only a small collection of huts beside the River Thames at the time of the first Roman invasion in 55 BC, some 100 years later, a small port and trading community had been established, which the Romans called “Londinium”. Growing rapidly, London was the obvious choice for the capital by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066. Over the next 1,000 years, the city grew in size and importance, becoming one of the major cities of the world.

The Romans

In AD 43, rampaging Romans under the Emperor Claudius defeated the unruly Celtic tribes of southeastern Britain and, in AD 50, founded “Londinium”, building a bridge across the River Thames close to the site of the later London Bridge.

Early Roman London became a flourishing port and settlement at the centre of the network of straight roads that the Romans were so fond of building. In AD 60–61, a revolt by the Iceni tribe from Norfolk, led by the fierce warrior Queen Boudicca, ended with London being burnt to the ground. Like a phoenix, the city rose from the ashes to become capital of England, a prosperous financial and trading centre, and headquarters of Britain’s Roman governor, with a market and its own mint. By AD 200, the Romans had fortified the city with a defensive wall, but the Roman Empire was already in decline. At the end of the 3rd century, the Romans had to use ferocious Germanic mercenaries to help them repel Saxon raiders. Roman rule ended in AD 410.

The Anglo-Saxons

The Romans’ fine houses were left to decline, and the city remained mostly uninhabited for some 400 years. When the Anglo-Saxon warrior kings eventually arrived, they settled an area just to the west of the old Roman city. Anglo-Saxon London was not as developed as Roman London had been, becoming instead a simple farming town. During the early 9th century, however, London’s importance grew as a market town. England reunited under the Kings of Wessex from Winchester (including King Alfred), Christianity was reintroduced and with it came education.

The Vikings

In 836 London was sacked by the Vikings, who continued their attacks throughout the 9th century. After Alfred the Great’s victory over the Vikings in 878, London was returned to the Anglo-Saxons and there was a brief period of calm, during which the inhabitants moved east, back to the more secure area within the rebuilt Roman walls. The raids started again in 994, until a final battle in 1014. Legend has it that in a fine strategic move, Olaf, an ally of the Anglo-Saxons, tied his boats to London Bridge and pulled it down – possibly the basis for the song, London Bridge is Falling Down.

A 10th-century vellum depicting Vikings arriving in England

The Normans

The year 1066 saw the Norman invasion of England. After the death of the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, his warlike cousin, William of Normandy, claimed the throne, but found that Edward’s brother-in-law Harold had been crowned in his place. William defeated Harold at Hastings, but didn’t want to attack well-fortified London. Instead, he razed the fields around it and the city swiftly accepted William the Conqueror as king. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.

Under the Normans, London thrived and in 1070 William started work on the Tower of London, where he lived until he moved to the Palace of Westminster, built alongside Westminster Abbey by Edward the Confessor in the mid-11th century.

The Middle Ages

In 1215, angered by heavy taxes, London supported the barons in drafting the Magna Carta to limit the powers of King John. The 13th century saw a building boom in the city, with the construction of Henry III’s abbey at Westminster (1269) and the first St Paul’s Cathedral (1280) – half as tall as the current version.

In 1338 Edward III made Westminster the place for regular Parliamentary sessions, but there was trouble ahead. In 1348, the Black Death struck the city, killing half its 60,000 inhabitants. In 1381, the peasants revolted: an army of serfs led by Wat Tyler took over London for two days, but the revolt ended when Tyler was killed by the mayor. The early 15th century saw the rise of a wealthy class of former soldiers and tradesmen, threatening the feudal aristocracy. By 1461 London’s support was crucial to Edward IV, who won the Wars of the Roses, to restore stability to England.

The Tudors

During the 16th-century rule of the Tudors, England was transformed from a minor state into a major world power, London’s economy boomed and its population quadrupled. The downside was that slums developed on its outskirts. In Henry VIII’s Reformation of 1533, the new gentry acquired the land freed by the dissolution of the monasteries (half of the city was occupied by religious buildings). After Henry’s death, “Bloody Mary” reinstated Catholicism and martyred hundreds of Protestants at Smithfield from 1553–8. On Mary’s death, Protestant Elizabeth I came to the throne. She was supported by the people of London for her 45-year reign, during which the city flourished as a centre of European trade, exploration and discovery.

The Stuarts

In the 17th century a new generation of moneyed gentry expanded the city’s boundaries westwards by building on land in Piccadilly and Leicester Square. Puritanism increased as a reaction against the high-handed Stuart kings, James I and Charles I, and in the ensuing English Civil War (1642–9), London merchants put their finances behind Parliament. The war ended when Charles I was beheaded in London in 1649 and England became a Commonwealth republic under Oliver Cromwell. After Cromwell’s death, there were numerous quick-fire changes of government and, fed up with the Puritan restrictions on simple pleasures such as dancing and theatre, Londoners vigorously supported the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660.

Plague and fire

The Black Death broke out in 1665. Although there had been earlier outbreaks, this was the last and the worst, in which nearly 100,000 people died. Pits were dug and cartloads of bodies thrown into them. The following year, the Great Fire of London swept through the medieval city, after a blaze that started in a bakery in Pudding Lane spread to the surrounding streets. The fire destroyed 60 per cent of London, including St Paul’s Cathedral. Reconstruction in the late 17th century saw stone buildings replace wooden ones and narrow streets swapped for broad ones. Sir Christopher Wren built 52 churches, including his masterpiece, the new St Paul’s. The fire also cleansed the city of the plague and led to the dispersal of the population over a wider area.

Illustration showing residents fleeing the Great Fire of London in 1666

Georgian London

In the early 18th century, the population exploded again, with an increase in the poor as well as the rich. By 1750 London had 675,000 inhabitants. The villages of Kensington, Knightsbridge and Marylebone were incorporated into the city, building started in Greenwich, and stylish St James’s and Mayfair were developed for the elite. There were also slums to the east and south, where the poor drank too much gin and only one child in four lived beyond the age of five. In 1750 Westminster Bridge was opened – only the second over the Thames. The 1780 Gordon Riots, a violent Protestant uprising against Roman Catholic freedoms, led eventually to the establishment of the Metropolitan Police force in 1829. The policemen were known as “Bobbies” or “Peelers” after their founder, Robert Peel. Between 1820 and 1838, the foppish Prince Regent (later George IV) and architect John Nash developed Regent Street, Regent’s Park, Buckingham Palace and The Mall.

The Victorian era

During the 19th century, London became the largest city in the world and the rich, powerful capital of the British Empire. But as its wealth increased, so did its poverty. The overcrowding and foul, insanitary conditions of London’s slums preoccupied Charles Dickens and other writers. In 1832–66 cholera killed thousands, and in the summer of 1858, the smell in London grew so bad it was called the “Great Stink” and Parliament had to stop work. But not everything was bad, Victorian successes included Crystal Palace’s 1851 Great Exhibition, celebrating British dominance in trade, science and industry; Charles Barry’s Gothic Palace of Westminster (1840); the UK’s railway network; London’s first Underground line (1863); and Joseph Bazalgette’s sewage system (1875). The quality of life improved with more mobility and progress in public health and education. In 1897, the normally rather reserved Victorians joyfully celebrated Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee with street parties.

The 20th century

In the early years of the 20th century, public transport expanded and so did the sprawling suburbs. During World War I (1914–18), women took over many of London’s public services, and in 1918 the suffragettes won the vote for women. In 1920–30 immigration increased and the capital quadrupled in size, reaching an all-time population peak in 1939. In World War II, London was bombed heavily during the 1940–41 Blitz. The post-war years saw the Olympics at Wembley in 1948, the Festival of Britain (1951) and a property boom from 1955–65. After the Great Smog of 1952, the 1956 Clean Air Act put a stop to London’s famous “pea-soupers” and marked the end of industrial London.

In the 1960s, the city became known as “Swinging London”, a centre of fashionable youth culture. There was conflict in the 1970s, when “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland made London a target of terrorist attacks by the Provisional IRA, and again in the early 1980s when racial tension surfaced in the Brixton Riots. A boom in the 1980s was followed by bust in the 1990s.

The 21st century…

In 2000, Tony Blair’s government created the Greater London Authority, led by an elected mayor. On 6 July 2005 London won the bid for the 2012 Olympics, but celebrations were short lived; terrorists bombed the London Underground and a bus the next day. As a global recession loomed, the first coalition government since World War II was formed in May 2010. In April 2011, London held jubilant celebrations in honour of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and in 2012 it celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee marking her 60-year reign, followed by the Olympics.

Facts & figures

Two-in-one

London contains two cities, not one: the ancient City of London and the neighbouring City of Westminster, created in 1965, and containing Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. Home to nearly 8 million people, London is the biggest city in Europe.

Trojan origins

Legend claims that London was founded 1,000 years before the Romans arrived by the Trojan warrior Brutus. He slew two giants, Gog and Magog, and to this day, their fearsome statues are paraded at the Lord Mayor’s Show every November.

No entry, Ma’am!

The only place in London that the Queen is forbidden to enter is the House of Commons, because she is not a “commoner”. The rule was introduced when the monarchy was restored in 1661, after the English Civil War.

City centre

The official centre of London is the statue of Charles I on horseback just south of Trafalgar Square: all distances from the city are measured from here.

Fire escape

The Great Fire of 1666 devastated London, but according to official figures, no more than eight people died.

London firsts

The very first “television show” was demonstrated in 1926 by inventor John Logie Baird in a room at 22 Frith Street, Soho. Various other London inventions include the first daily newspaper (1702), roller skates (1760), Christmas cards (1843), traffic lights (1863) and penicillin (1928).

Heroes & villains

Boudicca

She burnt London to the ground in AD 60, but this warrior queen is a heroine to many because she almost beat the Roman invaders. Look for her on Westminster Bridge and at All Hallows by the Tower.

Dick Whittington

This 14th-century merchant became Lord Mayor of London four times. He was much loved – but nobody knows if he really owned a cat! Look for him at Westminster Abbey and The Guildhall.

Guy Fawkes

In 1605 Fawkes tried to wipe out King James I by stacking gunpowder under the Houses of Parliament. He is remembered on Bonfire Night (5 Nov). Look for him at the Museum of London.

Christopher Wren

London’s greatest architect helped the city rise from the ashes after the Great Fire of 1666, building 51 churches and St Paul’s Cathedral. Look for him there, and at The Monument.

Colonel Thomas Blood

This Irishman is famous for plotting to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671, disguised as a priest. His gang stuffed some of the gems down their trousers – but were captured while fleeing. Look for him at the Tower of London.

Charles Dickens

This famous writer created Oliver Twist and Mr Scrooge, and campaigned against the cruel treatment of poor children and orphans in London. Look for him at the Charles Dickens Museum.