Prehistory In 1993 remains of a
Bronze Age bridge were found on the south River Thames
foreshore, upstream from
Vauxhall Bridge. Two of the timbers were
radiocarbon dated to 1750–1285 BC. were found on the Thames' south foreshore downstream from Vauxhall Bridge. Both are on the south bank of the Thames, where the now-underground
River Effra flows into the Thames. This only lasted until about AD 61, when the
Iceni tribe led by
Queen Boudica stormed it and burnt it to the ground. The next planned incarnation of
Londinium prospered, superseding
Colchester as the principal city of the
Roman province of
Britannia in 100. At its height in the 2nd century, Roman London had a population of about 60,000.
Anglo-Saxon and Viking-period London With the early-5th-century collapse of Roman rule, the walled city of Londinium was effectively abandoned, although
Roman civilisation continued around
St Martin-in-the-Fields until about 450. From about 500 an
Anglo-Saxon settlement known as
Lundenwic developed slightly west of the old Roman city. By about 680 the city had become a major port again, but there is little evidence of large-scale production. From the 820s repeated
Viking assaults brought decline. The Vikings applied
Danelaw over much of
eastern and
northern England from 886; The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Alfred "refounded" London that year. This involved the abandonment of Lundenwic and a revival of life and trade within the old
Roman walls. London then grew slowly until a dramatic increase in about 950. By the 11th century, London was clearly the largest town in England.
Westminster Abbey, rebuilt in
Romanesque style by King
Edward the Confessor, was one of the grandest churches in Europe.
Winchester had been the capital of
Anglo-Saxon England, but from this time, London became the main forum for foreign traders and the base for defence in time of war. In the view of
Frank Stenton: "It had the resources, and it was rapidly developing the dignity and the political self-consciousness appropriate to a national capital."
Middle Ages , as seen in this painting (
Canaletto, 1749), is a
World Heritage Site and one of London's oldest buildings. After winning the
Battle of Hastings,
William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned
King of England as William I in the newly completed
Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. He built the
Tower of London to intimidate the inhabitants. In 1097
William II began building
Westminster Hall, near the abbey. It became the basis of a new
Palace of Westminster. In the 12th century the institutions of
central government, which had followed the royal English court around the country, grew in size and sophistication and became increasingly fixed, for most purposes at Westminster, although the royal treasury came to rest in the Tower of London. While the City of Westminster developed into a true governmental capital, its distinct neighbour, the City of London, remained England's largest city and principal commercial centre and flourished under its own unique administration, the
Corporation of London. In 1100, its population was some 18,000; by 1300, it had grown to nearly 100,000. With the
Black Death in the mid-14th century, London lost nearly a third of its population. London was the focus of the
Peasants' Revolt in 1381. London was a centre of England's
Jewish population before
their expulsion by
Edward I in 1290. Violence against Jews occurred in 1190, when it was rumoured that
Richard I had ordered their massacre after some of their leaders had presented themselves at his coronation. In 1264, during the
Second Barons' War,
Simon de Montfort's rebels killed 500 Jews while attempting to seize records of debts.
Early modern The
Reformation produced a shift to
Protestantism. Much property passed into private ownership, accelerating business in the city. In 1475 the
Hanseatic League set up a trading base.
Woollen cloth was shipped undyed from 14th- and 15th-century London to the
Low Countries. The reopening of the Netherlands to English shipping in January 1565 spurred a burst of commercial activity.
Mercantilism grew and monopoly traders such as the
East India Company were founded as trade expanded to the
New World. London became the main
North Sea port, with migrants from England and abroad. The population rose from about 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. The ban was lifted during
the 1660 Restoration; London's oldest theatre,
Drury Lane, opened in 1663. By the end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still compact. There was an assassination attempt on
James I in Westminster, in the
Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. In 1637 the government of
Charles I attempted to reform London's administration; the Corporation made "The Great Refusal", explaining the City of London's unique governmental status. In the
English Civil War, most Londoners supported the
Roundheads. After an advance by the
Cavaliers in 1642, culminating in the battles of
Brentford and
Turnham Green, London was surrounded by
a defensive perimeter wall. The fortifications failed their only test when the
New Model Army entered London in 1647. London suffered the
Great Plague of 1665–1666, killing some 100,000 people, a fifth of the population. In 1666, the
Great Fire destroyed much of the wooden-built city. Rebuilding took over 10 years, supervised by the polymath
Robert Hooke. In 1710,
Christopher Wren's masterpiece
St Paul's Cathedral was completed, replacing its medieval predecessor, lost in the Great Fire. Its dome dominated the
London skyline for centuries, inspiring
William Blake, whose 1789 poem "
Holy Thursday" mentions 'the high dome of Pauls'. During the
Georgian era new districts such as
Mayfair were formed in the west, while new bridges encouraged development in
South London. In the east, the
Port of London expanded downstream, while the
financial centre matured. In 1762
George III acquired
Buckingham House. During the 18th century London was dogged by crime, and the
Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police force. Epidemics during the 1720s and 30s saw most children born in the city die before reaching their fifth birthday. Growing
literacy and printed papers made news widely available;
Fleet Street became the centre of the British press, and Londoners debated in
coffeehouses.
Napoleon's invasion of
Amsterdam led many financiers to relocate to London and the first London international issue was arranged in 1817. The
Royal Navy became the world's leading war fleet, acting as a deterrent to economic adversaries. Following an 1838 fire, the
Royal Exchange was rebuilt in 1844. The 1846 repeal of the
Corn Laws, meant to weaken Dutch economic power, enabled London to overtake Amsterdam as the leading international financial centre. File:Siege of London (MS 1168).jpg|The
Lancastrian siege of London in 1471 is attacked by a
Yorkist sally. File:London - John Norden's map of 1593.jpg|Map of London in 1593. There is only one bridge across the Thames, but parts of Southwark on the south bank of the river have been developed. File:Great Fire London.jpg|The
Great Fire of London destroyed much of the city in 1666. File:Edward Angelo Goodall04.jpg|
St Paul's Cathedral (painted by
Edward Goodall in 1850) was completed in 1710.
Late modern and contemporary The
Industrial Revolution saw unprecedented
urbanisation. London was the world's
largest city from about 1831 to 1925, with a population density of 132 per acre (325 per hectare).
Harding, Howell & Co. on
Pall Mall was one of the first
department stores, alongside many
street sellers. Overcrowding led to
cholera epidemics, claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866. A modern
sewage system was created by the
Metropolitan Board of Works; it diverted waste to the Thames Estuary, and by the 1890s used biological
treatment of sewage to oxidise the waste. The Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion in the capital and some surrounding counties.
Lyons opened the first of their
chain of teashops in
Piccadilly in 1894. Tearooms became popular meeting places for women from the suffrage movement.
Westminster Abbey and
St Paul's Cathedral were bombed in the 1912–14
suffragette bombing and arson campaign. in 1940 London was
bombed by the Germans in the
First World War. During the
Second World War,
the Blitz killed over 30,000 Londoners, destroying many buildings. The tomb of
the Unknown Warrior was created in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920 and
The Cenotaph, in
Whitehall, was unveiled on the same day; it is the focus the
National Service of Remembrance held annually on
Remembrance Sunday. The
1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original
Wembley Stadium, while London was still recovering from the war. From the 1940s, London became home to many immigrants, primarily from
Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, making London one of the most
multiracial cities in the world. In 1951 the
Festival of Britain was held on the
South Bank. The
Great Smog of 1952 led to the
Clean Air Act 1956, which ended the "
pea soup fogs" which had earned London the nickname the "Big Smoke". Starting in the mid-1960s, London became a centre for worldwide
youth culture, exemplified by the
Swinging London sub-culture of the
King's Road,
Chelsea and
Carnaby Street. The role of trendsetter revived in the
punk era. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded in response to the city's growth, and a new
Greater London Council was created. During
the Troubles in
Northern Ireland, London was hit from 1973 by bomb attacks by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army. These attacks lasted for two decades, starting with the
Old Bailey bombing. Greater London's population declined after the Second World War, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. By January 2015 Greater London's population had increased again to 8.63 million. The principal ports for London moved downstream to
Felixstowe and
Tilbury, with the
London Docklands area becoming a focus for regeneration. east of central London, the
Thames Barrier was completed in 1982 to protect London against tidal surges from the
North Sea. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, leaving London with no central administration until the creation of the
Greater London Authority in 2000. To mark the 21st century the
Millennium Dome, the
London Eye and the
Millennium Bridge were constructed. On 7 July 2005, three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus were bombed in
a series of terrorist attacks. In terms of international connectedness, as of 2024, London was one of two cities worldwide classified as an "Alpha++" city by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network. ==Administration==