A series of archaeological sites throughout
southwestern Ontario, named for the Parkhill Complex excavated near
Parkhill, indicate the presence of
Paleo-Indians in the area dating back approximately 11,000 years. Just prior to European settlement, the London area was the site of several
Attawandaron,
Odawa, and
Ojibwe villages. The
Lawson Site in northwest London is an archaeological excavation and partial reconstruction of an approximately 500-year-old Neutral Iroquoian village, estimated to have been home to 2,000 people. These groups were driven out by the
Iroquois by in the
Beaver Wars. The Iroquois abandoned the region some 50 years later, driven out by the Ojibwa. An
Anishinaabeg community site was described as located near the forks of Thames River (Anishinaabe language: Eshkani-ziibi, "Antler River") in and was referred to as Pahkatequayang ("Baketigweyaang":"At the River Fork" (lit: at where the by-stream is)).
Settlement The current location of London was selected as the site of the future capital of
Upper Canada in 1793 by
Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, who also named the village which was founded in 1826. Originally, Simcoe had proposed to call it
Georgiana, in honour of
George III, the reigning monarch at that time. It did not become the
capital Simcoe envisioned. Rather, it was an administrative seat for the area west of the actual capital,
York (now Toronto). The London Township Treaty of 1796 with the Chippewa ceded the original town site on the north bank of the Thames (then known as the
Escunnisepe) to Upper Canada. London was part of the
Talbot Settlement, named for Colonel
Thomas Talbot, the chief administrator of the area, who oversaw the land surveying and built the first government buildings for the administration of the western Ontario peninsular region. Together with the rest of southwestern Ontario, the village benefited from Talbot's provisions not only for building and maintaining roads but also for assignment of access priorities to main routes to productive land. Crown and
clergy reserves then received preference in the rest of Ontario. In 1814, the
Battle of Longwoods took place during the
War of 1812 in what is now
Southwest Middlesex, near London. The retreating British Army were staying at Hungerford Hill when they were attacked by the Kentucky Mounted Riflemen. In 1827, a settlement was started in
Byron when Cyrenius Hall built a gristmill. In 1832, the new settlement suffered an outbreak of
cholera. London proved a centre of strong
Tory support during the
Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, notwithstanding a brief rebellion led by
Charles Duncombe. Consequently, the British government located its Ontario peninsular garrison there in 1838, increasing its population with soldiers and their dependents, and the business support populations they required. One of the first casualties was the town's only fire engine. The fire burned nearly of land, destroying 150 buildings, before it burned itself out later that day. One fifth of London was destroyed in the province's first million-dollar fire.
Development John Carling, Tory MP for London, gave three events to explain the development of London in a 1901 speech: the location of the court and administration in London in 1826, the arrival of the military garrison in 1838, and the arrival of the railway in 1853. The population in 1846 was 3,500. Brick buildings included a jail and court house, and large barracks. London had a fire company, a theatre, a large Gothic church, nine other churches or chapels, and two market buildings. The buildings that were destroyed by fire in 1845 were mostly rebuilt by 1846. Connection with other communities was by road, using mainly
stagecoaches that ran daily. A weekly newspaper was published and mail was received daily by the post office. Two villages named Petersville and Kensington once stood where downtown London now is. Petersville was founded by Samuel Peters in 1853. Petersville and Kensington were amalgamated on March 4, 1881, to form London West. On January 1, 1855, London was incorporated as a city (10,000 or more residents). The springs became a popular destination for wealthy Ontarians, until the turn of the 20th century when a
textile factory was built at the site, replacing the spa. Records from 1869 indicate a population of about 18,000 served by three newspapers, churches of all major denominations and offices of all the major banks. Industries included several tanneries, oil refineries and foundries, four flour mills, the
Labatt Brewing Company and the
Carling brewery in addition to other manufacturing companies such as
EMCO Wheaton. Both the Great Western and
Grand Trunk railways had stops here. Several insurance companies also had offices in the city. was founded in London in 1864 as The Huron and Erie Trust. Its headquarters is visible in this 1960 photo. The successor bank is
TD Canada Trust, with the first
transit number assigned to TD: 0001. The
Crystal Palace Barracks, an octagonal brick building with eight doors and forty-eight windows built in 1861, was used for events such as the
Provincial Agricultural Fair of Canada West held in London that year. It was visited by
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn; Governor-General
John Young, 1st Baron Lisgar; and Prime Minister
John A. Macdonald. Long before the
Royal Military College of Canada was established in 1876, there were proposals for military colleges in Canada. Staffed by British Regulars, adult male students underwent three-month-long military courses from 1865 at the School of Military Instruction in London. Established by Militia General Order in 1865, the school enabled Officers of Militia or Candidates for Commission or promotion in the Militia to learn Military duties, drill and discipline, to command a Company at Battalion Drill, to Drill a Company at Company Drill, the internal economy of a Company and the duties of a Company's Officer. The school was not retained at Confederation, in 1867. of London municipality In 1875, London's first iron bridge, the
Blackfriars Street Bridge, was constructed. and was once again reopened to vehicular traffic December 1, 2018. The Blackfriars, amidst the river-distance between the
Carling Brewery and the historic
Tecumseh Park (including a major mill), linked London with its western suburb of Petersville, named for Squire Peters of Grosvenor Lodge. That community joined with the southern subdivision of Kensington in 1874, formally incorporating as the municipality of Petersville. Although it changed its name in 1880 to the more inclusive "London West", it remained a separate municipality until ratepayers voted for amalgamation with London in 1897, This area retains much original and attractively maintained 19th-century tradespeople's and workers' housing, including
Georgian cottages as well as larger houses, and a distinct
sense of place. In 1897, London West was annexed to London. at the unveiling ceremony of the
Flame of Hope in July 1989 London's eastern suburb, London East, was (and remains) an industrial centre, which also incorporated in 1874. Oil was discovered in the Petrolia area and Lilley's Corners was chosen as the refining site because it was close to the railroad. The Ontario Car Works, the Great Western Gasworks and the London Street Railroad all had their headquarters in Lilley's Corners. it continued as a separate municipality until concerns over expensive waterworks and other fiscal problems led to amalgamation in 1885. The southern suburb of London, including Wortley Village, was collectively known as "London South". Never incorporated, the South was annexed to the city in 1890, In 1880, Polk's
Directory called London South "a charming suburb of the City of London.". Broughdale was named after Reverend Charles C. Brough, the Anglican Archdeacon of London who settled there in 1854. Broughdale started to grow when it was connected to the London Street Railroad in 1901, leading to a real estate bubble. A post office was opened in Broughdale on July 1, 1904, with Charles Watlers as postmaster. Broughdale was initially named Brough, but was renamed Broughdale in 1906 because it sounded better.
Ivor F. Goodson and Ian R. Dowbiggin have explored the battle over vocational education in London, Ontario, in the 1900–1930 era. The London Technical and Commercial High School came under heavy attack from the city's social and business elite, which saw the school as a threat to the budget of the city's only academic high school, London Collegiate Institute. The
Banting House, a National Historic Site of Canada, is where
Frederick Banting developed the ideas that led to the discovery of
insulin. Banting lived and practiced in London for ten months, from July 1920 to May 1921. London is also the site of the Flame of Hope, which is intended to burn until a cure for
diabetes is discovered. London's role as a military centre continued into the 20th century during the two World Wars, serving as the administrative centre for the Western Ontario district. In 1905, the London Armoury was built and housed the First Hussars until 1975. A private investor purchased the historic site and built a new hotel (Delta London Armouries, 1988) in its place, preserving the shell of the historic building. In the 1950s, two reserve battalions amalgamated and became
London and Oxford Rifles (3rd Battalion), The Royal Canadian Regiment. This unit continues to serve today as 4th Battalion,
The Royal Canadian Regiment. The Regimental Headquarters of
The Royal Canadian Regiment remains in London at Wolseley Barracks on Oxford Street. The barracks are home to the First Hussars militia regiment as well. With this massive annexation, which also included part of
London township, London almost doubled in area again, adding several thousand more residents. In the present day, London stretches south to the boundary with
Elgin County, north and east to
Fanshawe Lake, north and west to the township of
Middlesex Centre (the nearest developed areas of it being
Arva to the north and
Komoka to the west) and east to
Nilestown and
Dorchester. The 1993 annexation, made London one of the largest urban municipalities in Ontario. Intense commercial and residential development is presently occurring in the southwest and northwest areas of the city. Opponents of this development cite
urban sprawl, destruction of rare
Carolinian zone forest and farm lands, replacement of distinctive regions by generic malls, and standard transportation and pollution concerns as major issues facing London. The City of London is currently the
eleventh-largest urban area in Canada,
eleventh-largest census metropolitan area in Canada, and the sixth-largest city in Ontario.
Disasters On
Victoria Day, May 24, 1881, the
stern-wheeler ferry
SS Victoria capsized in the
Thames River close to Cove Bridge in West London. Approximately 200 passengers drowned in the shallow river, making it one of the worst disasters in London's history, and is now dubbed "
The Victoria Day Disaster". At the time, London's population was relatively small; therefore it was hard to find a person in the city who did not have a family member affected by the tragedy. Two years later, on July 12, 1883, On January 3, 1898, the floor of the assembly hall at London City Hall collapsed, killing 23 people and leaving more than 70 injured. Testimony at a coroner's inquest described the wooden beam under the floor as unsound, with knots and other defects reducing its strength by one fifth to one third. After repeated floods, the
Upper Thames River Conservation Authority in 1953 built Fanshawe Dam on the North Thames to control the downstream rivers. Financing for this project came from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Other
natural disasters include a 1984
tornado that led to damage on several streets in the White Oaks area of South London. On December 11, 2020, a partially-constructed apartment building just off of
Wonderland Road in southwest London collapsed, killing two people and injuring at least four others. In January 2024, both Oxford County companies involved in the building's construction were fined $400,000, with The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development declaring the companies had failed to "provide proper information, instruction and supervision, specifically on the use of proper concrete measuring techniques on the project." == Geography ==