London has been a city for two thousand years. It was founded by the Romans around AD 50, burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1666, bombed almost to rubble during the Blitz, and rebuilt as a financial and cultural capital for the 21st century. Few cities in the world carry so much time on their streets.
Londinium: The Roman City
The Romans founded Londinium around AD 50 as a trading settlement at the lowest crossing point of the Thames. By the end of the first century it was the largest city in Roman Britain, with a forum, basilica, amphitheatre and temples. Remnants of the Roman Wall can still be seen near the Tower of London and at the Museum of London.
The Great Fire of London, 1666
The Great Fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in the early hours of 2 September 1666. It burned for four days, consuming 13,200 houses and 87 churches — including old St Paul’s Cathedral. Christopher Wren was commissioned to rebuild the city, producing his masterpiece — the present St Paul’s — within 35 years.
The Victorian Expansion
By 1900, London was the largest city in the world with a population of 6.5 million. The Victorian period brought the railways, the Underground, the great parks, the museums, and an empire that made the city the commercial capital of the world.
The Blitz and Modern London
Between September 1940 and May 1941, the German Luftwaffe bombed London for 57 consecutive nights. Over 30,000 Londoners died, and much of the East End was flattened. The postwar rebuilding created some of the most controversial architectural decisions in the city’s history — and some of its most celebrated.
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