ROMAN
LONDON
London was founded by
the Romans about 50 AD. Its name is derived from the Celtic word Londinios,
which means the place of the bold one. After they invaded Britain in 43 ADthe Romans built a bridge
across the Thames. They later decided it was
an excellent place to built a port. The water was deep enough for ocean going
ships but it was far enough inland to be safe from Germanic raiders. Around
50 AD Roman merchants built a town by the bridge. So London was born. There was not a stone wall
around the early settlement but there may have been a ditch and an earth
rampart with a wooden pallisade on top. Then in 61 AD Queen Boudicca led a
rebellion against the Romans. Her army marched on London. No attempt was made to defend London. Boudicca burned
London but
after her rebellion was crushed it was rebuilt. Rich people built houses of
stone or brick with tiled roofs but most people lived in wooden houses. By
the end of the 2nd century stone wall was erected around London. The wall was 20 feet high. Outside
the wall was a ditch. In the middle of the 3rd century 20 bastions were added
to the walls(a bastion was a semi-circular tower projecting from the wall).
The
population of Roman London rose to perhaps 45,000, which seems small to us
but it was the largest town in Britain. In the centre of the
town was the forum. This was a square with shops and public buildings
arranged around it. The most important building in the forum was the basilica
or 'town hall' which was 500 feet long and 70 feet high. In London there were brickworks, potteries and
glassworks. There were also donkey powered mills for grinding grain to flour
and bakeries. London
was also an important port with wooden wharves and jetties. Grain and metal
were exported and luxury goods were imported. (Things like wine, olive oil,
glass, fine pottery, silk and ivory).
Rich
citizens had baths in their homes but there were several public baths near
the city gates. (Romans went to the baths to socialise not just to keep
clean). Most people in the town got their water from wells and used cess
pools but there were underground drains to remove rainwater. London also had an ampitheatre, which could
hold 8,000 people. Here gladiators were made to fight to the death.
Cockfighting was also a popular sport.
SAXON
LONDON
The
last Roman soldier left Britain
in 407 AD. London
was probably abandoned. There may have been a few people living inside the
walls by fishing or farming but London
ceased to be a town. But soon it rose again. A new town appeared outside the
walls on the site of Covent Garden. It was
much smaller than Roman London with perhaps 10,000 inhabitants. In 597 monks
from Rome
began the task of converting the Saxons to Christianity. In 604 a bishop was
appointed for London.
By the 640's there was a mint in London
making silver coins. In the 670's a Royal document called London 'the place where the ships land'.
Early in the 8th century a writer called London (or Lundwic it was called) ' a
trading centre for many nations who visit by land and sea'.
The
Saxon town of Lundwic
consisted of many wooden huts with thatched roofs. Slag from metal forges
have been found proving there were many blacksmiths at work in the town.
Archaeologists have also found large numbers of loom weights (used in weaving
wool) Saxon craftsmen also worked with animal bones making things like combs.
The main export from Saxon London was wool, either raw of woven. Imports
included wine and luxury foods like grapes and figs. Pottery and millstones
were also imported. Slaves were also bought and sold in London.
Disaster
struck London in 842 when the Danes looted London. They returned
in 851 and this time they burned a large part of the town (an easy task when
all buildings were of wood). Then the Danes gave up just raiding and turned
to conquest. They conquered northern and Eastern England
including London.
King
Alfred the Great totally defeated the Danes in 878 and they split the country
between them. The Danes took eastern England
including London
while Alfred took the South and West. Despite the peace treaty Alfred's men
took London
in 886. Alfred repaired the walls of the old Roman town. Until then Londoners
lived outside the Roman walls but during Alfred's reign they moved inside the
walls for protection. Soon foreign merchants came to live in London. By the 10th century there were wine
merchants from France
at Vintners Place
and German merchants at Dowgate. The Danes returned in 994 but this time the
Londoners fought them off. A writer said ' They proceeded to attack the city
stoutly and wished to set it on fire but here they suffered more harm and
injury than they ever thought any citizen could do them'.
Edward
the Confessor (1042-1066) built a wooden palace at Westminster. Later Parliament met here. Because
of this Wesminster became the seat of government not the city of London itself. Edward
also built Westminster Abbey, which was consecrated a few weeks before his
death.
THE
MIDDLE AGES
After
the battle of Hastings an advance guard of Normans approached London
bridge from the South but were beaten off. The Norman army then marched in a
loop to the west of London
to cut it off from the rest of the country. William occupied the royal palace
at Westminster
and the won over the Londoners by making various promises. William was
crowned king of England at
Westminster
on 25 December 1066. William gave London
a charter, a document confirming certain rights. Nevertheless he built a
wooden tower on the east side of London.
It was replaced with a white stone tower in 1080.
The
population of London
at this time was perhaps 18,000, which seems very small to us but was very
large by the standards of the time. London
grew in size through the 12th century and some people began to build housed
outside the walls. In 1176 the wooden bridge across the Thames
was replaced with a stone one.
A
writer described London
about the year 1180:
'London is happy in its
clean air, in the Christian religion, in the strength of its fortifications,
in its natural situation, in the honor of its citizens. The Cathedral is St
Pauls but there is also in London
and its suburbs 13 large monasteries, beside 126 parish churches. On the east
side lies the tower, very large and strong with 4 gates and turrets at
intervals and runs around the northern side of the city. To the north lie
fields and meadows with small rivers flowing through them, by these water
mills are driven with a pleasant murmur. To this city come merchants from
every nation under heaven rejoicing to bring merchandise in their ships'.
Someone
else wrote:
'Amongst
the noble and celebrated cities of the world, that of London, the capital of
the Kingdom of England is one of the most renowned, possessing above others,
abundant wealth, extensive commerce, great grandeur and significance".
London was a lively
place. There was a horse market at Smithfield
(originally smooth field) where horse racing took place. Smithfield was also the site of public
executions, which always attracted large crowds. Londoners also loved dancing
on the open spaces that surrounded the town. They liked archery and wrestling
and men fought mock battles with wooden swords and shields. In winter people
went ice skating on frozen marshes at Moorfield using skates made of animal
bones.
In
the 13th century the friars came to London.
Friars were like monks but instead of living lives separate from the world
they went out to preached and to help the poor. There were different orders
of friars each with a different colour of habit. Dominican friars were called
black friars because of their black habits and the place where they lived is
still called Blackfriars. There were also grey friars, white friars and
crutched friars. (A corruption of cruxed. Crux is Latin for cross and the
cruxed friars had a cross stitched onto their habits).
The
Jews suffered most from violence. The first Jews came to London
in 1096 as refugees from Rouen
after a massacre occurred there. Jews in London lived in a ghetto in old Jewry. They
were some of the first people since Roman times to live in stone houses. They
had to as wooden houses were not safe enough! In 1189 a wave of persecution
resulted in the deaths of about 30 Jews. In 1264 rioters killed about 500
Jews. In 1290 all Jews were expelled from England.
In
1381 the peasant revolt broke out. On 13 July the rebels marched on London and sympathizers
opened the gates to them. The king and his ministers took refuge in the tower of London while the rebels opened the
prisons and looted the house of John of Gaunt, an unpopular noble. On 14 July
the king met the rebels at Moorfield and made them various promises, none of
which he kept. The next day the king went to mass at Westminster
and while he was away the rebels broke into the tower of London
and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury and several royal officials who had
taken refuge there. They confronted the king on his way back from mass. The
mayor of London
stabbed the leader of the rebels, fearing he was going to attack the king.
Afterwards the king managed to calm the rebels and persuaded them to go home.
The
population of London
may have reached 50,000 by the middle of the 14th century. At least a third
of the population died when the black death struck in 1348-49 but London soon recovered.
Its population may have reached 70,000 by the end of the Middle Ages.
THE
16th AND 17th CENTURIES
The
population of London
may have reached 120,000 by the middle of the 16th century and about 250,000
by 1600. In the Middle Ages the church owned about 1/4 of the land in London. When Henry VIII
dissolved the monasteries it released a great deal of land for new buildings.
Nevertheless the suburbs outside the town continued to grow. In 1550
Southwark became part of the city of London
for the first time. In the late 16th century rich men began to build houses
along the Strand and by 1600 London was linked
to Westminster
by a strip of houses.
Wool
was still the main export from London but there were also exports of
'excellent saffron in small quantities, a great quantity of lead and tin, sheep
and rabbit skins without number, with various other sorts of fine peltry
(skins) and leather, beer, cheese and other sorts of provisions'. The Royal
Exchange where merchants could buy and sell goods opened in 1571.
In
the early 17th century rich men continued to build houses west of the city.
The Earl of Bedford built houses at Covent Garden, on the Strand
and at Long Acre. He also obtained permission to hold a fruit and vegetable
market at Covent Garden. Other rich people
build houses at Lincoln Inn Fields and at St Martins in the Fields.
On
the other side of London
hovels were built. The village
of Whitechapel was
'swallowed up' by the expanding city. The village
of Clerkenwell also became a suburb
of London.
Southwark also continued to grow rapidly. All this happened despite outbreaks
of bubonic plague. It broke out in 1603, 1633 and 1665 but each time the
population of London
quickly recovered.
Civil
war between king and parliament began in 1642. The royalists made one attempt
to capture London in 1643 but their army was met 6 miles west of St Pauls by
a much larger Parliamentary army. The royalists withdrew. However the puritan
government of 1646-1660 was hated by many ordinary people and when Charles II
came to London from France in 1660 an estimated
20,000 people gathered in the streets to meet him. All the churches in London rang their
bells.
The
last outbreak of plague in London
was in 1665. But this was the last outbreak. In 1666 came the great fire of London. It began on 2
September in a bakers house in Pudding
Lane. At first it did not cause undue alarm. The
Lord Mayor was awoken and said "Pish! A woman might piss it out!".
But the wind caused the flames to spread rapidly. People formed chains with
leather buckets and worked hand operated pumps all to no avail. The mayor was
advised to use gunpowder to create fire breaks but he was reluctant, fearing
the owners of destroyed buildings would sue for compensation. The fire
continued to spread until the king took charge. He ordered sailors to make
fire breaks. At the same time the wind dropped. About 13,2000 houses had been
destroyed and 70-80,000 people had been made homeless. The king ordered the
navy to make tents and canvas available from their stores to help the
homeless who camped on open spaces around the city. Temporary markets were
set up so the homeless could buy food. but the crowds of homeless soon
dispersed. Most of the houses in London
were still standing and many of the homeless found accommodation in them or
in nearby villages. Others built wooden huts on the charred ruins. To prevent
such a disaster happening again the king commanded that all new houses in London should be of
stone and brick not wood. Citizens were responsible for rebuilding their own
houses but a tax was charged on coal brought by ship into London to finance the rebuilding of
churches and other public buildings. Work began on rebuilding St Pauls in
1675 but it was not finished till 1711.
In
the late 17th century fashionable houses were built at Bloomsbury and on the
road to the village
of Knightsbridge.
Elegant houses in squares and broad straight streets were also built north of
St James palace. Soho also became built up.
As well as building attractive suburbs the rich began to live in attractive
villages near London
such as Hackney, Clapham, Camberwell and Streatham. In the east the poor
continued to build houses and Bethnal Green was 'swallowed up' by the growing
city. French protestants fleeing religious persecution arrived in London. Many of them
were silk weavers who lived in Spitalfields which also became a suburb of London.
In
the 17th century wealthy Londoners obtained piped water for the first time.
It was brought by canal from the countryside then was carried by hollow tree
trunks under the streets. You had to pay to have your house connected. After
1685 the streets were lit by oil lamps. Hackney carriages became common in
the streets of London.
In 1694 the Bank of England was formed. It moved to Threadneedle Street in 1734.
Billingsgate was a general market until 1699 when an Act of Parliament made
it a fish market.
THE
18th CENTURY
The
population of London
rose from perhaps 600,000 in 1700 to 950,000 in 1800. The fashionable suburbs
spread north along Tottenham Court Road and north west
to the village
of Paddington. By 1800
growth had spread to Islington and Chelsea. In the east growth spread to
Stepney, Ratcliffe, Limehouse and Wapping. In the south the city spread to
Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Walworth and Kennington.
Several
hospitals were founded in this century including Westminster
(1720), Guys (1724), St Georges (1733), London
(1740) and Middlesex (1745).
Early
in the 18th century London
was severely affected by gin drinking. Gin was cheap and for the poor it
offered a chance to forget their poverty. In the 1740's it was estimated that
1 house in 8 sold gin over the counter. In 1751 gin drinking was curtailed
when duty was charged on the drink.
In
1757 the houses on London
Bridge were demolished.
In 1761 an Act of Parliament set up a body of men called Board of
Commissioners power to pave and clean the street. The walls of the city were
demolished between 1760 and 1766 and new bridges were built Westminster in 1749 and Blackfriars in
1770.
On
the South Bank were industries like leather tanning (in Bermondsey) and
timber yards (in Lambeth). There were also many craftsmen in London who made luxury goods. Silk weavers
in Spitalfields, watchmakers in Clerkenwell, coach makers and furniture
makers in Long Acre. There were also makers of surgical and navigational
instruments and jewelers. London
was also the largest port in the country. By 1700 she was handling 80% of Englands
imports and 69% of her exports. There was also a large shipbuilding industry.
London was also a huge
market for the rest of the country's produce. In 1720 someone wrote that
people all over England
were employed to 'furnish something and I may add the best of everything to
supply the city of London
with provisions. I mean by provisions, grain, meat, fish, butter, cheese,
salt , fuel, timber and cloth, also everything necessary for building'.
THE
19th CENTURY
London grew from
950,000 in 1800 to 6 million in 1900. At the beginning of the century rich
men built estates at Somerstown, Camden
Town, Walworth, Agar Town,
Bromley and Pentonville. Growth also spread to Battersea, Clapham,
Camberwell, Brixton, Bayswater and Peckham. By 1850 Deptford was part of London. Growth also
spread to Fulham and Kensington. As late as 1839 Shepherds Bush was called a
'pleasant village' but it was soon swallowed up. In the east Hackney, Poplar
and Cubbitts Town were built up by 1850. Later in
the century growth spread to East and West Ham.
After
1850 growth spread to Acton, Chiswick,
Brentford, Richmond,
Twickenham and Ealing. In the North it reached Willesden and Hampstead.
Growth also spread to Hornsey and Tottenham. In the South it spread to
Putney, Wimbledon, Streatham, Dulwich, Catford, Lewisham and to Greenwich and Charlton.
After 1850 Chinese immigrants started settling in Limehouse. There were also
many Irish immigrants in the Docklands. By 1850 London had 20,000 Jews. Their numbers
doubled in the 1880's when many refugees arrived from Russia and Eastern Europe.
There
were outbreaks of cholera in 1831, 1848-49 and finally in 1866. In 1859 work
began on building a system of sewers for the whole city but it was not
complete till 1875. After that deaths from disease fell drastically.
In
1807 gas light was used for the first time at Pall Mall and by the 1840's was
being used all over London.
Electric light was first used in Holborn in 1883. By the 1840's there were
horse drawn buses and from the 1870's horse drawn trams. The first
underground railway opened in 1863. At first carriages were pulled by steam
trains. The system was electrified in 1890-1905.
London continued to be
a great port. In the 18th century ships tied up at wharves on the Thames but the river became overcrowded so docks were
built. West India dock
(1802), London dock (1805), East India Dock
(1806) St Katherines dock (1828), Victoria
dock (1855), Milwall dock (1868) South West India dock (1870), Albert dock
(1880) and Tilbury docks (1886).
London was also a great
manufacturing centre. Food and drink were important industries. There were
flour mills and sauce factories in Lambeth and sugar refineries in Whitehall and St
Georges in the East. The first tinned foods were made in Bermondsey. There
were also breweries all over London.
Bermondsey and Southwark were famous for their leather industry and for hat
making. Bethnal Green was noted for boot and shoe making. The clothing trade
was also important. Chemicals were made in Silvertown and West Ham. Clocks
and watches and jewellery were made in Clerkenwell. There were shipyards in
Poplar, Deptford, Milwall and Blackwall. Other industries in London included furniture making, machine
and tool making and the manufacture of horse drawn arriages.
THE
20th CENTURY
In
the early 20th century Hendon and Finchley became built up. Growth also
spread to Harrow and Wealdstone, Twickenham,
Teddington and Kingston Upon Thames. Wimbledon and Surbiton also became
suburbs of London.
Furthermore in the early 20th century London County Council began to build
estates of council houses on the edge of the city. In 1903 the first ones
were built at Tooting. Later estates were built at Norbury, Tottenham,
Roehampton, at Downham near Catford and at Becontree. Other estates were
built at Watling and Morden. Despite these new council house estates 75% of
houses built in London
between 1919 and 1939 were private. The population of London rose from 6 million in 1900 to 8.7
million in 1939.
In
the early 20th century the old industries (brewing, Sugar refining, flour
milling, engineering) continued by new industries grew in the suburbs such as
aircraft building, vehicle manufacturing and making electrical goods.
When
the blitz began in September 1940 Londoners started sleeping in the
underground stations and soon 150,000 people were sleeping there overnight.
In the blitz about 20,000 people were killed and 25,000 were injured. The
first blitz ended in May 1941 but in 1944 Germany
began firing missiles at London
and killed about 3,000 people.
In
1944 a plan for post war London
was published. The authorities felt the city was overcrowded and they planned
to create a ring of satellite towns 20-30 miles from London. But the new towns attracted the
skilled workers away from London.
The new towns had modern industries who wanted skilled workers. The unskilled
and the old were left behind.
As
well as building new towns the council began building flats. The first were
built in 1948. At first they were low rise but from 1964 high rise flats, up
to 24 storeys high, were built to replace slums. Unfortunately rehousing slum
tenants in high rise flats broke up communities. Then in 1968 came the Ronan
Point disaster when a gas explosion partly destroyed a block of flats killing
4 people. After that the policy of demolishing slums changed and owners were
given grants to modernize their houses.
In
the 1950's London
boomed. Car factories were very busy. So were the aircraft factories in north
London. The
docks were also very busy, employing 30,000 men. But in the 1960's the docks
began to suffer from the break up of the British empire.
The newly independent countries began to trade with countries other than Britain and London docks suffered as a result. Worse in
1973 Britain
joined the EEC. Imports from commonwealth countries were limited by quotas or
had to pay tariffs. This hurt London
docks as most of their trade came from the Commonwealth. Imports from the EEC
tended to go to ports like Felixstowe and Dover. The London Docks Authority tried to
cut costs by shifting to a containerized dock at Tilbury but many of the old
docks were forced to close. The old industries associated with them such as
sugar refining and food processing suffered as well.
In
the early 1970's when London
was still prospering the government tried to reduce congestion by encouraging
companies to move out to the provinces. Then in the mid 70s came a recession
and companies looked for ways to cut costs. One way was to leave London with its high
rents and high labour costs. Engineering and electrical companies now left
the capital in droves and unemployment soared. After 1976 the GLC vigorously
opposed the policy of encouraging industry to leave London. Central government did a u turn. In
1981 the Greater London Enterprise Council was set up to encourage investment
in London.
But unemployment remained high in the 1980s and 1990s. One industry did boom
however - tourism, with several million foreign visitors arriving each year.
In
the 1950's West Indian immigrants started to arrive in London and by 1955 20,000 were arriving
each year. They met with prejudice and hostility which culminated in the race
riots at Notting Hill in 1958. In the early 1960s Asians arrived as well.
Many of them took over corner shops. Both Chinese and Indians opened
restaurants.
Despite
immigration the population of London
fell after 1945. However in the last years of the 20th century the population
began to grow rapidly again. Today the population of London is 7.2 million.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Originally published at http://www.picturesofengland.com/history/#
|