| Although a Celtic community settled around a ford across the
River Thames, it was the Romans who first developed the square
mile now known as the City of London. They built a bridge and
an impressive city wall, and made Londinium an important port
and the hub of their road system. The Romans left, but trade went
on. Few traces of London dating from the Dark Ages can now be
found, but the city survived the incursions of both the Saxons
and Vikings. Fifty years before the Normans arrived, Edward the
Confessor built his abbey and palace at Westminster.
By 1720 it contained 750,000 people, and as the seat of Parliament
and focal point for a growing empire, it was becoming ever richer
and more important. Georgian architects replaced the last of medieval
London with their imposing symmetrical architecture and residential
squares. The population exploded again in the 19th century, creating
a vast expanse of Victorian suburbs. As a result of the Industrial
Revolution and rapidly expanding commerce, it jumped from 2.7
million in 1851 to 6.6 million in 1901.
William the Conqueror found a city that was, without doubt, the
richest and largest in the kingdom. He raised the White Tower
(part of the Tower of London) and confirmed the city's independence
and right to self-government. During the reign of Elizabeth I
the capital began to expand rapidly - in 40 years the population
doubled to reach 200,000. Unfortunately, the medieval, Tudor and
Jacobean parts of London were virtually destroyed by the Great
Fire of 1666. The fire gave Christopher Wren the opportunity to
build his famous churches, and the city's growth continued apace.
War in the first half of the 20th century destroyed many of the
gains achieved by the previous century. Georgian and Victorian
London was devastated by the Luftwaffe in WWII - huge swathes
of the centre and the East End were totally flattened. After the
war, ugly housing and low-cost developments were thrown up on
the bomb sites. The docks never recovered - shipping moved to
Tilbury, and the Docklands declined to the point of dereliction.
In the heady 1980s, that decade of Thatcherite confidence and
deregulation, the Docklands were rediscovered by a new wave of
property developers, who proved to be only marginally more discriminating
than the Luftwaffe.
London briefly regained its swinging reputation in the 1990s,
buoyed by Tony Blair's New Labour, a rampaging pound and a swag
of pop, style and media 'names'. Blair's bane Ken Livingstone
donned the mayoral robes in May 2000, opposing plans to sell off
the tube and pushing for improved public transport and safety.
The face of the city changed with the construction of the costly
white elephant Millennium Dome, the London Eye observation wheel,
the Tate Modern (linked by the structurally unsound Millennium
Bridge) and the creation of the British Museum's Great Court.
But some things never change: London's cost of living outdoes
itself year after year, its chic quotient continues to soar and
the gap between the haves and have-nots looms ever larger.
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