The history of London begins with the landing of the Romans on the British Isles in 43 AD. In order to cross the River Thames, the troops led by Aulus Plautius built a bridge across the river. The Roman settlement on the northern bank of the Thames, called Londinium, becomes a trade center. Around 200 years the city was surrounded by a fortress wall, which for almost a millennium, determined its size. After the fall of the Roman Empire, London fell into disrepair - the population shrank sharply, the buildings collapsed.
Only at the beginning of VII century, the city began to revive. Around 604, the first St Paul's Cathedral was built. In the 9th century, London, once again a thriving trading center, became a prey to the Vikings. Until the 11th century, the city was owned by the Normans, the Vikings, and the English. In the middle of the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor asserts Anglo-Saxon rule over London.
London's medieval history dates back to 1066 when William the Conqueror was crowned King of England in the newly built Westminster Abbey. It makes London the largest and richest city in the kingdom. In 1176 the first stone bridge of London (London Bridge) was erected, which was the only one in the city until 1739. Richard I grants London the right to self-governance in 1191, and the following year the first measures of the city are elected. In the 13th century, Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral were rebuilt.
During the reign of Elizabeth I, the population of London doubled in 40 years and by 1600 it reached 200 thousand. In 1560, the Royal Exchange was founded, and in 1599 the Globe Theatre was built, where most of Shakespeare's plays were staged. In 1631, architect Inigo Jones created the Covent Garden piazza, the first quarter of the house, which was created according to a special plan. His works include Queen's House (Greenwich), Banqueting Hall (Whitehall) and Queen's Chapel. But in 1666, almost all of London's buildings were destroyed by a great fire.
In the 19th century, the population of London increased from 1 million at the beginning to 6 million at the end of the century. Victorian London is a real city of contrasts: new industrial barons' houses and huge quarters of the urban poor are growing. One of the main, but invisible structures of the time - urban sewerage - is about 2100 kilometers of tunnels and pipes to remove sewage from the city. As a result, cholera outbreaks have virtually stopped and mortality has fallen sharply. In 1829, Sir Robert Peel organized the city police, and it was in his honor that the police called Bobby.
The first city railway was laid from London Bridge to Greenwich in 1836. Then Euston (1837), Paddington (1838), Fenchurch Street (1841), Waterloo (1848) and King's Cross (1850) stations were built. In 1863, the first line of the London Underground, connecting Paddington and Farringdon Road, was already opened. The project turned out to be very successful, and the construction of the subway in London began to develop rapidly. And in 1906, the first electric trains went along the London Underground lines. The first buses came to the streets of London in 1904.
In 1830, old buildings were demolished near Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square was created, on which the National Gallery was built two years later. In 1834, a fire destroyed the Parliament and the Westminster Palace. They were replaced by a modern Parliament building designed by Charles Barry and A.W. Pugin. The famous clock tower, known as the Big Ben, was built in 1859. The origin of the name is not known, but in fact, Big Ben is not a tower or a clock, but a clock bell. At the beginning of the 20th century, many new large shops, theatres, and luxury hotels were built, most of them in the West End. The Ritz Hotel opened in 1906, the new Knightsbridge store in 1905 and Selfridges in 1907.
A large number of buildings in Victorian London were destroyed by German bombings during the Second World War. The post-war period was marked by a huge influx of immigrants from different countries of the former British Empire. Settlers from Hong Kong settled in Soho, immigrants from the Caribbean in Notting Hill, Sikhs in Southall, Cypriots in Finsbury. In 1946, the first flight was made from the new Heathrow airport. The first double-decker red buses came to the streets of London in 1956. In the 10 years from 1972 to 1982, the Thames Barrier was built on the banks of the River Thames to protect the city from flooding. The last major project of the 20th century and the second millennium was Millennium Dome, an exhibition center opened on 1 January 2000.