After Æthelred's death at London in 1016 his son Edmund Ironside was proclaimed king there by the witangemot and left to gather forces in Wessex. London was then subjected to a systematic siege by Cnut but was relieved by King Edmund's army; when Edmund again left to recruit reinforcements in Wessex the Danes resumed the siege but were again unsuccessful. However, following his defeat at the Battle of Assandun Edmund ceded to Cnut all of England north of the Thames, including London, and his death a few weeks later left Cnut in control of the whole country. London entered the 20th century at the height of its influence as the capital of one of the largest empires in history, but the new century was to bring many challenges.

Secrets of the London Underground | London Transport Museum Secrets of the London Underground | London Transport Museum

If ever there was a record of real Restoration London, this is it. The most famous diary in the English language is filled with the mundane record of life in everyday seventeenth century London together with some of the juiciest tidbits in London history. Pepys witnessed everything form the bubonic plague, to the Great Fire of 1666, to Nell Gwynn‘s coming out in Covent Garden. The late 16th and early 17th century saw the great flourishing of drama in London whose preeminent figure was William Shakespeare. During the mostly calm later years of Elizabeth's reign, some of her courtiers and some of the wealthier citizens of London built themselves country residences in Middlesex, Essex and Surrey. This was an early stirring of the villa movement, the taste for residences which were neither of the city nor on an agricultural estate, but at the time of Elizabeth's death in 1603, London was still relatively compact.Three years after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley Stadium, at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war. London's rebuilding was slow to begin. However, in 1951 the Festival of Britain was held, which marked an increasing mood of optimism and forward looking. From the 1950s onwards London experienced an increase in immigration, largely from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, the integration of the new immigrants was not always easy. Racial tensions emerged in events such as the Brixton Riots in the early 1980s. [47] A panorama of London by Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1616. Old St Paul's Cathedral had lost its spire by this time. The two theatres on the foreground (Southwark) side of the Thames are The Bear Garden and The Globe. The large church in the foreground is St Mary Overie, now Southwark Cathedral.

Best Books about London History: 12 guide books for time

Emerson, Charles. 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War (2013) compares London to 20 major world cities on the eve of World War I; pp 15 to 36, 431–49. Yes, that’s right. He was able to see beneath the crevices and was able to judge and describe the underlying structures of the city. In 1097, William Rufus, the son of William the Conqueror, began the construction of 'Westminster Hall', which became the focus of the Palace of Westminster. a b c Nikolaus Pevsner, London I: The Cities of London and Westminster rev. edition,1962, Introduction p 48.In 2010, the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC [4] were found, again on the foreshore south of Vauxhall Bridge. [5] The function of the mesolithic structure is not known. All these structures are on the south bank at a natural crossing point where the River Effra flows into the Thames. [6] Richard Blome's map of London (1673). The development of the West End had recently begun to accelerate. century London was transformed by the coming of the railways. A new network of metropolitan railways allowed for the development of suburbs in neighbouring counties from which middle-class and wealthy people could commute to the centre. While this spurred the massive outward growth of the city, the growth of greater London also exacerbated the class divide, as the wealthier classes emigrated to the suburbs, leaving the poor to inhabit the inner city areas. The following are some of our favourite London books for children of all ages. They’re perfect for planning your next family trip together or your next weekend exploring your hometown. Some are set in London, others are travel guides highlighting the city’s best sights. Boris Johnson, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party, served as mayor of London from 1 May 2008 until 5 May 2016, being elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012. [60]

The 10 best non-fiction books about London | History books

This is my go-to when I’m gifting a London guide book to someone I know who loves London just about as much as I do. It’s one of those dip-in, dip-out books too, and one where you’ll discover some of the most interesting, quirky and “I can’t believe” facts about London. Curiocity travels in and out of London’s past and present, a perfect bookish marriage between contemporary and historical London. You’ll find trivia about the erotic, rules of conduct, subterranean London and the occult. It’s the cat’s pyjamas when it comes to guide books about London.

Like the rest of the country, London suffered severe unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the East End during the 1930s, politically extreme parties of both right and left flourished. The Communist Party of Great Britain and the British Union of Fascists both gained serious support. Clashes between right and left culminated in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. The population of London reached an all-time peak of 8.6million in 1939. Jørgensen, Dolly. "'All Good Rule of the Citee': Sanitation and Civic Government in England, 1400–1600". Journal of Urban History (2010). online