Chronology

BC

54 Caesar’s first expedition to Britain

AD

41 The Roman invasion of Britain

43 The naming of Londinium

60 The burning of London by Boudicca

61–122 The rebuilding of London

120 The Hadrianic fire of London c.

     c. 190 The building of the great wall

407 The Roman withdrawal from London

457 Britons flee London to evade the Saxons

490 Saxon domination over London

587 Augustine’s mission to London

604 Foundation of a bishopric, and St. Paul’s, in London

672 Reference to “the port of London.” The growth of Lundenwic

851 London stormed by Vikings

886 Alfred retakes and rebuilds London

892 Londoners repel Danish invasion fleet

959 A great fire in London: St. Paul’s burned

994 Siege of London by Danish forces

1013 The second siege of London, by conquering Sweyn

1016 Third siege of London by Cnut, repulsed

1035 Harold I elected king by Londoners

1050 The rebuilding of Westminster Abbey

1065 Dedication of Westminster Abbey

1066 The taking of London by William the Conqueror

1078 The building of the White Tower

1123 Rahere establishes St. Bartholomew’s

1176 The building of a stone bridge

1191 The establishment of a London commune

1193–1212 The first mayor of London, Henry Fitz-Ailwin

1220 Rebuilding of Westminster Abbey

1290 Expulsion of the Jews; Eleanor Crosses set up at Chepe and Charing Cross

1326 The London revolution: deposition of Edward II

1348 The Black Death kills one-third of London’s population

1371 Charterhouse founded

1373 Chaucer living above Aldgate

1381 Wat Tyler’s revolt

1397 Richard Whittington first elected mayor

1406 Plague in London

1414 The Lollard revolt

1442 The Strand is paved

1450 Jack Cade’s revolt

1476 The establishment of Caxton’s printing press

1484 The sweating sickness in London

1485 Henry VII enters London in triumph after the Battle of Bosworth

1509 Henry VIII ascends the throne

1535 Execution of Thomas More on Tower Hill

1535–9 The spoilation of London’s monasteries and churches

1544 Wyngaerde’s great panorama of London

1576 The building of the Theatre in Shoreditch

1598 Publication of Stow’s Survey of London

1608–13 The construction of the New River

1619–22 The building of Inigo Jones’s Banqueting House

1642–3 The construction of earthen walls, and forts, against the king’s army

1649 Execution of Charles I

1652 The emergence of the coffee house

1663 The building of a theatre in Drury Lane

1665 The Great Plague

1666 The Great Fire

1694 The foundation of the Bank of England

1733 The covering of the Fleet River

1750 The building of Westminster Bridge

1756 The construction of the New Road

1769 The building of Blackfriars Bridge

1769–70 Wilkite agitation in London

1774 The London Building Act

1780 The Gordon Riots

1799 The establishment of the West India Dock Company

1800 The foundation of the Royal College of Surgeons

1801 London’s population reaches one million

1809 Gas-lighting instituted in Pall Mall

1816 Radicals meet at Spa Fields: riots in Spitalfields

1824 National Gallery founded

1825 Nash rebuilds Buckingham Palace

1829 London Metropolitan Police Force founded

1834 Houses of Parliament destroyed by fire

1836 University of London established

1851 The Great Exhibition opened in Hyde Park

1858 The “great stink” leads to Bazalgette’s sanitary engineering

1863 The opening of the world’s first underground railway

1878 The advent of electric lighting

1882 The emergence of the electric tram-car

1887 “Bloody Sunday” demonstrations in Trafalgar Square

1888 The appearance of Jack the Ripper in Whitechapel

1889 The establishment of the London County Council

1892 The beginning of the Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames

1897 The emergence of the motor-omnibus

1901 Population of London reaches 6.6 million

1905 Epidemic of typhus. Aldwych and Kingsway opened to traffic

1906 Suffragettes demonstrate in Parliament Square

1909 The opening of Selfridge’s department store

1911 The siege of Sidney Street

1913 The inauguration of the Chelsea Flower Show

1915 The first bombs fall on London

1926 The General Strike

1932 The building of Broadcasting House in Portland Place for the BBC

1935 The inauguration of the Green Belt

1936 The battle of Cable Street

1940 The beginning of the London Blitz

1951 The Festival of Britain on the South Bank

1952 The great smog

1955 The opening of Heathrow Airport

1965 The abolition of the London County Council; creation of the Greater London Council

1967 The closure of the East India Dock; the building of Centre Point

1981 The Brixton riots; the establishment of the London Docklands Development Corporation

1985 Broadwater Farm riots

1986 Completion of M25 ringway; abolition of GLC; the “big bang” in the Stock Exchange

1987 The building of Canary Wharf

2000 Mayoral elections