50

Londinium was founded by the Romans in the London Bridge area.

60

Londinium was sacked and burned to the ground by Boadicea

410

The Romans left Britain and Londinium was abandoned.

604

The Saxon town of Lundenberg grew up in its place. Ethelbert, first Christian king of Kent, founded St Paul’s Cathedral and had a palace in Alderman Barry.

871

Danes occupied the city as a base for attacking England

886

Alfred the Great captured the city and fortified it.

1016

Canute, the Danish king, established London as his military capital.

1042

Edward the Confessor became king and built his church or “minster”, west of London (West Minster) and established his court there.

1066

William the Conqueror built the Tower of London to control the city which remained largely independent of royal control.

1097-9

William II built Westminster Hall

1123

St Bartholomew’s hospital founded in Smithfield

1200

London is the fifth largest city north of the Alps.

1215

Magna Carta guaranteed the City the right to elect its own mayor and council

1225

St Thomas’s Hospital established

1240-72

The present Westminster Abbey built by Henry III.

1265

Simon de Montfort calls the first parliament at Westminster

1290

London’s Jews expelled from the England by Edward I.

1300-1400

the area between Westminster and the City around Holborn becomes the legal district.

1327

Southwark receives its Royal Charter. The City, Westminster and Southwark were still separate towns.

1348

The Black Death killed one third of the city’s population

1397

Dick Wittington became Lord Mayor of London.

1422

Henry VI comes to the throne and for the first time Westminster became the permanent capital of England

1483

The two princes were murdered in the Tower

1500

Wynken de Worde, Caxton’s successor, moved his printing press to Fleet Street and established it as the centre of English printing

1529

Henry VIII seized Whitehall Palace from Cardinal Wolsey and made it his chief residence.

1599

Richard Burbage built the Globe Theatre and staged Shakespeare’s plays.

1605

Guy Fawkes’s gunpowder Plot to blow up a Parliament was foiled.

1649

Charles I was beheaded in Whitehall

1665

the Great Plague killed 100,000 people in London

1666

Thomas Farryner was person who had the single greatest impact on London’s development.  The Great Fire started in his baker’s shop and destroyed much of timber-built London.

1667

The Rebuilding Act was passed requiring new buildings to be of stone. The first of many statutes regulating building standards.

1680

Development of Mayfair began

1697

Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral had its first service

1720-51

Gin became the largest killer in London. Average consumption (including children) was two pints a week.

1732

George II gave Walpole 10 Downing Street which he used as his office, as have most subsequent prime ministers

1749

The Bow Street runners were set up as a form of local police.

1756-7

Construction of the New Road (now at the Marylebone Euston Pentonville and City roads) linking Paddington to Islington.

1760

Development of the Portman and Portland Estates, north of Oxford Street for workers

1770

Development of the Hans Town Estate in Chelsea.

1780

50,000 Londoners riot for a week in the Gordon Riots, mainly against Catholics.

1787

Lord’s cricket ground is opened

1800c

  The beginning of the development of docks east of the Tower of London

1811-25

Construction of Regent Street, Regent’s Park and Piccadilly Circus

1820

Development of St John’s Wood begins on the Eyre estate.

1820

The construction of Buckingham Palace begins

1820

Thomas Cubitt begins construction of Bloomsbury

1826

Thomas Cubitt begins construction of Belgravia

1828

Nash begins construction of Pall Mall

1829

Sir Robert Peel founds the Metropolitan Police

1830

The development of Kensington and Paddington is well under way

1836

The first train line into London was opened, for commuters from Deptford to London Bridge.

1840

Building begins on the new Houses of Parliament in Gothic style

1840

Sir Charles Barry designs Trafalgar Square. Nelson’s Column was added in 1843

1840

Thomas Cubitt begins construction of Pimlico

1851

The Great Exhibition took place in the Crystal Palace constructed in Hyde Park, later to be rebuilt in south east London

1853

Harrods opened in Knightsbridge. Its present building was built in 1901-5.

1863

The Metropolitan line became the first underground railway in London

1864-70

The Thames Embankment was constructed

1888

The London County Council was established as the first directly elected government for London

1888

the Whitechapel murders begin, attributed to “Jack the Ripper”

1894

Tower Bridge was built in Gothic style

1906

Gordon Selfridge from America opens his store in Oxford Street

1933

London Transport was created

1940

The Blitz. 30,000 people died and 130,000 houses were destroyed, mainly in the City and the East End

1950

High-rise flats are introduced to deal with the housing problem

1951

Festival of Britain on the South Bank. The South Bank complex opened

1956

London fogs become a thing of the past when the Clean Air Act outlawed coal-burning

1960-68

 “Swinging London”

1965

Greater London Council was formed as an overall coordinating authority for London

1967

 “Conservation areas” were introduced to protect historic London

1967

London Bridge was sold to the Americans and rebuilt in Arizona

1973

Covent Garden fruit market was moved to Vauxhall and plans to demolish the old buildings were beaten by the residents.

1980

Docklands east and south of the Tower or London were transformed into a residential area

1982

The Thames Barrier was opened to prevent flooding

1986

The Greater London Council was abolished by Margaret Thatcher

1999

The Millennium Dome and the Millennium Wheel were put up.

2000

Greater London Authority established with a London Mayor for the first time