About LonDoN Town (I)

Have you ever felt a deep hapyness? Deep sense of peace at the bottom of your heart?
A friend of mine told me that's called "realizacion", and she might be right. The thing is I've been feeling that sensation during last week. That sensation you get when you've finally achieved what you'd been looking for. Here I am in London finally!! So what's in this place that makes me happy?
Well, let me tell you about London:

The Romans founded London about 50 AD. Its name is derived from the Celtic word Londinios, which means the place of the bold one. After they invaded Britain in 43 AD the Romans built a bridge across the Thames. They later decided it was an excellent place to build a port. The water was deep enough for ocean going ships but it was far enough inland to be safe from Germanic raiders. Around 50 AD Roman merchants built a town by the bridge. So London was born.

Then in 61 AD Queen Boudicca led a rebellion against the Romans. Her army marched on London. No attempt was made to defend London. Boudicca burned London but after her rebellion was crushed it was rebuilt.

The population of Roman London rose to perhaps 45,000, which seems small to us but it was the largest town in Britain.

The last Roman soldier left Britain in 407 AD. London was probably abandoned. There may have been a few people living inside the walls by fishing or farming but London ceased to be a town. But soon it rose again. A new town appeared outside the walls on the site of Covent Garden. It was much smaller than Roman London with perhaps 10,000 inhabitants.

In 597 monks from Rome began the task of converting the Saxons to Christianity. In 604 a bishop was appointed for London.

By the 640's there was a mint in London making silver coins. In the 670's a Royal document called London 'the place where the ships land'.

Disaster struck London in 842 when the Danes looted London.

King Alfred the Great totally defeated the Danes in 878 and they split the country between them. The Danes took eastern England including London while Alfred took the South and West. Despite the peace treaty Alfred's men took London in 886.

The Danes returned in 994 but this time the Londoners fought them off. A writer said ' they proceeded to attack the city stoutly and wished to set it on fire but here they suffered more harm and injury than they ever thought any citizen could do them'.

Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) built a wooden palace at Westminster. Later Parliament met here. Because of this Westminster became the seat of government not the city of London itself. Edward also built Westminster Abbey, which was consecrated a few weeks before his death.

William the Conqueror occupied the royal palace at Westminster and the won over the Londoners by making various promises. William was crowned king of England at Westminster on 25 December 1066. William gave London a charter, a document confirming certain rights. Nevertheless he built a wooden tower to stand guard over London. It was replaced by a stone tower in 1078-1100. That was the beginning of the Tower of London

London was a lively place in the Middle Ages.

The population of London may have reached 50,000 by the middle of the 14th century. At least a third of the population died when the Black Death struck in 1348-49 but London soon recovered. Its population may have reached 70,000 by the end of the Middle Ages.

The population of London may have reached 120,000 by the middle of the 16th century and about 250,000 by 1600. In the Middle Ages the church owned about 1/4 of the land in London. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries it released a great deal of land for new buildings.

Nevertheless the suburbs outside London continued to grow. In the late 16th century rich men began to build houses along the Strand and by 1600 London was linked to Westminster by a strip of houses.

All this happened despite outbreaks of bubonic plague. It broke out in 1603, 1633 and 1665 but each time the population of London quickly recovered.

The last outbreak of plague in London was in 1665. But this was the last outbreak. In 1666 came the great fire of London. It began on 2 September in a baker's house in Pudding Lane.

About 13,200 houses had been destroyed and 70-80,000 people had been made homeless. The king ordered the navy to make tents and canvas available from their stores to help the homeless who camped on open spaces around the city. Temporary markets were set up so the homeless could buy food.

To prevent such a disaster happening again the king commanded that all new houses in London should be of stone and brick not wood. Citizens were responsible for rebuilding their own houses but a tax was charged on coal brought by ship into London to finance the rebuilding of churches and other public buildings. Work began on rebuilding St Pauls in 1675 but it was not finished till 1711.

The population of London rose from about 600,000 in 1700 to 950,000 in 1800.

Many new buildings were erected in London in the 18th century. Buckingham Palace was built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham. It was altered in the 19th century by John Nash (1752-1835) and the first monarch to live there was Queen Victoria in 1837.

London grew from 950,000 in 1800 to 6 million in 1900.

After 1850 Chinese immigrants started settling in Limehouse. There were also many Irish immigrants in the Docklands. By 1850 London had 20,000 Jews. Their numbers doubled in the 1880's when many refugees arrived from Russia and Eastern Europe.

Part of the reason for the growth of London was the railway, which made it possible for people to live away from the city centre and travel to work each day.

There were outbreaks of cholera in London in 1831, 1848-49 and finally in 1866. In 1859 work began on building a system of sewers for the whole city but it was not complete till 1875. After that deaths from disease fell drastically. The first underground railway opened in 1863. At first carriages were pulled by steam trains. The system was electrified in 1890-1905.

In 1834 Parliament was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt to a design by Charles Barry. The new parliament included a great clock, which is now known as Big Ben. Originally only the bell which struck the hour was called Big Ben (It was probably named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the Commissioner of Works) but in time people began to call the whole clock tower Big Ben.

London continued to be a great port but also a huge manufacturing centre.

Meanwhile in 1888 Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of the East End of London.

In the early 20th century London continued to grow rapidly.

The population of London rose from 6 million in 1900 to 8.7 million in 1939.

When the blitz began in September 1940 Londoners started sleeping in the underground stations and soon 150,000 people were sleeping there overnight. In the blitz about 20,000 people were killed and 25,000 were injured. The first blitz ended in May 1941 but in 1944 Germany began firing missiles at London and killed about 3,000 people.

In 1944 a plan for post war London was published.

In the 1950's London boomed. Car factories were very busy. So were the aircraft factories in north London. The docks were also very busy, employing 30,000 men. But in the 1960's the docks began to suffer from the break up of the British Empire.

In the 1950's West Indian immigrants started to arrive in London and by 1955 20,000 were arriving each year.

At the beginning of the 21st Century London continued to grow rapidly. The Greater London Authority was created in 2000. The same year the Tate Modern opened in a former power station. Furthermore the London Eye opened to the public in 2000. The 2012 Olympics will be held in London, confirming its status as one of the world's greatest cities.

Today the population of London is 7.2 million.