London History: Key Events, Landmarks, and Stories That Shaped the Capital
When you walk along the Thames or stand in front of Tower Bridge, you’re standing on layers of London history, the accumulated story of a city that rose from a Roman trading post to the heart of a global empire. Also known as the history of Greater London, it’s not just about kings and battles—it’s about ordinary people surviving plagues, building railways, and turning slums into neighborhoods. This city didn’t just grow. It was rebuilt, burned down, flooded, bombed, and reinvented—over and over.
Roman London, the original settlement called Londinium, was founded around 43 AD near what’s now London Bridge. Also known as Londinium, it was a busy port with a forum, baths, and a wall that still traces parts of the City today. That wall? It’s why the modern City of London feels so small compared to the rest of the metropolis. Centuries later, the Great Fire of London, a disaster that started in a bakery on Pudding Lane in 1666 and burned for four days. Also known as the 1666 fire, it destroyed 13,000 homes and 87 churches—but cleared the way for the stone buildings and wider streets we still see in the West End. The fire didn’t just change architecture. It changed how the city was governed, how people lived, and how they thought about public safety.
Then came the Victorian London, the era when the city exploded in size, powered by steam, coal, and empire. Also known as 19th-century London, it was the time of Charles Dickens’ slums, the first underground railway, and the construction of the Thames Embankment. Sewers were built not because of beauty, but because cholera kept killing thousands. The same decades saw the rise of the docks, the expansion of the railways, and the birth of modern journalism—all of which you’ll find echoed in today’s headlines about housing, transport, and inequality. London’s history isn’t locked in museums. It’s in the layout of the Tube, the names of streets, the way the fog still hangs over the river on cold mornings.
What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t a textbook. It’s the raw, messy, human side of London’s past—the forgotten plagues, the riots over bread prices, the workers who built the bridges, the immigrants who turned pubs into community centers. These aren’t just old stories. They’re the blueprint for why London works the way it does today.
What Is London's Nickname? The Real Story Behind 'The Big Smoke' and Other Names
London's most famous nickname, 'The Big Smoke,' comes from its 19th-century coal pollution-but it’s now a symbol of the city’s grit and resilience. Learn why it stuck and what other names London has carried over centuries.