The Thames and its estuary hold numerous dangers for navigation. In the reign of Henry VIII a group of master mariners formed what has become known as Trinity House to ensure safety on the river. Five hundred years later the organisation continues to play an important role in maritime navigation.

Many vessels have run aground over the centuries in the Thames Estuary and its approaches. That was particularly so in the days of sail, before reliable charts, and when ships tended to stay within sight of the shore in order to navigate by landmarks such as church spires. The Maplin Sands and many other long, shifting, tongues of sand lie up to 40 miles off the Essex coast where the Thames meets the North Sea, to be avoided by ships passing into and out of the estuary on the way to east coast ports and beyond. Some are in a Y-shape, where an apparently deep channel ends in a fatal cul-de-sac. Ships en-route from London and east coast ports down to France and southern Europe must pass the Goodwin Sands off the Kent coast, described by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice as “where the carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried”. Well over a thousand vessels have been recorded as having been lost there since the late 15^th century and parts of unrecorded, more ancient, vessels still occasionally snag the nets of fishing boats.

It was vitally important for mariners to understand the underwater dangers, the ever-changing times of the tides according to the moon and their location along the river, the effect of the wind, and to know local landmarks during poor visibility. In 1513 a group of eminent masters and mariners petitioned Henry VIII that the standard of pilotage on the river had declined in recent times and regulation of pilots was required. From its foundation by letters patent in May 1514 responsibility for safety on the river was given to ‘The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild or Fraternitie of the most glorious and blessed Trinitie and of Saint Clement in the parish Church of Deptford Stronde in the County of Kent’, otherwise known as Trinity House, Deptford. The organisation was to provide pilotage – the safe guiding of ships by experienced English pilots – along the Thames, particularly through its shifting sandbanks in the Estuary.

The membership of Trinity House consisted of those with a wide range of nautical interests. An Act of Parliament of 1566 under Queen Elizabeth extended their responsibilities to ensure the upkeep and continuation of seamarks around the coast, those being landmarks such as church steeples and trees used by mariners to fix their position. In 1594 the provision of beacons and buoys was similarly transferred from the Lord High Admiral and the corporation gradually began providing lighthouses, their first probably being at Lowestoft in the early years of the 17^th century. The cost to the corporation regarding all these works was funded by dues paid by ships arriving at London, where it was collected by the officials of Custom House, and at other ports.

Ship ballast was particularly necessary for any unladen ship, such as colliers returning empty to Newcastle. Using wet ballast from the Thames also reduced the cost of the important dredging of the river to prevent silting. During the 16^th century the right to produce ballast was disputed between the City of London Corporation and the Lord High Admiral. The latter had been digging gravel from Old Gravel Lane (later renamed Wapping Lane). The 1594 Act settled the matter, instead transferring the right to Trinity House. The corporation’s rights and responsibilities were further extended in 1604 under James I, including the supervision of apprenticeships of seamen and to hold a court dealing with disputes, such as between masters and seamen or regarding damage to ships.

The members of Trinity House remained loyal to Charles I during the Civil War. In the summer of 1648 rumours circulating in Holland reached the Parliamentary side that Trinity House was encouraging seamen to join the Royalist navy. In February 1649, a month after the execution of the King, Parliament formed a committee of loyal overseas merchants to govern Trinity House. The organization, purged of Royalists, played a part in the formulation of commercial policy during the Commonwealth period.

From the beginning, Trinity House was involved in charitable work. Almshouses for elderly seamen and their widows were provided at Deptford. In 1695 Captain Henry Mudd, an Elder Brother, provided an estate of houses and chapel on his land at Ratcliff, much of which still remains at Mile End Road although no longer for its original purpose. Pensions were also paid to elderly or injured seamen, and by 1618 they were providing to one hundred and sixty people, which had risen to over one thousand one hundred in 1681.

Trinity House was governed by a court of eighteen Elder Brethren, some of whom were leading mariners, navigators and naval men of their day, who met at least once each week. At some point in their early years a lower class of Younger Brethren came into being, numbering 254 by 1629, mostly living around Stepney or Rotherhithe. The expansion of the membership effectively created a guild consisting largely of shipmasters, limited to natural-born Englishmen who could afford the subscription. The Brethren were headed by a Master, the first of whom was Thomas Spert, an experienced and eminent seaman from Stepney who rose through the ranks to captain the great Henri Grace à Dieu. He was knighted in 1529 and held the post until his death in 1541.

After Spert, a new Master was elected at Trinity House every three years. The naval administrator and diarist Samuel Pepys held the position of Master on two occasions, as did the Duke of Wellington between 1837 and 1852. Since 1866 the Master has been an honorary role bestowed on a member of the royal family, with the management undertaken by the Deputy Master. For 42 years it was held by the Duke of Edinburgh until his retirement in 2011 when it was conferred on the Princess Royal. Elder brethren have included Winston Churchill.

In 1618 the working headquarters of Trinity House moved to Ratcliff, the area where many of London’s merchant seaman resided. Following the Restoration a move was made to Water Lane, close to the Tower of London. That building was destroyed in the Great Fire, as was its successor in 1714. After extensive repairs in the 1790s the headquarters moved for the final time into a grand building facing the Tower of London across Tower Hill, designed by the architect Samuel Wyatt and completed in 1796. It was largely destroyed during an air raid in December 1940 but restored with much Georgian detail in 1953 and is Grade 1 listed. Many of the historical records and artworks were destroyed in the fires and bombing yet the building still contains a magnificent collection connected to its history.

As part of its responsibility for buoys and lighthouses, at the beginning of the 19^th century Trinity House established riverside workshops near Blackwall, where the River Lea joins the Thames. From there maintenance work could be carried out and experiments undertaken, for which two lighthouses were built at the yard. The electrical scientist Michael Faraday was appointed Scientific Advisor in 1836 and undertook experiments that led to advancements in lighthouses around the coast. Trinity Buoy Wharf continued in operation until 1988 although the main buildings and one lighthouse remain.

Trinity House continued as the sole authority for pilotage on the Thames and around the coast until 1986, by which time it managed around 500 self-employed pilots. At that time responsibility for pilotage on the river was transferred to the Port of London Authority with Thames pilots directly employed. Trinity House continues as a licensed authority for deep sea pilotage in Northern European waters, as well as navigation aids, including lighthouses, lightships and buoys around England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. It continues to carry out charitable and educational work including a cadet training scheme. In modern times the Elder Brethren are supported by around 300 Younger Brethren.

Sources include: G.G.Harris ‘The Trinity House of Deptford 1514-1660’; ‘Trinity House Headquarters Building’ (Trinity House); Peter Marsden ‘Ships of the Port of London 12^th-17^th Centuries’; Fiona Rule ‘London’s Docklands’; Millicent Rose ‘The East End of London’; Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith ‘The History of East London’, Robert Brenner ‘Merchants and Revolution’.

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In September 1777 Samuel Johnson was discussing with James Boswell (who was later to become his biographer) whether the latter, a Scotsman, would tire of London should he move to the city. Johnson replied with the most famous of his many quotes: “No sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. Dr. Samuel Johnson, perhaps now most famous for the creation of the first major dictionary of the English language, was regarded as the leading literary Englishman of the mid-18^th century. Other notable works included a study of Shakespeare’s plays and a major critical study of English poets. The contemporary novelist Charlotte Lennox considered him “the greatest genius of the present age”.

Johnson was a physically large man with a booming voice who considered conversation as a sport, with debates to be won using his verbal skills. At times he could be overbearing and downright rude but below the large, loud and often strange exterior was a kindly man who felt obliged to help those around him less fortunate than himself.

Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1709, the son of a local bookseller, Johnson suffered from poor eyesight, having to read books up close to his face. He was also deaf in one ear. A precocious child, he had the ability to memorise a text after just a brief reading. From an early age he stood out for his unusual mannerisms and habits, which can now be understood as Tourette’s syndrome. It produced regular bouts of depression that he thought to be madness. When the artist William Hogarth first encountered him he thought him “an ideot” until Johnson began speaking, and his eloquence became clear.

Johnson studied at Oxford but left due to lack of funds, and drifted into employment as a teacher and then a journalist. Aged only 25 he married a widow almost twice his age. An attempt at running his own boarding school near Lichfield was a failure. In 1737 he set off to seek employment in London together with one of the school’s pupils, the teenage David Garrick, who did indeed achieve fame and fortune as the most celebrated actor and impresario of his time. Arriving without funds he spent his time wandering the city, delighting in its taverns and coffee houses. A meagre income as a writer on Gentleman’s Magazine allowed him to bring his wife Tetty to London. Articles on Parliamentary proceedings were written as though fiction, in which he wrote of the American colonies as ‘Columbia’, a term that became widely used for North America. His first major published work, the poem London, appeared in 1738.

At that time the English dictionaries that existed were of poor quality, without comprehensive and accurate definitions. A bookshop owner gave Johnson the idea of producing one of greater accuracy and in 1746 he agreed a fee to produce such a work. With funds available, he and Tetty moved to a large new house at Gough Square off Fleet Street and six assistants were employed to help with the task. In France 40 scholars of the Académie Française took 40 years to produce a dictionary of their language but Johnson boasted that an Englishman could complete the equivalent work in just three. In creating it he read not only works of literature but also history, science, theology, and other subjects. Despite his intentions, Johnson failed to prevent it becoming an objective work, with numerous personal opinions and jibes included within the definitions. The description for the word ‘dull’ became: “To make dictionaries is dull work.” The task eventually took three times longer than planned but Dictionary of the English Language was published in two large volumes in April 1755 and contained almost 43,000 entries. It remained the pre-eminent British reference until the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary in about 1930.

At the same time as working on his dictionary, needing to find additional income Johnson founded a twice-weekly publication, in which he anonymously printed essays on moral topics. The Rambler was inspired by earlier periodicals such as the Tatler and the Spectator. It sold for two pence per copy and appeared continuously for two years between 1750 and 1752. Unfortunately, the audience was not large enough to make the venture profitable, leading to the paper’s eventual closure.

For almost 50 years Johnson lived at various rented properties around Fleet Street and the Strand. During the early years he rented cheap bachelor apartments. After Gough Square (which is now the Johnson museum) the Johnson household moved to Staple Inn, then Inner Temple Lane, Johnson Court and finally Bolt Court.

Despite the acclaim given to Johnson’s dictionary he received no further income from it beyond the original fee agreed. His writing was producing little remuneration and he and Tetty continued to live on his meager earnings, often surviving by borrowing money. During most of the time she lived in London Tetty suffered from illness. In 1752 she travelled back to the Midlands where she died that March. Johnson was mortified and mourned for her on the anniversary of her death throughout his life.

Throughout the Middle Ages London’s import and export trade was with the near Continent. During the Tudor period the transformation began in which the city and its environs were to become the country’s leader in shipbuilding and the world’s premier financial centre. Trade difficulties with Continental neighbours led to voyages of discovery. In the following centuries these beginnings would lead to London becoming the capital of the world’s largest empire.

The riverside of the City of London had for centuries, by the Tudor period, been busy with ships and smaller vessels coming and going. Quays and warehouses lined the north bank of the river from the Tower up to London Bridge and above the bridge as far as Queenhithe. No doubt the sails and masts of vessels on the river could be seen from many points in the town.

The movement of goods up and down the narrow streets that descended to the river was handled by members of fellowships of porters. From the early 14^th century the City had made rules regarding the unloading and measuring of corn at Queenhithe. Salt, coal and other goods such as fruit and shellfish, cloth, skins, and products in barrels were gradually regulated and their handling monopolised by different types of porter, who were freemen of the City.

The main Customs office for the entire port, where the officials based themselves, continued as before at Custom House Quay, upstream of the Tower. Official inspectors from there boarded each ship as it arrived to obtain a certificate of the vessel’s cargo and to calculate the duty.

London’s maritime trade with the Continental countries had risen steadily during the 12th and 13th centuries but had been hard hit during the period of the Hundred Years War that ended in the mid-1400s. From the latter part of that century commerce, such as the importing of French wine and the main exports of wool and cloth, began rapidly to rise again and growth continued during Tudor times. By 1500 about 45 percent of England’s wool and 70 percent of cloth exports were passing through the Port of London, much of it to Antwerp and Calais. There were many cloth-finishing workers around the Antwerp area, with a ready market for un-dyed, unfinished English broadcloths. During the 16^th century exports of cloth became London’s dominant export.

Throughout the medieval period foreign merchants, often with superior ships and monopolies in certain goods and markets, dominated trade in and out of London. One such group was the Hanseatic League, or Hanse. They were a confederation of merchants from towns across northern Europe, from the Low Countries to Russia, and centred on Lübeck, who monopolised trade in the Baltic area. In 1493 Henry VI banned Flemish merchants from trading in London, a move that favoured the Hanse, who obtained the right to import Flemish cloth. This caused a riot by London merchants who had previously traded with the Flemings and the Hanse’s London base at the Steelyard in Upper Thames Street was attacked and temporarily destroyed.

A shipbuilding and repair industry, as well as associated trades such as rope and sail-making, had existed in London since Saxon times. As the city became more congested those enterprises moved further downstream. By the 14^th century they were located in riverside hamlets at Ratcliffe, Shadwell, Limehouse, Poplar, Blackwall and Rotherhithe where ships could be pulled up on mud berths. Work on naval vessels was supervised by the Clerk of the King’s Ships who was based close by at the Tower of London. A Company of Shipwrights trade guild was established by the 15^th century with their own meeting hall at Ratcliffe.

When Henry VIII was at war with France he found it inconvenient that his navy was based at Portsmouth, far from the Royal Armoury at the Tower of London. He decided that the ideal locations were close to his palace at Greenwich, at the Kent fishing villages of Deptford, Woolwich and Erith, which were also easier to defend than Portsmouth. These yards came to employ men with shipbuilding and repairing skills and there was a need for local suppliers and administrators with suitable knowledge. Initially the facilities on the Thames were rather small but Henry invested heavily in the navy and they grew ever larger and better-organised. During his reign the King’s Yard at Deptford expanded to 30 acres, including two wet-docks, three slips large enough for warships, forges, rope-making and other facilities. All these factors created an enlarged industry that was not only useful for naval shipping but for the wider Port of London. The area to the east of London therefore grew to become the ship-building capital of England at the end of the 16^th century.

New methods of ship construction had been introduced at the end of the previous century, changing from the old ‘clinker’ to the newer ‘carvel’ type. Larger ships required additional sails, with more than one mast to support them. These new ships were more robust, with greater manoeuvrability, of larger capacity, faster, and cheaper to build. By 1545 all ships built on the Thames were in the new style.

Increased shipping on the Thames, and accusations that some dishonest pilots were being paid by rival merchants to run ships aground, created a need for new rules and standards to prevent accidents. A group of masters and mariners petitioned Henry VIII that regulation of pilots was required. From its foundation by royal charter in March 1514 responsibility for safety on the river was given to ‘The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild or Fraternitie of the most glorious and blessed Trinitie and Saint Clement in the parish Church of Deptford Stronde in the County of Kent’. Trinity House, as they became known, were given the responsibility to provide pilotage – the safe guiding of ships by experienced pilots – along the Thames, particularly through its shifting sandbanks in the Estuary. Their work was funded by a levy on vessels entering the port, collected by Customs House in London. The only ship-owners not obliged to use their services were the Hanseatic League.

Queen Elizabeth extended the responsibilities of Trinity House. By the middle of the century they were involved in a number of river-related activities such as the provision of buoys and beacons to mark safe channels, the supply of ballast, and (from 1566) the authorisation of Thames watermen. Trinity House continues to be responsible for lighthouses, buoys and navigation around the coast in modern times.

The most important group of traders in northern Europe during the Middle Ages was the Hanse, often referred to as the Hanseatic League. Their London base was known as the Steelyard and they were crucial to the city’s economy for several hundred years.

The Hanse began as a trading association – ‘confederatio’ or alliance – of individual merchants who traded overseas. Its principal aims were to obtain privileges and protect its members’ interests (such as against burdensome taxes and duties) in places where they traded, and against piracy. The preferential customs rates the Hanse negotiated with medieval English monarchs, and the wool and cloth they could export, attracted them to England, with London eventually becoming their local headquarters. They remained as one the most important groups of merchants in London until the late 16^th century.

During the second half of the 14^th century membership of the Hanse became restricted to merchants of particular towns and it was the towns themselves that were thereafter the members, although the emphasis of their interest remained solely commercial. It was never a sovereign or political body and the individual towns owed allegiance to different kingdoms. There were generally about seventy member towns, mostly, but not restricted to, German-speaking areas. Non-Germanic member towns included Novgorod (now in Russia but mostly a Swedish area in the Middle Ages) and Riga (now the modern-day capital of Latvia). Towns joined or departed from the Hanse according to their interests, activity and needs, or on very rare occasions were expelled. The Hanse had no permanent officials but matters were debated by a central ‘diet’ or assembly of members that met when necessary, usually at the inland port of Lübeck.

Merchants from Germanic towns, then known as ‘Easterlings’, had already been granted privileges in London by around 1000AD during the reign of King Aethelred II. There was little differentiation in the minds of most Londoners between the merchants from Flanders, Holland, Zeeland and Germanic towns and they were all described as ‘Doche’ (or Dutch, from the German word ‘Deutsch’). Most of those trading in London were from Cologne, while those from Lübeck and Hamburg traded with East Coast ports. In the 12^th century the Cologners were primarily importing metal goods from Cologne and the Meuse Valley, as well as Rhine wine. It was probably the Germanic merchants who introduced new methods of weighing to London: official weights of the mid-13^th century were known as ‘steelyard weights’.

In 1157 the men of Cologne purchased a hall at Dowgate from Danish merchants and in the Liber Albus book of London regulations, compiled in 1419, it was still being referred to as the ‘Hall of the Danes’. At the same time as their purchase they were given protection by Henry II, a sign of their importance. Further charters and letters of protection were issued by Richard I and his brother King John. During the famines of the mid-13^th century the Cologners were able to import grain, and this led to additional privileges being granted by Henry III. It was during his reign that the men of Hamburg and Lübeck gained the same rights as those of Cologne.

Henry by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, etc. To the citizens of London to whom these Presents shall come, greeting: Know ye that, at the Instance of the most Serene Prince of the Roman Empire, our Brother [Richard], we have granted to these Merchants of Almain who have a House in our City of London, which is called commonly Guilda Aula Theutonicorum, that we will maintain them all and every one, and preserve them through our whole Kingdom, in all their liberties and free Customs, which they have used in our Times, and in the Times of our Progenitors, and will not withdraw such Liberties and free Customs from them, nor suffer them to be at all withdrawn from them, etc. Witness my Self at Westminster the 15^th of June in the 44^th year of our Reign.

During the second half of the 13^th century the merchants of Cologne, Hamburg and Lübeck, plus merchants of Gotland, merged into one community in London, probably based at the Cologne gildhall. It was perhaps demands by Londoners in return for liberties that united the different groups. A disagreement that lasted several years was settled by the Exchequer in July 1282, whereby the Hanse were required to pay 210 marks to maintain Bishopsgate, the entrance to London from the north, for then and into the future, and contribute to the cost of its watch (in the sense of policing). In return they were freed from payments of murage (a tax to maintain the city walls and civic buildings), could sell corn directly from their granaries, and had the right to appoint an alderman who could oversee their own court. (Bishopsgate was taken back from the Hanse by the City aldermen in the 1460s).

A legal case brought by the London merchant William de Widdleslade in 1316, in which he made claims regarding theft of goods from a ship sailing from Flanders, led the Hanse in England to seek new protection for themselves. In December 1317 they paid the large sum of £1,000 to purchase a confirmation from Edward II of previous rights granted, immunity from arrest, and that neither he nor future monarchs could place impositions on them without their consent. Thus, a solid legal foundation was created for the Hanse in England, although political and commercial circumstances would often lead to it being disregarded by monarchs and Parliament in later times.

During the late 13^th and early 14^th century political events allowed the German merchants to have dominance in shipping England’s main export of wool. Politics caused a swing in the opposite direction by the latter 14^th century and the wool trade was lost to them but by then they were trading in English cloth.

By the beginning of the 14^th century some members of the Hanse had been permanent residents in London for enough time for them to gain the rights of denizens. Their proximity to the seat of government at Westminster led them to represent the interests of the Hanse throughout England despite greater trade with the East Coast ports. There were numerous occasions when it was necessary for the Hanse in London to defend their rights through legal action, despite Edward II’s grants of 1317. With an increasingly hostile parliament the Hanse thereafter ensured that their charters of privilege were renewed by each succeeding monarch.

The Thames was of great importance to Roman London. It was a 300-kilometre long highway to the west and the east, it brought drinking water for the town’s inhabitants and their animals, and it provided abundant fish and other seafood. Barges carried grain from upriver, while ships brought goods from other parts of the empire and sent exports in the other direction.

A key reason for where the Romans established Londinium was that a bridge could be built to allow a dry crossing over the Thames. Another was that the river was tidal up to that point, and perhaps as far as the modern-day Westminster. Its location opposite the mouth of the rivers Rhine and Scheldt, and the relatively short sea-crossing from the ports of Caletum (Calais) and Gesoriacum (Boulogne), ensured that most goods coming to Britannia were funnelled through Londinium. The sea journey from the Rhine estuary to Londinium was around 36 hours so, with turn-around time, a ship could make three or more voyages each fortnight.

Ships were swept up and down the river from the Thames Estuary to Londinium using the power of the tides. Without the tides it would have been tricky and arduous to navigate the winding river by wind and sail alone. Even so, it was unlikely that large vessels could reach Londinium. The sternpost rudder had not yet been invented and a ship’s direction was achieved by a large oar protruding from the right-hand side of the stern – the steer-board or ‘starboard’ side of the boat – or oar rudders on each side. The shifting sands of the Thames Estuary were treacherous, and it was probably also quite difficult to manoeuvre the larger ships through the wide bend that passed around the Isle of Dogs before reaching Londinium. Larger, sea-going ships were more likely to dock at Rutupiae (Richborough) or Dubris (Dover), the latter being the base of the local naval fleet, the Classis Britannica. Cargoes were then brought to and from there on smaller, flat-bottomed vessels capable of sitting on the foreshore at low tide. A variety of smaller vessels could ply up and down the Thames, to and from the coast or even across from the near-Continent.

The main port of Londinium was situated along the north bank of the river where wharves and warehouses were constructed. The Roman bridge over the river, built in 85-90AD, seems to have been in the same location as its medieval successor, that is with its northern end in line with Fish Street Hill, and was built of timber. It probably acted as a barrier past which only the smallest boats could pass, so coastal and sea-going ships loaded and unloaded immediately downstream of it.

There is little evidence of a formal harbour prior to the Boudicca revolt of 60AD, but writing some decades later, the Roman historian Tacitus looked back to Londinium immediately after the rebellion as “a colony much frequented by merchants and trading vessels”. We can probably assume, however, that the first quays were established from about 62AD, and the port continued to expand until the 3^rd century.

From around 100AD and into modern times riparian owners have continuously advanced river walls in London further into the river. This had the effects of narrowing the channel and creating more quay-space. The advance of the quays in later centuries means that the original Roman harbour was not along the current riverbank but over 100 metres further north, under what is now Thames Street. However, the process of reclamation began during the Roman period, so the quays of the 3^rd century in the central part of the city were further south than those of 150 years earlier.

During the 1^st century the earliest Roman quays advanced the line of the waterfront by about 15 metres. The creation of the waterfront will have been a major enterprise and is unlikely to have been the work of an individual. It seems have been undertaken by the town authority, and archaeological discoveries indicate the involvement of the military.

To the west of the bridge a terrace was formed, held in place by a framework of braced timber baulks stacked horizontally on top of each other. This created a uniform frontage about two metres higher than the flood level, with a small jetty protruding into the river. Buildings, perhaps houses, warehouses or factories, were then constructed over this terrace. The waterfront west of the bridge initially extended to the mouth of the Walbrook stream, and beyond it by 200AD.

To the east of the bridge was a timber landing stage, nearly 60 metres in length east to west, constructed in 70AD. A braced timber wall faced onto the river but was not infilled and probably topped by timber decking. It was this section where ships moored to be loaded and unloaded. There were open-fronted warehouses along the quay, built of timber. The quays were lined with small warehouses for temporary storage. Some of the first buildings were later destroyed or badly damaged by fire and there was therefore occasional reconstruction of buildings. It is quite possible that the warehouses around the riverside were managed by the city’s authority. The quayside probably acted in part as a market, with some sales made directly from the vessels.

As the riverside moved southwards and new storage buildings erected along the new lines, former waterfront buildings were gradually transformed from commercial to residential use, somewhat similar to how 19^th century warehouses in Docklands have been reused in modern times. Some of these buildings lasted for 300 years.

The Roman towns of Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (St. Albans) and Londinium were all destroyed during Boudicca’s rebellion of 60AD. Camulodunum was the original Roman capital of Britannia but it was inconveniently situated. By contrast, Londinium was strategically sited: a network of roads spread out in all directions from either end of its bridge over the Thames, and ships brought goods to its port. The necessity to rebuild the three towns following their destruction in Boudicca’s rebellion provided the opportunity to move the capital of Britannia to Londinium. The previously modest settlement was to become a local copy of Rome, with many grand buildings to house the senior officials and provincial administrative offices.

It was rare for an important city in the Roman Empire to not be a caput civitatis – chief town – of its respective area. Camulodunum and Verulamium were ancient settlements, pre-dating the Romans, that each governed their local areas. Londinium was unique in the Roman Empire: it was an entirely new town that had not existed before their arrival and therefore had no region to govern. Yet after it was to be rebuilt as the colonia (capital) of the new province of Britannia. The first settlement had been so completely destroyed in the rebellion that new streets had to be laid out, and they were on different alignments to what had existed before. The two exceptions were the two roads that formed a cross through the centre: the modern-day Cheapside, and Bishopsgate. At some time between 85 and 90AD a new bridge was built across the Thames, constructed of wood, and located approximately one hundred metres east of the current London Bridge.

New timber quays were constructed along the north riverbank to the east and west of London Bridge, forming wharves that were gradually lined by parallel warehouses. Trade flourished, with manufactured goods and Mediterranean foods imported from all parts of the Empire. Although the continuing military campaigns in the distant parts of Britain were far away, many of the supplies for the army from the Continent were channelled through Londinium, arriving either by ship or across the bridge. The town and its port were kept busy and wealthy.

The rebuilding of Londinium into a grand city did not happen quickly. Buildings were erected in the 60s and 70s, then replaced in the following decades and by later generations, particularly during the last decades of the 1^st century and first decades of the next. In the period 80-100 many of the previously simple structures were upgraded. Public buildings were built in Kentish ragstone, brought by boat from a quarry at the River Medway near Maidstone. The previous timber-framed wattle and daub thatched cottages were replaced by others of plasterwork and tiled roofs. A defensive mound was created around the outside of the town. By 100AD Londinium was beginning to look like the type of Roman town we would normally imagine.

A large complex of grand government buildings covering five acres around a central courtyard were gradually constructed from around 70AD until the end of the century. It seems to have started as simple administrative offices, located above a goldsmith’s workshop. Over time it grew into a series of buildings and courtyards taking up a large block of the town where Cannon Street railway station now stands, with the Londinium to Westminster road along its northern side. Its southern side fronted on to the river, allowing the arrival of visitors and goods directly from ships.

The government buildings were probably the headquarters of the Provincial Consul of Britannia, the Provincial Procurator and treasury, the traffic prefect, and the postal service, together with the offices of the various administrative staff of each department. The imperial postal service was responsible for organising the delivery of urgent government communications by horse messenger relays or carriages, as well as less urgent or bulkier traffic carried by ox- or mule-pulled wagons. The traffic prefect controlled the maintenance of the provincial road network.

The basilica – the city hall – was the administrative centre of each Roman town, dealing with the local issues, as opposed to the wider government of the civitates or province as a whole. A vast three-story basilica was constructed in the centre of Londinium on the site of the modern-day Leadenhall Market. Work began in around 90AD and took 30 years to complete. Larger in area than the present St. Paul’s Cathedral it was the biggest north of the Alps, dominating the skyline of the town. Londinium was clearly being planned at that time as one of the greatest cities of the empire.

Larger Roman towns such as Londinium were sub-divided into smaller administrative wards known as vicinia, with members known as vicini, headed by a magister who chaired a local committee. The town council, or ordo, consisted of a citizen assembly of at least a hundred free-born adult males and their role was to elect magistrates, or duumviri. Assembly councillors were unpaid for the time spent in carrying out their duties. Only those with sufficient wealth or income were eligible to become duumviri, with a qualification set according to the size of the candidate’s property, possibly measured by the number of roof tiles. Wealth was necessary because they were obliged to provide entertainment of gladiatorial games, horse racing, and theatrical performances for the town’s population from their own pocket. In addition to overseeing the welfare of the town and providing for certain services and entertainment the magistrates acted as judges in criminal cases of civil disputes between the town’s citizens.

The various officials and administrators overseeing the organisation and public works of Londinium were based in the basilica. There was the treasury and office of the police chief, various officials responsible for public baths, streets, aqueducts and water supply, markets, temples, wharves and shipping. Lawyers drew up contracts and represented the town in disputes with contractors. The frumentarii were responsible for ensuring there was a ready supply of corn, and olearii of oil. Inspectors were responsible for ensuring that bread and other foodstuffs were of the correct weight and quality. In some cases these tasks were dealt with by council members and in others by full-time civil servants. Much of the work, such as the upkeep and management of public buildings, was given over to sub-contractors. The town authorities also provided a health service in the form of public doctors, as did some temples for the poor, although the wealthier citizens employed their own.

Following the Norman Conquest of 1066 London continued much as before, except with a new French ruling class. It was still not the most important town in the kingdom but was important enough that the King granted the town’s commune important rights. The nearby Palace of Westminster was starting to be the base of the king’s civil servants.

There was no need for a capital during William’s the Conqueror’s reign since government took place and laws decided by the King and his courtiers wherever they went. William and his successors were not based in one place and travelled around the various towns and palaces of their lands in England and Normandy. Yet London, with its sea-route to the Continent, was a town conveniently situated for a leader with an Anglo-Norman empire to rule. William generally held court at Westminster for the great feast of Whitsun when he would entertain the leading barons and clergy of his lands. However, he also had equally important palaces at Gloucester and Winchester, the latter being where the royal treasury was kept.

During the years after the conquest William rewarded his Norman noblemen with land around England. Almost all bishops were brought from Normandy, although the sitting Bishop of London was already a Norman even before the Conquest.

In case of uprising from London’s population, three stockades were constructed around the edge of the city. Two, on the west side, were built and occupied by Norman knights. The third, outside the south-east side was constructed on William’s orders as a royal castle and that became the Tower of London.

But London was both powerful and wealthy and William needed its income from taxes. It was necessary for him to guard himself against uprising but also gain the allegiance of the town’s population. As a result of negotiation by William, Bishop of London, the King issued a charter of reassurance soon after his coronation, which reads:

William king greets William the bishop and Geoffrey the portreeve and all the citizens in London, French and English, in friendly fashion; and I inform you that it is my will that your laws and customs be preserved as they were in King Edward’s day, that every son be his father’s heir after his father’s death; and that I will not that any man do wrong to you. God yield you.^¹

In other words: French and English people should live together in London in peace; that the city may continue to use the laws under which it had previously been governed; that the king would not dispute the inheritance of property; and that he would undertake to protect it from attack. Although a Norman, Bishop William had been appointed by Edward the Confessor prior to the conquest. Geoffrey the portreeve (tax collector) was a newly-arrived Norman. The document was written in English by a native scribe and contains William’s seal. Centuries later, during the Middle Ages, it became a tradition for the mayor and aldermen of London to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral to pray for the soul of Bishop William for his efforts in obtaining the charter from the King.

Despite the conquest, life in the city continued more or less uninterrupted as before, except that plots of land were given over to Norman noblemen. Ships continued to unload at Billingsgate, Dowgate and Garlickhythe, and the markets at Eastcheape and Westcheape remained busy and noisy. The oldest-surviving record of the names of London’s aldermen was written in around 1127 and shows that 60 years after the conquest the majority had English names. Although most of the town’s population of between ten and fifteen thousand were Saxon, it was a very cosmopolitan place where Normans, French, Norwegians, Danes, Germans and Flemings mingled.

William knew of the importance of the Jews of Rouen in Normandy for finance and invited them to London. A Jewish Quarter began to grow to the south-east of the Guildhall where it remained for the next two centuries.

As part of the Norman empire, with royal links to Flanders, and without serious threat of attack from Vikings, London’s overseas trade flourished. New wharves were created along London’s riverbank, as well as a new parallel road, the modern-day Upper and Lower Thames Streets.

Inhabitants often left their fires burning all night to keep warm and to save the work of re-kindling in the morning, resulting in many disasters in a town constructed of wood. After an extensive blaze had destroyed many buildings in 1077, including the original Tower of London, William issued an unpopular decree that all fires must be extinguished at night, described as a “cuevrefeu”, the origin of the English word ‘curfew’. Nevertheless, only ten years later “the holy church of St. Paul…was burnt down, as well as many other churches and the largest and fairest part of the whole city” according to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

Following its destruction in 1087 it was decided to build St. Paul’s on the same site but on a much grander scale. It was so large that it took over 130 years to complete, dwarfed all other structures in the city, and could be seen from miles around. The Norman building was designed in the Romanesque style.

After the death of William in 1087 the English throne passed to his second son, William Rufus, bypassing the eldest son Robert. After ten years on the throne William II ordered the construction of a great new hall as an extension to the Palace of Westminster and it was completed in time for him to hold court there at Whitsuntide 1099. By the standards of the day the great Westminster Hall was a vast building, certainly the largest hall in England and possibly the whole of Europe. Its size was such that the King could hold court, as well as the largest state banquets and ceremonial occasions.

Even by the late Norman period Westminster was considered one of the most important of the royal palaces. Over time the business of ruling England became more complex and the King devolved duties to a growing bureaucracy. It was less convenient for his officials to be continually travelling with the royal court and permanent offices began to be established for them. During the time of William II the Court of Exchequer, responsible for the accounts of the Treasury, began to conduct its business from the Great Hall at Westminster, with its clerks housed close by. The head of the Exchequer, the Chancellor, was also responsible for the creation and maintenance of laws.

The streets of London had developed by a largely organic and disorderly process over many centuries, with little in the way of any kind of plan or uniformity. King Charles I was interested in creating areas and buildings in the capital that would rival those of the major cities of the Continent. Covent Garden became London’s first planned suburb.

In the first decades of the 17^th century Francis Russell, 4^th Earl of Bedford wanted to develop his land known as Covent Garden between Long Acre and the Strand. In medieval times it had been a market garden belonging to and supplying produce to Westminster Abbey. Bedford obtained a licence from the King to develop 48 acres and commissioned the architect Inigo Jones to create a group of residential buildings and a church.

The London-born Inigo Jones was the most significant architect of his generation. As a young man he travelled to Italy to study and was influenced by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio. From there he travelled to Denmark, where he worked on the designs of palaces for King Christian IV. Queen Anne of Demark, Christian’s sister, married King James of England and when Jones returned to England he produced costumes and scenery for masques at Whitehall Palace, working with the dramatist Ben Johnson. By around 1608 Jones was taking architectural commissions and from 1613 acted as Surveyor of the King’s Works. He made a second trip to Italy, together with the Earl of Arundel where he studied classical architecture. In 1616 he started work on Queen’s House at Greenwich and Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace from 1619.

For Covent Garden Jones decided to base his designs on observations he had made in Paris and a piazza he had seen at Livorno in northern Italy, creating something similar to the recently completed Place des Vosges in Paris.

The first buildings to be completed in 1631 were two four-storey premises on what became the west side of the development. They were followed by 22 five-storey stuccoed and pilastered houses along two terraces to the north and east. The top three floors of each house extended beyond the ground floor creating a public arcade at street level along which people could walk in all weathers. Below ground each house contained a large basement. A luxurious feature was that water was piped through conduits to the back yard of each building. By the standards of London at that time they were of a revolutionary style, with elegant, uniform façades. These dwellings were unusual in that middle-class people lived side by side rather than individual premises of varying sorts as they had previously. They were more typical of Dutch towns such as Antwerp and Amsterdam than anything that had previously been built in England and set a new standard that would be followed in London and other British cities during the following centuries. The houses immediately became popular residences for wealthier Londoners. At the outset each house was leased to its tenants, with the first terms being of 31 years but later terms of 41 years.

The new church of St. Paul’s was planned for local residents, sitting between the two original four-storey buildings on the west side. At that time almost all churches in London and elsewhere in England had existed since at least the Middle Ages and the one at Covent Garden was the first Anglican church to be built on a new site in England since the Reformation of the previous century. The Earl, presumably viewing a church as something that would bring no profit, did not want to pay a large sum for its building and (according to Horace Walpole, writing over a century later) instructed Jones that he “would have it not much better than a barn” to which the architect replied: “You shall have the handsomest barn in England!”.

Jones originally designed the church with the altar at the west end allowing for an entrance and grand portico, with two round and two square Tuscan columns, opening at the east into the piazza. However, the unusual location for the altar was not accepted by the Anglican authorities and it was moved to the traditional east end. Nevertheless, Jones went ahead with his plan for the portico onto the piazza, making it at that time the dominant feature of the square. To complete the design a false door was created below the portico but with the church entered through the churchyard at the opposite end, giving it a strange and unique layout.

The intention was that St.Paul’s would become the local parish church, which required Parliamentary legislation. However, Parliament was suspended for many years and when it was finally recalled other national events took precedence so it was not until 1660 that Covent Garden officially became a parish.

When originally completed the entire development was built around an open square, or piazza. The terraced houses made up the eastern and northern sides; the church and two other buildings the western side; and the rear garden wall of the Earl’s Tudor-style Bedford House, which fronted on to the north side of the Strand, along the southern side. The original plan was to include some form of structure in the centre such as a fountain or statue but initially only a single tree was planted that was in turn later replaced with a column. The piazza became a place for Londoners to take a stroll and for open-air public entertainment. In 1662 Samuel Pepys wrote of watching a Punch and Judy show beneath the portico of St. Paul’s.

Following the completion of the main Covent Garden development new streets of houses were built out in each direction in 1631: Henrietta Street, Maiden Lane, and Bedford Street. The original piazza atmosphere of Covent Garden lasted only a few decades. During the 1650s a fruit and vegetable market developed in the square, although it was not until the 19^th century that the market arcade was constructed, changing Covent Garden to the modern layout.

Sources include: Liza Picard ‘Restoration London’; John Richardson ‘Annals of London’; Gillian Tindall ‘The Man Who Drew London’. With thanks to Jean Olwen Maynard for help with fact-checking and proof-reading.

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The conquest of the country by William of Normandy in 1066 is one of the most famous events in English history. Having won the Battle of Hastings it took somewhat longer to capture London before being crowned at Westminster Abbey.

The Saxon King Edward (the Confessor) of Wessex and his wife Edith failed to produce any children to succeed him. It would seem that at some point, perhaps during the 1050s, he promised the throne to his cousin William, Duke of Normandy. According to later Norman accounts, however, on his deathbed at Westminster in the last days of 1065 or the first few of 1066 he promised the crown to his brother-in-law. Harold was therefore crowned on Twelfth Mass Day (5^th January) at the newly consecrated and incomplete Westminster Abbey, on the day following Edward’s funeral. Since then the coronations of all English monarchs except two have been held there up to and including Elizabeth II in 1953.

William was one of several other noblemen who claimed the throne had been promised to them. He raised an army and landed on the south coast at Pevensey near Hastings in September 1066. Harold was at that time in the north of England seeing off another claimant, his brother Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, but urgently marched his army south to meet William’s forces. They rested in London on 5th October before setting off for battle accompanied by a large force from the city. The King was killed in the ensuing battle, finally bringing an end to the Saxon royal line.

William secured Kent and southern England and moved on London, which had declared the Saxon Edgar Aetheling, great-nephew of Edward the Confessor, as their new king. Many of the defeated Saxon army had fled to London after the Battle of Hastings and, arriving at London Bridge, the entrance to the city from the south, William found it too heavily defended. Pausing only to cause much devastation to Southwark at the south entrance to the bridge he marched his troops west to Winchester where he seized Harold’s treasury. The failure to cross the Thames at Southwark required a detour of 50 miles upriver to Wallingford, the next point at which it was possible for William to cross, thus showing the strategic importance of London’s bridge.

William advanced back east on the north side of the river and established himself at Westminster Palace where he offered 50 marks of silver and other precious items for the altar and Edward’s tomb. Preparing to besiege London, he threatened to destroy the walls with siege-engines and battering rams. Inside the city the defence was led by Esegar the Staller, who had survived, but was injured, at the Battle of Hastings and was therefore carried around in a litter. In the event William was able to win over prominent Londoners with promises and bribes. Following negotiations at Berkhamsted, led by the Archbishop of York and various nobles, Ludgate was opened and William’s troops finally entered London in December, past St. Paul’s and into Cheapside. Some citizens went on the attack and a number of Londoners died in the fighting before they finally capitulated. Edgar Aetheling, the would-be king, who was involved in the negotiations at Berkhampstead, was too young to be a serious threat to William and was allowed to live out his life.

William was crowned King of England directly over the spot where Edward was buried, beneath the central tower of Westminster Abbey, on Christmas Day 1066. The ceremony was conducted in French by the Bishop of Coutances and in English by Aldred, Archbishop of York. (William apparently had a low opinion of Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury). Aldred addressed the English, asking them if they accepted William as King, to which they acclaimed their assent. This French acclamation ritual has continued to be part of the British coronation ceremony into modern times. Norman troops outside the abbey mistook the enthusiastic acclamation as a riot, however, and they set surrounding buildings alight, causing some deaths in the ensuing panic.

There was no need for a capital during William’s reign since government took place and laws decided by the King and his limited number of courtiers wherever they were. William and his successors were not based in one place and travelled around the various towns and palaces of their lands in England and Normandy. Yet London, with its sea-route to the Continent, was conveniently situated for a leader with an Anglo-Norman empire to rule. William generally held court at Westminster for the great feast of Whitsun when he would entertain the leading barons and clergy of his lands. However, he also had equally important palaces at Gloucester and Winchester, the latter being where the royal treasury was kept.

Sources include: Christopher Brooke London 800-1216; John Field ‘Kingdom Power and Glory’; John Richardson ‘The Annals of London’

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The Roman town began as a small settlement to protect and maintain the bridge over the Thames. It soon grew into a busy town, but it was to last just 13 years before being destroyed in a major rebellion by an army of British tribes.

London began with a bridge, which we now call London Bridge. Initially it was probably a temporary military pontoon structure, quickly constructed by engineers of the invading army of the Roman Emperor Claudius to provide a dry crossing over the River Thames on their journey to defeat the local Catuvellauni tribe at their capital of Colchester.

Since the brief invasion by Julius Caesar the Catuvellauni had expanded their territory south of the Thames, overwhelming their neighbours such as the Atrebatics. In the 90 years following their previous incursion the Romans had considered bringing Britain within their empire. Finally, an appeal for help from the Atrebatics not only gave them the excuse of helping an ally but meant they could expect a welcome along the south coast, as well as from other tribes threatened by the Catuvellauni.

In 43AD Claudius dispatched at least 40,000 troops from the Continent to Kent under the command of Aulus Plautius. The Catuvellauni army was beaten back in battle, possibly near Rochester. They retreated, crossing the Thames on the west side of modern-day London, perhaps at Westminster, Battersea, Fulham or Brentford. Germanic units of the Roman legions waded across the river in pursuit and fought their opponents somewhere around Kensington or Westminster. The British were able to escape and hide in marshes, probably around Hackney or Stratford. Plautius was by then in control of the south-east of Britain and, acting on orders from Rome, consolidated his position on the south bank of the Thames, probably around Southwark. He waited there for the Emperor to arrive with reinforcements.

Emperor Claudius came with a large reserve force, together with elephants that no doubt gave a considerable fright to any Catuvellauni fighters who witnessed them for the first time. The Roman forces moved on to the main Catuvellaunian stronghold at Colchester, which the Romans took without too much difficulty. Claudius then received oaths of loyalty from eleven tribal kings, returning home after sixteen days and leaving his troops to set up the capital of the new province of Britannia at Colchester.

Having succeeded in their initial mission, the invaders, who for all their sophistication were not great sailors, needed to maintain a land supply route back to Rome via Gaul. Therefore, the bridge over the Thames stayed and was rebuilt. The Romans had found that the best location for it was just downriver of where the Thames was joined by the River Fleet. The banks of the river were quite marshy in those times and the chosen site was probably the most easterly – or downriver – point that was narrow enough for a bridge. The Thames was still deep and tidal up to that point, so boats could navigate to bring in heavy supplies from Boulogne. Fresh water was freely available from the many springs and streams, and the area was surrounded by forest that could provide wood for building. On the northern bank two small hills – Cornhill and Ludgate Hill, today occupied by Leadenhall Market and St. Paul’s Cathedral – were useful as lookout points, between which the River Walbrook flowed from its sources in what are now Hackney and Islington. Unlike the surrounding marshy riverbanks these hills provided high, dry land on which to build. It was for all those reasons that London was eventually sited where it is.

Such a strategic site needed a staff to protect and maintain it and a small settlement grew. Wharves were constructed along the riverside, allowing ships to unload. From each end of the bridge roads were laid out (often along the same routes that had existed before the Romans’ arrival), branching out in various directions to link settlements such as Rochester, Canterbury, Dover, St. Albans, Colchester, Lincoln and Chichester. (The modern London streets of Old Kent Road, Edgware Road, Holborn, Oxford Street, Bayswater Road, Fleet Street, Strand, Whitehall, Bishopsgate, Kingsland Road and others all existed at least as far back as the Romans).

The small settlement at the bridge became both a small port and the hub of the supply routes in the Roman province. Four years after their arrival the Romans formally decided to build a town on the north bank where the Walbrook stream flowed into the Thames, to be known as Londinium (a name probably based on an earlier native word or name). It was a rare example in the Roman empire of a completely new town that had not existed before their conquest and without its own territory to administer.

The first Roman Londinium was of rectangular shape of around 60 acres, of which around 30 acres was densely populated. In the centre was the forum (marketplace) enclosed by a basilica (town hall) and shops and offices. Surrounding those were warehouses and workshops along streets laid out in a grid shape. The town initially acted as a military supply centre but soon grew in importance as a trading place, importing manufactured goods and exporting slaves, tin and lead. It grew rapidly and by 60AD was estimated to have a population of between ten and twenty thousand inhabitants. As it had not existed previously, the entire population of the early town consisted of people who had migrated from other parts of the empire.

In 60 AD the native Iceni tribe in the northern half of East Anglia rebelled against the Romans. The local administrator had caused some grievances amongst the people and when their king died the Romans refused to recognise his daughters as successors. The tribe, led by the king’s daughter Boudicca, rose up and joined with others, numbering 120,000, far greater than the local Roman forces. Marching on Colchester, they destroyed the capital and then moved south-west. The main Roman army in Britannia was fighting in Anglesey and marched south as fast as they could. They did not, however, have sufficient strength to take on Boudicca’s army, which burnt Londinium to the ground, killing those who had not already fled. (The original Roman settlement can still be traced by the burnt remains that lie below more recent levels). After Londinium, the rebels moved on to St. Albans, which was also destroyed. In total, 70,000 inhabitants of Colchester, London and St. Albans lost their lives in the rebellion, which was finally quashed by the Roman forces during a major battle in the Midlands. The first Roman town of Londinium had lasted a mere 13 years.

Sources include: John Morris ‘Londinium – London in the Roman Empire’; Simon Webb ‘Life in Roman London’; Dominic Perring ‘Roman London’; Gustav Milne ‘The Port of Roman London’.

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The first Roman invasion of Britain was by Julius Caesar. At that time the south-east of England was occupied by various tribes that had arrived earlier from Continental Europe.

London sits in the Thames Basin, a bowl of chalk about two hundred metres thick. This chalk layer was formed from tiny algal skeletons about ninety million years ago when the Earth was much warmer, sea levels higher and the south east of Britain lay under water. Each centimetre of chalk took about a thousand years to form. It was forced into a bowl shape at around the same time the Alps were pushed up during massive movements in the Earth’s surface. The outer rims of the basin are the Chiltern Hills to the north and the North Downs to the south.

Within the bowl lies sand and clay deposited by seas during the Tertiary period around sixty-five million years ago. Much of the layer on the surface of the basin was stripped away by glaciers during the Ice Age, leaving only limited remains of a former ridge that became separate hills such as those at Harrow and Highgate.

As the ice melted and retreated north during the Pleistocene period (between 1.5mBC and 10,000BC) large volumes of water flowed from it, south and east, through what is now the London area. At times it would have been completely submerged by a much wider River Thames. The wide, slow-moving water deposited gravel at its sides. As the Thames narrowed over thousands of years its gravel-depositing edges moved inwards in ever-lower terraced banks. Thus, the youngest layers lay closest to the current banks of the river and the oldest further away on the valley sides. Archaeological finds of human tools from the past 500,000 years show how the river banks gradually moved inwards to form the narrow channel of today.

One hundred and twenty thousand years ago the climate in southern England was warmer than today. Much of the southern part of what is today the City of London lay under the much wider Thames, with the bank being roughly in line with the Strand and Trafalgar Square. On the south bank the whole of modern-day Southwark was under the river.

Numerous rivers and streams flowed into the Thames from the higher ground to the north and south. Erosion from those during the past 50,000 years created the many valleys and hills on and around which London is now built. In the past few centuries the mixture of gravel, brick-earth and clay that sits on the surface of the chalk bowl has been used to create ‘London Brick’ from which the city has been built. The soft clay made the tunnelling of London’s underground railways relatively easy but causes problems of subsidence of buildings that do not have good foundations.

There is evidence of human occupation around what is now London as far back as half a million years ago, but early inhabitants would have drifted southwards with the coming of the last Ice Age. Humans returned as the climate improved, probably following the spread of animals. Those new settlers can be linked to Brittonic-speaking Celtic tribes around northern Europe and the west of France.

Sometime before 100BC south eastern Britain was invaded by people from north-eastern Gaul, generally known as the Belgae. Unlike the native Britons they were a militarily advanced people, using chariot warfare and sling-stones, defending themselves in large fortresses surrounded by a ditch. They were a hierarchical society, ruled by kings and nobles and they initially settled in the richer farmlands of Kent and Buckinghamshire.

During the 1^st century BC the Belgic Catuvellauni tribe came to dominate the area to the north of the Thames in the modern-day Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with their royal capital on the River Lea at Wheathampstead near St.Albans. To their east, in what is now north-east London, Essex and Suffolk lived the Trinovantes, with their major settlement at Colchester. South of the Thames in south London, Surrey and Sussex were various people of Belgic origin (later known as the Regnenses) with their main settlement at Chichester. The Cantiaci were in Kent, whose major settlement was Canterbury. To the west, along the upper Thames valley, were the Atrebates.

The Thames was the border between different warring tribes. The London area, with its poor clay soil, remained forested and largely unpopulated, being far from each of their main capitals and therefore too difficult to defend. The wide river and thick forests on each bank made it a natural barrier between the different groups of people, but also an easier means of transport and trade than overland.

Having established settlements the Belgae needed a means to move their chariots between them and they created roads. Although we do not know their exact routes it is most likely that in many cases they were more or less the same as that of the Roman roads that were used in the following centuries. To some extent the routes are traceable from discoveries of coins of the period, probably dropped by Belgic travellers.

The Thames was probably fordable at Westminster, so the main Belgic north-south road almost certainly ran south-eastwards from Wheathampstead to modern Westminster. It then swung east, south of the Thames towards Canterbury, the line of the later Watling Street. Individual finds of coins seem to indicate a second north-west route from Wheathampstead, to Hatfield and down to the Thames, to cross somewhere near the modern London Bridge, no doubt by means of a ferry. Groups of coins to the east of London appear to show a ferry crossing-point between Gravesend and Tilbury. An east-west road probably crossed the Wheathampstead-Canterbury route, meeting around Hyde Park Corner, along modern Piccadilly, Long Acre, Old Street, Old Ford – where the River Lea was crossed – and on to Colchester. There is the suggestion of another east-west route from Windsor, Ealing, and Golders Green, crossing the Lea at Walthamstow.

Julius Caesar, a brilliant military leader, expanded the Roman empire northwards to the Rhine and westward as far as the Atlantic, bringing the vast new territory of Gaul under occupation within a three-year period from 53BC. Caesar’s first expedition to Britain was made in 55BC. During his conquest of Gaul many of the local tribesmen had fled across the Channel to Britain. There was a rebellion by the Armorican tribe in the west of Roman-occupied Gaul, aided by their brethren in Britain. In order to bring the British tribes under control Caesar led a small invasion force to Kent that August. They were hampered by bad weather, however, and returned after just two weeks.

Caesar attempted another invasion of Britain the following year, committing two thirds of his army to the task, a great gamble when Gaul was only newly-conquered and its tribes still in a rebellious mood. He landed in Kent and marched his troops northwards towards the Thames. He was met by an alliance of Belgic tribes and, fording the river somewhere in the region of the future London, pursued them to their stronghold – most likely Wheathampstead – where the locals surrendered. Once again Caesar was forced to retreat to Gaul to deal with problems there before the winter weather broke. His conclusion at that time was that Britons were too weak to invade Roman Gaul and that more money was to be made from taxing their trade than from colonising.

Caesar, an articulate author, published an account of his defeat of the British, titled Bellum Britannicum. Of his encounter with the Catuvellauni he wrote: “When he [Caesar] had come there greater forces of Britons had already assembled, the chief command of management of the war having been entrusted to Cassivelaunus, whose territories a river called the Thames separates from the maritime states at about eighty miles from the sea.”¹ Caesar’s account is the earliest written record of the River Thames.

Sources include: Simon Webb ‘Life in Roman London’; John Morris ‘Londinium’; ‘The Times London History Atlas’.¹ Translation from the Latin, with thanks to Leonardo de Arrizabalaga y Prado.

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Non-conformist chapels around London were overflowing with worshipers. In 1710 the Anglican-supporting Tories returned to power after more than two decades in opposition. They resolved to strengthen the Church of England by building magnificent new churches. It resulted in some of the finest London churches since those of Sir Christopher Wren a generation earlier.

Throughout the 17^th century Protestant worship in England divided into those who stayed faithful to the Anglican Church of England and others who followed one of the various non-conformist doctrines, such as Presbyterians, Quakers, Congregationalists and Baptists, generally known as Dissenters. During the Commonwealth and Protectorate periods after the Civil War it was the latter groups who held political power.

Following the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 the Church of England resumed as the official Church and regulations were passed that discriminated against Dissenters in London, forcing them to move out to surrounding villages. The pendulum began to swing the other way again when William III, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, became King.

It was noted by contemporaries that Anglican churches – most probably in the old City of London – were often less than full while services at Dissenter chapels – most probably in the surrounding villages – were so oversubscribed there was not enough room to accommodate the congregation. Indeed, thousands of immigrants from the Continent had arrived in London during the latter 17^th century (such as Huguenots fleeing persecution in France), settling in the new suburbs outside of the City: at Spitalfields, Soho and Mile End. They were unburdened by laws and able to setup new chapels in their communities. On the other hand, large numbers of Anglicans had migrated out from the old City to surrounding suburbs and villages after their homes and businesses were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. Yet, unlike Dissenter chapels, the creation of new Church of England establishments was legally restricted by laws regarding parish boundaries, making it difficult to build official new churches where they were required. Church Commissioners calculated there was a theoretical need for 50 new churches to satisfy the spiritual needs of the Anglican population around the London. That did not take into account the willingness of parishioners to fund them, however, which they would be required to do by law through payment of rates.

During the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries English politics was dividing into opposing sides that would evolve into what we now call party-politics. At one extreme were Whigs who generally tolerated Dissenters and were therefore supported by them. On the opposite side were Tories, many of whom were extreme in their support of the Anglican Church and intolerant of Dissenters. Whigs held political power for much of the reign of William and Mary while their opponents remained largely in Opposition. The Tories finally swept to power in the general election of 1710 after 22 years. Frustrated by watching the rise of non-conformist Protestantism for so long, and powerless to act, it was finally time for them to redress the balance in places of worship and to strengthen the Church of England.

Following the Great Fire in 1666 Parliament instigated a tax on coal arriving in London, using the funds to pay for reconstruction of churches and public buildings. In November 1711 the roof of the old medieval St. Alfege, parish church of Greenwich, collapsed. Lacking the funds to repair the ancient building the parishioners petitioned Parliament. They argued that for years they had paid the coal tax and contributed to the rebuilding of the distant City and now the continuing income should be used in their time of need.

The petition of the parishioners was timely and their arguments fell on the receptive ears of the new Tory government of the Anglican Queen Anne. An Act of Parliament was passed into law with the aim of building 50 new churches using the continuing income from the coal tax, of which St. Alfege, Greenwich would be the first. (The Greenwich parishioners were extremely lucky. In the same year the Anglicans of Rotherhithe were refused money for the rebuilding of their parish church of St. Mary from the Fifty Churches funds and had to raise finance elsewhere).

According to the Act, a Commission was established to oversee the building programme. Its original members were the architects Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Thomas Archer. Vanbrugh wrote at the time of the need for grandeur and magnificence in the new churches and he and Wren recommended towers with spires and porticoes, reflected in a resolution of the Committee in July 1712. In October 1711 they appointed the Surveyors Nicholas Hawksmoor and William Dickinson from the Queen’s Office of Works to organise the designs, obtain estimates and appoint workmen. Two years later Dickinson left the Office and was replaced by James Gibbs. Although not the original intention, Hawksmoor and Gibbs began proposing their own grand designs for the new buildings.

Nicholas Hawksmoor was perhaps the finest architect of his generation. He had worked as deputy to Wren since he arrived in London at the age of 18 and assisted in work at the Chelsea Military Hospital, Greenwich Naval Hospital, Kensington Palace and the rebuilding of numerous City churches after the Great Fire. He had a close working relationship with not only Wren but also another of the Commissioners, John Vanbrugh, with whom he had helped build the great country houses of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace.

Hawksmoor began with St. Alfege in 1712 but instead of merely proposing a repair he submitted an entire remodelling of the building. It included a plan to replace the medieval tower with an octagonal lantern, which the commissioners refused to fund. The design for pilasters was added by Thomas Archer. The main work was completed in 1714. The tower was eventually replaced by John James in 1730.

Hawksmoor was also responsible for the three grandest of those churches completed, all in east London. St. George-in-the-East and St. Anne, Limehouse were built concurrently and have similarities, giving the impression they were designed at the same time in around 1712. St. Anne’s was built on open fields but St. George’s had to be set back and hidden from the main street because the plot acquired was behind a row of houses. For the latter he re-used his idea for the octagonal lantern that had been rejected for St. Alfege. Christ Church, Spitalfields (from 1714) was built to make a strong statement to the non-conformist Huguenot residents of the area and eventually cost over four times its early budget. Hawksmoor’s original plan was for a flat front and box-tower but after the main body of the building was completed in 1723 he added a grand portico and tower, completed in 1729. The original steeple was replaced in the 19^th century.

St. Mary Woolnoth, close to the Royal Exchange in the City, was begun in 1716. It had survived the Great Fire and only needed patching up by Christopher Wren in the latter 17^th century. However, by 1712 it was in a poor state and, like St. Alfege, it was agreed that it would be rebuilt from coal tax funds by Hawksmoor. It is the smallest of all the ‘Fifty’ churches and the simplest inside.

Hawksmoor’s biggest challenge was St. George’s, Bloomsbury because the site, purchased from the widow of Lord John Russell, was very narrow on its east-west axis but wide on its north-south due to houses that existed at the time but were subsequently demolished. It went through many changes from its initial design in 1711, including one by Vanbrugh in 1715, but Hawksmoor produced two more plans after that and was eventually given the commission. The distinctive tower was unusually topped by a statue of George I in Roman toga, the only statue of the King that exists in England.