London (0)

What is London?
London is one of the largest cities in the world, with an area of 1706,8 km2. It is the capital of England and The United Kingdom. It is in Central Europe. The city lies on the river Thames. London has 7,556,900 inhabitants, which is more than a quarter of the countries in Europe! For one city, London is very special .
The beginning of London
Before the founding of London, there had already been smaller groups of people in the area. There aren ’t any records on who they were.
The first mayor settlement of London was in 43 AD. Romans came to the banks of the river Thames. They built houses , a port and a bridge over the river (later known as London Bridge ). They named the place Londinium. In the year 200 they built a wall around their city. The wall doesn’t exist today , but a part of it can be seen near the Museum of London.
In the year 61 Londinium was burned down. The houses were made out of wood back then, so this was easy to do. The people, who destroyed the city, were from the Iceni tribe . The tribe was located to the north - east of Londinium. They had bad relations with the Romans, which is why they burned down the place.
London was rebuilt in the year 100.
During the 2nd century , Roman London had a population around 60 000 people. In the 8th century there was a lot of Vikings attacking the city. Alfred the Great, an Anglo- Saxon king, was fighting against them . His people created a new settlement called Lundenwic 2 km upstream of Londinium. In 886 Alfred made peace with the Danish Vikings. Their king was named Guthrum.
London Wall
The Norman Conquest
During the 9th century, London was the largest city of England. At that time, the Duke of Normandy won the Battle of Hastings, which was between England and Normandy. As a result the duke was crowned king of England. His name was William the Conqueror. William granted the citizens of London special privileges. He also built the Tower of London, (which was a prison ) to keep the people under control . The Tower is the oldest building used by the British government .
In 1097 , William II began the building of Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the same name. The hall became the prime royal residence throughout the Middle Ages. Westminster became the seat of the royal court and government, while its neighbour , the City of London (a part of London), was a centre of trade and flourished under its own unique administration the Corporation of London. 1100 its population was around 18 000, by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100 000.
The Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London started at the bakery of Thomas Farynor on Sunday, 2 September 1666. It spread rapidly towards the City of London. The Lord Mayor of London created firebreaks to stop it, but he was too late . By the time they started to stop the fire, it was already a firestorm.
On that night , the wind was very strong. The houses were made out of wood and were very close together and the streets were narrow . More than half of London burned down. St. Paul’s Cathedral , 13 200 houses and 87 churches were destroyed by the fire.
There were hardly any deaths. Six verified deaths were recorded, but there might have been more: the heat of the fire may have cremated victims and deaths of poor or middle- class people were not recorded anywhere.
Evacuation from London and resettlement elsewhere was necessary . The fire burned down the homes of 70 000 people, when London had a population of 80 000 humans , so almost everyone lost their home.
The fire was also good in some ways. It wiped out the last traces of the plague , which had been very dangerous in the year 1665. After the fire, people started building houses out of bricks and stones , they made the streets of London wider and houses weren’t so close together.