A History Of London

A History of London BY GORDON HOME Author of Roman Britain Roman London Medieval London CONTENTS I. THE EARLIEST KNOWLEDGE OF LONDON 9 II. DURING THE ROMAN PERIOD . . 15 III. LONDON IN THE DARK AGES ... 28 IV. NORMAN LONDON 41 V. LONDON UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS 52 VI. THE LAST CENTURY OF MEDIEVAL LONDON 71 VII. IN THE TUDOR PERIOD .... 88 VIII. LONDON IN STUART TIMES . . . 101 IX. GEORGIAN LONDON 108 X. IN THE VICTORIAN AGE .... 114 A LIST OF THE MOST NOTABLE HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF LONDON 124 BIBLIOGRAPHY 125 A HISTORY OF LONDON THE EARLIEST KNOWLEDGE OF LONDON IT is impossible at present to state at what period the twin hills of ancient London were first in habited, nor has anyone yet produced evidence for stating which of the two hills divided by the Walbrook was first occupied. The desire to fix a date for the foundation of the great capital of a vast empire is naturally strong. One hungers to know why and when the first settlers chose that particular ground on the north bank of the Thames archaeologists examine and re-examine the evidence their deductions are argued and op posing views are taken, but the questions remain to a great extent unanswered. The circumstances controlling the problem can be stated briefly as follows When a non-moun tainous country is in its primitive and untamed condition its rivers are its roads. Thus the Thames in prehistoric times became the most important highway of the lowlands of Britain, and on its 9 10 A HISTORY OF LONDON easily navigated surface the early inhabitants pene trated the country long before tracks had begun to make anything but the firm and dry downlands freely accessible. This great ready-made means of communication faced the mainland ofEurope, whence came invading foreigners and also traders. Even the simplest forms of commerce require a rendezvous and a safe place for landing the goods which cannot immediately be disposed of by bar ter or more complicated methods. At a point on the Thames where the tide had to a great extent spent its force, and where the waterway changed its character from an estuary to that of a river, there were two fairly extensive gravelly hills on the north bank. A creek divided them and another lay at the foot of the more westerly plateau. There was thus in this place a very definite invitation to the local tribes to meet where two exceedingly convenient harbours provided safe anchorage or mooring for the frail est craft, and where, on spacious areas of dry land adjoining, buying, selling, or bartering could be transacted under the best conditions possible. This place came to be called by a name which first appears in the Romanised form of Londinium, from which comes the modern name London. There seems little doubt that the Romans found a trading settlement on the spot, for the name IN EARLIEST TIMES 11 is Celtic but while there are sound reasons for thinking it probable that the first beginnings of a port were in times quite remote from the Roman conquest, yet such archaeological evidence as exists lends little support to the existence of a pre-Roman occupation of the site. It may be that nearly all traces of the Celtic settlement were de stroyed in Roman times. The foundations of the average buildings would go right through the shal low accumulations of the earlier inhabitants, and on this account, together with the fact that the name is Celtic, the scarcity of pottery which can be datedearlier than the first century A. D. does not appear to give one quite sufficient ground for denying the existence of London in pre-Roman times. A few stone implements of the palaeolithic age and two or three others of the later or neolithic period have been discovered in the City area and are in the Guildhall Museum, together with vari ous objects of the Bronze Age...