Historic Cities · England
London through the ages
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of 9.1 million people in 2024. Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 15.4 million.
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London in AD 200
Roman Londinium
This is Roman Londinium around the time the city was circled by its new stone wall and reached the height of its public programme. The walk moves from the river and bridge into the forum and basilica, past the amphitheatre and military works at Cripplegate, along timber quays and markets, and finishes on the western hill above the city.
A compact riverside port of timber houses, wooden quays and packed warehouses, ringed by a newly raised stone city wall. Dominant in the low skyline are the broad colonnades and tiled roofs of the forum and basilica, the squat earth-and-stone form of the amphitheatre and scattered bathhouse roofs. Streets mostly run in a Roman grid of paved mainways and narrower lanes; colours are red clay tiles, pale lime plaster, dark timber and the green-brown Thames.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Southwark Shore → Roman Bridge → Bridgehead Market → Timber Quays → Ludgate Waterfront → Forum and Basilica → Forum Square → Basilica Portico → Walbrook Stream Mouth → Amphitheatre (Guildhall) → …
Step inside — 14 interiors
Bridge Stall Shop · Riverside Timber Warehouse · Shipwright's Assembly Shed · Basilica Aisled Hall · Forum Curia Chamber · Amphitheatre Central Arena · Cripplegate Granary Store · Fort Commandant's Office · Governor's Audience Hall · Eastern Quays Warehouse · Mosaic Dining Room · Calidarium Hot Room · Frigidarium Cold Pool · Merchant's Atrium
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Londinium.
London in 1390
Chaucer's medieval London
This is late fourteenth‑century London after the Black Death, a dense trading hub within medieval walls where Old St Paul's spire and the Tower of London dominate the skyline. The walk moves from the river approaches, across London Bridge crowded with houses and a chapel, through the markets of Cheapside and the city's wards, and ends high above the city on the cathedral's spire.
The skyline is a ragged comb of church spires and timber gables: stone towers of the Tower and cathedral, and the tall timber-and-lead spire of Old St Paul's. Streets within the city walls are narrow and shaded between jettied timber houses, market stalls and guildhalls; the Thames is lined with quays and small wharves. London Bridge is a continuous street of houses and shops projecting over the river on massive stone piers; goods, horses and barges crowd the banks.
The walk — 23 streets, squares and views
Southwark River Approach → Borough Market and Bankside → London Bridge Houses and Chapel → Bridgehead by St Magnus → Queenhithe Quay → Billingsgate Fishmarket → Baynard's Castle Shore → Tower Hill and the Tower → Lower Thames Street Quays → Aldgate and City Wall → …
Step inside — 15 interiors
Tabard Inn Common Room · Chapel of St Thomas · St Magnus Parish Church · Queenhithe Custom-house · Billingsgate Fish Hall · St John's Chapel · Aldgate Gate Guardroom · Lombard Counting-house · Mercers' Hall · Guildhall Great Hall · Cheapside Tavern Room · Paternoster Scribes' Workshop · Cathedral Nave · Choir and High Altar · Westminster Hall Great Hall
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Norman and medieval London.
London in 1600
Shakespeare's London
London in 1600 is an overflowing, timber‑framed world at the height of Elizabethan energy: theatres and bear‑gardens crowd Bankside, the Thames carries a flotilla of wherries, and the City of London bristles with jettied houses and narrow markets. This walk moves from the rivered approach through Southwark and across Old London Bridge into the maze of streets, markets and quays that centre on St Paul's and the Tower.
The skyline is a jagged stitch of church towers, chimneys and gabled timber houses; many streets are flanked by overhanging jettied upper floors and dark oak beams, plaster panels whitewashed between timbers. St Paul's shows its great lead roof but no lofty spire, and London Bridge stands lined with houses and the Dutch prefabricated Nonsuch House. The Thames is busy with small wherries and lined with specialised quays and low wooden wharfs under a variable English light.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Lambeth Marshes View → The Globe → Bear Garden, Bankside → The Rose Theatre → Borough High Street → The Clink Prison → Southwark Stairs → London Bridge → Eastcheap → Billingsgate Wharf → …
Step inside — 14 interiors
Main Stage and Tiring-House · Tavern Common Room · Bear Garden Gallery · Rose Stage and Galleries · Butchers' Shambles · Chapel and Wardrobe · Wharfside Counting House · Nonsuch House Chamber · Fish Market Hall · Royal Armoury · Menagerie Court · St Paul's Nave · Stationers' Workshop · Middle Temple Hall
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Tudor London.
London in 1885
Victorian London
London in 1885 is the vast, teeming capital of the British Empire, swollen by railways, steamers and a skyline of church spires and factory chimneys. This walk traces river quays and Parliament, markets and courts, museums and train-sheds beneath gaslight and ubiquitous coal smoke.
A low, chimneyed horizon topped by the dome of St Paul’s and the pinnacles of the Gothic Palace of Westminster, the Thames crowded with masts and steamers. Streets of red-brown brick and soot-dark stone, iron-and-glass train sheds, and white Portland-stone civic façades are lit by rows of gas lamps that dim in the frequent fog. Hansom cabs and omnibuses move through pavements heaped with market-stalls, dock cranes and the occasional green of parks.
The walk — 24 streets, squares and views
Greenwich Park → London Bridge → Borough High Street → Southwark Cathedral → Borough Market → Tower of London → St Katharine Docks → Tower Hill → Leadenhall Market → Bank of England → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Medieval Nave · Butchers' Shed · White Tower Great Hall · Riverside Warehouse · Central Arcade · Bullion Office · Whispering Gallery · Covered Market Hall · Nave and Quire · House of Commons Chamber · Central Hall · Great Train Shed
Planned from the Wikipedia record: 19th-century London.
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