London, England

London is the capital of the United Kingdom and its the most populous city of the United Kingdom. It
resides on the River Thames in the southeastern part of Great Britain. Its history is long spanning many
millennia. Its a leading global city too. From its founding to the election of its first Muslim mayor, London is
filled with interesting and exciting history and culture. London has a lot of strength involving the arts,
commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research
and development, transport, and tourism. It has one of the 10 most powerful GDPs on Earth. It has the
worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic. It has the largest concentration of higher
education institutes than any other city in Europe with 43 universities. London is very prominent in world
software, multimedia development and design, etc. Many diverse peoples and cultures exist in London.
There are not just Anglo-Saxons living in London. There are black people, Arabic people, Pakistanis, Chinese
people, etc. who live and work in the city of London. More than 300 languages are spoken within Greater
London. London has about 8,538,689 people. It is the largest municipality in the European Union (until 2016
when British voters voted to leave the EU). Londons urban area is the 2nd most populous in the EU (until
2016) after Paris with 9,787,426 inhabitants according to the 2011 census. The Tower of London, Kew
Gardens, the Westminster Abbey, and other historic landmarks are found in the city too. People go into the
London Underground constantly. Tourists visit Big Ben and other places. London has been in its thousands
of years of its existence. London is a beautiful city and courageous people of London have blessed it in
enumerable ways.

The Early Ages

People have lived in London for a very long time. There have been people and traces of habitation during
prehistoric London, but not a pre-Roman city. Back then, London was most probably an agricultural
settlement. Rich finds such as the Battersea Shield, found in the Thames near Chelsea, suggest the area was
important. There may have been important settlements at Egham and Brentford, and there was a hillfort at
Uphall Camp, Ilford, but no city in the area of the Roman London, the present day City of London. In 1999,
there have been remains of a Bronze Age bridge. It was found on the foreshore south of Vauxhall Bridge.
The bridge either crossed the Thames or went to a now lost island in the river. Dendrology dated the
timbers to 1,500 B.C. In 2001 a further dig found that the timbers were driven vertically into the ground on
the south bank of the Thames west of Vauxhall Bridge. In 2010, the foundations of a larger timber structure
were dated to 4,000 B.C. It was found on the Thames foreshore, south of Vauxhall Bridge. The function of
the Mesolithic structure is not known. Mesolithic is another word for Middle Stone Age. All of these
structures are on the south bank at a natural crossing point where the River Effra flows into the Thames.
Numerous finds have been made of spear heads and weaponry from the Bronze and Iron Ages near the
banks of the Thames in the London area. Many of them had clearly been used in battle. This suggests that
the Thames was an important tribal boundary.

Roman London
Londinium was created as a civilian town by the Romans about 7 years after the invasion of 43 A.D. London,
like Rome, was founded on the point of the river where it was narrow enough to bridge and the strategic
location of the city provided easy access to much of Europe. Early Roman London was a small area. It was
about the size of Hyde Park. In about 60 A.D., it was destroyed by the Iceni led by their queen Boudicca.
Iceni were a Brittonic tribes of eastern Britain during the Iron Age and early Roman era. They lived in
present day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The city was quickly rebuilt as a planned
Roman town and recovered after perhaps 10 years, the city growing rapidly over the following decades.
During the 2nd century A.D., Londinium was at its height. It replaced Colchester as the capital of Roman
Britain (Britannia). Its population back then was about 60,000 inhabitants. It boasted major public buildings,
including the largest basilica north of the Alps, temples, bath houses, an amphitheater and a large fort for
the city garrison. During the 3rd century A.D. and beyond, political instability and recession led to a slow
decline. Between 180 and 225 A.D., the Romans built the defensive London Wall around the landward side
of the city. The wall was about 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) long, 6 meters (20 ft.) high, and 2.5 meters (8.2 ft.)
thick. The wall would survive for another 1,600 years and define the City of London's perimeters for
centuries to come. The perimeters of the present City are roughly defined by the line of the ancient wall.
During the late 200s, Londinium was raided on many occasions by Saxon pirates. The Saxons were
Germanic peoples. This led, from around 255 onwards, to the construction of an additional riverside wall.
Six of the traditional seven city gates of London are of Roman origin, namely: Ludgate, Newgate,
Aldersgate, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate (Moorgate is the exception, being of medieval origin). By
the 5th century, the Roman Empire was in rapid decline and in 410 A.D., the Roman occupation of Britain
came to an end. Following this, the Roman city also went into rapid decline and by the end of the 5th
century was practically abandoned.

The Anglo-Saxon period

Until recently, it was believed that the Anglo-Saxon settlement initially avoided the area immediately
around Londinium. Yet, the discovery in 2008 of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Covent Garden indicates that
the incomers had begun to settle there at least as early as the 6th century and possibly during the 5th. The
main focus of this settlement was outside the Roman walls, clustering a short distance to the west along
what is now the Strand, between the Aldwych and Trafalgar Square. It was known as Lundenwic, the -wic
suffix here denoting a trading settlement. Recent excavations have also highlighted the population density
and relatively sophisticated urban organization of this earlier Anglo-Saxon London, which was laid out on a
grid pattern and grew to house a likely population of 10-12,000. Early Anglo-Saxon London belonged to a
people known as the Middle Saxons. The name of the county of Middlesex is derived from the term Middle
Saxons. They probably occupied the approximate area of modern Hertfordshire and Surrey. Yet, by the
early 7th century, the London area had been incorporated into the Kingdom of the East Saxons. In 604 A.D.,
King Saebert of Essex converted to Christianity and London received Melitus or its first post-Roman bishop.
During this time, Essex was under the over lordship of King Aethelberht of Kent. It was under thelberht's
patronage that Mellitus founded the first St. Paul's Cathedral, traditionally said to be on the site of an old
Roman Temple of Diana (although Christopher Wren found no evidence of this). It would have only been a
modest church at first and may well have been destroyed after he was expelled from the city by Saeberht's
pagan successors.
The permanent establishment of Christianity in the East Saxon kingdom happened during the reign of King
Sigeberht II in the 650s. Back then, many of the Saxons worshipped pagan deities. During the 8th century,
the Kingdom of Mercia extended its dominance over south-eastern England, initially through overlordship
which at times developed into outright annexation. Mercian control came over London seem to happen
during the 730s. For most of the 9th century, Viking attacks dominated the area. It was increasingly
common from ca. 830 A.D. onwards. London was sacked in 842 and again in 851. The Danish Great
Heathen Army rampaged across England since 865. It wintered in London in 871. The city remained in
Danish hands until 886, when it was captured by the forces of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and

reincorporated into Mercia, then governed under Alfred's sovereignty by his son-in-law Ealdorman
thelred. During this time, there was a focus of settlement that moved within the old Roman walls for the
sake of defense. The city became known as Hindenburg. The Roman walls were repaired and the defensive
ditch re-cut, while the bridge was probably rebuilt at the time. A second fortified Borough was established
on the south bank at Southwark, the Suthringa Geworc (of the defensive work of the men of Surrey). The
old settlement of Lundenwic became known as the ealdwic or "old settlement", a name which survives
today as Aldwich. During the 900s, the city of London started to develop its own unique local government.
Following Ethelreds death in 911, it was transferred to Wessex. It preceded the absorption of the rest of
Merica in 918. Although, it faced competition for political pre-eminence in the United Kingdom of England
from the traditional West Saxon center of Winchester, Londons size and commercial wealth brought it a
steadily increasing importance as a focus of government activity. King Athelstan held many meetings of the
witan in London and issued laws from there, while King thelred the Unready issued the Laws of London
there in 978.
In the reign of Ethelred, Viking attacks resumed. London was unsuccessfully attacked in 994 by an army
under King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. As English resistance to the sustained and escalating Danish
onslaught finally collapsed in 1013, London repulsed an attack by the Danes and was the last place to hold
out where the rest of the country submitted to Sweyn, but by the end of the year it too capitulated and
thelred fled abroad. Sweyn died just five weeks after having been proclaimed king and thelred was
restored to the throne, but Sweyn's son Cnut returned to the attack in 1015. After thelred's death at
London in 1016 his son Edmund Ironside was proclaimed king there by the witangemot and left to gather
forces in Wessex. London was then experiencing a siege by Snut. Yet, he was relieved by King Edmunds
army. Edmund left to recruit reinforcements in Wessex. The Danes resumed the siege, but they were again
unsuccessful. However, after his defeat at the Battle of Assandun, Edmund ceded to Cnut all of England
north of the Thames including London. He died a few weeks later and left Cnut in control of the whole
country. There was a Norse sage about a battle when King thelred returned to attack Danish-occupied
London. The saga said that the Danes lined London Bridge and showered the attackers with spears. Being
undaunted, the attackers pulled the roofs off nearby houses and held them over their heads in the boats.
They were protected, so they were get close enough to the bridge to attach ropes to the piers and pull the
bridge down. Thus, that ended the Viking occupation of London. The story relates to thelred's return to
power after Sweyn's death in 1014, but there is no strong evidence of any such struggle for control of
London on that occasion.

The extinction of Cnuts dynasty happened in 1042 A.D. Edward the Confessor restored English rule. He was
responsible for the foundation of Westminster Abbey and spent much of his time at Westminster (which
from this time steadily supplanted the City itself as the center of government). Edward died in 1066 in
Westminster. He has no clear heir. This caused a succession dispute and the Norman conquest of England.
Normans are from the Norse people. The Norse were from Denmark, Iceland, and Norway. The Norman
conquest involved Norman, Breton (who are descended from the Gauls and in some cases the Vikings.
Many of their ancestors came from the Celts who traveled into Brittany, France after the Germanic tribes
invaded the UK. They are the last vestiges of the ancient Celtic Britons), and French soldiers. Earl Harold
Godwinson was elected king by the witangemot and crowned in Westminster Abbey, but was defeated and
killed by William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. The surviving member of the
witan met in London and elected King Edwards young nephew Edgar the theling as king. The Normans
advanced to the south bank of the Thames opposite London where they defeated an English attack and
burned Southwark, but they were unable to storm the bridge. They moved upstream and crossed the river
at Wallingford before advancing on London from the north-west. The resolve of the English leadership to
resist collapsed and the chief citizens of London went out together with the leading members of the Church
and aristocracy to submit to William at Berkhamstead, although according to some accounts there was a
subsequent violent clash when the Normans reached the city. Having occupied London, William was
crowned king in Westminster Abbey.

Norman and Medieval London

The new Norman regime created new fortresses within the city. These fortresses were used to dominate
the native population. The Tower of London was created at this time at the end of the city where the initial
wooden fortification was rapidly replaced by the construction of the first stone castle in England. Along the
waterfront, smaller forts of Baynards Castle and Montfichets Castle were created too. King William also
granted a charter in 1067. This confirmed the citys existing rights, privileges, and laws. Its growing selfgovernment was consolidated by the election rights granted by King John in 1119 and 1215. In 1097,
William Rufus or the son of William the Conqueror began the construction of Westminster Hall, which
became the focus of the Palace of Westminster. In 1176, construction began of the most famous
incarnation of London Bridge (completed in 1209) which was built on the site of several earlier wooden
bridges. This bridge would last for 600 years and remained the only bridge across the River Thames until
1739. By 1216, during the First Barons War, London was occupied by Prince Louis of France. Prince Louis
had been called in by the baronial rebels against King John and was acclaimed as King of England in St.
Pauls Cathedral. However, following Johns death in 1217, Louiss supporters reverted to their Plantagenet
allegiance, rallying round Johns son Henry III, and Louis was forced to withdraw from England. Over the
next centuries, London would shake off the heavy French cultural and linguistic influence that had been
there since the times of the Norman Conquest.
The city would figure heavily in the development of Early Modern English. There was the Peasants Revolt
of 1381. In that year, London was invaded by rebels led by Wat Tyler. In this situation, a group of peasants
stormed the Tower of London and executed the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop Simon Sudbury, and the Lord
Treasurer. Many of the peasants looted the city and set fire to numerous buildings. Tyler was stabbed to
death by the Lord Mayor William Walworth in a confrontation at Smithfield and the revolt collapsed. Trade
steadily grew in the Middle Ages. London grew too as a result. More than 15,000 people lived in London by
1100 A.D. In 1300, London had about 80,000 people. The Black Death during the mid-14th century caused
London to lose half of its population. Yet, its economic and political importance stimulated a rapid recovery

despite further epidemics. Trade in London was organized into various guilds, which effectively controlled
the city, and elected the Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Medieval London was made up of narrow and twisting streets, and most of the buildings were made from
combustible materials such as wood and straw, which made fire a constant threat, while sanitation in cities
was poor.

Tudor London
During the Reformation, London was the principal early center of Protestantism in England.
The Reformation was about people who disagreed with many concepts of the Roman Catholic Church and
they wanted to form their own religious movements. The major religious movement of the Reformation
was Protestantism. Its close commercial connections with the Protestant heartlands in northern continental
Europe, large foreign mercantile communities, disproportionately are number of literate inhabitants and
role as the centre of the English print trade all contributed to the spread of the new ideas of religious
reform. Before the Reformation, more than half of the area of London was the property of monasteries,
nunneries and other religious houses.
There was Henry VIIIs Dissolution of the Monasteries. This policy had a huge effect on London. Nearly all
of his property changed hands. This process started in the mid 1530s and by 1538 most of the larger
monastic houses had been abolished. Holy Trinity Aldgate went to Lord Audley and the Marquess of
Winchester built himself a house in part of its precincts. The Charterhouse went to Lord North, Blackfriars
to Lord Cobham, the leper hospital of St. Giles to Lord Dudley, while the king took for himself the leper
hospital of St. James, which was rebuilt as St. Jamess Palace. This period saw London rapidly rising in
importance amongst Europes commercial centers. Trade expanded beyond Western Europe to Russia, the
Levant, and the Americas. This period saw the development of mercantilism and monopoly trading
companies like the Muscovy Company (1555) and the British East India Company (1600) were established in

London by Royal Charter. The latter, which ultimately came to rule India, was one of the key institutions in
London, and in Britain as a whole, for two and a half centuries. Mercantilism is a policy of the English using
colonies overseas caused by imperialism to bring their resources to England. Immigrants came to London
not just from all over England and Wales. There were the Huguenots who came to the UK from France. The
Huguenonts were Protestants (mostly Calvinists) from France. The population rose from an estimated
50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. The growth of the population and the wealth of London was
fueled by a vast expansion of the use of coastal shipping. During the late 16th and early 17th century, there
was the great flourishing of drama in London. One prominent person involved in this era was William
Shakespeare. During the mostly calm later years of Elizabeth's reign, some of her courtiers and some of the
wealthier citizens of London built themselves country residences in Middlesex, Essex and Surrey. This was
an early stirring of the villa movement, the taste for residences which were neither of the city nor on an
agricultural estate, but at the time of Elizabeth's death in 1603, was London still very compact.
Unfortunately, xenophobia was rampant in London. It increased after the 1580s. Many immigrants became
disillusioned by routine threats of violence and molestation, attempts at expulsion of foreigners, and the
great difficulty in acquiring English citizenship. Dutch cities proved more hospitable, and many left London
permanently. Nothing is new under the sun as many people who support the Leave and Remain campaigns
of Brexit are xenophobic.

Stuart London
London expanded during the time of 1603-1714. In the opening years of that century the immediate
environs of the City, with the principal exception of the aristocratic residences in the direction of
Westminster, were still considered not conducive to health. Immediately to the north was Moorfields,
which had recently been drained and laid out in walks, but it was frequented by beggars and travelers, who
crossed it in order to get into London. Adjoining Moorfields were Finsbury Fields, a favorite practicing
ground for the archers, Mile End, then a common on the Great Eastern Road and famous as a rendezvous
for the troops. The preparations for King James I (he was an Anglican King) becoming king was interrupted
by a severe plague epidemic. This epidemic may have killed over 30,000 people. The Lord Mayors Show,
which had been discontinued for some years, was revived by order of the king in 1609. The dissolved
monastery of the Charterhouse, which had been bought and sold by the courtiers several times, was
purchased by Thomas Sutton for 13,000. The new hospital, chapel, and schoolhouse were begun in 1611.

Charterhouse School was to be one of the principal public schools in London until it moved to Surrey in
Victorian times, and the site is still used as a medical school. Back then, the general meeting place for
Londoners in the day time was the nave of Old St. Pauls Cathedral. Merchants conducted business in the
aisles and used the font as a counter upon which to make their payments. Lawyers received clients at their
particular pillars. The unemployed looked for work in London. St. Pauls Churchyard was the center of the
book trade. Fleet Street was the center of public entertainment. Under James I, the theatre, which
established itself so firmly in the latter years of Elizabeth, grew further in popularity. The performances at
the public theatres were complemented by elaborate masques at the royal court and at the inns of court.
Charles I acceded to the throne in 1625. During his reign, aristocrats began to go into West End in large
numbers. Additionally, to those who had specific business at court, increasing numbers of country
landowners and their families lived in London for part of the year simply for the social life. This was the
beginning of the London season. Lincolns Inn Fields was built about 1629. The piazza of Covent Garden
was designed by Englands first classically trained architect Inigo Jones followed in about 1632. The
neighboring streets were built shortly afterwards and the names of Henrietta, Charles, James, King, and
York Streets were given after members of the royal family.
In January 1642 five members of parliament whom the King wished to arrest were granted refuge in the
City. In August of the same year the King raised his banner at Nottingham, and during the English Civil War
London took the side of the parliament. Initially the king had the upper hand in military terms and in
November he won the Battle a few miles to the west of London. The City of London made and army.
Charles hesitated and retreated. Later, a system of extensive fortifications was built to protect London from
a renewed attack by the Royalists. This comprised of a strong earthen rampant, enhanced with bastions
and redoubts. It was well beyond the City walls and encompassed the whole urban area, including
Westminster and Southwark. London was not seriously threatened by the royalists again, and the financial
resources of the City made an important contribution to the parliamentarians' victory in the war. The
unsanitary and overcrowded City of London has suffered from the numerous outbreaks of the plague many
times over the centuries, but in Britain it is the last major outbreak which is remembered as the "Great
Plague" It occurred in 1665 and 1666 and killed around 60,000 people, which was one fifth of the
population. Samuel Pepys chronicled the epidemic in his diary. On 4 September 1665 he wrote "I have
stayed in the city till above 7400 died in one week, and of them about 6000 of the plague, and little noise
heard day or night but tolling of bells."

The Great London Fire of 1666

The Great Fire of London in 1666 was a historic, brutal event. It came after the Great Plague. On Sunday,
September 2, 1666, the Great Fire of London started at one oclock in the morning at a bakery in Pudding
Lane in the southern part of the City. The fire was fanned by an eastern wind the fire spread, and efforts to
arrest it by pulling down houses to make firebreaks were disorganized to begin with. On Tuesday night, the
wind fell somewhat, and on Wednesday, the fire slackened. On Thursday, it was extinguished. Yet, on the
evening of the day, the flames came about again at the Temple. Some houses were at once blown up by
gunpowder and thus the fire was finally mastered. The Monument was built to commemorate the fire.
Over a century and a half, it bore an inscription attributing the conflagration to a popish frenzy. Back
then, many Protestants and Catholics didnt like each other in London. This happened less than 200 years
after the Protestant Reformation. The word popish is a slang word for Papacy. The fire destroyed about
60% of the City including Old St. Pauls Cathedral, 87 parish churches, 44 livery company halls, and the
Royal Exchange. However, the number of lives lot was surprisingly small. It is believed to have been 16 at
most. Within a few days of the fire, three plans were presented to the king for the rebuilding of the city, by
Christopher Wren, John Evelyn, and Robert Hooke.
Wren proposed to build main thoroughfares north and south, east and west, to insulate all the churches in
the conspicuous positions. He formed the most public places into large piazzas. He wanted to unite the
halls of the 12 chief livery companies into one regular square annexed to the Guildhall, and to make a fine
quay on the bank of the river from Black friars to the Tower of London. Wren wished to build the new
streets straight and in three standard widths of thirty, sixty and ninety feet. Evelyn's plan differed from
Wren's chiefly in proposing a street from the church of St Dunstan's in the East to the St Paul's, and in
having no quay or terrace along the river. These plans were not implemented, and the rebuilt city generally
followed the street plan of the old one, and most of it has survived into the 21st century.
The new City was different from the old one. Many aristocratic residents never returned. They wanted to
take new homes in the West End. The West Ned had fashionable new districts like St. Jamess were built
close to the main royal residence, which was Whitehall Palace (until it was destroyed by fire in the 1690s

and thereafter St. Jamess Palace). The rural lane of Piccadilly sprouted courtiers mansions like Burlington
House. There was the separation between the middle class mercantile City of London and the aristocratic
world of the court in Westminster became complete. London moved from using wooden buildings to stone
and brick construction in order for the reduction of risk of fire to happen. Parliament's Rebuilding of
London Act 1666stated "building with brick [is] not only more comely and durable, but also more safe
against future perils of fire". From then on only door cases, window-frames and shop fronts were allowed
to be made of wood. Christopher Wren's plan for a new model London came to nothing, but he was
appointed to rebuild the ruined parish churches and to replace St Paul's Cathedral. His domed baroque
cathedral was the primary symbol of London for at least a century and a half. As city surveyor, Robert
Hooke oversaw the reconstruction of the City's houses. The East End, that is the area immediately to the
east of the city walls, also became heavily populated in the decades after the Great Fire. London's docks
began to extend downstream, attracting many working people who worked on the docks themselves and in
the processing and distributive trades. These people lived in Whitechapel, Wapping, Stepney and
Limehouse, generally in slum conditions. During the winter of 1683-84, a frost fair was held on the Thames.
The frost, which began about seven weeks before Christmas and continued for six weeks after, was the
greatest on record. The Revocation of the Edicts of Nantes in 1685 led to a large migration of French
Huguenots to London. They established a silk industry it Spitalfields.
The Bank of England was founded during this time. The British East India Company was expanding its
influence. Lloyds of London also began to operate in the late 17th century. In 1700, London handled 80% of
England's imports, 69% of its exports and 86% of its re-exports. Many of the goods were luxuries from the
Americas and Asia such as silk, sugar, tea and tobacco. The last figure emphasized London's role as an
entrepot: while it had many craftsmen in the 17th century, and would later acquire some large factories, its
economic prominence was never based primarily on industry. Instead it was a great trading and
redistribution centre. Goods were brought to London by England's increasingly dominant merchant navy,
not only to satisfy domestic demand, but also for re-export throughout Europe and beyond.
William III was a Dutchman. He cared little for London. The smoke of London gave him asthma. Later, after
the first fire at Whitehall Palace (1691) he purchased Nottingham House and transformed it into Palace.
Kensington was then an insignificant village, but the arrival of the court soon caused it to grow in
importance. The palace was rarely favored by future monarchs, but its construction was another step in the
expansion of the bounds of London. During the same reign Greenwich Hospital, then well outside the
boundary of London, but now comfortably inside it, was begun; it was the naval complement to the Chelsea
Hospital for former soldiers, which had been founded in 1681. During the reign of Queen Anne an act was
passed authorizing the building of 50 new churches to serve the greatly increased population living outside
the boundaries of the City of London.

The 18th century

London was the capitalist capital of the bloody and evil British Empire during the 18th century. Londons
population grew rapidly. There was the development of the Industrial Revolution which used machines in
productions more instead of farming equipment. The 1707 Act of Union was passed. It merged the Scottish
and English Parliaments. This caused the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1708, Christopher
Wrens St. Pauls Cathedral was completed on his birthday. The first service had been held on December 2,
1697. This Cathedral was replacing the original St. Pauls which was completely destroyed in the Great Fire
of London. It has great architecture and represents the Baroque architectural style. Many tradesmen from
different nations came to London to trade goods and merchandise. More immigrants traveled into London
too. Many people came to work and do business. It or London became busier. Britain won the Seven years
War. It opened more markets due to trade and the oppression of slavery continued. The Mayfair district
was built for the rich in the West end. New bridges that came across the River Thames encouraged an
accelerated of development in South London and in East End. The Port of London expanded downstream
from the City.
During this time, there was the uprising of the American colonies. The American colonies disliked the
taxation without representation and many people in the American continent wanted independence. In
1780, the Tower of London held its own American prisoner. He was the former of President of the
Continental Congress or Henry Laurens. By 1762, George III acquired Buckingham Palace (then called
Buckingham House) from the Duke of Buckingham. It was enlarged over the next 75 years by architects
such as John Nash. In 1779, he was the Congress's representative of Holland, and got the country's support
for the Revolution. On his return voyage back to America, the Royal Navy captured him and charged him
with treason after finding evidence of a reason of war between Great Britain and the Netherlands. He was
released from the Tower on December 21, 1781 in exchange for General Lord Cornwallis. The era of the
coffeehouse existed. This was where people came to debate ideas. The printing press developed and
growing literacy existed. News involving the press grew. Fleet Street was a place where the press had a
stronghold. There was crime in London during the 18th century too. This is why the Bow Street Runners

was formed in 1750 as a professional police force. Penalties for crime were harsh, with the death penalty
being applied for fairly minor crimes. Public hangings were common in London, and were popular public
events. There were the Gordon riots of 1780. This was about Protestants fighting against Roman Catholic
emancipation (or voting rights) led by Lord George Gordon. There was severe damage done to Catholic
churches and homes and 285 rioters were killed. The Westminster Bridge was opened in 1750 to cross over
the Thames not just the London Bridge. In 1798, Frankfurt banker Nathan Mayer Rothschild arrived in
London and set up a banking house in the city, with a large sum of money given to him by his father,
Amschel Mayer Rothschild. The Rothschilds also had banks in Paris and Vienna. The bank financed
numerous large-scale projects, especially regarding railways around the world and the Suez Canal. Great
changes happened in the 18th century. American colonies broke away from London and the evil of the
British Empire expanded in the Earth.

William Wilberforce was

crucial in abolishing the UK
slave trade. He was a
philanthropist and politician.
He lived from 1759-1833.

Olaudah Equiano (c.1745

1797) was one of the most
prominent Africans, who spoke
out and opposed the evil slave
trade. His published 1789
autobiography detailed the
brutal realities of slavery.

He was a well-known black man

named Ignatius Sancho (ca. 17291780. He was the first Black man
to vote in a British election. He
wrote literature, spoke out against
the slave trade, and made great
accomplishments. He was a
composer and an actor too.

The abolition movement in London and the United Kingdom should be recognized for its heroic qualities
and for its wide influence in world history in general. In its modern sphere, it lasted from the late 1700s to
the early 1800s. This movement wanted to end the slave trade and all slavery worldwide. Many English
Quakers opposed slavery. Black people were also leaders in the abolitionist movement too. Many
rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment also opposed it for violating the rights of human rights. James
Edward Oglethorpe of the Enlightenment expressed opposition to slavery. Granville Sharp and Hannah
More wanted to oppose slavery too. In a 1569 court case involving Cartwright, who had bought a slave
from Russia, the court ruled that English law could not recognize slavery, as it was never established

officially. This ruling was overshadowed by later developments. It was upheld in 1700 by Lord Chief Justice
Sir John Holt when he ruled that a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England. There was the
Somersett Case. It was about a fugitive putative slave James Somersett and people forced a decision by the
courts. Somersett had escaped and his oppressor, Charles Steuart, had him captured and imprisoned on
board a ship, intending to ship him to Jamaica to be resold into slavery. While in London, Somersett had
been baptized and three godparents issued a writ of habeas corpus. As a result, Lord Mansfield, Chief
Justice of the Court of the King's Bench, had to judge whether Somersett's abduction was lawful or not
under English Common Law. No legislation had ever been passed to establish slavery in England. The case
received national attention and five advocates supported the action on behalf of Somersett. In his
judgment of June 22, 1772, Mansfield held that sense slavery didnt exist under English common law, so it
was banned in England. The decision did not apply to the British overseas territories; the American colonies
had established slavery by positive laws. Somersett's case became a significant part of the common law of
slavery in the English-speaking world and it helped to inspire people to fight to abolish slavery. Black
scholars like Ignatius Sancho wrote about his experiences and he was a powerful abolitionist. In 1783, Dr.
Beilby Porteus, Bishop of Chester, issued a call to the Church of England to cease its involvement in the
slave trade and to formulate a policy to improve the conditions of Afro-Caribbean slaves. The exploration of
the African continent by such British groups as the African Association (1788), promoted the abolitionists'
cause. Africans played an important part in the abolition movement.
In Britain, Olaudah Equiano (who was a victim of the evil slave trade), whose autobiography was published
in nine editions in his lifetime, campaigned tirelessly against the slave trade. An aspect of the history of
abolitionism during this period was the use of images such as the famous Wedgwood medallion of 1787
and the engraving showing the horrific layout of the infamous slave ship, the Brookes. The abolitionist
movement grew. After the formation of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, William
Wilberforce led the cause of abolition through the parliamentary campaign. It finally abolished the slave
trade in the British Empire with the Slave Trade Act 1807. He continued to campaign for the abolition of
slavery in the British Empire, which he lived to see in the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Africans and
Europeans fought to end slavery and the slave trade. In 1839, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
was formed. This organization wanted to end slavery worldwide and it opposed American cotton shipment
to England as slaves were forced to pick cotton in the U.S. South. It is in operation today as Anti-Slavery
International, the world's oldest international human rights organization.

The 19th Century

During the 19th century, London was transformed into the worlds largest city and capital of the British
Empire. Its population grew from 1 million in 1800 to 6.7 million a century later. During this period, London
became a global political, financial, and trading capital. It has an unrivaled position until the later part of the
century. It was during that time when Paris and New York began to threaten its dominance. While the city
grew wealthy as Britains holdings expanded, London was also a city of poverty. Millions of people back
then lived in overcrowded and unsanitary slums. Life for the poor was immortalized by Charles Dickens in
novels like Oliver Twist in 1810, after the death of Sir Francis Baring and Abraham Goldsmith, Rothschild
emerges as the major banker in London. In 1829, the then Home Secretary (and future prime minister)
Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police as a police force covering the entire urban area. The force
gained the nickname of bobbies or peelers named after Robert Peel. 19th century London was
transformed by the coming of the railways. A new network of metropolitan railways allowed for the
development of suburbs in the neighboring counties from which middle class and wealthy people could
commute to the center. This spurred the massive outward growth of the city, the growth of greater London
also exacerbated the class divide as the wealthier classes immigrated to the suburbs, leaving the poor to
inhabit the inner city areas.
The first railway to be built in London was a lien from London Bridge to Greenwich, which opened in 1836.
This was soon followed by the opening of great rail termini, which linked London to every corner of Britain.
These included Euston station (1837), Paddington station (1838), Fenchurch Street station (1841), Waterloo
station (1848), Kings Cross station (1850), and St. Pancras station (1863). From 1863, the first lines of the
London Underground were constructed. The urbanized areas continued to grow. London expanded into
Islington, Paddington, Belgravia, Holborn, Finsbury, Shoreditch, Southwark, and Lambeth. Towards the
middle of the century, Londons antiquated local government system, consisted of ancient parishes and
vestries, struggled to cope with the rapid growth of the population. In 1855, the Metropolitan Board of
Works (MBW) was created. The MBW was created to provide London with the adequate infrastructure to
cope with it growth. One of the first tasks of the MBW was to address Londons sanitation problems. During
that time, raw sewage was pumped straight into the River Thames. This culminated in the Great Stink of

1858. So, Parliament gave consent for the MBW to construct a large system of sewers. The engineer to put
in charge of building the new system was Joseph Bazalgette. This was one of the largest civil engineering
projects of the 19th century. He oversaw constructing of over 2100 km of tunnels and pipes under London
to take away sewage and provide clean drinking water. When the London sewerage system was completed,
the death toll in London dropped dramatically. Epidemics of cholera and other diseases were curtailed.
Bazalgettes system is still in use today. One of the most famous events of the 19th century London was the
Great Exhibition of 1851. It was held at the Crystal Palace. The fair attracted 6 million visitors from all over
the world. It displayed Britain at the height of its imperial dominance.
As the capital of a massive empire, London became a magnet for immigrants from the colonies and poorer
parts of Europe. There was a large Irish population who settled in the city during the Victorian period. Many
of the newcomers were refugees from the Great Famine (1845-1849). During on time, Catholic Irish people
made up 20% of Londons population. They typically lived in overcrowded slums. London also became
home to a sizable Jewish community. This community was known for its entrepreneurship in the clothing
trade and merchandising. In 1888, the new County of London was established. It was administered by the
London County Council. This was the first elected London wide administrative body. It replaced the earlier
Metropolitan Board of Works, which had been made up of appointees. The County of London covered
broadly what was then the full extent of the London conurbation, although the conurbation later outgrew
the boundaries of the county. In 1900, the county was sub-divided into 28 metropolitan boroughs, which
formed a local tier of administration than the county council.
Many of the famous buildings and landmarks of London were constructed during the 19th century
including:
Trafalgar Square
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
The Royal Albert Hall
The Victoria and Albert Museum
Tower Bridge.

The early 20th Century.

By the start of the 20th century, London was at the height of its influence as the capital of the largest
empires in history. Its imperialism continued. There were many challenges in London too. Londons
population grew rapidly in the early decades of the 20th century. Public transport also greatly expanded.
There was a large tram network being constructed by the London County Council through LCC Tramways,
which was the first motorbus service to begin in the 1900s. There were improvements to Londons over
ground and underground rail network, including large scale electrification were progressively carried out.
During World War I, London experienced its first bombing raids carried out by German zeppelin airships.
These airships killed about 700 people and caused great terror, but they were merely a foretaste of what
was to come. The city of London would experience many more terrors as a result of both World Wars. The
largest explosion in London occurred during World War I, which was the Silverton explosion when a
munitions factory containing 50 tons of TNT exploded, killing 73 and injuring 400.
The period between the two World Wars saw Londons geographical extent growing more quickly than ever
before or since. A preference for lower density suburban housing, typically semi-detached, by Londoners
seeking a more "rural" lifestyle, superseded Londoners' old predilection for terraced houses. This was
facilitated not only by a continuing expansion of the rail network, including trams and the Underground,
but also by slowly widening car ownership. London's suburbs expanded outside the boundaries of the
County of London, into the neighboring counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex and Surrey. Like
the rest of the country, London suffered severe unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
In the East End during the 1930s, politically extreme parties flourished. The Communist Party of Great
Britain and the British Union of Fascists both gained serious support. Clashes between right and left
culminated in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. The population of London reached an all-time peak of 8.6
million in 1939. Large numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing from Nazi Germany, settled in London during
the 1930s, mostly in the East End.

London during World War II

World War II was the bloodiest war in human history. During World War II, London (like many other British
cities) suffered severe damage. London and other cities were bombed extensively by the Luftwaffe as a part
of the Blitz. Before the bombings occurred, hundreds of thousands of children in London were evacuated to
the countryside to avoid the bombing. Civilians took shelter from air raids in underground stations. The
Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare aircraft institution from the German Wehrmacht during World War II. The
Luftwaffe in essence was part of the Nazi air force. Its commanders included people like RM Hermann
Goring and Gfm Robert Ritter von Greim. The Blitz was the name of the campaign of large bombing raids
carried out by the Nazis against Britain in 1940 and in 1941. The Blitz involved the bombings of industrial
targets and civilian targets. It started on September 7, 1940 with the Battle of Britain. Between
September 7, 1940 and May 21, 1941, London was attacked 71 times, Birmingham, Liverpool and Plymouth
eight times, Bristol six, Glasgow five, Southampton four, Portsmouth and Hull three and a minimum of one
large raid on eight other cities. From September 7, 1940, one year into the war, London was bombed by the
Luftwaffe for 57 consecutive nights. More than 40,000 civilians were killed in the bombings, almost half of
them in London. More than one million London houses were destroyed or damaged. The heaviest bombing
took place during The Blitz between September 7, 1940 and May 10, 1941.
During this period, London was subjected to 71 separate raids receiving over 18,000 tonnes of high
explosive. One raid in December 1940, which became known as the Second Great Fire of London saw a
firestorm engulf much of the City of London and destroy many historic buildings. St Paul's Cathedral
however remained unscathed. A photograph showing the Cathedral shrouded in smoke became a famous
image of the war. Hitler and the Nazis couldnt conquer the United Kingdom. The Nazis failed to defeat
Britain, so Hitler turned his attention to the Eastern front and regular bombing raids ceased. They did again
to bomb on a smaller scale with the Little Blitz in early 1944. By the end of the war, (during 1944-1945),
London was under heavy attack by pilotless V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets. They were fired from Nazi
occupied Europe. These attacks only came to an end when their launch sites were captured by advancing
Allied forces. London suffered severe damage and heavy casualties, the worst hit part being the Docklands
area. By the war's end, just under 30,000 Londoners had been killed by the bombing, and over 50,000
seriously injured, tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people

were made homeless.

Post-World War II Times

After 1945, massive changes happened in London. There was the 1948 Olympics in London, which were
held at the original Wembley Stadium. At the time, the city barely recovered from the war. Londons
rebuilding was slow to begin with. Yet, in the 1951 Festival of Britain occurred. This marked an increased
mood of optimism and forward looking. In the immediate postwar years, housing was a major issue in
London. The reason was because of a large amount of housing which had been destroyed in the war. The
authorities decided upon high rise blocks of flats as the answer to housing shortages. During the 1950s and
the 1960s, the skyline of London altered dramatically. There were tower blocks being erected. Although,
these blocks were later proved unpopular. In a bid to reduce the number of people living in overcrowded
housing, a policy was introduced of encouraging people to move into newly built new towns surrounding
London. Through the 19th and in the early half of the 20th century, Londoners used coal for heating their
homes, which produced large amounts of smoke. In combination with climatic conditions, this often caused
characteristic smog. London became known for its typical London Fog. It was also called Pea Soupers. It
was called the smoke by many people too.
In 1952, there was the disastrous Great Smog of 1952. It lasted for five days and killed over 4,000 people. In
response to this, the Clean Air Act of 1956 was passed. This law mandated the creation of smokeless
zones where the use of smokeless fuels was required (during this time, most households still used open
fires). The act was effective. By the mid 1960s, London was the center of a worldwide youth culture. This
was influenced by the success of UK musicians like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Some of the London

youth promoted the London subculture which made Carnaby Street a household name of youth fashion
around the world. London's role as a trendsetter for youth fashion was revived strongly in the 1980s during
the new wave and punk eras. In the mid-1990s this was revived to some extent with the emergence of the
Britpop era.

From the 1950s onwards London became home to a large number of immigrants, largely from many of the
previous Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, which dramatically
changed the face of London, turning it into one of the most diverse cities in Europe. However, the
integration of the new immigrants was not always easy. Racial tensions emerged in events such as the
Brixton Riots in the early 1980s. There were the times of The Troubles in Northern Ireland in the early
1970s until the mid-1990. The deal was that there was a fight between wanting Northern Ireland to be
independent (and influenced by the UK) and those who wanted Northern Ireland to be reunited with the
rest of Ireland. The outward expansion of London was slowed by the war. There was the introduction of the
Metropolitan Green Belt.
Due to this outward expansion, in 1965, the old County of London (which by now only covered part of the
London conurbation) and the London County Council were abolished, and the much larger area of Greater
London was established with a new Greater London Council (GLC) to administer it, along with 32 new
London boroughs. Greater Londons population declined steadily in the decades after World War II. It went
from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. However, it then began to
increase again in the late 1980s, encouraged by strong economic performance and an increasingly positive
image. Londons traditional status as a major port declined dramatically in the post war decades as the old
Docklands could not accommodate large modern container ships. The principal ports for London moved
downstream to the ports of Felixstowe and Tilbury. The docklands area had become largely derelict by the
1980s, but was redeveloped into flats and offices from the mid-1980s onwards. The Thames Barreier was
completed in the 1980s to protect London against the tidal surges from the North Sea. By the early 1980s,
there were political disputes between the GLC run by Ken Livingstone and the Conservative government of
Margaret Thatcher led to the GLC's abolition in 1986, with most of its powers relegated to the London
boroughs. This left London as the only large metropolis in the world without a central administration.
In 2000, London-wide government was restored, with the creation of the Greater London Authority (GLA)
by Tony Blair's government, covering the same area of Greater London. The new authority had similar
powers to the old GLC, but was made up of a directly elected Mayor and a London Assembly. The first
election took place on 4 May, with Ken Livingstone comfortably regaining his previous post. London was
recognized as one of the nine regions of England. In global perspective, it was emerging as a World city
widely compared to New York and Tokyo.

The Civil Rights Movement in London (during the 20th century)

The Civil Rights Movement in the UK has a long history. The UK organized the slave trade as early as 1562.
There were about 14,000 black people living in Britain by the 1700s. Back then, black people didnt have
real freedom. That is why activists fought back to promote freedom and justice for all. Abolitionists
protested slavery in the UK until it was abolished throughout the British Empire by 1833. By 1892 Britain
had its first Indian Member of Parliament, Dadabhai Naoroji.
Civil rights expanded with the Great Reform Acts that culminated in 1928 with universal female suffrage
and the 1945 vision of the Welfare State. Many black Caribbeans fought in World War II under the British
against the Nazis. After World War II 150,000 Poles arrived in Britain along with hundreds of men from the
West Indies and multi-cultural Britain grew. By the 1950s, Britain invited workers from the Caribbean,
especially from Jamaica, to fill job vacancies such as laborers and transport workers in order to help rebuild
post war Britain. Immigration grew and racial violence grew in cities like London, Birmingham, and
Nottingham. The government began to curb immigration and by 1972 non-whites could only settle in
Britain with a work permit or if they had parents or grandparents who were born in Britain. By 1970 the
amount of non-white residents in the UK numbered 1.4 million, although a third of this number was born in
Britain. Racial discrimination existed in the UK. It was a big problem back then and now. Many immigrants
were skilled workers, but racism and discrimination were done against immigrant workers. Many
immigrants had to do semi and unskilled work as a product of discrimination. By the 1960s the economy in
Britain was declining and black workers were the first to lose their jobs. Those that did manage to keep jobs
usually did double the work for less pay. The racism and discrimination in Britain echoed that felt in
America at the time.
Many black people would make a difference to the civil rights of black people in Britain. One was Paul
Stephenson, who in 1963 led a boycott against a racist public bus company. The Bristol bus company
operated a color bar that refused employment to blacks or Asians. Stephenson, a 26 year old teacher,
organized the 60 day bus boycott on the citys buses. Thousands of people supported the bus boycott and
the news of the racism made headlines. By the 28 August 1963 the bus company lifted the employment

colour ban. This was the same day that Martin Luther King Jr. made his historic I Have a Dream speech in
Washington, D.C.
Mr. Stephenson would again hit the headlines when he stood trial for refusing to leave a pub until he was
served a beer. It was not uncommon to see signs in Britain during the 1960s proclaiming, No blacks, no
Irish, no dogs. Both cases helped to highlight the treatment of blacks and Asians in Britain during this
period. During Prime Minister Harold Wilsons term (1964-1976) he introduced tighter controls on
immigration but also introduced legislation that made racial discrimination a legal offence.

CARD or Campaign against Racial Discrimination existed as a coalition to challenge racism in employment,
housing, and public life. People fought for freedom in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, London, etc. In
Britain, such mobilisations were much more ethnically diverse, and spread across a range of domains and
organisations. The Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), of which I am part, is undertaking an eventanalysis of the local and national politics that shaped the British civil rights movement. Today, racial
discrimination is now a legal offence in the UK and these civil and human rights are afforded to every man,
woman, and child. Racial discrimination includes discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, nationality
and ethnicity. It is an offence to discriminate on these grounds in areas such as employment, education,
housing, and the provision of goods and services. It is also an offence for public authorities such as the
police or government departments to discriminate in its activities on these grounds. It is also an offence to
discriminate on the grounds of religion, sexuality, gender and disability. Discrimination for any of these
reasons can lead to legal consequences. It is important that people are aware of their civil rights in the UK
as it is the best protection they have against discrimination. Discrimination hasnt ended in the UK, but
those who do discrimination could face legal consequences. We are still fighting for equality and freedom in
the UK, in America, and all over the world. We want future generations to live in a society filled with
equality and justice.
There are many unsung heroes of the civil rights and womens liberation movements of England. Stella
Dadzie set up the group called the Organization for Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD). The
American civil rights movement influenced the radical politics of Europe. During the 1950s, there were

housing shortages and competition for jobs between the white

working class and commonwealth citizens (in the UK). There were
riots in Notting Hill, Liverpool, Bristol, and Nottingham during the
1950s too. The 1958 race riots happened when hundreds of
young white people attacked houses of West Indian residents.
There were more race riots in Nottingham. Baron Baker and other
black people defended their communities by August 1958. Many
American black civil rights and black power activists came into
Britain to speak at various demonstrations and public events
during the 1960s like Dr. King, Malcolm X, etc. Many social
activists spoke in universities, and in participated in anti-war
demonstrations across the UK. One of the greatest heroes of the
UK civil rights movement was Claudia Jones. She was an organizer
and writer. She led the early anti-racism campaigns in
Britain. She believed in womens rights and civil rights. She This is Malcolm X giving his historic speech in the
London School of Economics in February 11, 1965. In
was born in Trinidad and worked in New York City during
that
speech, he advocated for revolutionary change in
the 1920s. Her most famous writing was her piece
the world. He concluded his remarks by saying the
entitled, An end to the neglect of the problems of the
following words: And just as you see the oppressed
Negro woman! in 1949. In 1950 she was ordered to be
people all over the world today getting together, the
deported for un-American activities. Trinidad and Tobago Black people in the West are also seeing that they are
refused her entry on the grounds that she may prove
oppressed. Instead of just calling themselves an
troublesome and in 1955 Claudia Jones was eventually
oppressed minority in the States, they are part of the
offered residency in the UK. She continued to fight for
oppressed masses of people all over the world today
who are crying out for action against the common
racial equality, organizing many members of the Afrooppressor. Thank you.
British community into action. Claudia Jones suggested
and organized a carnival for the black British community.
This was first held in St. Pancras town hall in January 1959. By 1965, with the input of other organizers, it
had become the Notting Hill Carnival, now one of the largest and most exhilarating street festivals in the
world. Mukami McCrum is a Sister who has fought for freedom too.

During the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s, there was the growth of anti-colonial movements across the
world. These movements in Africa, Asia, etc. wanted national liberation and protested against the evil
exploitation of colonial powers. The white racist backlash in America included groups like the CCC and the
Klan. In the UK, there was the white only, racist, neo-fascist organization National Front. In the 1970s, they
wanted the repatriation of all non-white immigrants and significant limits on immigration in the UK. In the
mid-1970s the National Front had 20,000 members and their street protests, often opposed by anti-fascist
groups, were a regular sight in British cities. This period was also marked by many incidents of police
brutality, including the murder of Clement Blair Peach in 1979. Peach was attending an anti-Nazi League
demonstration in Southall, London, when he was knocked unconscious, dying a day later of his injuries.
Witnesses said they had seen members of the Metropolitan Police strike Peach, but nobody was charged
for the assault. Peachs funeral was attended by 10,000 people in support of his anti-racist activism. There
were the Southall Black Sisters with leaders like Pragna Patel. The Britxon riots came about during the
1980s.

The 1980s saw a decade of unemployment, housing shortages, class tensions, and racial tensions in UK
(with the reign of the reactionary Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher). These tensions were in London,
Leeds, Bristol and Nottingham. In London a national recession, exacerbated by poor housing and high
unemployment among the African-Caribbean community in Lambeth, combined with unfair stop-andsearch laws used by the police, sparked the 1981 uprisings. These lasted for two days and saw hundreds of
people injured. Following these uprisings the government ordered an enquiry; the resulting Scarman
Report recommended changes in police training and law enforcement, which for many protestors was a
vindication. However, in 1985 riots were sparked again by the police shooting of Dorothy Cherry Groce,
originally from Jamaica, while they were searching for her son Michael. Protesting members of the public
and police clashed on the streets for two days. As late as 1999 the Macpherson Inquiry Report into the
murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 claimed that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist. Today
the National Association of Black Supplementary Schools has over 60 registered schools across the UK that
offer a range of workshops and activities in addition to the national curriculum.

London in the 21st Century

At the beginning of the 21st century, London hosted the much derided Millennium Dome at Greenwich to
mark the new century. Other Millennium projects were more successful. One was the largest observation
wheel in the world called the Millennium Wheel or the London Eye. The London Eye was erected as a
temporary structure, but soon became a fixture and draws four million visitors a year. The National Lottery
released a flood of funds for major enhancements to existing attracting, for example the roofing of the
Great Court at the British Museum. The London Plan was published by the Mayor of London in 2004. The
plan estimated that the population would reach 8.1 million by 2016 and continue to increase thereafter.
This was reflected in a move towards denser, more urban styles of building, including a greatly increased
number of tall buildings, and proposals for major enhancements to the public transport network. However,
funding for projects such as Cross rail remained a struggle. On a July 6, 2005, London won the right to host
the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. It was the first city to host the modern games three times. Yet,
celebrations were cut short the following day when the city was rocked by a series of terrorist attacks.
More than 50 were killed and 750 injured in three bombings on London Underground trains and a fourth on
a double decker bus near King's Cross. In the public there was ambivalence leading-up to the Olympics,
though public sentiment changed strongly in their favor following a successful opening ceremony and when
the anticipated organizational and transport problems never occurred. In March 26, 2011, London anti-cuts

protests start. The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton happened on April 29, 2011. The
August 2011 England rebellions occurred.

This image shows the Tower Bridge being illuminated with the Olympic Rings during the week
leading up to the Opening Ceremony.

The Summer Olympics started in July 27, 2012. I was 28 years old during that time. There were 10,768
athletes who participated in the Summer Olympics. London is the first and only city so far to host the
modern Olympic Games three times. It had done so previously in 1908 and in 1948. The Olympic mascots
were Mandeville and Wenlock. In the Olympics in London, Allyson Felix, Carmelita Jeter, Shelly-Ann FraserPryce, Michael Phelps, the USA Basketball team (both men and women), and other human beings won gold
medals. The Summer Paralympics started in August 29, 2012. Today, by May 2016, Sadiq Khan was elected
mayor. He is the first Muslim to be mayor of London in history. It represents a new era of history. Sadiq
Khan is part of the Labour party. A member of the Labour Party, he is situated on the party's soft left and
has been ideologically characterized as a social democrat. His wife is Saadiya Ahmed. The family has two
daughters named Anisah and Ammarah. So, the new chapter of Londons history is continuing to be
written.

Now, a slight majority of British citizens voted to leave the EU. The Brexit referendum is over and the
consequences for the future of the UK economically are uncertain. We know what the European Union is
all about. The EU has made many bad policies from migrant restrictions to the austerity policies against
Greece and other nations. We know that the European Union is run by the European ruling class and has
promoted the NATO escalation near Russia. The EU promotes the Fortress Europe agenda. This policy
harms the thousands of fleeing refugees from Libya, Iraq, and Syria and (the West are all complicit in the
wars in those Middle Eastern nations which has exacerbated the migrant crisis in the first place). Cameron,
has even proclaimed an Age of Austerity as his government imposes cuts of 210 billion, (263 billion),
equivalent to over 10 percent of Britains GDP, at the cost of the destruction of 20 percent of all public
sector jobs, millions more in the private sector and the decimation of vital services. Also, many people of
the Leave campaign are racists and xenophobes like Nigel Farage. Many of the Leave campaign want to
cause the city of London to secure more global markets against their European rivals of Berlin and Paris.
The Tory Party with people like Boris Johnson and Michael Grove including the UKIP are part of the Leave
movement. I have no issue with the growth of anti-establishment sentiment in the world. What I do have a
problem with is the growth of right wing nationalism that is anti-immigrant, anti-intellectual, and anti-social
justice as expressed by Donald Trump in America, Farage in Britain, Marine Le Pen in France, and other
folks in other European countries. The alliance of the pseudo-left and the right in clamping down on
immigrants is truly disgraceful.
Therefore, the controversies and the potential end of the EU never started with Brexit. It started long
before. Prime Minister Cameron has said that he will resign in October of 2016. A Conservative Party Prime
Minister could exist in the near future. Writing in the Financial Times, British lawyer David Allen Green
explained Brexit voting is advisory, not mandatory. Parliament has final say. Ultimately, the Brexit
doesnt end the struggle for justice internationally. It will take months or years for the UK to be fully gone
from the European Union. The victory of Brexit ought to trigger withdrawal from the EU by invoking Article
50 of the Lisbon Treaty (The Treaty of Lisbon introduced an exit clause for members who wish to withdraw
from the Union, under Treaty on European Union Article 50). In fact, it makes little difference to the
working class whether Britain remains in the EU or not. Either way, the capitalist class will continue its

attacks against living standards and workers rights. The real alternative is to conduct a vigorous struggle
against cuts and austerity, and for the social transformation of society in Britain, Europe and a world scale.
Ultimately, I decide to not to follow the Remain or Leave side. I believe in following an independent course
of class consciousness and supporting the working class and the poor of the UK to have their liberation
along with international workers solidarity.

Appendix A: The Culture of London

London culture is dynamic, has a long history, and its diverse too. London is known for having exquisite,
exciting components of engineering, music, museums, festivals, and other forms of entertainment. It is
known for its theaters too. It has the West End theater district where many professional theater
performances exist. London has the British Museum, the Tate Galleries, the National Gallery, the Notting
Hill Carnival, and the O2. In London, cultural iconic structures like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the tube
map signify the essence of the interesting characteristics of the city of London. As home to human beings of
many nationalities and cultures, Londons culture is never monolithic. It is diverse and beautiful. London
has diverse demographics. The 2011 census recorded that London has 2,998,264 people or 36.7% of
Londons population being foreign born. That means that London has the second largest immigrant
population in terms of absolute numbers in the world (New York City is number one). The foreign born
citizens from London are from India, Poland, Ireland, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Sri Lanka,
France, etc. Industrialization has caused Londons population to grow rapidly too during the 19th and early
20th centuries. Its metropolitan area is big too. According to the Office for National Statistics, based on the
2011 Census estimates, 59.8 per cent of the 8,173,941 inhabitants of London were White, with 44.9 per
cent White British, 2.2 per cent White Irish, 0.1 per cent gypsy/Irish traveler and 12.1 per cent classified as
Other White. 20.9 per cent of Londoners are of Asian and mixed-Asian descent. 19.7 per cent are of full
Asian descent, with those of mixed-Asian heritage comprising 1.2 of the population. Indians account for 6.6
per cent of the population, followed by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis at 2.7 per cent each. Chinese peoples
account for 1.5 per cent of the population, with Arabic people comprising 1.3 per cent. A further 4.9 per
cent are classified as "Other Asian".
15.6 per cent of London's population are of Black and mixed-Black descent. 13.3 per cent are of full Black
descent, with those of mixed-Black heritage comprising 2.3 per cent. Black Africans account for 7.0 per cent
of London's population, with 4.2 per cent as Black Caribbean and 2.1 per cent as "Other Black". 5.0 per cent
are of mixed race. In London, Black and Asian children outnumber white British children by about six to four

in state schools. Almost 50 percent of the citizens of London are Christians, 20.7 percent have no religion,
and Muslims make up 12.4 percent of the city. It is very common to witness large Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and
Jewish communities. Muslim mosques, Sikh temples, and Hindu temples are commonplace in the city. It is a
fact that London is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. By 2015, it has been ranked as the
most visited city in the world with over 65 million visits. Tourism is a major industry in the city.
London hosts many festivals, fairs, and carnival throughout the year. It has over 40 free festivals each year.
The most famous one is Notting Hall Carnival, which is the worlds second largest carnival. The carnival
takes place over the August bank holiday weekend, and it attracts almost 1 million people. It has an AfroCaribbean flavor and it highlights a competition between Londons steelpan bands and a 3 mile street
parade with dancing and music. London hosts the Carnaval Del Pueblo. That is Europes greatest latin
American Festival. Its held on the first Sunday of August of each year. Seven countries participate in the
street procession of the festival. It ends in Burgess Park. Live music, dance, and Funfairs go up to 9:30 pm.
There are also large parades held on St. George's Day (April 23) and St Patrick's Day (March 17). The Dance
Umbrella is held every October, and features a variety of dance companies putting on displays across
London. In addition there are many smaller fairs and parades, including the Christmas Without Cruelty
Fayre, a fair held annually to promote animal rights.

By Timothy