The history of London as a permanent settlement stretches back almost two thousand years. The city’s story is a fascinating one, its fortunes inextricably linked to those of the British Isles.
London was founded by the Romans at a convenient crossing of the Thames, though it had been convenient for the local inhabitants too. Tacitus describes a flourishing trading city existing in AD 67. The area was marshy but there was a low hill, roughly where the Bank of England now stands and it was here that the Romans chose to build a typical Roman city, primarily for military reasons.
England at that time was inhabited by a hodge-podge of tribes and small kingdoms, and the Romans had little difficulty subduing them – despite some noble efforts at defense. The locals assimilated Roman culture, and after a couple of hundred years were more Roman than the Romans. When the Romans pulled out, pressured by frontier wars, the Saxons took over. They hated living in the old walled Roman city and established their own city of long huts, roughly where Covent Garden is today.
By the time the Normans took over from the Saxons, the basis of the mercantile capital was...