London Short History

The Structure of the Book is Chronological, With Digressions. From Roman and Then Norman London, We Move on to Chaucer's London - the City of the Peasants Revolt, Dick Whittington and the Great Livery Companies. in Tudor and Stuart London Many Believed the City Was Being Wrecked by Over-Population, Over-Building and the Greed of Speculators. Eighteenth-Century London Witnessed the South Sea Bubble, Gin, Highwaymen and the Gordon Riots; but Also Banking, Hospitals, and the Elegant Design of Everyday Things. in the Nineteenth Century, Expanding Vigorously, the City Resisted Any Overall Make-Over. With Queen Victoria Came the Railway Age, Which Made and Unmade the City. Chartism, Anti-Semitism, Overcrowding and Cholera. but Engineering Triumphs Too. If the First World War Was a Nightmare Happening Elsewhere, the Amazing Six Years of 1939-45 Were the City's Finest Hour. Post-1945, Property Developers Took Over, With Disastrous Results. the Author Celebrates the Cosmopolitan City That Mobil