London
Though likely occupied to some degree since the Bronze Age, the area known as London today did not thrive until it was invaded by the Ancient Romans, who dubbed it Londinium. At the time, it spanned an area roughly the size of Hyde Park today, though eventually it became an important port for trade between Roman Britain and the Roman provinces on the continent.
In around 60 CE, it was destroyed by the Queen Boudica, who led an army of Iceni (an ancient tribe of eastern Britain). Queen Boudica revolted against the Roman Empire after they ignored her late husband’s (King Prasutagus) will, in which he declared he left his kingdom to both his daughters and the Roman Emperor; the empire, instead, left them destitute. Though she was defeated and the city was rebuilt, she and her daughters are honored in a statue by Thomas Thornycroft, which is placed by the Westminster Bridge, facing Elizabeth Tower and the Palace of Westminster.
After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the city of Londinium was virtually abandoned, and an Anglo-Saxon settlement known as Lunmdenwic developed to the west of the Roman city. The new city grew in size, becoming a port, and attracting the attention of Vikings, who assaulted it several times in the 9th and 10th centuries. By the 11th century, London was the largest town in England, and structures such as Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London were constructed at around this time.
The 16th century saw the peak of English theater, with the construction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in 1599, though Puritan authorities shut it down in the 1640s (the ban was lifted in 1660). The 17th century also saw much suffering, as the Great Plague (1665-1666) killed an approximate one fifth of the population of London, and then the Great Fire of London (1666) destroyed so much of the city that it spent the next ten years rebuilding.
Today, London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with one of Europe’s largest populations (after Istanbul and Moscow), as well as one of the world’s top tourist destinations (in 2015 it was ranked the most visited city in the world).
Gold Colored Fox 