The Annals of London

[Otto Sell]

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9342.html

One of the world's greatest cities, the vast metropolis of twentieth-century
London began in ad 43 when Aulius Plautius led the second invasion from
Richborough to defeat the local army on the banks of the Thames. The victors
then created a Roman settlement and established themselves on the river.
They developed the city with a southern defense work (Southwark), and the
settlement prospered as the preeminent trading base linking Britain to
Europe and the Near East. The city's expansion through the invasions of the
Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings serves as a background for the first of the
almanac entries, 1065, which sees the consecration of Edward the Confessor's
Abbey at Westminster, shortly before the king's own burial in his new
church.

The first appearance and gradual evolution of roads, buildings, and
landmarks is set in the context of the ebb and flow of history through the
capital's streets and rivers: from the local (the 1665 outbreak of plague,
where the healthy were incarcerated with the sick to avoid further
infection, and the spread of the great fire that decimated much of the city
the following year) to the politically significant (the execution of the
king in 1649 outside Inigo Jones's banqueting house, whose building in 1619
is also described).

The sweep of this book is vast and its detail magnificent. Disasters,
innovations, and everyday events relating to politics, society, pageantry,
the arts, religion, and industry are revealed to display the wide spectrum
of London life. Year by year, from 1065 to the present day, events that have
shaped the London we know are brought vividly to life by John Richardson's
informative text, which is supported by an extraordinary and eclectic
collection of historical illustrations.

John Richardson is the author of London and Its People (1995). He has
written histories of Covent Garden, Camden Town, Hampstead, Islington,
Highgate, Kentish Town, and Soho.