Dimensions
225 x 288 x 34mm
A Year-by-Year Record of a Thousand Years of History
One of the world's greatest cities, the vast metropolis of London began in AD43 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. The settlement prospered as the pre-eminent trading base linking Britain to Europe and the Near East.
After an introductory essay on Roman London and the Saxons, Danes and others who took over after the Romans left, 'Anals of London' chronicles year by year the events that have changed the face of London. Along the way we watch the city grow from the centre out to the suburbs and observe businesses and building, sacred and secular, being started, ruined, rebuilt and metamorphosed into the forms familiar to us today. Londoners liked executions - not to mention theatres, gardens, music halls, ceremonies, oddities, shops, sports and the occasional riot. They helped take their minds off the plagues, fires, wars and freakish weather. John Richardson records all of this, with judicious quotes from contemporary writers.