Video narration
London began around AD 43 as Roman Londinium, a busy bridge-and-port on the Thames. When Rome left, the settlement shrank, then rebuilt in the medieval era: walls, markets, guilds, and the Tower of London guarding the river. In the 1600s, London boomed as a trading city—but crisis struck: the Great Plague, then the Great Fire of 1666. Rebuilt in brick and stone, it grew into the capital of a global empire. The 1800s brought factories, railways, and the Underground—along with smog and crowded streets. In the 1900s, London endured world wars and the Blitz, then rebuilt again. Today it’s a sprawling, multicultural city where old landmarks sit beside new towers—still shaped by the Thames, and by centuries of change.