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Timeline of London facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The following is a timeline of the history of London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom.

Prehistory

  • 120,000 BC – Elephants and hippopotami are roaming on the site of Trafalgar Square.
  • 6000 BC – Hunter-gatherers are on the site of Heathrow Terminal 5.
  • 4000 BC – Mesolithic timber structure exists on the River Thames foreshore, south of the site of Vauxhall Bridge.
  • 3800 BC – Stanwell Cursus is constructed.
  • 2300–1500 BC – Possible community on Chiswick Eyot in the Thames.
  • 1500 BC – A Bronze Age bridge exists from the foreshore north of Vauxhall Bridge. This bridge either crosses the Thames, or goes to a subsequently lost island in the river.
  • 300–1 BC – An Iron Age oppidum in Woolwich, which is possibly London's first port, in the late-Roman period reused as a fort.

Early history to the 10th century

Main articles: Londinium and Anglo-Saxon London
  • 47 AD – Original settlement of Londinium founded by the Romans.
  • 50
  • 57 – 8 January: The earliest known handwritten document in the UK is created in London, a financial record in one of the Roman 'Bloomberg tablets' found during 2010–13 on the site of Londinium. Another dated to 65/70-80 AD gives the earliest known written record of the name of Londinium.
  • 60 or 61 – Londinium is sacked by forces of Boudica.
  • 122 – Construction of a forum in Londinium is completed; Emperor Hadrian visits. There is a major fire in the city at about this time.
  • c. 190–225 – The London Wall is constructed.
  • During 3rd century - London's population is around 50,000 due to the influence of its major port.
  • c. 214 – London becomes the capital of the province of Britannia Inferior.
  • c. 240 – The London Mithraeum is built.
  • c. 250 – Coasting barge "Blackfriars I" sinks in the Thames at Blackfriars.
  • 255 – Work begins on a riverside wall in London.
  • 296 – Constantius Chlorus occupies Londinium, saving it from attack by mercenary Franks.
  • 368 – The city is known as Augusta by this date, indicating that it is a Roman provincial capital.
  • 490 – Saxons are in power, and the Roman city is largely abandoned.
  • By early 7th century – Settlement at Lundenwic (modern-day Aldwych).
  • c. 604 – Mellitus is the first Bishop of London in the modern succession to be consecrated.
  • 650 – A market is active.
  • 675
    • An early fire of London destroys the wooden Anglo-Saxon cathedral, which is rebuilt in stone over the following decade.
    • The Church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower is founded in the City by Barking Abbey.
  • By 757 – London has come under the control of Æthelbald of Mercia and passes to Offa, who has a mint here.
  • 798 – An early fire of London takes place.
  • 838 – Kingston upon Thames is first mentioned.
  • 842 – London is raided by Vikings with "great slaughter"; they besiege it in 851.
  • 871 – Autumn: Danes take up winter quarters in Mercian London.
  • 886
  • 893 – Spring: Edward, son of Alfred the Great, forces invading Danish Vikings to take refuge on Thorney Island.
  • 911 – Edward the Elder, King of Wessex, transfers London from Mercia to Wessex.
  • 918 – Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders and daughter of King Alfred, donates Kentish lands, including Lewisham, Greenwich and Woolwich, to St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent.
  • 925 – 4 September: Coronation of Æthelstan as King of Wessex at Kingston upon Thames.
  • 978 – The coronation of Æthelred as King of the English takes place in Kingston upon Thames.
  • 982 – An early fire of London takes place.
  • 989 – An early fire of London burns from Aldgate to Ludgate.

The 11th to 15th centuries

Main article: Norman and Medieval London
Bishopsgate Hollar
Bishopsgate

16th century

Main article: Tudor London

17th century

Main article: Stuart London
  • 1600
  • 1601 – 25 February: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, is executed for treason for his part in a short-lived rebellion in the previous month against the Queen.
  • 1603
  • 1604 – 15 March: The Royal Entry of King James into London takes place.
  • 1605
    • 5 November: Gunpowder Plot: A plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and the King is foiled when the Catholic plotter Guy Fawkes is found in a cellar below the Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder following an anonymous tip-off. On 30 January 1606, 4 of the conspirators are executed for treason outside St Paul's, and the following day Fawkes and the remainder are executed in Old Palace Yard, Westminster.
    • The Worshipful Company of Gardeners and the Worshipful Company of Butchers are chartered.
    • Approximate date: Construction of Northumberland House at Charing Cross for Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, begins.
  • 1606 – 19 December: The Susan Constant sets out from the Thames leading the Virginia Company's fleet for the foundation of Jamestown, Virginia.
  • 1608
    • July–December: Plague in London, which recurs in the 2 following years.
    • The foundation of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club is claimed.
  • 1609 – The Lord Mayor's Show is revived.
  • 1611
  • 1612 – Hicks Hall is built.
  • 1613
  • 1614 – October: The Hope Theatre opens in Southwark. On 31 October Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fayre: A Comedy debuts here.
  • c. 1615 – Clerkenwell Bridewell (prison) is in operation.
  • 1616
    • The Anchor Brewery is established by James Monger next to the Globe Theatre in Southwark. It will be the world's largest by the early 19th century and brew until the 1970s.
    • The engraved Visscher panorama of London is published.
  • 1616–35 – The Queen's House is built in Greenwich to a design by Inigo Jones.
  • 1617
    • 23 August: The first one-way streets are created in alleys near the Thames.
    • December: The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries is incorporated.
    • Aldersgate is rebuilt.
    • The Goldsmiths' Company's barge is built.
    • Approximate date: New Prison in operation.
  • 1618 – The Company of Adventurers of London Trading to the Ports of Africa is granted a monopoly on trade from Guinea.
  • 1619
  • 1620 – July: The Mayflower embarks from or near her home port of Rotherhithe with around 65 Pilgrims bound for Cape Cod in North America.
  • 1621
    • Between Spring and October: The Corante: or, Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France, one of the first English language newspapers translated from the Dutch, circulates in London.
    • The Hackney coach is first recorded.
  • 1622
    • 6 January (probable date): The new Banqueting House, Whitehall, opens with a performance of Ben Jonson's The Masque of Augurs to a design by the building's architect, Inigo Jones.
    • 23 May: Nathaniel Butter begins publication of Newes from Most Parts of Christendom or Weekley Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungaria, Bohemia, the Palatinate, France and the Low Countries.
    • Boston Manor House is built by Dame Mary Reade.
  • 1623
    • 26 October: "Fatal Vespers": 95 people are killed when an upper floor of the French ambassador's house in Blackfriars collapses under the weight of a congregation attending a Catholic mass.
    • Between 8 November and 5 December: Publication of the "First Folio" (Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies), a posthumous collection of 36 of Shakespeare's plays, half of which have not previously been printed, by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount in the Jaggard printshop "at the sign of the Half-Eagle and Key in Barbican".
  • 1624 – The Latymer School and Latymer Upper School are founded by the bequest of Edward Latymer.
  • 1625
    • Around August: Over 40,000 people are killed by the bubonic plague in London, and so the court and Parliament temporarily move to Oxford.
    • Queen's Chapel is completed in Westminster.
  • 1626 – 2 February: The coronation of Charles I of England takes place in Westminster Abbey.
  • 1629
    • May: The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers is chartered.
    • Approximate date: Development of Lincoln's Inn Fields for housing begins.
  • 1630
    • The central square of Covent Garden is laid out, and a market begins to develop there.
    • Sion College is chartered as a college, guild of London parochial clergy, almshouse and library under the will of Thomas White, vicar of St Dunstan-in-the-West.
  • 1631
    • 31 January: The rebuilt St Katharine Cree church is consecrated by William Laud, Bishop of London.
    • 20 February: A fire breaks out in Westminster Hall, but it is put out before it can cause serious destruction.
    • 7 June: St Paul's, Hammersmith is consecrated as a chapel of ease by Laud.
    • The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers is established.
    • Tottenham Grammar School is re-endowed.
    • London's population reaches 130,163 residents.
  • 1632 – Forty Hall, Enfield is completed.
  • 1633
    • 13 February: Fire engines are used for the first time in England to control and extinguish a fire that breaks out on London Bridge, but not before 43 houses are destroyed.
    • St Paul's, Covent Garden, designed by Inigo Jones in 1631 overlooking his piazza, opens to worship, making it the first wholly new parish church built in London since the English Reformation.
  • 1635 – The first General Post Office opens to the public in Bishopsgate.
  • 1636 – Goldsmith's Hall is rebuilt.
  • 1636–37 – Plague in London.
  • 1637 – Hyde Park opens to the public in Westminster.
  • 1638 – The Worshipful Company of Distillers is granted a royal charter.
  • 1640 – 11 December: The Root and Branch petition is presented to Parliament.
  • 1641
  • 1642
  • 1642–43 – The Lines of Communication are constructed to defend the city.
  • 1647
  • 1648
    • 11 September: The Levellers' largest petition, "To The Right Honourable The Commons Of England" (The humble Petition of Thousands well-affected persons inhabiting the City of London, Westminster, the Borough of Sonthwark Hamblets, and places adjacent), is presented to the Long Parliament after amassing signatories including about a third of all Londoners (including women).
    • 6 December: Pride's Purge: Troops of the New Model Army under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride (and under the orders of General Ireton) arrest or exclude Presbyterian members of the Long Parliament who are not supporters of the Army's Grandees or Independents, creating the Rump Parliament.
  • 1649
  • Mid 17th century: London population reaches 500,000.
  • 1650 – 29 September: Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters, a short-lived form of employment exchange, in Threadneedle Street.
  • 1652
    • A coffee house is in business near Cornhill, opened by Pasqua Rosée.
  • 1654 – St Matthias Old Church in Poplar is completed.
  • 1656
    • May: First performance of The Siege of Rhodes, Part I, by Sir William Davenant takes place, making it the first English opera (under the guise of a recitative), in a private theatre at his home, Rutland House, in the City. This also includes the innovative use of painted backdrops and the appearance of England's first professional actress, Mrs. Coleman.
    • Winter: Lisle's Tennis Court built in Lincoln's Inn Fields for real tennis.
  • 1657
  • 1658
    • 10 March: New London, Connecticut is named.
    • The earliest surviving terrace houses in London are built on Newington Green.
  • 1660
  • 1661
    • 6 January: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, and George Monck's regiment defeats them.
    • 30 January: 4 deceased regicides of Charles I suffer posthumous execution at Tyburn; Oliver Cromwell's head, with the others', is raised above the Palace of Westminster Hall where it remains until the 1680s, later becoming a tourist attraction in private hands.
    • 23 April: The coronation of Charles II of England takes place in Westminster Abbey.
    • 28 June: Lisle's Tennis Court in Lincoln's Inn Fields opens as a playhouse.
    • September: Pall Mall is laid out as a thoroughfare in Westminster.
    • The diarist John Evelyn publishes his pamphlet Fumifugium, or, The inconveniencie of the aer and smoak of London dissipated together with some remedies humbly proposed by J.E. Esq. to His Sacred Majestie, making it the earliest discussion of the city's air pollution.
  • 1662
  • 1663
    • 7 May: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane opens.
    • The Olde Wine Shades is built as a merchant's house in Martin Lane.
    • Diarist John Evelyn obtains a lease of Sayes Court and begins to lay out the garden there.
  • 1664
    • Francis Child enters the London goldsmith's business which, as the private banking house of Child & Co., will still exist the 21st century.
    • The Russian ambassador to England donates the first pelicans to live in St. James's Park.
    • Eltham Lodge is completed by Hugh May for Sir John Shaw, 1st Baronet (created 15 April 1665).
    • The construction of Burlington House begins.
  • 1665
    • 6 March: The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society begins publication.
    • March: 15-year-old Nell Gwyn makes her first definitely recorded appearance as an actress on the London stage, having previously been a theatre orange-seller.
    • 12 April: The first recorded victim of the Great Plague of London dies. On 7 July the King and court leave London to avoid the plague, moving first to Salisbury, then to Oxford from 25 September to 1 February 1666, where in October Parliament convenes. The City begins use of Bunhill Fields as a burial ground for the victims. By the time the plague ends, over 70,000 people have died.
    • 13 June: The Worshipful Company of Poulters is granted a royal charter.
    • Thomas Firmin sets up a textile factory to provide work for the unemployed.
    • Approximate date: The Grecian Coffee House is established in Wapping.
  • 1666 – 2–5 September: Great Fire of London: A large fire which breaks out in the City in the house of baker Thomas Farriner on Pudding Lane destroys more than 13,000 buildings, including the Old St Paul's Cathedral, but only 6 people are known to have died. It then takes over 10 years to rebuild the City.
  • 1667
    • 8 February: The first part of the Rebuilding of London Act 1666, following last year's Great Fire of London, goes into effect as royal assent is given to the Fire of London Disputes Act 1666, which establishes the Fire Court. The Court, sitting at Clifford's Inn near Fleet Street, hears cases starting on February 27 and continuing until the end of 1668. The London Building Act enforces fireproof construction in the reconstruction of the City.
    • Hedges & Butler is established as wine merchants.
  • 1668
    • The Carmen's Company is established.
    • The Lamb and Flag, Covent Garden is built (although first definitely recorded as a public house – The Cooper's Arms – in 1772).
  • 1669
  • 1670
    • 21 January: The French-born gentleman highwayman Claude Duval, who was particularly active in Holloway, is executed at Tyburn, and is thought to have been buried in St Paul's, Covent Garden.
    • 14 August: Quakers William Penn and William Mead preach in Gracechurch Street in the City, in defiance of the recently passed Conventicles Act 1670, and are arrested and tried but on 5 September the jury refuses to convict, leading to Bushel's Case.
    • The second Rebuilding Act is passed to raise the tax on coal to provide funds for rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral and other City churches destroyed in the Great Fire.
    • Leicester Square is laid out.
    • The Apothecaries' Hall and the Brewers Hall are built.
  • 1671
  • 1672
    • 25 January: The Theatre Royal in Bridges Street burns down, forcing the King's Company to relocate to the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre while the Theatre Royal is rebuilt in Drury Lane.
    • 30 December: The first commercial public concert series in Europe begins, organised by John Banister in Whitefriars near Fleet Street.
    • Ludgate, Moorgate, and Newgate are rebuilt, and the rebuilding of Temple Bar and the church of St Stephen's, Walbrook in the City begin to the designs of Christopher Wren.
    • The Worshipful Company of Paviors is granted a royal charter.
    • Richard Hoare becomes a partner in the London goldsmith's business which, as private banking house C. Hoare & Co., will survive through to the 21st century.
    • The Fulham Pottery is established by John Dwight, making it the earliest certainly known native stoneware manufacturer in England; it will survive until the second half of the 20th century.
  • 1673
  • 1674
    • 26 March: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane reopens having been rebuilt after a fire in 1672.
    • 17 July: 2 skeletons of children are discovered at the White Tower (Tower of London) and believed at this time to be the remains of the Princes in the Tower; they are subsequently buried in Westminster Abbey.
    • The Court house is rebuilt.
    • The Worshipful Company of Farriers is chartered.
  • 1675
  • 1676
  • 1677
  • 1678 – 17 October: The magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey is found dead in Primrose Hill, and Titus Oates claims it as a proof of the fabricated "Popish Plot".
  • 1679
    • 17 November: An effigy of the Pope is burned after a large procession through the streets of London.
    • 27 November: The Duke of Monmouth enters London amid scenes of widespread celebration, having subdued the Scottish Covenanters.
    • 18 December: Rose Alley ambuscade: The writer John Dryden is set upon by 3 assailants, who are thought to have been instigated by the Earl of Rochester in a literary dispute.
    • The new churches of St Edmund, King and Martyr and St Stephen's, Walbrook are completed to designs by Wren.
    • Joseph Truman acquires the Black Eagle Brewery in Brick Lane to form Truman's Brewery.
    • Approximate date: First bagnio opens in London.
  • 1680
    • February: Rev. Ralph Davenant's will provides for foundation of the Davenant Foundation School for poor boys in Whitechapel.
    • 27 March: William Dockwra's London Penny Post mail service begins.
    • The York Buildings are built.
    • Approximate date: Jonathan's Coffee-House is in business.
  • 1681
    • June–July: The City's Court of Common Council orders inscriptions for the Monument to the Great Fire of London and the house in Pudding Lane where the fire started blaming it on Papists.
    • 1 July: Oliver Plunkett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, falsely convicted of treason, is executed at Tyburn, making him the last Catholic martyr to die in England. The Catholic intriguer Edward Fitzharris is also executed on the same day.
    • 22 December: Charles II issues a warrant for the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for wounded and retired soldiers.
  • 1682
    • 11 March: Work begins on construction of the Royal Hospital Chelsea to a design by Wren; it will open to Chelsea pensioners in 1692.
    • 19 November: A fire in Wapping makes 1,500 people homeless.
    • Hungerford Market is built in Westminster.
  • 1683
    • 12 December: The River Thames frost fair begins, and lasts for several months. The Chipperfield's Circus dynasty begins when James Chipperfield introduces performing animals to England at the fair in 1684.
    • The Churches of St Benet's, Paul's Wharf and St James Garlickhythe, rebuilt to designs by Wren, are completed.
    • Richard Sadler opens the first Sadler's Wells Theatre as a "Musick House".
    • The Friendly Society of London, an early fire insurance company, is in business.
  • 1684
  • 1685
    • 23 April: The coronation of the Catholic James II takes place in Westminster Abbey.
    • 29 September: Edward Hemming establishes the first organised street lighting in London, with oil lamps to be lit outside every 10th house on moonless winter nights.
    • 18–19 October: Louis XIV of France issues the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revokes the Edict of Nantes and deprives Huguenots of civil rights. Many flee to London where they establish a domestic silk weaving industry in Spitalfields and "French ordinaries" (restaurants) in Soho.
    • 23 October: Elizabeth Gaunt, burned at the stake at Tyburn for alleged complicity in the Rye House Plot, becomes the last woman executed for political treason in England.
    • Kensington Square laid out.
  • 1686
    • January: Montagu House, Bloomsbury is destroyed by fire when barely 6 years old.
    • 1 May: The annual May Fair opens on a new site at Shepherd Market.
    • St Andrew Holborn church, rebuilt to a design by Wren, is completed.
  • 1687
  • 1688
    • By July: The first definitely known performance of the Henry Purcell opera Dido and Aeneas takes place at Josias Priest's girls' school in Chelsea.
    • 18 December: Glorious Revolution: William of Orange enters London.
    • Old Palace Terrace is built in Richmond.
    • Over the next 5 years Lloyd's of London marine insurance market begins to form on the premises of Edward Lloyd (coffeehouse owner).
  • 1689 - 13 February: William III and Mary II are proclaimed co-rulers of England in a ceremony at Guildhall, with their coronation taking place in Westminster Abbey on 11 April by the Bishop of London, Henry Compton. In May, work begins on remodelling Hampton Court Palace to the design of Sir Christopher Wren for them together with the Hampton Court Maze. Also this summer, the royal couple purchase Nottingham House and commission Wren to expand it to form Kensington Palace, and William commissions a new royal barge (shallop) for Mary.
  • 1690
    • 7 January: The first recorded full peal is rung at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City, marking a new era in change ringing.
    • March: London, Quo Warranto Judgment Reversed Act 1689 ("An Act for Reversing the Judgment in a Quo Warranto against the City of London and for Restoreing the City of London to its antient Rights and Privileges") passed by Parliament.
    • The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers establishes Aske's Hospital, comprising almshouses and a school at Hoxton, from the bequest of Robert Aske, origin of Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and others.
    • Approximate date: The Great Synagogue of London is built for Ashkenazi Jews.
  • 1691 – 9 April: A fire at the Palace of Whitehall destroys its Stone Gallery.
  • 1693
    • 27 February: The Ladies' Mercury, the first periodical specifically for women, begins publication but lasts only for four weeks.
    • The financier Richard Hoare relocates Hoare's Bank (founded 1672) from Cheapside to Fleet Street.
    • White's is established as "Mrs. White's Chocolate House" in Mayfair by Francesco Bianco.
  • 1694
    • February: The première of Thomas Southerne's play The Fatal Marriage takes place at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
    • 27 July: The Bank of England is established by royal charter.
    • 25 October: Queen Mary II founds the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich; first section completed 1705.
    • The new All Hallows Lombard Street church is completed to a design by Wren.
    • Approximate date: Development of Seven Dials begins.
  • 1695
    • May: The Flying-Post newspaper begins publication.
    • June?: Première of Purcell's opera The Indian Queen.
    • Trinity Hospital on the Mile End Road is established as almshouses for "28 decay’d Masters & Commanders of Ships or the Widows of such" by Trinity House.
    • Hoxton House is established as a private lunatic asylum.
    • "Don Saltero's Coffee Shop" opens in Chelsea.
  • 1696
    • Queenhithe windmill is built.
    • The evening newspaper Dawk's News-Letter begins publication.
  • 1697 – 2 December: St Paul's Cathedral holds its first service after rebuilding to celebrate the Treaty of Ryswick.
  • 1698
  • 1699
    • 10 May: Billingsgate Fish Market is sanctioned as a permanent institution by Act of Parliament.
    • The Howland Great Wet Dock opens as the first of what become the Surrey Commercial Docks.

18th century

Main article: 18th-century London

1700 to 1749

Bevis Marks Synagogue P6110044
Bevis Marks Synagogue
London's St Paul's Cathedral
The view of St Paul's Cathedral in August 2022 taken from the main road that passes it on the south side

1750 to 1799

Westminster Bridge by Joseph Farington, 1789
Westminster Bridge (1750), depicted by Joseph Farrington, 1789, with Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey beyond
  • 1750
  • 1751
    • The Society of Antiquaries of London is incorporated.
    • St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics is founded.
  • 1752
  • 1753
  • 1755 – 15 April: Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published by the group of London booksellers, who commissioned it in June 1746, with Johnson and his assistants having worked on the project at his home, 17, Gough Square.
  • 1756
    • 25 June: The Marine Society is founded.
    • The first section of New Road opens.
  • 1757
    • 4 April: The Lord Mayor of London's State Coach is commissioned.
    • Simpson's Tavern, Cornhill is established.
  • 1758 – 11 April: A temporary wooden bridge over the Thames, erected while the centre stone span of London Bridge is under repair, burns down.
  • 1759
    • 15 January: The British Museum opens at Montagu House, Bloomsbury.
    • 4 June: The first Kew Bridge, a wooden toll bridge over the Thames, opens to the public, replacing a ferry.
    • August: Holbein Gate is demolished.
  • 1760
    • Hamleys toy shop is in business in High Holborn.
    • Berkeley Square is laid out.
    • Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, and Ludgate of the London Wall are demolished.
  • 1761
  • 1762
    • 1 January: Boodle's is established as a gentlemen's club run by William Almack.
    • January: The "Cock Lane ghost" appears.
    • 23 March: The first legitimately constituted Sandemanian congregation in England meet at Glover's Hall.
    • 22 May: The Royal family first takes up residence at Buckingham House.
    • The last remaining buildings are cleared from London Bridge.
    • Moorgate of the London Wall is demolished.
    • The German composer Johann Christian Bach arrives in London, where he will spend the remaining 20 years of his life.
  • 1763
  • 1764
    • February: Joshua Reynolds co-founds The Club (dining club) with Samuel Johnson.
    • March: Brooks's is established as a Whig gentlemen's club.
    • 23 April: Mozart family grand tour: 8-year-old W. A. Mozart settles in London for a year, Here, he will write his first 3 symphonies.
    • December: Benjamin Franklin arrives in London to represent the American colonies (following a previous visit in 1757).
    • Portman Square is laid out.
    • Horse Shoe Brewery is established at St Giles Circus for the production of porter.
    • Lloyd's Register of Ships begins publication.
  • 1765 – February: Almack's Assembly Rooms open in St James's.
  • 1766
    • May: The London Paving and Lighting Act is passed.
    • 5 December: James Christie holds the first sale at Christie's auction house.
    • Tattersalls is founded as a racehorse auction by Richard Tattersall at Hyde Park Corner.
    • John Gwynn's proposals London and Westminster Improved is published.
  • 1767 – Newgate is demolished, leaving Temple Bar as the last remaining City gate.
  • 1768
  • 1769
    • 25 April–27 May: The first Royal Academy summer exhibition is held.
    • 28 June: The Morning Chronicle newspaper begins publication.
    • 7 August: Hackney Cut opens.
    • September: The Spitalfield Riots by silk weavers attempting to maintain their pay rates culminate in arrests by soldiers and the killing of 2 weavers.
    • 19 November: The first Blackfriars Bridge opens.
    • Work on Syon House to the design of Robert Adam ceases.
    • Gordon's London dry gin first produced.
  • 1770
    • August: The Lady's Magazine begins publication.
    • 17 September: The Limehouse Cut opens.
    • The original Coal Exchange opens.
  • 1771
  • 1772
    • 2 November: The Morning Post newspaper begins publication.
    • The Adelphi Buildings terrace is completed in Westminster by Robert Adam and his brothers.
  • 1773
    • An informal Stock Exchange opens on Threadneedle Street.
    • Astley's Amphitheatre is founded on Westminster Bridge Road.
    • First London catering establishment to offer curry, Norrish Street Coffee House.
    • The original sundial column is removed from Seven Dials and acquired by the architect James Paine.
  • 1774
    • 17 April: The first avowedly Unitarian congregation at the Essex Street Chapel is founded by Theophilus Lindsey.
    • 2 May: The Society of Antiquaries of London open the coffin of King Edward I in Westminster Abbey and discover that his body has been perfectly preserved for 467 years.
    • 5 October–10 November: 1774 British general election: In Westminster, Ignatius Sancho becomes the first person of African origin eligible to vote in Britain.
    • The London Building Act ("Black Act") aims to standardise the quality and construction of buildings.
    • The residential development of Highbury Fields begins.
  • 1775–76 – Winter: An unusually deadly influenza epidemic kills nearly 40,000 people.
  • 1776
  • 1777
  • 1778
    • 1 November: Wesley's Chapel opens for worship on the City Road.
    • The second wooden Hampton Court Bridge built.
    • Joseph Bramah patents an improved form of the flush toilet, which he begins to manufacture.
    • Flint & Clark, the predecessor of Debenhams, begin trading as drapers; their successor will enter liquidation in 2020.
  • 1779
  • 1780
    • 2 June: An anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on Parliament leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots, in which the City banks are attacked.
    • 7 June: The Gordon Riots are ended by the intervention of troops. About 285 people are shot dead, with another 200 wounded and around 450 arrested, of whom around 25 will be executed.
    • The Finsbury Dispensary is founded.
    • The Middlesex Sessions House opens on Clerkenwell Green.
    • The original Craven Cottage is built by William Craven, 6th Baron Craven.
  • 1781 – July: Barclay Perkins & Co take over the Anchor Brewery in Southwark from Hester Thrale for the brewing of porter.
  • 1782
    • Spring: Plague of brown-tail moth caterpillars in London area.
    • 10 October: Sarah Siddons makes a triumphant return to the Drury Lane Theatre in the title role of Garrick's adaptation of Thomas Southerne's Isabella, or, The Fatal Marriage.
    • 4 November: The Surrey Theatre opens as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy on Blackfriars Road.
    • First foot patrols in London.
    • The rebuilt Newgate Prison is completed.
  • 1783
  • 1784
    • c. April–August: William Roy sets out the baseline of the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) on Hounslow Heath.
    • 2 April: The construction of Severndroog Castle on Shooter's Hill begins.
    • 21 August: Joseph Bramah patents the Bramah lock which he then begins to manufacture.
    • 15 September: The Italian Vincenzo Lunardi makes the first hydrogen balloon flight in Britain, from Moorfields to South Mimms.
    • The development of Somers Town begins.
  • 1785
    • The London Hospital Medical College opens as England's first chartered medical school.
    • The New Spring Gardens is renamed Vauxhall Gardens.
  • 1787
  • 1788
    • 1 January: The first edition of The Times newspaper is published under this title after it was launched in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register.
    • Admiralty House is built on Whitehall.
    • The Revolution Society is formed.
    • The group that later becomes the Royal Philanthropic Society is formed to assist homeless children.
  • 1789
    • 4 May: The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery opens.
    • 22 September: The first stone Kew Bridge opens.
    • London plane (Platanus × hispanica) trees are planted in Berkeley Square.
    • Rowney, which was established in 1783 as perfumers, enter the artists' supplies business.
  • 1790 – 23 June: The alleged London Monster is arrested, and he later receives 2 years' imprisonment for 3 assaults.
  • 1791
  • 1792
  • 1793
  • 1794
  • 1795
    • 22 September: The London Missionary Society is established.
    • 29 October: George III is pelted with stones by an angry mob as the bread riots continue.
    • The Pantheon is rebuilt.
    • The Ackermann print-shop is in business.
  • 1796
    • 1 February: Protests over the price of bread culminate in Queen Charlotte being hit by a stone as she and George III return from a trip to the theatre.
    • December: The coldest day in London is recorded, reaching −21.1 °C (−6 °F) in Greenwich.
  • 1797
    • 15 January: London haberdasher John Hetherington wears the first top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £50 for causing public nuisance.
    • Hatchards bookshop is established in Piccadilly by John Hatchard.
  • 1798
  • 1799
    • Gunter's Tea Shop is in business.
    • Horsemonger Lane Gaol is completed as the new Surrey County Gaol in Southwark.

19th century

Main articles: 19th-century London and Timeline of London (19th century)

20th century

Main article: Timeline of London (20th century)

21st century

Main article: Timeline of London (21st century)
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