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a little more about London
 Founded by the Romans in approximately 50AD, "Londinium" was just a bolthole on the Thames. Slowly through its importance as a port it became the capital of Roman Britain. From the 5th century the Romans started to leave Britain, it remained fairly inactive until the Saxons arrived two hundred years later. It grew well in trade and was subsequently usurped by the Danes who shoed in King Canute. On Christmas Day in 1066 a confident William the Conqueror crowned himself as king in Westminster.
London reached a population of 100,000 by 1300, but the plague followed and the black death claimed over a third of residents. This however was bested by the Great Plague (1664-5) killing over 100,000 within a year, and the galloping consumption of this disease was only halted when a dopey baker in Pudding Lane set his shop alight. The "Great fire of London" lasted 4 days reducing three quarters of the city to ashes. Thereafter Sir Christopher Wren set about the redesign. By 1700 London was the largest city in Europe with half a million residents. In the nineteenth century (Victorian England) London became the capital of the biggest empire the world has ever known, covering over a quarter of the globe and encompassing 500 million people. This combined with the industrial revolution saw an increase in population from 1 million to 4.5 million by the start of the 20th century. London is now home to between 7 and 12 million people depending on where you draw the line, and is undoubtedly one of the world's great cities.
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