London is nearly 2000 years old. The town of Londinium was established after the Roman invasion of 43 AD and has been occupied in one form or another ever since. The Anglo-Saxons came after the Romans. Viking attacks were common in the 9th century. Then the Danish had a brief stint of occupancy before the Norman conquest. The subsequent eras included the reign of the Tudors followed by the Stuarts, the Elizabethans, the Victorians, etc.
The population of London boomed in different eras. During the industrial revolution, the population nearly tripled from 630,000 to 2 million. The following Victorian period saw another trebling, with the population climbing to 6.5 million people, encouraging the creation of the London underground in 1863 to help residents leave the city center for the surrounding suburbs.
As London’s population increased, so did the area of London. Once separate settlements, like Westminster, were merged into London. Distinct towns and villages, like Camden Town, would face the same fate. The City of London, still referred to as the square mile, is just a small fragment of a global metropolis.
