London: 'A Modern Babylon'

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• 1. Early growth
• 2. Gateway to the south
• 3. Going up west, and east
• 4. Trainspotting
• 5. Feeling expansive
• 6. Find out more
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Early growth

In the two centuries that followed 1700, London was utterly transformed, ditching medieval housing and habits to become the centre of the world - and the hungry metropolis that we know today.

'By 1700, the city was already growing in population and in size, chewing up surrounding countryside and spitting bricks in its place.'

By 1700, the city was already growing in population and in size, chewing up surrounding countryside and spitting bricks in its place. With large areas necessarily rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666, London was looking more modern.

Its thriving port was the basis for flourishing finance and cut-throat commerce. The sharp-suited city boys were already marking out their turf, and the wealth this generated reinforced the power and patronage of the Royal court, to make London a magnet for the talented, the ambitious, the vain and the venal.

As a result, the city was expanding in all directions. To the east, Spitalfields was already growing rapidly by 1700, helped by the influx of French Protestant refugees. In 1743, Bethnal Green had a population of 15,000; by 1801, 22,000 people lived there, making it as large as Oxford and Cambridge combined.

To the north, London crept out towards Sadler's Wells, Finsbury Fields and Hoxton in the first half of the 18th century, colonising the turnpike roads with terraced houses.

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Published: 2004-02-16