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When the Romans finally arrived in the London area, they saw no reason to build a city, nor even a fortress. It was merely a convenient place to ford the river. It was 50 years before they got round to even building a fort. It was not a good place to build a city due to the tremendous tides and resultant flooding, especially on the south bank. London Bridge Station and Southwark Cathedral are both below where the river level had been. In times of peak flood tides, it is likely that the waters swelled out as far as Elephant and Castle, maybe even as far as Peckham and Camberwell in extreme cases.

It didn't take the canny Romans long to work out that they were in an excellent position to allow a trading post to grow here and, by building a bridge and imposing tolls, they could control both the fiscal and commercial interests of the whole area. So, slowly but surely, London began to grow. Unfortunately, commerce did, and still does, attract thieves, con-men and pirates. Today, we call them bankers. To control their own interests, the Romans began building a wall around the city. It was merely an earth bank with a wooden palisade, supported by ditches at Hounds Ditch and Shore Ditch. But it did the trick. Thus, they were able to control just about every facet of local life.

Initially, there was a gate north from the fort compound called Cripples Gate. This was later closed when the wall was extended westwards and Aldersgate was made leading to Dere Street (Great North Road). South of that was Ludgate, heading due west into to open fields upstream in the direction of Aqua Sulis (Bath). Later still, probably in the early 4th century, New Gate was opened beside the site of the existing Old Bailey. Both went onto bridges across the River Fleet. Moorgate was established on the north wall. This had no connection with any moor but led through marshy ground - MAR gate. Bishopsgate was a much later addition. It was, therefore, well into the 4th century before Londinium began to look like a proper city with all the normal Roman features including the arena which can be seen via the basement of Guildhall. Almost all Roman buildings are now well below current street level.

The Romans left somewhat abruptly in the mid 4th century and left the locals to run the city. A few were local Britons but most were Angles and Saxons who had come to Britain to serve as mercenaries in the Roman army. They had a form or organization but were less formally established. However, they did see the advantages of the commerce set up by their predecessors. They gradually expanded inside and outside the city walls. By now, the sewerage and other effluence from businesses such as tanneries and slaughter houses, were making London and extremely smelly and disease-ridden place to live. Poor people moved out to the east where the smells were washed downstream. Rich people bought land to the west (upstream) on the far side of the River Fleet. By now, Christianity had become firmly established and churches were springing up everywhere.

London did not become the capital until 1066 when the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy invaded England and captured most of the south of the country. He was known to his fellows as "Guilleme le Batard" - not simply an insult, but a continuous reminder that he actually had no legal claim to anything, anywhere. Nevertheless, he was a shrewd man who instantly recognized the value of the City of London with its bridge crossing. He built a number of fortresses to consolidate his hold - the only existing one being the Tower of London, started by William but considerably expanded by succeeding kings. He had another castle in the corner of Blackfriars and the river. At the north, the Barbican was rebuilt and fortified. A ring of castles also surrounded the city at approximately 20 mile intervals (the distance a relieving army could march in one day).

The City was expanded later by about half a mile westwards when it became known as "the Square Mile". Previous to this, it was never square and only a mile wide by half a mile north-south. Don't assume that this means the City is a mile square. Now, it is still half a mile deep but now almost two miles wide. Square Mile is very approximate but it contained a huge number of buildings packed closely together. This allowed desease to spread rapidly resulting in the Great Plague of 1665. The closeness also allowed the Great Fire to spread rapidly the following year (1666). After that, wooden buildings were banned in favour of brick and stone. In this 21st century, the population has dwindled to just a few thousand in favour of the proliferation of banks and related financial institutions.