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Although by day some half a million people
pour into the offices and exchanges of the City, by night
it is almost deserted with a population of less than 5,000,
yet at the beginning of the 19th century more than 130,000
people lived within its square mile.
Beginning as a little bridge-head settlement,
the Romans built the prosperous and beautiful Londinium,
with its villas and gardens, its forum and basilica. After
their departure, the City seems to have been deserted for
a few years but then the Saxons re-established it, as they
developed their trade with the mainland of Europe, and early
in the seventh century the first little wooden cathedral
of St. Paul's was built.
With the arrival of the Normans began the
building of the Tower of London, as well as Baynard's Castle
and the third St. Paul's, the first two having been destroyed
by fire. By 1182 there were more than a hundred little churches
in the City, as well as some magnificent priories, including
St. Bartholomew's on the Smooth Field (now Smithfield) and
St. John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell, the London home of
the order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
During the middle ages the port prospered.
The great City Companies were founded as well as most of
the food markets. In the 16th century the first Royal Exchange
was built, during the 17th century the Bank of England was
established, while the Stock Exchange. Lloyd's, the Baltic
Exchange and the Corn Exchange all had their origins in
the fashionable coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The City has survived the Black Death, the
loss of many of its priories and conventual churches during
the Reformation, the Great Plague, the Great Fire, which
destroyed four-fifths of its buildings, and the ravages
of the Blitz. Gone are the great coaching inns, which vanished
with the coming of the railways. The docks are disappearing
as the business of the Port of London moves downstream to
Tilbury. But after 2000 years the City still remains a thriving,
international banking and commercial centre and Miss Borer
provides a wealth of detail and incident in this exciting
and colourful history.
Mary Cathcart Borer was born in London,
educated at the Skinners' Company School and took her degree
at London University. In the 1930s she joined her husband
on archaeological expeditions to upper Egypt, and since
then has worked in films and published a number of books
on historical subjects and on aspects of London.
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