London is right now the home of the Government of the UK as well as the country’s economic heart. It is positioned about the banks of the River Thames in south eastern England. The city of London was initially set up by the Romans in 43 AD and they ruled there up until the 5th century AD, once the Roman Empire fell. The Roman empire called it Londinium and it had a population then of about 50,000. It became a significant commercial port. Londinium declined throughout the 5th century due to repeated Anglo-Saxon invasions. In the eighth century the city had become the capital for the Kingdom of Essx. There were many Viking attacks during the ninth century with plenty of suffering in that period. Danish settlers subsequently set up themselves in the area leading to an increase in trade and businesses in the city. Because the prosperity and power of this growing urban centre amplified it enticed the interest from the Danish Great Heathen Army that took control of the city and taken by King Alfred the Great in 886. After the Norman attack and conquering of England in 1067, the new King of England, William Duke of Normandy established the city's existing legal rights, laws and privileges. He additionally constructed the Tower of London. After that in 1199, King John bolstered the city's self-rule. From 1215 London was able to choose a new mayor every year.

Throughout the fourteenth and 15th century, London’s port evolved into a European hub for the distribution of goods, especially as a result of trade in fabrics. In the 16th to 17th century under rule with the Tudors, London took advantage of the centralized national politics as well as the greater ocean going commerce that was continued by the Stuarts. During this period the city had 100,000 residents and by the mid-seventeenth century the population had increased to over 500,000. By 1665, the city’s unhealthy living conditions from limited city planning have been accountable for the Great Plague taking hold that killed around 70,000 individuals. The next year, a massive fire burned down the vast majority of city. The rebuilding of London took more than a decade to complete, with all the growth and development of significant works such as St. Paul’s Cathedral elevated the appeal of the city. This brought about London starting to be the hub of English social life with palaces, halls, theatres as well as galleries and museums incomparable elsewhere. London continued to grow, particularly with the establishment for the Bank of England in 1694 that brought about London’s advancement as a economic center.

The majority of current London is from the Victorian period. The Industrial Revolution drew millions of people into London, rapidly growing the city with the inhabitants increased from 700,000 in 1750 to over 4,500,000 by 1901. The too high of a population density challenges did cause the 1832 cholera outbreak and also the great smell in 1858 because of sewerage difficulties in the high temperatures. After having a continuous time period with not a great deal of change in the population with the capital started to decline at the end of The First World War and dropped below 3.5 million by 1950. Bordering suburban areas expanded steadily during that time period. In 1963 London was split administratively in the old city and thirty-two metro districts encircling this.