Q When did London become a place of importance and was there a Viking settlement there? - Doug McKenna, Stockton.

A Present day London covers a region similar in size to County Durham. Since central London is focused along the Thames, it is best to concentrate on what was happening there in prehistoric times. There was no one particular prehistoric settlement although there was an Iron Age hill fort at Charlton in what is now East London.

Finds from almost every prehistoric period can be found in the area. These include Palaeolithic tools, Bronze Age cemeteries, barrows, traces of ancient trackways and hunter gatherer sites. A number of concentrations can be found near the Thames, but the river may have been a tribal boundary rather than a tribal focus in ancient times.

The Romans established London as a city which they called Londinium. It was centred around a small tributary of the Thames called the Walbrook and the Roman city's western limits lay close to another tributary, the Fleet, (which gave its name to Fleet Street).

Roman London was focused on the area known today as the City. It did not include the present area of Westminster or any part of the West End. Londinium was a walled city and there were several gates which are remembered in names like Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Ludgate and Newgate.

After three centuries of Roman occupation Londinium fell into decline with the Roman departure from Britain, but Germanic Anglo-Saxons settled the area, mainly in Alwych and the Strand. Only slight evidence of settlement in the Anglo-Saxon period has been found, but London seems to have been a major port for European trade. It may also have been a royal city and was part of the Kingdom of the East Saxons. The East Saxons built a minster dedicated to St Paul in their city - the site of St Paul's Cathedral.

In the late 800s there were Viking raids on Lundenwic, but no Viking settlement. As a defensive measure, King Alfred the Great encouraged the Saxon people to move into the defended area of the Roman city and the settlements in Aldwych were abandoned.

London continued to develop under Edward the Confessor who built a palace at Westminster. London and Westminster saw continuous growth in Norman and medieval times and the Normans built the Tower of London to impose their control on the city.

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Published: 14/07/2003