The County-class cruisers, also known as the A-Type cruisers, were the first British cruiser vessels to be developed in the interwar period of the 1920s. Their design being heavily influenced by the restrictions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty, meant that British shipbuilders had to find compromises during development in order to comply with the treaty as well as to meet the requirements of the Royal Navy for a ship capable of trade route protection.

This resulted in the creation of a ship design with good cruising range and adequate firepower, but very light armour protection in order to stay within treaty restrictions. The orders for the first ships were placed in the mid 1920’s and construction began in 1924.

HMS London (C69) was laid down in February 1926 and commissioned into service in January 1929 as the lead ship of the second batch of County-class cruisers to be built, known as the London subclass. During the 1930’s, HMS London took part in a goodwill visit to Venice and assisted in the evacuation of civilians from Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, before being sent to drydock for refit in 1939.

In 1941, HMS London took part in the hunt for the battleship Bismarck, after which the ship was once again dry-docked for repairs. The following year, HMS London assisted in escorting several convoys in the Atlantic, after which she was assigned to South African waters in 1943, before joining the Eastern Fleet. HMS London continued serving in the postwar years, during which the ship got involved in an incident in Chinese waters in 1949 which left it heavily damaged. Being deemed uneconomical for repairs, HMS London was sold for scrap in January 1950.