Cultural centre London in 1509 was certainly no backwater. With a population of around 60,000, it was far larger than any other city in England and, containing as it did Westminster and the City and Southwark, it was at the centre of English political power and financial muscle. Yet these centres were independent in purpose, governance and location, and a trip from the City to Westminster would take in open ground, with hunting on Soho Fields a common activity. London was primus inter pares, not king of the world. By the 1660s...London ruled. Only Paris and Constantinople were larger. By the 1660s, things were very different. London ruled. With around 350,000 inhabitants, it dwarfed all other English cities; abroad, only Paris and Constantinople were larger. It was a single, unified, city; a heaving morass of people and buildings; a metropolis so dominant that it deserved its own superhero. Top

Court and port The transformation was caused by a combination of court and port. While monarchy and government had been modernising slowly for a century, the pace accelerated rapidly after Henry VII seized power in 1485. To bolster a precarious grip on power, Henry instituted wide-ranging reforms that centralised the government and caused regional power-bases to lose their attraction for the ambitious - London was now the place to be. By the time of Henry VIII's accession in 1509 the necessary pieces were in place for an era of prosperity. London's port contributed greatly to its development, giving it access to markets on the Continent, and providing a thriving market economy to the City and the guilds that operated within it. By the end of the 15th century, England dominated the wool market and, by the time of Henry VIII's accession in 1509, the necessary pieces were in place for an era of prosperity, aided by a political stability that had been lacking before. Top

Getting the builders in Helped by a population explosion across the country, London ballooned in size: by 1603 its population had expanded to 215,000 people. Henry VIII began a massive programme of construction, turning York House into the palace of Whitehall, building St James' and Bridewell palaces, and adding to Hampton Court. Furthermore, the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 brought about one of the largest changes in the London property scene, as many religious buildings were destroyed and even more were adapted for secular use. Stone from Clerkenwell Priory was used to build Somerset House on the Strand, and many city companies took similar advantage to nab fine buildings now forcibly emptied of priests. In 1580 Elizabeth I was forced to issue a proclamation noting the 'great multitude of people...heaped up together.' The building continued into the 17th century, as Inigo Jones built the Banqueting Hall in Whitehall and Covent Garden Piazza, among other projects. By 1650, 'London' included both the City of London and Westminster, as well as the increasingly urbanised landscape between them. Yet it was still being outpaced by the population. In 1580 Elizabeth I was forced to issue a proclamation noting the 'great multitude of people... heaped up together' and demanding controls on expansion. House prices were rising so quickly that nobody wanted to demolish anything - even ditches were being filled in, covered over and built on. Top

Sustainable development As the city grew, it needed the infrastructure to match. A new reservoir at Islington, completed in 1609, fed a network of elm pipes underneath the main roads. A quarterly subscription connected around 30,000 houses to the mains, although the water was not of a good enough quality to drink. From 1662, the carrying of letters was declared to be a monopoly of the king, this event effectively marking the beginning of the Royal Mail, with letters travelling between Bristol and London in a day. By 1666 the main streets were lit regularly at night. Travel within the capital was also becoming more as we would recognise it today. Licensed Hackney carriages were licensed to ply for trade from 1625, with charges regulated by Parliament. Wherries - 17th-century river-buses - ran regular passenger services, and watermen jostled for individual business. The increasing volume of traffic brought the predictable jams; in 1661, Samuel Pepys was held up in a Hackney carriage for an hour and a half and in 1666 the jams made him give up his journey and go shopping instead. Much of the population increase was caused by internal migration, with people coming from every area of the country: a Swiss visitor reported that 'London is not said to be in England, but rather England to be in London'. But the city was also becoming increasingly multicultural, with tradesmen arriving from all over Europe to set up for business. London accommodated brewers from the Low Countries, tailors from France, cloth dyers from Italy and an African needle-maker. Top

A new opulence The influx of foreigners spawned new expertise and trades that a century earlier would have been as foreign as the accents of the people practising them. Some of these new traders were selling a new sophistication - gold thread and silk stockings - well suited to the affluence and optimism of the Tudor years. By the reign of Elizabeth I, it was reported that any self-respecting gentleman 'must have their geare from London'. If you wanted to make it big in the city, you had to look the part. If you had it, you flaunted it; if you didn't, you bought it; and if you couldn't do that, there was always the lottery, which hit the streets in 1569. Different parts of London became known for different trades: opticians were concentrated in Ludgate Street, and booksellers were to be found in St Paul's Churchyard. Fleet Street was also slowly finding its niche: after the first portable printing press was set up at Westminster by William Caxton in 1476, the industry slowly began to take off in the 16th century. The political and religious divisions of the Reformation provided a ready audience for the polemics of the pamphlet and the first proper newspaper appeared in 1622. The press operated against a backdrop of continued government censorship, which continued through the Interregnum and the reign of Charles II. Publishing laws were relaxed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and Fleet Street and the City soon became the primary location and focus of the press. Top

Show me the money The City of London was important because it was the home of the money. English merchants and financiers were bolstered by traders from Italy, Denmark, France and Germany, all of whom congregated to trade with each other and the outside world. After all, following the fiasco of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England was the undisputed bully-boy king of the seas, providing massive opportunities for merchants to think big and make megabucks. Bankers...created a system of banking notes and cheques that would eventually lead to the Bank of England. Trade flourished and widened. The Muscovy Company was founded in 1552 to corner Anglo-Russian trade and, in 1600, the East India Company was granted a charter by Elizabeth I and had a monopoly of trade with the Far East. In such a mercantile environment, everything had a price, including money. Bankers emerged out of the Company of Goldsmiths, and in the 17th century created a system of banking notes and cheques that would eventually lead to the Bank of England. The money men had a captive market in the merchants, who took major risks to reap their rewards. In the second half of the 17th century, the insurance market was developed as a result of the meetings of money men in the new coffee-houses, the first of which was established in 1652. Merchants, bankers and insurance underwriters began to meet there to conduct business, such as providing insurance on ships for the payment of a fee. One of the first underwriters was Edward Lloyd, who published the shipping gazette Lloyd's News, and who ultimately gave his name to London's insurance market. Top

The play's the thing While finance was becoming recognised as a major industry, another business was also laying down roots. In 1500 London was largely luvvie-free, but within a hundred years, the streets would be ringing with the sound of air-kisses as actors arrived in the capital. In 1574, regular theatre performances had been legalised and the first theatre, cryptically named 'The Theatre', opened two years later. Others followed, including the Curtain, the Rose, the Swan and the Globe - where most of Shakespeare's plays were first staged - and thrived until they were closed during the Interregnum. However, Charles II was a big fan of the theatre (and its actresses) and his restoration, in 1660, prompted the return of the playhouse, 'a thousand times better and more glorious than ever before', according to Pepys. The granting of the Royal Warrant to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1665, cemented the theatre's place in London life. Opulent, arrogant, cunning and cruel, in August 1666 London had spectacular wealth. In around 150 years, London had transformed itself from a collection of separate parts, with little in the way of a nightlife, into a thrusting, confident metropolis, a magnet for the ambitious, talented and greedy. It now had money to burn and places to burn it, with 17th-century malls at the Royal Exchange and Westminster Hall providing this new form of leisure activity. Opulent, arrogant, cunning and cruel, in August 1666 London had spectacular wealth living alongside grinding poverty. It was a glorious, haphazard mess, but it worked. Within days, however, a careless baker in Pudding Lane would change it forever. Top

Find out more Read on Restoration London by Liza Picard (Phoenix, 1997) London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd (Vintage, 2001) Top