The Making of London.

The River Thames flows from the heart of England to the east coast, and London grew up at the lowest convenient crossing place. Here the north and south banks provided firm ground for the Romans to build a bridge, soon after their invasion of Britain in AD 43. They gave their settlement a Celtic name, Llyn-din (river place), later called Londinium.

The Thames Valley was certainly inhabited from the earliest times. A Stone Age has been uncovered in Acton; the sign of an Iron Age temple lies under one of the runways at Heathrow Airport; and many pre-Roman objects have been found in the Thames. But London began with the Romans. It was not only the capital of roman Britain, but also the sixth-largest city in the Roman Empire.

The Romans laid out the military roads and the Thames itself provided a waterway for merchants trading with the Continent or the inland districts.

By AD 60 there was a sizable town there. But in that year the Iceni, an ancient British people, led by their Queen Boadicea, revolted against the Romans. They attacked London and burnt it down. The ashes of their destruction are still found when deep foundations are dug for new buildings. But such were the natural advantages of the place, that when the Romans returned the settlement was re-established.

Londinium flourished and within a generation had become the administrative center for the province. Houses were built inside massive walls, portions of which can be seen beside the Tower. Other pointers to the size and beauty of the city have been discovered: an altar to Diana, an ancient goddess of forest and childbirth, on the side of the Goldsmith's Hall; a temple to Mithras, an ancient god of light, in Queen Victoria Street. Also in Cannon Street is London Stone, possibly the lower part of a column which served as the central milestone for the whole Roman Britain. The stone is set in the wall of the Bank of China.

When the Romans left Britain in AD 410, life slowed down in walled city for the next two centuries. Then, in 604, St. Augustine, a prominent Christian missionary in Britain, ordained the first Saxon Bishop of London, and before the end of the century a mint has been re-established.

King Alfred rebuilt the fortifications in 886 against Viking attacks, and from that point London grew in political and military importance and in trade and wealth.

By the end of the 1st century a significant new development had taken place. King Kanute (1016-1035), England’s only Danish king, had built the palace to the west of the city. Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) chose to live there too, and as he was a very religious man, beside the palace he built a church, his minster in the west, which gave the name Westminster to the small area that grew up around the royal buildings.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, William I made a separate peace with the citizens of London, promising that they could keep their own laws and customs. But at the same time he began to build the Tower of London just outside the city – to show them the king’s authority.

MATCHING

Exercise 1. Read the four possible ways to complete the sentences and choose the only one correct.

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