Before London

Abstract

The idea that London had pre-Roman origins is considered, but dismissed for the want of evidence from both within and around the city. The pre-settlement landscape and topography of the region is described, tracing the course and character of the Thames and London’s other rivers including the lost Walbrook. The pre-history of the London basin is summarized, and London’s place in the emerging political landscape of late Iron Age Britain reviewed. It is concluded that the area where Roman London was established lay on the border of earlier polities and that the Thames constituted a boundary zone and relative backwater. The sites of pre-Roman farmsteads within this landscape are identified and described, including important settlements at Bermondsey and Southwark that may have been occupied at the time of the Roman conquest. It is speculated that London gained its Roman name and identity from these pre-Roman farmsteads on the south bank of the river, making it a place of Kent. The city itself was a Roman creation, made possible by the political unification of southern Britain through the force of conquest.