The Story of London

We return to a London in the middle of a wild few years… the Great Fire of Southwark; the destruction of Baynard’s Castle; a plot to kill King John; an invasion by the French; three crusades and the death of the cities first Mayor, all conspire to make London in these few years, a very intense place to be.

We arrive at the first dozen years of the reign of ‘Bad King John’; and enter a decade where the principal focus of the Kingdom was the disintegration of the great Empire of Henry II. But who was John? What drove this King? And how did events in these years dictate the events to come?

The story takes a moment to reflect… there has been a lot going on over the last few years, but for all the events happening elsewhere, what can we work out was going on ‘behind the scenes’ in London itself? How did economic and societal factors drive London politics; and were the actions of the oligarchs of the city driven by greed… or survival? An in depth look at trade, the relations with the c...

A very special episode of the Story, as we examine the circumstances around one of London’s most overlooked but important characters; William FitzOsbert aka William Longbeard, who man who appears to have briefly almost took over the city and defied the highest powers in the land… so who was he? And what did he do? And why does his tale complete the story of the First Mayor of London? Let’s find ou...

The story of the First Mayor of London continues as we cover 4 intense years of English political history; the King’s Crusade rages across the Holy Land; the King of France seeks to destroy the Angevin Empire; Prince John is endlessly trying to take the throne, and the Mayor of London is to find the city called upon to do a most ancient duty… and in the distance, something terrible was coming to t...

The story finally reaches the pivotal moment in London’s history; the arrival of the first mayor. But what exactly WAS a mayor in this era? Where had this idea come from? How did this new post in the city come about? And above all, just WHO was this first mayor and what was his remarkable background? A detailed look at this most remarkable of circumstances that changed the way the city would be ru...

While London recovered from from the bloody massacre upon its streets, events elsewhere rapidly began to spiral out of control. The King was lumbering towards the Holy Land, ineptly making scores of enemies along the way, while in England various factions began to draw up battlelines. And London suddenly found itself at the heart of all of this… and yet, London had seemingly changed.

The story returns with an episode dedicated to just a few months in the city’s saga… but a dark, terrible few months that were to see the city changed forever. We are in the year 1189 and the circumstances around the elevation of King Richard I, which led directly to the darkest moment in the cities history; how this useless King was to scar the city forever with his ineptitude and selfishness wit...

The end of the reign of Henry II is one filled with high level visits from dignitaries to London, the implosion of the Royal Family, a new status quo in Europe, and headline grabbing events in the Middle East dominating even domestic politics… welcome to start of the tale of the elevation of the first mayor of London.

The story returns with a seemingly ‘quiet’ decade from London’s history; but one filled with many mundane things- including legal reforms, much gossip and above all, the rebuilding of London Bridge in stone. Welcome to the calm before the next storm… picture rights for episode cover: " London Bridge. City of London Boundary Dragon. East Side. " by amandabhslater is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 .

The Story continues by looking away from London for a few years; as we examine how and why Henry II invaded Ireland and the roots of the Irish diaspora of London, with a special chapter dedicated to examining some overlooked aspects of the event… why did Henry find himself, in the midst of the biggest political crisis of his reign, running off to intervene in a foreign country?

Returning and finishing the story of Thomas Becket, with a bumper episode that covers his elevation to Archbishop, why he fell out with the King, his intense theological war of words with the new Bishop of London and why, towards the end of his life, in a charged and emotive moment… London embraced their wayward son. The epic story of Thomas of London concludes.

The Story gets to the first part in the two-part saga of the life of Thomas Becket- the London boy who would go on to become Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury. And yet his story illustrates, perhaps perfectly, not just the tale of a man, but how the citizens of London navigated the powerful, unstable, and violent nation around them.

We have reached the first of a series of special episodes- an examination of the first document that attempts to describe the social life of Londoner’s in the 12th century… so who was William FitzStephen, and what was the city he described? Welcome to London in the year 1174…

London was once the financial capital of the world, and still is a significant player in this realm. But when, and how, did this role start? The Story of London reaches the decade where London’s position as a credit and banking centre begins to emerge, as an unlikely combination of circumstances and communities begins to create something unique… and this begins to impact upon the city itself.

The Story of London reaches the opening years of the reign of Henry II; foreign merchants start growing in power in the city; the Knight’s Templars make a spectacular land grab, and while the oligarchs who run the city continue to run things for their own benefit, a powerful new group emerge from within the streets of London itself…

The Story continues as we come to the end of ‘The Anarchy’- that wild rambling civil war unlike any before; the nation around them slowly drags itself towards a most unusual solution, and in the meantime London deals with the Thames freezing over, the death of the most charismatic man in the city, a new local family basically takes over St. Paul’s cathedral… and something much darker begins to gro...

The Anarchy continues, and London finds itself in the thick of it! As the civil war continues to slow burn itself across England, this chapter examines how London copes and then profits from this. It also covers how London politics may well have instigated a second front in the war, the way the 2nd Crusade was going on while this was happening (and how this impacted on some of the figures in the S...

1141 is one of the most important, and overlooked, years in the story of the City of London, and this episode is dedicated to telling its tale in full. Why had The Anarchy erupted? Why was it different from other civil wars? How did the city cope with being on the losing side? And how did London help turn the course of this war upon it’s head? All hell breaks lose… and I try to do this story justi...

While England was sliding into civil war, London itself seemed mostly unconcerned; a new class of Oligarchs were enjoying the benefits of London’s new Commune status, and this episode serves as an introduction to some of them; their personalities, friendships, nepotism and rivalries. It also explains why the new Bishop of London was fired by the Pope, what Rahere of St. Bart’s did next, and why Lo...

Away to the south, in the furthest corner of his realm, King Henry I was dying… and events were to be unleashed that was to see London transformed. A look at the opening salvos of The Anarchy, how London was involved from the very beginning, why London got so involved and how all the events of the last few generations seemed to come to a head in a court case…

We arrive at the period of 1130 to 1135; the age of The Pentecost Fire of London; the birth of Bartholomew’s Fair; sundry legal issues and the King, Henry I made a deal with London- creating a new, generous charter for the City. A suspiciously generous Charter for the city… which begs the question- was it a fake? All of this and the tale of an odd hermit and his impact upon tourism in London today...

The story returns to all things London with an in-depth look at a decade where London’s spirit, the one that made it the place to defy Kings and which had been hiding since the Norman’s showed up, began to wake up… a chapter filled with miracles, and above all, the passion of the city.

A special episode looking at the situation in Normandy during the early 1120’s- how did the sons of William I get themselves so wrapped up in such a mess, how it involved the French, and then, ultimately, how it leads to the biggest disaster of Medieval English history- a shipwreck like no other, and the consequences of it. Welcome to The Ghost of The White Ship.

We celebrate our first year anniversary with an episode that tries to get into the heads of 12th Century Londoners; how did they think about things & what did they have to cope with living in London at the time? A look at how people came to terms with the difficulties in writing, overcrowded streets, sudden infant death, and new migrants arriving. Full script will be available here: https://im...