You can either jump to the chronology for a specific century using the following table of links or scroll through the centuries sequentially by following the links at the bottom of the page.

Visit Specific Centuries

	[43-500 AD]	[501-800]
[801-900]	[901-1000]	[1001-1100]	[1101-1200]
[1201-1300]	[1301-1400]	[1401-1500]	[1501-1600]
[1601-1700]	[1701-1800]	[1801-1900]	[1901-2000]

The Twentieth Century

The Thirties: 1930-1939

Monday morning "rush-hour" on London Bridge in the 1930s

Year

Month/Day

Event

1930	-	The first mobile police patrol in Britain consisted of a 12hp Bean car driven by Sgt White of the Hounslow police.
1930	-	The Metropolitan Police inaugurated motor-cycle patrols.
1930	-	The Astoria cinema in Seven Sisters Road, Holloway was opened with great fanfare.
1930	-	Bellmoor House, the monstrous block of flats on the high point of Hampstead was erected this year. The original Bellmoor House belonged to the local historian and manager of Pear's Soap, J Barratt.
1930	-	Vestry House museum in Walthamstow was opened this year.
1930	-	Marks & Spencer opened their first Oxford Street store, next door to selfridges, this year.
1930	-	The English Folk Dance and Song Society opened their new Headquarters in Regent's Park Road, Camden this year
1930	-	The YWCA Hostel on Great Russell Street opened.
1930	January 6th	The BBC first broadcast of prices from the London Stock Exchange.
1930	March 31	John Logie Baird installed the first television (a Baird Televisor) in 10 Downing Street.
1930	April	The Prince Edward Theatre in Soho opened.
1930	April 11th	The first newspaper television programmes listing was published in theDaily Express.
1930	April 29th	The first London to Sydney telephone service was inaugurated.
1930	May	The first commercially produced television set to be marketed in Britain (the Baird Televisor) went on sale at a price of 25 guineas.
1930	July 17th	The first Green-Line bus ran from Guildford to Charing Cross.
1930	September	Gamage's of Holborn opened a new store on Oxford Street. It was a financial disaster and closed within eight months.
1930	September	The Whitehall Theatre opened.
1930	September 4th	The Cambridge Theatre in Earlham Street opened with a revue starring Beatrice Lillie.
1930	September 24th	The Phoenix Theatre in Charing Cross Road opened with the premiere of Noel Coward'sPrivate Lives.
1930	October 22nd	The first BBC Symphony Orchestra broadcast was made from the Queen's Hall with Sir Adrian Boult conducting.
1930	December 3rd	The fourth Adelphi Theatre on the Strand opened with a musical show.
1930	December	The Leicester Square Theatre opened. It was converted to a cinema within a year.

1931	-	The population of Greater London reached 8,203,000
1931	-	Hay's Wharf, on the site of St Olave's church Tooley Street, was opened this year.
1931	-	The New Liberty's Department Store on Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street was completed this year.
1931	-	The Courtauld Institute of Art was established by Samuel Courtauld at his house in Portman Square.
1931	-	Unilever House a the junction of Victoria Embankment and New Bridge Street was completed this year.
1931	-	The Daily Express building and factory in Fleet Street was completed this year.
1931	-	The first two Tesco shops were opened in Burnt Oak and Becontree this year.
1931	-	The Queen's Hall of the People's Palace in Mile End road was destroyed by fire.
1931	-	The long abandoned Princess's Theatre in Oxford Street was demolished to allow the construction of a Woolworth's store.
1931	January 1st	Third party motor insurance became compulsory
1931	January 6th	The fourth Sadlers wells Theatre opened with a production ofTwelfth Night.
1931	February	The first London Telephone Directory was issued. It was in two volumes.
1931	March 6th	The first film to be transmitted as part of the regular programme service in Britain was televised by the Baird company.
1931	March 9th	The first television screening in the UK of a film featuring Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops.
1931	April 14th	The Ministry of Transport issued the first Highway Code.
1931	April 18th	The Dorchester Hotel opened.
1931	May	The first brand of cigarettes known to have been sold in cellophane-wrapped packets, Craven A, made their appearance.
1931	May 1st	The first Unit Trusts went on sale.
1931	May 8th	The first scheduled television outside broadcast was made by the Baird company when scenes of Long Acre were transmitted from a van parked outside the television studio.
1931	June 3	The first British sporting event to be televised was the Epsom Derby, transmitted by the Baird Company.
1931	July 29	The Baird company transmitted the first wrestling match on television from their Long Acre studio.
1931	October 7th	The Westminster Theatre in Palace Street, a conversion of the St James' Picture Theatre, opened with a play directed by Tyrone Guthrie.
1931	October 8th	The Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue opened with "a play with tunes".
1931	December	The Palais de Luxe cinema in Windmill Street opened as the Windmill Theatre.

1932	-	Sydney Carroll presented four matinees of Twelfth Night in the Botanic Gardens at Regent's Park, thus inaugurating the annual open-air performances of Shakespeare at this venue.
1932	-	The Piccadilly Line was extended northwards from Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove
1932	-	The Jewish Museum in Upper-Woburn Place was opened this year.
1932	-	The London Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham.
1932	-	Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong made his first (and less than successful) appearance at the Palladium.
1932	-	The large electric clock on the Shell-Mex building off the Strand was fitted this year.
1932	-	The first vehicle actuated traffic lights were installed at the junction of Gracechurch Street and Cornhill in the City.
1932	march 17th	The first newspaper colour photographs in Britain appeared inThe Times Weekly Edition
1932	April	The first electric milk-floats were introduced by Express Dairies at their Kenton and Highgate depots.
1932	April 18th	The GPO introduced the first business reply-paid envelopes.
1932	April 27th	The London to Cape Town airline service was inaugurated by Imperial Airways. The journey took 11 days.
1932	April 30th	The new Botanic Gardens, including the Queen Mary Rose Garden, in Regent's Park were opened to the public.
1932	May	The first air charter holiday was organised by the Polytechnic Touring Association of London. The first 24 passengers flew from Croydon to Basle (5 hours) in an Imperial Airways Heracles airliner.
1932	May 2nd	The BBC moved into its new headquarters, Broadcasting House, in Portland Place.
1932	June 2nd	The London, Midland and Scottish Railway introduced Britain's first railway buffet car on its London to Nottingham route.
1932	August 1st	The first Mars bars went on sale.
1932	August	The GPO introduced Directory enquiries on its telephone service
1932	August 1st	The GPO introduced the first telex service.

1933	-	The London Passenger Transport Board was established this year to co-ordinate all forms of public transport in the London area.
1933	-	The last of the 17th century arcaded houses in Covent Garden Piazza was demolished this year.
1933	-	Hornsey Council moved into its award-winning new Town Hall in Crouch End Broadway this year.
1933	-	The Everyman theatre in Hampstead was converted into a cinema.
1933	-	The Freemason's Hall in Great Queen Street was opened this year.
1933	-	The London County Council opened the first remand Homes at Stamford House (Boys) and Cumberlow Lodge (girls).
1933	January 1st	The London to Brighton and Worthing Line operated by Southern Railway, became the first electrified British mainline to open to passenger traffic.
1933	April 3rd	The first automatic traffic lights in London came into operation in Trafalgar Square.
1933	May 7th	There was rioting in the West End when Jewish and Fascists groups clashed.
1933	May 22nd	Automatic traffic lights were installed at Piccadilly Circus.
1933	December 9th	Imperial Airways and Indian Trans-Continental Airways began the first London to to Singapore airline service.

1934	-	The first cheap rate telephone calls were introduced. They were available on Sunday after 6 pm.
1934	-	The National Maritime Museum was founded at Greenwich.
1934	-	The Empire Pool at Wembley was opened this year.
1934	-	Battersea Power station was completed this year.
1934	-	The Royal Institute of British Architects moved into their new headquarters in Portland Place.
1934	-	The Hoover Building on the newly constructed Western Avenue opened this year.
1934	-	The Penguin Pool and Pet's Corner it London Zoo were opened this year.
1934	-	Norman Hartnell's Bruton Street Salon, designed by Gerald Lacoste, was completed this year
1934	march 8th	The Labour Party took control of the London County Council for the first time.
1934	March 26th	The Driving Test became mandatory.
1934	May 10th	The Metropolitan Police College at Hendon was established this year.
1934	May 16th	Tennis officials at Wimbledon decided to allow women players to wear shorts during the Tournament.
1934	June 20th, Wednesday	John Rennie's Waterloo Bridge was demolished this year.
1934	July 6th	The first television opera, Carmen, was broadcast by the BBC.
1934	December 14th	Western Avenue was formally opened.

1935	-	The Midland Grand Hotel, fronting St Pancras Station, ceased operations this year. It was subsequently used as offices by the railway company.
1935	-	The Elizabethan manor of Eastbury House was purchased by Barking Council this year. It is now in the hands of the National Trust and is used as a cultural and local history centre.
1935	-	South Africa House in Trafalgar Square was completed.
1935	-	In Highgate the Highpoint One block of flats by the socialist architect Berthold Lubetkin was completed this year.
1935	January 4th	Perspex first made its appearance at an exhibition at Burlington House.
1935	March 12th	The traffic speed limit was set at 35 miles per hour.
1935	March 15th	The first GB driving tests were introduced (on a voluntary basis).
1935	April 13th	Imperial Airways and Qantas inaugurated the first London to Australia airline service. It took twelve and a half days to fly to Brisbane.
1935	June 1st	The driving test became compulsory.
1935	June 1st	L-plates became compulsory for learner drivers.
1935	July 3rd	The geological Museum in South Kensington was opened. (It has recently been subsumed into the Science Museum).
1935	July 9th	The National Film archive was founded.
1935	July 24th	Thefirst Greetings Telegramwas launched.
1935	July 30th	The first ten Penguin books titles were published by Allen Lane.
1935	October	A performance ofRomeo and Julietat the New Theatre began a record-breaking run of 186 performances. John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier alternated as Romeo and Mercutio and Peggy Ashcroft played Juliet.

1936	-	The Imperial War Museum moved into its new premises in the former Bethelem Royal Hospital for the mentally ill (Bedlam) in Lambeth.
1936	-	The South East Essex Technical College was established in Barking this year.
1936	-	The new Civic Centre in Dagenham, designed by E. Berry Webber, was opened this year.
1936	-	The Monseigneur cinema in Charing Cross Road, the first in London to specialise in newsreels, opened this year.
1936	-	The Odeon cinema chain of Oscar Deutsch opened new cinemas in Muswell Hill and Tottenham Court Road.
1936	-	The Alhambra, Leicester Square, was demolished to make way for another new Odeon cinema.
1936	-	The BBC launched the first high-definition public television service from Alexandra Palace.
1936	-	The first Dillon's Bookshop, in Store Street, opened this year.
1936	-	Simpson's store in Piccadilly and the Peter Jones store in King's Road, Chelsea were both built this year.
1936	January 20th	Death of George V and accession of Edward VIII
1936	August 21st	The Senate House of the University of London, in Bloomsbury, was officially opened. It was the tallest building in the country.
1936	October 4th, Sunday	The Battle of Cable Street saw Oswald Mosely and 3,000 Blackshirts prevented from entering the East End by communist barricades.
1936	February 23rd	The communist Unity Theatre officially opened its new auditorium in Britannia Street, King's Cross.
1936	March 14th	Imperial Airways inaugurated the first London to Hong Kong airline service.
1936	July 24th	The GPO introduced the first speaking clock "TIM".
1936	November	The "Jarrow Crusade", 200 unemployed men who marched from Jarrow arrived in London in pouring rain. The Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, refused to receive them at 10 Downing Street.
1936	November 30th	The Crystal Palace, moved to Sydenham after the Great Exhibition of 1851, was completely destroyed by fire.
1936	December 10th	Abdication of Edward VIII and accession of George VI.

1937	-	The Headquarters of the London Fire Brigade on Albert Embankment was opened this year.
1937	-	Dolphin Court, Grosvenor Road, one of the largest developments of apartments in Europe, was completed this year. The name derives from a "Dolphin" pump nearby which was used to draw water from the Thames.
1937	-	The Earls Court Exhibition Hall, then the largest reinforced concrete building in Europe, was completed this year.
1937	-	The new building for Bow Street Police Court was completed.
1937	-	All Hallows church, Lombard Street was sold and the site became the Headquarters of Barclay's Bank.
1937	-	Chesterfield House in Great Stanhope Street, built in 1749 and once the leading house in London, was demolished this year.
1937	-	The surviving half of the George Inn, Southwark, dating from 1676, became a national Trust property.
1937	May 12th	The Coronation of George VI at Westminster Abbey.
1937	June 21st	The first television broadcast of the Wimbledon tennis tournament by the BBC.
1937	July	Mudie's Circulating Library in New Oxford Street stopped trading. Its business had been undermined by the Public Libraries.
1937	Septemebr 25th	Daly's Theatre Leicester Square closed. The Warner cinema was built on the site.
1937	September 30th	The last edition of theMorning Postwas published. The paper was merged with theDaily Telegraph.
1937	October	What was to become, in the following year, the Euston Road School of Painting, was founded at 12 Fitzroy Street.

1938	-	The Hospital for Sick Children moved into its new premises in Great Ormond Street this year.
1938	-	London Zoo took delivery of its first Giant Panda.
1938	-	The London County Council introduced its "Green Belt" policy to prevent the Greater London Area from being overwhelmed by construction projects.
1938	February	Westminster City Council completed the first purpose-built air-raid shelter beneath Caxton Hall
1938	August 22nd	The first televised Promenade concert was broadcast from the Queen's Hall.
1938	September 26th	Gas masks were issued to civilians.
1938	September 30th	Neville Chamberlain landed at Heston Airport with the Munich Agreement proclaiming "Peace in our Time".

1939	February 25th	The first Anderson shelters were erected by the residents of Tober Street and Carlsbad Street, in Islington.
1939	September 3rd	War was declared with Germany and within 20 minutes the air raid sirens were sounding. Londoners made their first trip to the shelters.
1939	-	The Imperial Airways Terminal in Buckingham Palace Road was opened this year.
1939	-	St Martin's School of Art moved to Charing Cross Road where it shared a new building with the Technical Institute for the Distributive Trades.
1939	-	The population of Greater London reached 8,700,000

Scroll through the centuries

Previous Century

Introduction

Next Century