Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many
I had not thought death had undone, so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where St Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
-- T S Eliot 1922
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This series of articles presents a basic chronology of London but will also contain references to national events where these are important in the development of the London area. Wherever possible, the precise dates and days of the week on which the events here recorded took place are noted. The series is an organic one and will change frequently as new events or dates are extracted from our sources.
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.
William George Barker began what was to become Ealing Studios.
1904
-
The Jubilee Market at Covent Garden opened as the foreign Flower market
1904
-
Hampstead Heath was extended by private funding to prevent the construction of a proposed new tube station at North end.
1904
-
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) was formed by Herbert Beerbohm.
1904
January 19th
The Aeolian Hall in New Bond Street was established.
1904
February 14th
The Great Northern and City Railway between Finsbury Park and Moorgate opened.
1904
April 4th
Easter Monday. The first annual Easter Parade of van horses was held at Regent's park.
1904
June 9th
The London Symphony Orchestra made its debut with Hans Richter conducting at the Queen's Hall.
1904
July 22nd
The Royal Horticultural Society opened its exhibition hall and headquarters at Vincent Square.
1904
December 24th
The Coliseum in St Martin's Lane opened as a variety theatre
1904
December 31st
The rebuilt Lyceum Theatre in Wellington Street opened.
1905
-
The Automobile Association was formed at 18 Fleet Street.
1905
-
The Working Men's College moved into new purpose-buiilt premises in Crowndale Road, Camden Town.
1905
-
The power station to allow the electrification of the District Line was opened at Lots Road ikn Chelsea.
1905
-
The Football Clubs, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic were formed.
1905
February 11th
The last performance was given at St James's Hall concert room in Piccadilly. It was replaced by the Piccadilly Hotel.
1905
May 22nd
The Strand Theatre opened.
1905
October 18th
Aldwych and Kingsway were oficially opened
1905
December 5th
Part of Charing Cross station collapsed and crushed the Avenue Theatre (now the Playhouse) beneath it. Six people were killed.
1905
December 23rd
The Aldwych Theatre opened.
1906
-
The London County Council bought part of Hainault Forest and opened it to the public.
1906
-
A hostel for the homeless men was opened in Bruce House, Kemble Street by the London County Council. It soon attracted the derisory title ofThe Poor Man's Carlton.
1906
February 24th
Single-deck tramcars began to run through the Kingsway tunnel
1906
March 10th
The Bakerloo line opened.
1906
April
\london's first coin-operated telephone box was installed at the Ludgate Circus Post Office.
1906
May 24th
The Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly opened.
1906
December 15th
The Piccadilly Line opened.
1907
-
The British Medical Association opened its new Headquarters on the Strand. The building by Charles Holden has 18 nude figures by the young Jacob Epstein on the outside which caused outrage at the time. The building later became Rhodesia House.
1907
-
The Queen's Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue opened.
1907
February 27th
The new Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, on the site of Newgate prison, oipened.
1907
June 8th
The first night of Lehar'sMerry Widow at Daly's Theatre by Leicester Square caused a sensation and an outbreak of "waltz fever" in London.
1907
June 22nd
The Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line opened.
1907
July 1
Edward VII opened the Union Jack Club in Waterloo Road.
1908
-
The Franco-British Exhibiiton at the newly constructed White City in Shepherds Bush was held.
1908
-
The Headquarters of the Rugby Football Union at Twickenham was opened. The site was developed by William Williams and became known asBilly Williams's Cabbage Patch.
1908
January
What was probably the first Boy Scout troop was formed in Hampstead.
1908
June 12th
The rotherhithe Tunnel was opened.
1908
July
The 4th modern Olympic Games were held at White City.
1909
-
The Port of London Authority was established.
1909
-
The remains of Crosby Place in Bishopsgate were moved to the junction of the Embankment and Danvers Street in Chelsea. Homas More had owned the mansion and the new site was in the gounds of his Chelsea House.
1909
-
The Hampstead Astronomical and General Scientific Society opened its (still existing) observatory near Whitestone Pond.
1909
-
Hogarth's House in Chiswick was opened as a museum.
1909
March 15th
Gordon Selfridge opened his department store in Oxford Street.
1909
June 26th
The Victoria and Albert Museum was opened by Edward VII.
1909
December 20th
The Harding and Hobbs department store in Clapham was destroyed by fire.
The Second Decade: 1910-1919
Kitchener's famous recruitment poster
Year
Month/Day
Event
1910
-
Sir Aston Webb's Admiralty Arch opening onto the Mall was completed.
1910
-
Paul's Crossmin St Paul's Churchyard was re-erected under the will of H C Richards.
1910
-
Excavations for the foundations of County Hall on the south bank uncovered a Roman boat in the Thames mud.
1910
-
The first Post-Impressionist Exhibition opened at the Grafton Gallery. Paintings by Matisse, Gauguin, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat and Picasso went on display for the first time.
1910
-
The cinema arrived with the construction of the (still existing) Ritzy in Brixton, the Electric Cinema in Portobello Road and the Electric Pavilion in Holloway Road.
1910
-
The Windmill Theatre in Soho opened as a cinema called thePalais de Luxe.
1910
-
The London Palladium in Argyll Street opened as a Music Hall.
1910
February 1st
Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen murdered his wife Belle Ellmore at their house in Islington.
1910
April 10th
Anna Pavlova made her London debut at the Palace Theatre and was an immediate success.
1910
April
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake had its first London performance at the London Hippodrome.
1910
May 6th
Death of Edward VII and accession of George V
1910
December 5th
Thomas Brock's statue of Henry Irving was unveiled outside the National Portrait Gallery.
1911
-
London's first aerodrome, at Hendon, become operational
1911
-
The population of Greater London was estimated at 7,252,000
1911
-
The "Pearly King" Association was formed
1911
-
The Prince's Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue opened as a house for melodrama. It is now called the Shaftesbury
1911
-
The Radium (later the Paris Pullman) cinema in Drayton Gardens, the Screen on the Green, Islington, the Cinematograph Theatre in Charing Cross Road and the Frognal Bijou Picture Palace in Hampstead all opened this year.
1911
January 3rd
The Sidney Street Siege left one policeman, one fireman and two anarchists dead.
1911
May 16th
Thomas Brock's statue of Queen Victoria outside Buckingham Palace was unveiled.
1911
October 30th
The New Middlesex Theatre of Varieties (later the Winter Garden) in Drury Lane opened.
1911
November 9th
The Victoria Palace Theatre opened as a variety hall on the site of the Royal Standard Music Hall.
1911
November 13th
The ill-fated London Opera House in Portugal Street was opened by Oscar Hammerstein.
1912
-
The Central Line was extended from Bank to Liverpool Street.
1912
-
Lyon's Corner House on the Strand was opened.
1912
-
The Pearl Assurance building on High Holborn was opened.
1912
-
Bertorelli's Restaurant in Charlotte Street opened.
1912
March 1st
Suffragettes went on a window smashing spree. Emmeline Pankhurst was jailed for nine months as a result.
1912
April 8th
The London Museum opened at Kensington Palace. In 1975 it was amalgamated with the Guildhall Museum to form the Museum of London.
1912
August 29th
After a huge procession from the Embankment, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was buried in Abney Park Cemetery with "full military honours".
1913
-
The Ionic Theatre was opened as a cinema. Anna Pavlova, who lived in the area, performed the opening ceremony.
1913
-
The Rialto cinema in Coventry Street opened. The restaurant beneath later became the Café de Paris nightclub.
1913
-
The east front of Buckingham Palace was completed by Sir Aston Webb who received his knighthood in front of it.
1913
January
The Poetry Bookshop in Boswell Street opened.
1913
January 1st
Taxi drivers went on strike to protest about the cost of petrol. They did not return to work until March 19th when they agreed to pay eightpence a gallon.
1913
February 20th
Suffragettes set fire to the Kew Tea Pavilion.
1913
March 2nd
Suffragettes were attacked by the crowd at Hyde Park.
1913
April 3rd
Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst was imprisoned in Holloway for inciting persons to place explosives outside the country house of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George.
1913
May
Suffragettes attempted to set fire to the Royal Academy.
1913
May 4th
The Royal Horticultural Society held its annual exhibition of flowers in the grounds of the Chelsea Hospital for the first time.
1913
May 6th
The Women's Suffrage Bill was lost in Parliament and an unexploded bomb was found in St Paul's Cathedral.
1913
May 22nd
A band of suffragettes attempted to storm Buckingham Palace.
1913
May 26
Britains's first Woman Magistrate, Miss Emily Duncan, was appointed at West Ham.
1913
June 4th
The Suffragette Emily Davidson was killed when she ran under the king's horse at the Epsom Derby.
1913
June 5th
The Ambassador's Theatre in West Street WC2 opened.
1913
July 4
The Bedford College for Women in Regents Park opened
1913
July 8th
The Bloomsbury Group opened the Omega Workshops for the manufacture of everyday items in Post-Impressionist designs.
1913
December 15th
There was a dynamite explosion at Holloway Prison where suffragettes, including Emmeline Pankhurst, were kept.
1913
December 26th
The Hippodrome at Golders Green was opened as a variety hall.
1914
-
The King Edward VII Galleries at the British Museum were opened.
1914
-
Dr Johnson's House at 17 Gough Square was opened to the public.
1914
-
The number of cinemas in the area controlled by the London County Council reached 266.
1914
February 2nd
Wagner's Parsifal had its first London Performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
1914
March 1st
A Suffragette bomb exploded at St John the Evangelist church in Westminster.
1914
March 10th
Suffragette Mary Richardson badly damaged the Velazquez Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery.
1914
March 19th
The Times Literary Supplement was published separately for the first time. It had previously been part of the the newspaper.
1914
April 2nd
The actor Alec Guinness was born in London.
1914
April 5th
A Suffragette bomb exploded at the church of St Martin in the Fields.
1914
April 9th
The world's first full-length film The World, the Flesh and the Devil premiered at the Holborn Empire.
1914
April 11th
George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion Premiered at His Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket.
1914
May 4th
The House of Lords rejected the Women's Enfranchisement Bill.
1914
May 12th
Suffragettes defaced a portrait of Wellington at the Royal Academy.
1914
June 11th
A Suffragette bomb exploded at Westminster Abbey.
1914
June 14th
A Suffragette bomb exploded at St George's Hanover Square.
1914
April 2nd
The Geffrye Museum of furniture opened in Kingsland Road in a set of 14 almshouses originally built by the Ironmonger's Company in 1715.
1914
August 4th
War on Germany was declared.
1915
May 7th
Following the sinking of the Lusitania, anti-German riots broke out across London and many shops owned by people with German-sounding names were attacked.
1915
May 31st
A Zeppelin dropped 90 incendiary and explosive bombs on east London killing five and injuring thirty-five people.
1915
July 19th
Kitchener personally began his recruitment campaign at the Guildhall.
1915
September 7th
Zeppelin raids kill sixteen people in south London.
1915
September 8th
The first bomb to fall on the City of London hit Fenchurch Street. A Zeppelin was chased all over London by British aeroplanes.
1915
September 8th
Zeppelin raids kill sixteen people in east London.
1915
September 14th
A grand assembly at the Guildhall launches a new conscription drive.
1916
August 31st
The musical Chu Chin Chow had the first of its record 2,238 performances at His Majesty's Theatre Haymarket. It was popular with soldiers on leave from the front.
1916
September 3rd
The pilot William Robinson chased an airship across London and shot it down over Enfield killing irs crew. He was awarded the VC but was himself shot down in April 1917.
1916
December 7th
Lloyd George became Prime Minister and formed a coalition government.
1917
January 19th
An explosion at the munitions factory at Silvertown killed seventy-three and injured ninety-four people. It has never been explained.
1917
June 14th
Gotha Aeroplanes replaced the Zeppelins. The first aeroplane raid killed sixteen children when a random bomb destroyed an infant school in Poplar.
1918
June 19th
The Royal Family formally renounced all of its German titles.
1917
July 7th
Aircraft raids caused substantial damage in central London and killed five people in Bartholomew Close and one man at the Midland Railway goods yard at St Pancras.
1917
July 19th
The last Zeppelin raid on London hit the Swan and Edgar store at Piccadilly Circus.
1917
September 24th
A 110 pound (50 kg) bomb was dropped outside the Bedford Hotel in Southampton Row killing thirteen and injuring twenty-six people.
1917
December 6th
A massive aeroplane raid dropped bombs on Chelsea, Brixton, Battersea, Stepney, Whitechapel, Clerkenwell and Shoreditch.
1918
-
The communist Club at 107 Charlotte Street was closed down as ite was considered subversive.
1918
February 6th
The Representation of the People Act became law. It granted the vote to women over the age of thirty.
1918
May 19th
The last bombing raid over London.
1918
November 11th
Armistice Day was celebrated on the streets of London.
July 30th
The Duke of Bedford completed the sale (interrupted by the war) of the Covent Garden estate to the Beecham family.
1918
December 14th
The Wartime Coalition Government was re-elected with a massive majority. In this election British women voted for the first time.
1919
-
The Hammersmith Palais - "the most famous night spot in the world" - was opened in Shepherds Bush Road.
1919
November 11th
The first two minutes of silence in memory of the victims of the war was held.
The Twenties: 1920-1929
The Spirit of St Louis was greeted by huge crowds at Croydon Airport in 1927
Year
Month/Day
Event
1920
-
The Tavistock Clinic for psychotherapy was founded.
1920
March 29th
Croydon Aerodrome became London's main civil airport. It was the first major civil airport in the world.
1921
April 30th
Conscription was abolished.
1920
May
The Metropolitan water board opened its new Headquarters in Rosebery Avenue.
1920
June 5th
A revival of The Beggar's Opera began its record- breaking run of 1,463 performances at the Lyric, Hammersmith.
1921
August 1st
The British Communist Party was founded.
1920
September 15th
The Everyman Theatre in Hampstead was opened.
1920
November 11th
The Cenothaph, in Whitehall, was unveiled.
1920
November 11th
The unknown soldier was buried at Westminster Abbey.
1921
-
The last horse-drawn fire engine operated in London.
1921
-
The Stopes' opened their controversial birth control clinic in Marlborough Road.
1921
March 31st
The coal miners began a national strike that ended in humiliation on July 1st.
1921
July 8th
The George V Dock, the last to be built in central London, was opened by George V.
1921
December
The Football Association banned women's matches from taking place in grounds under their control.
1922
-
What was to become the most elegant high-street bank in London opened this year as a show room for Wolseley Motors at 160 Piccadilly. The unique Japanese and lacquered features were retained when it was converted into a bank in 1926.
1922
-
The new Port of London Authority building (delayed by the war) was opened on Trinity Square.
1922
-
The first Queen Charlotte Ball for Debutantes was held this year.
1922
-
The wide-legged trousers known as Oxford Bags became the rage for men of fashion.
1922
January 22nd
Walton's Facade had its first (private) performance at the Sitwell's house in Carlyle Square Chelsea. The composer conducted his music and Edith Sitwell recited her poetry.
1922
March 21st
The present Waterloo Station was opened by Queen Mary. Its construction had been delayed by the war.
1922
June 22nd
Field Marshal Henry Wilson, who advocated he re-conquest of Ireland, was murdered by two Irishmen
1922
July 17th
County Hall, headquarters of the London County Council on the South Bank, was formally and partly opened
1922
November 14th
The British Broadcasting Company (later the British Broadcasting Corporation) made its first regular broadcast.
The first Football Association Cup Final was held at Wembley Stadium. The crowd was far larger than the stadium's capacity and the event was a near disaster.
1923
June 8th
The law allowing wives to divorce their husbands on the grounds of adultry came into force.
1923
June 12th
Edith Sitwell staged the first performance of Walton's Facade at the Aeolian Hall. Hidden behind a curtain, she chanted her poetry through a megaphone.
1923
July 5th
French tennis star Suzanne Lenglen became the first woman to win the Wimbledon Ladies Championship for the fifth time running.
1923
December 13th
Lord Alfred Douglas, one-time lover of Oscar Wilde, was jailed for libelling Churchill.
1923
December 31st
St Saviour's Church for the Deaf and Blind held its last service at 419 Oxford Street before moving to Acton.
1924
-
The new road from London to Southend-on-sea was opened by Prince Henry this year.
1924
-
Charles Dickens' house in Doughty Street was purchased by the Dickens Fellowship.
1924
-
E M Forster's A Passage to India was published.
1924
-
The first Woolworth Store in Central London opened at 311 Oxford Street.
1924
March
Bitain's first national airline, Imperial Airways, began operating out of Croydon.
1924
March 26th
George Bernard Shaw's St Joan with Sybil Thorndike in the title role, premiered at the New Theatre.
1924
April 23rd
The British Empire Exhibition at Wembley was opened and became a huge popular success.
1924
November 8th
The Fortune Theatre in Russell Street opened. It was the first theatre to be built in the West End after the war.
1924
December 10th
Morely College moved from its cramped rooms at the back of the Old Vic to its new building in Westminster Bridge Road. The building was destroyed in the Second World War.
1925
-
John Keats' house in Hampstead was opened as a museum.
1925
-
Greenwich Council acquired the Jacobean Mansion, Charlton House.
1925
-
Construction of the present Fortnum and Mason shop on Piccadilly ws begun this year.
1925
-
Liberty's with its limited frontage on Regent Street was rebuilt in a semi-Tudor Style.
1925
-
The Foundling Hospital closed and moved the children to the healthier countryside. Most of the site became the Harmsworth Memorial Playground and the hospital built a new headquarters on the remaining quarter.
1925
-
The Great West Road (the A4) was opened by George V.
1925
-
The Ironmongers opened their new Livery Hall off Aldersgate Street to replace that destroyed in the war.
1925
February 23rd
The grounds of Kenwood House in Highgate were saved for the public from the developers. Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Lord Iveagh, bought the house and made it clear that he would leave it as a bequest to the nation.
1925
April 6th
The scheduled Imperial Airways flight from Croydon to Paris became the first to shoe an in-flight motion picture film to its passengers. The film was First National/s production of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.
1926
-
The Plaza Cinema in Lower rfegent Street opened this year.
1926
-
Aldridge's Horse Repository in Upper St Martin's Lane held its last horse sale.
1926
-
Traffic congestion caused by motor cars was beginning to become a problem and the first roundabout system was introduce this year, in Piccadilly Circus.
1926
January 5th
The Post Office began issuing Widow's Pensions for the first time.
1926
January 27th
John Logie Baird demonstrated television to an informal group from the Royal Institution at 22 Frith Street in Soho.
Gunnersby Park on the Ealing-Acton border was opened to the public.
1927
June 23rd
George V and Queen Mary formally the newly reconstructed Regent Street.
1927
-
The Post Office finally completed its miniature, driver-less, fully automated underground railway system to carry mail between the principal sorting offices.
1927
May 29th
An enormous crowd converged on Croydon Airport to greet the arrival of Charles Lindbergh after his solo trans-atlantic flight.
1927
-
Colonel Frederick Lucas and his wife opened the first car park opposite White City in Wood Lane. Their company later became National car Parks with sites all over London.
1927
April 20th
The Arts Theatre Club opened in its new building in Great Newport Street.
1927
January
The Theatre Club Play-Room Six opened on the upper floors at 6 New Compton Street in Soho. It changed its name to the Player's Theatre two years later when it moved to the Ground Floor.
1927
April 27th
The Carlton Theatre in Haymarket opened with a musical but was converted to a cinema two years later.
1927
-
The Astoria Cinema opened in the shell of the old Crosse and Blackwell Building in Charing Cross Road.
1927
February
The last dramatic performance took place at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square. It was then demolished and the present Empire Cinema was constructed on the site.
1927
June 20th
Greyhound racing made its first London appearance at White City. A second stadium, at Haringay, was opened later in the year.
1929
-
The London and North eastern Railway introduced the Flying Scotsman non-stop service between London and Edinburgh.
1928
-
The London County Council built the Ossulston Estate in Somerstown. It was the first example of local-authority high-rise and has strong Viennese influences.
1928
-
The Firestone Factory, in spectacular Egyptian style, was built on the Great West Road at Hounslow. It was wantonly and deliberately destroyed by the Trafalgar House Company in 1980 just as English Heritage were about to List it.
1928
-
Palladium House at 1 Argyll Street with its spectacular black granite and floral motifs was built this year.
1928
-
The Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane was built this year. The colonnaded front is by Lutyens and it was the only London Hotel to contain a swimming pool and an ice rink (added in 1929).
1928
-
Chiswick House, the mansion designed and built by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, was acquired for the public by Middlesex County Council.
1928
-
Valence House, a late 16th century timber-framed house and the only mansion of any importance left in Dagenham, was bought by the local Council. It is now a local-history centre and museum.
1928
-
The Embassy Theatre at Swiss Cottage opened this year.
1928
April 27th
The Piccadilly Theatre opened and was almost immediately taken over for Talkies.
1928
May 2nd
The new passenger terminal buildings were opened at Croydon airport.
1929
May 7th
Parliament reduced the voting age for women from 30 to 21.
1928
Sepember 15th
Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington.
1928
November
The Carreras Tobacco Factory (The Black Cat Factory) in Mornington Cresecent with its Egyptian style was completed.
1928
December 10th
The Underground concourse at Piccadilly Circus tube station, designed by Charles Holden, was completed.
1929
-
Tower Pier on the north bank of the Thames opened this year.
1929
-
Marie Rambert established the Russian School of Dancing at the Mercury Theatre in Ladbroke Road.
1929
May 31st
The Local Government Act abolished Workhouses and the last meetings of the Poor Law Guardians took place. Under the Act, the London County council also tokk over responsibility for schools and hospitals.
1929
July
Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet opened at His Majesty's, Haymarket and was an instant success.
1929
September
The Conway Hall in Red Lion Square opened. It is the headquarters of the South Place Ethical Society.
1929
October 28th
There were sharp falls on the London Stock Market after the Wall Street Crash on the 24th.
1929
November 25th
The Duchess Theatre in Catherine Street opened
1929
October 3rd
The Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road opened.
1929
November 10th
At the Royal Albert Hall, Yehudi Menuhin, aged 13, gave his first public violin performance
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