These videos are always so fascinating!

I alluded to these counties in the video "Are you in London?", and it's great to see they've made a video about it. I've never actually seen the border of Greater London drawn on the historical counties until now, very interesting.

i live in carshalton (sutton), which is only really 10 miles from central london, so i do consider myself a Londoner as it only takes me 20 minutes to get into central London, although the feeling of being a Londoner is not as present as when you are living in a area closer to the central, but hey it still has its benefits (oyster card) !!!

as always, very interesting. thanks for posting.

In my opinion, there's a feeling about living in a London borough. If you go to Bexleyheath and then to Dartford (ie the head town of Dartford borough) everything feels so different, a difference that isn't so present if you went from Bexleyheath to Woolwich or Eltham. The same as if you go from Bromley or Beckenham to Swanley.

Great video and very interesting! Fascinating stuff.

Just did a research on this only a week ago, great video!

Exactly the video I've been looking for for years

I love you guys. I'm never going to see London...but you're stuff is cool as hell. Love the History. Please keep it coming.

Thank you ❤ I just found out about London ❤❤

great video but you didn't mention the fact that London was not originally the main town of London as the original "capital" was Colchester (Brittan's oldest recorded town) However this would not really effect the video and I'm probably just saying this because I live in Colchester. :)

The apostrophes in the captions top right bothered me greatly:-) Garggghhhh!

Such a great video!! I love you guys, Londonist and especially cutie Geoff ^^ I wish I could visit London and study in there for a while. I will try my best to go to London and see you, Geoff!!

I want to make two corrections:- The roman settlement is not drawn to scale. It is as big as the City of London today. The roman Wall is the border of the City today.-Because of the wall, the city didn´t grew. As the City grew rich, some king founded a completely new town, called Westminster, to suck power and wealth away from the City. It expanded and soon surrounded the City totally.-(Somebody wrote this already) Southwark was a settlement almost as long as the roman city, but it didn´t count as "Londinium".All information is from a book called "London Through Time" by Richard Platt and the "The (secret) City of London"-videos made by CGP Grey.

N.B. "Lundecwic" in the captions at 0' 25" should be Lundenwic.

Small question: why do you consider it fortunate that London never adopted a grid system? Not that I'm for it, just wondering. Grid systems have some advantages. Thanks!

I've always wanted to live in London since I first visited in 2009. Now Londonist is making me CRAVE for a home there!

GEOFF I read somewhere that London is actually pre-Roman and we don't really know when people first settled here and where the name comes from, what's your thoughts on this?

I wish that was about ten minutes longer.

Fantastic video, as always! Why is it exactly that London has such winding, narrow streets? My history teacher told me years ago when we were learning about Paris and Berlin, but I forgot almost everything he said after I took my GCSE's

0:04 Who saw KFC instead of K&C?

I was under the impression a second settlement formed a little bit further down the river first and it was that that grew and swallowed up the original

why did you say it was fortunate that london wasnt rebuilt grid style? surely it would have made future proofing the city easier?

Of course there were settlements where London is today before Roman times. In 1108BC, Brutus, an exile Trojan after the falling of Troy, was said to have made home in the exact spot and named it New Troy, or Troia Nova. It was also known as Plowonida, in pre celtic times, meaning Wide flowing river. Also known as Lowoniidonjon, Trinovantum, Caer Lud, Kaer Lundain and the Welsh for Hill Fort, Clyndin. London was many things before the Romans arrived.

I went for job interview once and the interviewer asked me how I would get to work as she thought I lived outside London, she asked why my address was middlesex and not London. I had to explain to her that I live in London and middlesex was part of London, journey by tube will only take me 30 minutes (zone 4 to 1)The interviewer was from eastern europe and may be that's is why she didn't knew middlesex is in London. When writing my address i write greater London or London instead of middlesex, I only use middlesex for online forms. On a map I am closer to central London than areas with London postcode (if i walk for 3 minutes south and 5 minutes east from my street I will be in London postcode code area)

Not accurate about Middlesex. Greater London did not wholely swallow up Middlesex, as the town of Staines and Sunbury were transferred to Surrey not Greater London.

If only Greater London would change its ceremonial county name to Middlesex to recognize its past.

You Should Do One About Greater Manchester

0:50 Southwark wasn't formed in the 14th century. It already existed as a separate settlement on the other side of the river from Londinium in Roman times.

This is Geoff’s voice!

In this you guys say that Westminster abbey is called such because its name means "West church" because it was built on the Western edge of London. Could you or someone else in the comment section give me a source which confirms and/or expands on this?

What was the county town of Middlesex?

By many people I think, the old county of london been would be classed as the real london

Came here to find out when the various cities, towns and villages became part of Greater London. Instead, found out that they were always London. RIP City of Westminster. You were forgotten.

Please note that there have been further changes , 1965 the older boroughs of East and West Ham formed Newham , it wasn't a borough from the very start of the mapping of London like GM described.

The slab of concrete grows.

I’m in Harrow👌

At 1.01 you say there were plans to rebuild London in grid style layout (like american cities), fortunately it never happened. Why is grid style layout bad? what would have happened if London was rebuilt in grid style layout?

RIP Middlesex

Bye bye Middlesex. It was nice knowing you.

I wonder why other londonist employees are still not making videos to this channel

so even stratford and barking was essex?

Grrrr One day we will see Epsom and Ewell on that map

RIP Middlesex :(

Is that where Middlesex University in Hendon gets its name from? As it used to be in Middlesex.

Seems odd not to mention Borough, which existed long before Southwark, and has given its name to districts all over the place.

Be my history teacher

should we celebrate in 2043 for 2000 years standing?

So, technically, Birmingham is the biggest city in the UK?

Small part of Middlesex still exist? 🤔

So, even London was founded by us 2000 years ago ?? The real question is: what haven’t we founded (?).... 😉

Videos

Middlesex still lives! Sforza Middlesexia !

So Middlesex technically doesn't exist no more.

Never new there’s a district devoted to kfc

Unfortunately on the grid pattern I think.

Fitzrovia in the 1700s get real!

Not so pogchamp😔

So after Brexit instead of Londinium we will have and even larger area called LonBremandinium?

And as a Kingstonian even now I prclaim it is not London but Surrey. It is KT not SW21. Raynes Park as SW20 is the edge of London in my mind.

Anybody wishing to visit London for the first time should note that it no longer exists, except as a geographical reference. What can be found instead is a hybrid, which p.c. educated experts call a "cosmopolitan city".

Get Bromley and bexley out of London and back into the great Kent

Not sure how London was created. How Londonistan is / will be created will however stay better documented in the annals of British History.

and next a vid on how london was lost as part of uk ,all it took was a few crooked MP,S