Today I walked along the Medieval north bank of the Thames.
I was on a walking tour with an archeologist who had excavated under most of the buildings we walked past. His medieval knowledge was phenomenal and during the walk I learnt things I couldn’t believe I didn’t know.
Firstly, the original London bridge, built by the Romans, fell out of use in around AD 350 and there was no bridge across the Thames for about 700 years. The bridge would have actually been a hinderance as it stopped boats moving up the Thames but was eventually built to prevent Viking invasion.
London really began to thrive again when the bridge was rebuilt some time in the 12th century.
Which brought me to another revelation. LONDON WASN’T ALWAYS TO CAPITAL, I can’t really get a handle on the dates but around 871 Alfred the Great made Winchester his capital. This fact was mentioned almost in passing, I couldn’t believe it. To my knowledge London had been the capital from Roman times onwards. Perhaps this is a myth that Londoners are not trying to dispel.