By the end of the georgian 18th century the Industrial Revolution had started and Britian had begun its expansion into a colonial powerhouse, with London at it's hub. Admiral Nelson's triumph at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 gave Britain naval supremacy in Europe, which led to the confidence and prosperity which characterised the nation and, in particular, 19th century London.

Land just east of Buckingham House was cleared of the royal stables to create Trafalgar Square, and the new National Gallery sprang up there just two years later. The triumphant Nelson's column, surrounded by Landseer's massive lions were set in Trafalgar Square in 1839.

The other great building work of the time, which shaped the London we know today, had started at Buckingham House in 1826. George IV changed his plans to have his parents' London home merely reconstructed and decided to transform it into a Royal Palace. The architect, John Nash, who had designed the broad avenues of Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Carlton House Terrace and Oxford Circus, took so long to finish the building that, upon the King's death in 1830, he was replaced. Edward Blore completed the Palace and later added the present east-wing for Queen Victoria (the facade was altered in 1913).

The prosperity of the City of London led to a rapid increase in land prices and the city's population started to move to the suburbs. The suburbs regrouped along existing class structures, the upper and middle Classes moved to areas such as Hampstead and the West End, while the poorer classes congregated in the East End in overcrowded and sometimes squalid conditions.

Thus Victorian London was a city of startling contrasts. New building and affluent development went hand in hand with horribly overcrowded slums where people lived in the worst conditions imaginable. The population surged during the 19th century from about 1 million in 1800 to over 6 million a century later. This growth far exceeded London's ability to look after the basic needs of its citizens.

Industry changed in London to. Previously based in homes or small workshops, the industiral revolution required massive machinery to function so industry moved to the suburbs and beyond. One important trade, printing and, in particular, the newspaper presses, remained within london and retained its foothold in Fleet Street, which became a social centre with 37 taverns. But central London changed to became a massive office with clerks and book-keepers.

The growth of the empire let to an explansion in shipping and, in particular, the construction of the famous clippers that enabled tea to be transported from China to the Thames. Transport links were crucial in the extending Britians colonial domination and international trade.

The construction of large-scale public railways, linking London to many of the major cities, transformed London's social and business life. The early part of the 19th century was the golden age of steam. The first railway in London was built from London Bridge to Greenwich in 1836 and a great railway boom followed. Major stations were built at Euston (1837), Paddington (1838), Fenchurch Street (1841), Waterloo (1848), and King's Cross (1850).

However, industrial progress was sometimes double-edged. The invention of the modern water closet resulted in the piping of raw sewage into the Thames, which at the time was the source of London's water supply. In 1833, 10,000 Londoners died in a cholera epidemic, which led to a law banning burials within the city boundaries.

In 1834 the Houses of Parliament at Westminster Palace burned down. They were gradually replaced by the triumphant mock-Gothic Houses of Parliament London has today, designed by Charles Barry and A.W. Pugin. The clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, known as Big Ben, was built in 1859. The name, in honour of Sir Benjamin Hall, the commissioner of works when the tower was completed, was meant for the bells of the tower, not to the tower or the large clock itself, but it seems to have stuck.

18th century legislators, faced with widespread poverty and crime, had responded by creating more and more capital felonies (including damaging the trees on Whitehall and impersinating a Chelsea Pensioner. Both were hanging offences). Sir Robert Peel, as Home Secretary, decided on a more enlightened approach, creating the Metropolitan Police Force in 1829. He was then able to push forward many law reforms. Later, as President of the Board of Trade, he was instrumental in removing unnecessary tariffs and moved towards free trade, which further increased prosperity.

William Gladstone, who presided over four ministries in the latter half of the century, was also a reformer and an advocate of free trade. Benjamin Disraeli, a Prime Minister, and a favourite of Queen Victoria, also sought political reform and to increase enfranchisement of the working classes. The great reformers of the 19th century were faced with unprecedented social problems thrown up by the changes which followed the Industrial Revolution.

Then, in 1848, the great Potato Famine struck Ireland and over 100,000 impoverished Irish fled their native land and settled in London, making up at one time 20% of the total population of London.

Victorian Londoners saw their city was the heart of the Empire, the centre of the 'modern world'. In 1851, Prince Albert celebrated this sense of Imperial grandeur by holding the Great Exhibition under a massive glass dome in Hyde Park. As a trade advertisement to the rest of the world, it was a success, but fell short of Albert's loftier aim of promoting international harmony.

Prince Albert endeavored to further promote the arts and sciences by building various museums, concert halls and educational facilities on land he had purchased in South Kensington. The proceeds from the Great Exhibition went towards the founding of two new permanent displays, which became the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

However, the building of the Royal Albert Hall was, unfortunately, not begun until seven years after his death in 1861. The Victoria and Albert Museum took another thirty-two years. The cathedral-like Natural History Museum was also erected nearby and opened in 1881. Albert himself is further remembered in London through the albert memorial on the edge of Kensington Gardens.

The year 1863 saw the completion of the very first London underground railway, running from Paddington to Farringdon Road. The project was so successful that other lines soon followed. The underground network and tramways followed.

For all the economic expansion of the Industrial Revolution, living conditions among London's poor were appalling. Children as young as 5 were often set to work begging or sweeping chimneys. Campaigners like Charles Dickens did much to make the plight of the poor in London known to the literate classes with his novels, whose graphic accounts of the poverty of 19th century London through novels such as Oliver Twist stirred the national conscience. In 1870 those efforts bore some fruit with the passage of laws providing compulsory education for children between the ages of 5 and 12.

In 1897, Queen Victoria celebrated her Silver Jubilee with a massive pageant in the streets of London, in which representatives from the far corners of the Empire participated. She personally pressed the electrical button initiating the telegraphed message to India and beyond: "Thank my beloved people. God bless them".

After 19th Century London came 20th Century london