London, the capital of Great Britain, is a very old town. It is two thousand
years old. Many years ago London was a small town on the Thames. There were a
lot of villages round it and after many years London and three hundred villages
grew into a very large city. Some of the names of those villages you can find in
the names of the streets in modern London — Kensington, Westminster and
others.
There were many wars in those days and people from
other countries came to Great Britain and destroyed London, but new houses of
stone grew up.
London stands not far from the sea. Many ships from other
countries came to the port of London and brought cotton, food and other things.
Factories grew in London and other cities. Many shops were opened in the centre
of London. In 1863 the first underground railway began to work. It was very
short in those days.
Now London is a beautiful city with large squares and
parks. London is one of the biggest cities in the world.