Cambridge and London

Cambridge was the first foreign city I have ever visited, I spent there one month in 1987 and I was just fifteen years old but I was also completely alone, and that was great.
Actually I went there in order to learn some English but there were too many Italians in the group and all in Cambridge was new and exciting.
It was my first disco, my first beers, my first travel, my first backpack, my first international call, my first broken heart.
The first photos I ever made myself on my own trip with a camera were here in Cambridge.
The last thing we were doing was probably study, I had with me my mum’s camera an old Yashica.
Few images are not bad they are here to be shared.

I was just 15 years old, and I was also determined to visit in London the Natural History Museum and the best collection of dinosaurs in Europe.
At that time was the dream of my life as I was very found of paleontology and dinosaurs, ten years later in 1997 I was achieving my degree in Geology.

The first major development of the area of Cambridge began with the Roman invasion of Britain in about A.D. 40. Castle Hill made Cambridge a useful place for a military outpost from which to defend the River Cam.

It was also the crossing point for the Via Devana which linked Colchester in Essex with the garrisons at Lincoln and the north. The settlement remained a regional centre during the 350 years after the Roman occupation, until about A.D. 400.

Roman roads and walled enclosures can still be seen in the area.
During Anglo-Saxon times Cambridge benefited from good trade links across the hard-to-travel fenlands. By the 7th century, however, visitors from nearby Ely reported that Cambridge had declined severely. The arrival of the Vikings in Cambridge was recorded in A.D. 1068, the Vikings’ vigorous trading habits caused Cambridge to grow rapidly In 1068, two years after his conquest of England, William of Normandy built a castle on Castle Hill.
Over time the name of the town changed to Cambridge.
In 1209, students escaping from hostile townspeople in Oxford fled to Cambridge and formed a university there. The oldest college that still exists, Peterhouse, was founded in 1284.

London today is a leading global city being the world’s largest financial center alongside New York City. London has a diverse range of peoples, cultures and religions, and more than 300 languages are spoken within its boundaries.
In July 2007 it had an official population of 7,556,900 within the boundaries of Greater London, making it the most populous municipality in the European Union.
London is Britain’s largest and most populous metropolitan area, a major settlement since two millennia, its history goes back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium.
The first major settlement was founded by the Romans in 43 A.D.. At its height during the 2nd century, Roman London had a population of around 60,000.
By the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons had created a new settlement called Lundenwic over 2 km upstream from the old Roman city, around what is now Covent Garden. It is likely that there was a harbor at the mouth of the River Fleet for fishing and trading, and this trading grew, until the city was overcome by the Vikings and forced to move east, back to the location of the Roman Londinium, in order to use its walls for protection.

By this time, London had become the largest and most prosperous city in England, although the official seat of government was still at Winchester.
Following a victory at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, the then Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in the newly finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066.

William granted the citizens of London special privileges, while building what is now known as the Tower of London, in the southeast corner of the city, to keep them under control.

In 1100 London population was around 18,000; by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000. During the Tudor period the Reformation produced a gradual shift to Protestantism, with much of London passing from church to private ownership. Mercantilism grew and monopoly trading companies such as the British East India Company were established, with trade expanding to the New World.
London became the principal North Sea port, with migrants arriving from England and abroad.

The population rose from an estimated 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. London was plagued by disease in the early 17th century, culminating in the Great Plague of 1665–1666, which killed up to 100,000 people.
The Great Fire of London broke out in 1666 in Pudding Lane in the city and quickly swept through the wooden buildings. Rebuilding took over ten years.

During the 18th century, London was dogged by crime in 1750 were established a professional police force. In total, more than 200 offenses were punishable by death, and women and children were hanged for petty theft.
Over 74% of children born in London died before they were five. London was the world’s largest city from about 1831 to 1925.
Overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics, claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866.

Rising traffic congestion led to the creation of the world’s first local urban rail network. The Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II killed over 30,000 Londoners and destroyed large tracts of housing and other buildings across London.
Immediately after the war, the 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley Stadium, at a time when the city had barely recovered from the war.
In 2000, to celebrate the start of the 21st century, the Millennium Dome, London Eye and Millenium Bridge were constructed.

NOTE:
- the images have been realized starting from original prints using a scanner HP, wait to load completely the page before click on the photos, be aware that it can take several seconds -
- Cambridge and London pictures / England – portfolio © www.artphotoasia.net -