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“London is a roost for every bird,” wrote Benjamin Disraeli in 1870. The idea of a vast metropolis pulling in people of every class and creed, offering experiences and opportunities unimaginable elsewhere, has always been a big part of London's appeal.
What was true then is true now: every new arrival in the capital has the chance to work hard, put down roots and become a Londoner. Understanding and sharing the past brings us together. This is the inspiration behind the Mayor's new festival, launched today, to celebrate London's past, present and future. The Story of London will run throughout June, with more than 400 events in every corner of the capital.
London has been at the centre of great events for more than 1,000 years. The past is alive in the buildings that surround us.
We can stand in front of Traitors' Gate and imagine Anne Boleyn being escorted through it on her way to incarceration and execution in the Tower on the orders of her husband, Henry VIII.
Next year, when Transport for London reopens the East London line, we will be able to travel through the Thames Tunnel, the world's oldest tunnel under a navigable river, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father.
What is more, this was a multicultural city long before it became fashionable for policy-makers to talk about “community cohesion” or “diversity”. Disraeli lived the dream, rising from Jewish immigrant roots to become one of 19th-century England's finest statesmen.
Nor was he unique: Roman centurions, Sussex maidservants, Flemish weavers, Scottish noblemen, Lancastrian farmhands, Chinese sailors and Welsh lawyers all made their home in this few square miles by the Thames.
We're holding the Story of London because, as a city, we rarely celebrate this history in a way that brings us together. Often, the closest we get to remembering London's past is through specific ethnic or cultural events relating to one community, like Black History Month or the more recently established Gay History Month.
Under Ken Livingstone, the emphasis often seemed to be on highlighting the separate cultures of minority communities.
This approach certainly has its place in showing London's diversity but it tends to focus attention on one community at a time rather than on our shared interests. Many of us move in and out of different communities. Young people especially hate to be labelled. More than any previous generation, they are open to new cultural influences.
So how should we celebrate what it means to be a Londoner today? Although events like Black History Month are popular and organisations including City Hall will keep on celebrating it, we should engage new audiences. When Claudia Jones helped launch the Notting Hill Carnival 40 years ago, she was making not just “black history”, but London's history, of interest to everyone. Equally, why shouldn't young black kids enjoy learning about Henry VIII and the intrigues of the Tudor court?
The Story of London will be fresh and different because it gives every Londoner a chance to learn about their city and the people who made it. I don't care if your family have been Londoners for generations or arrived last year: you will love events like the massive Tudor flotilla down the Thames or the Swinging Sixties day on Carnaby Street, as well as the hundreds of walking tours, film screenings, lectures and exhibitions. You won't just be learning about London's remarkable past but affirming your faith in its brilliant future too.
Munira Mirza is the Mayor's director for cultural policy.
Reader views (11)
With a city whose history covers over a thousand years and includes the lives and achievements of millions of people, it is impossible to create a simple story that covers everything. As the article says, the history of London legitimately includes Sussex maidservants, Chinese sailors and the comfortably-off professional man on the Clapham Omnibus.
The problem is that our minds like to think in terms of simple stories, and we find it hard to grasp the scale of such a diverse and chaotic picture. We naturally try to create a more accessible story that we call the ‘real’ history - one which most of the people can sign up to. For many this story will include Pearly Kings, Pepys, and a clutch of immigrant communities (Normans, Huguenots, European Jews, West Indians) who have been around long enough to learn the language and have streets named after them. Everyone else’s story of London is seen as ‘inauthentic’ or ‘minority’.
But I think that in the 21st century we are rapidly getting more comfortable with web-like stories rather than simple stories. Perhaps we should treat ‘The Story of London’: a collection of authentic stories that we can browse through and use to form our own opinions rather than needing a single authorised history.
- Mike G, Oxford
London parochial? I have to disagree. Try living in a place like Bath.....
The fact that London is one of the geatest cities in the world has a lot to do with its diverse mix of people. Sure, many people retain their own culture and that can have an overall impact. In my opinion, that enhances the city and its life. When the British ruled my country, they did NOTHING to integrate, but I'm happy to. I'm a londoner. Even though I live elsewhere now, you never forget you are a Londoner. I visit often so that I can just blend in....
- Anil, south glos
This article is very like the play English People Very Nice, but it doesn't project into the near future as that play does. In the past people have come to london and brought some of their culture with them. they have integrated that culture with the london melting pot. Unfortunatly these days there is more and more separtisum forming areas where the predominate culture is nothing like the traditional london one.
- Barry, woking, surrey, UK
The trouble with you lot in London is that you act as if the rest of the country doesn't exist.
I lived there for 15 years and still have a lot iof affection for the place, but goodness me, is it parochial!
Everything is seen in relation to London to an extent that I have never seen in any other great city ,and the people, who pride themselves on being "cosmopolitan" are nothing of the sort. I remember people who would not move out of their own area, save to go down west for a night out, and as for going south of the river! Well!!!!
As for other parts of the UK; I was asked completely straight faced whether we had black people in Scotland. An Asian descent friend spent most of his time on a visit being looked at like a martian because he had a Scottish accent (he was from Glasgow - what other sort would he have?).
- Andrew, Edinburgh
Saunaing Tic Gill, London
It may be a simplistic view/opinion but is one that is shared with a large majority of the indigenous population.
It would not surprise me if 50% (realistically) to 60% (at a push) of the people living London were not born within any of its boroughs. To me they are not Londoners; it's that simple there are no grey areas..
- Mark, South-East London
Mark
"p.s. I do not consider anybody not born in London to be a Londoner."
You are entitled to your opinion. But surely being a Londoner is a state of mind, if you consider yourself to be a Londoner then you are a Londoner. If you move here at the age of 2 and grow up here and see London as your home then you are surely a Londoner. One could be born here and yet hate everything about the place and feel a greater affinity to Leicester or Lens or Lagos or wherever one's parents came from. To state that anyone not born here can't be a Londoner is a bit simplistic
- Saunaing Tic Gill, London
The ironic side of this debate is the fact were the shoe on the other foot would we be allowed to march into a another persons country and demand change and dress it up as acceptance would we get the same response?
And before people hark on about the empire I like the person writing this story am looking forward rather than back
Stories like this create the rift rather than close it. Once everyone stops dividing the nation by colour we will be one step up the road to happiness
- Gary, brentwood 1
Rather than spending a whole month studying miniscule contributions to British history how about studying the English civil war, the campaign for universal sufferage, both world wars, etc. which all seem to have slipped off the PC curriculum.
- Mark, London
Mark,S.E. London
Totally agree with you about being born in London, A friend of mine who has lived and worked here for the past 17 years will always say he is a mancunian as will the liverpudlian,the glaswegian etc.
- David, North London
"Disraeli lived the dream, rising from Jewish immigrant roots to become one of 19th-century England's finest statesmen."
Not quite correct. As a result of an argument Disreali's father had with the local synagogue Benjamin was bapstised. Had this not happened Disreali's political career would never have started.
"Although events like Black History Month are popular"
Who with? As a parent whose three children have been/are going through the BHM experience it isn't popular with me as I find it unbalanced (particularly in relation to the slavery aspect, and a whole month is way too long.
p.s. I do not consider anybody not born in London to be a Londoner.
- Mark, South-East London
Has the British museum got a stuffed cockney or a pearly king and queen on show to the destroyed creatures which once inhabited the streets of east London?
- Ge, Cornwall
