In Roman times, London’s population numbered 50,000; by the year 1000, the number was down to 20,000. St. Paul had become the city’s patron saint, and the language of the Angles and Saxons had become the Vulgate, the language in which William issued the first charter of the city. The signs of the times point backwards—sheriffs replaced consuls—and forwards, with separate law courts for separate causes. This program covers the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey in the Gothic style; the building of the first permanent stone bridge across the Thames; the reasons for Southwark—London’s first suburb; the Black Death of 1348; the growth of London as Columbus’s discovery shifted the axis of power from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic; and the birth of rules governing life in the incredibly crammed and teeming city of London. The principal illustrations: The Tower, Guildhall Crypt, Billigsgate Market, Westminster Abbey Chapter House, Westminster Hall, London Bridge, Model of Old London Bridge, Bishop of Winchester’s Palace in Southwark, Weymouth Harbour, St. Bride’s in Fleet Street, The Golden Hind. (20 minutes)