Artists & Architects

Featured artisans

William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s greatest plays are ‘Romeo & Juliet’, ‘Othello’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Hamlet’ and ’King Lear’.

Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson is second only to Shakespeare as England’s greatest literary figure.

Classic novels set in London

Journal of the Plague Year – Daniel Defoe (1722)
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (1838)
The Old Curiosity Shop – Charles Dickens (1840)
Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens (1857)
Old Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens (1865)
The Europeans – Henry James (1878)
Daisy Miller – Henry James (1879)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle (1892)
Liza of Lambeth – Somerset Maugham (1897)
Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf (1925)
The Jeeves Omnibus – P G Woodhouse (1931)

Modern novels set in London

Hangover Square – Patrick Hamilton (1941)
The Heat of the Day – Elizabeth Bowen (1949)
The End of the Affair – Graham Greene (1951)
Absolute Beginners – Colin MacInnes (1959)
The Naked Civil Servant – Quentin Crisp (1968)
London Fields – Martin Amis (1989)
The Buddha of Suburbia – Hanif Kureishi (1991)
Fever Pitch – Nick Hornby (1992)
Last Orders – Graham Swift (1997)
High Fidelity – Nick Hornby (2000)
White Teeth – Zadie Smith (2000)
Brick Lane – Monica Ali (2003)
The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst (2003)

Featured architects

Norman Foster
Norman Foster is one of our most respected architects, responsible for numerous London landmarks.

John Nash
One of London’s great 19th-century architects. He built Marble Arch and Regent Street.

British art timeline

Here is an historical timeline of British art – with famous paintings, novels and plays by our top artists and authors…

100 AD Work starts on the first London Bridge · 179 Work starts on the Roman basilica · 190 Work starts on the city wall · 604 King Ethelbert builds the first St. Paul’s · 731 Bede completes his Ecclesiastical History · 750 First church on the site of Westminster Abbey · 970 Regularis Concordia is compiled · 1060 Work starts on a palace at Westminster · 1078 Work starts on the Tower of London · 1086 Completion of the Domesday Book · 1097 William Rufus builds Westminster Hall · 1136 Work starts on the Temple church · 1176 Work starts on the first stone bridge · 1215 King John signs the Magna Carta · 1245 Westminster Abbey rebuilt in its current form · 1297 Work starts on Lambeth Palace · 1400 Chaucer is buried at Westminster Abbey · 1411 Work starts on the Guildhall · 1447 Caxton publishes England’s first printed book · 1503 Henry II’s chapel is added to Westminster Abbey · 1514 Work starts on Hampton Court Palace · 1529 Work starts on Whitehall Palace · 1530 Work starts on St. James’s Palace · 1549 First Book of Common Prayer · 1594 William Shakespeare writes his first play · 1598 The Globe Theatre opens · 1611 The Authorized King James Bible · 1615 Inigo Jones builds the Queen’s House, Greenwich · 1619 Inigo Jones builds Banqueting House · 1628 Harvey’s work on the circulation of the blood · 1630 Work starts on Covent Garden · 1644 The Globe Theatre is demolished · 1651 Thomas Hobbe’s Leviathan · 1660 Samuel Pepys starts work on his diary · 1667 Milton’s Paradise Lost · 1670 Work starts on Leicester Square · 1675 Wren starts work on the new St. Paul’s. Work starts on the Royal Observatory, Greenwich · 1678 Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress · 1687 Isaac Newton’s Principa Mathematica · 1698 Whitehall Palace burns down · 1701 Work starts on Buckingham Palace · 1725 Work starts of Grosvenor Square · 1726 Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels · 1729 Alexander Pope’s Dunciad · 1741 Samuel Richardson’s Pamela · 1744 Sotheby’s auction house opens for business · 1752 Adoption of the Gregorian Calendar · 1753 The British Museum opens for business · 1755 Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary · 1761 Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy · 1763 Samuel Johnson meets James Boswell · 1768 The Royal Academy of Arts is founded · 1769 James Watt patents the steam engine · 1776 Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations · 1785 The Times is launched as the Daily Universal Register · 1791 Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man · 1813 John Nash builds Regent Street · 1819 John Nash builds Piccadilly Circus · 1828 John Nash builds Marble Arch · 1829 John Nash lays out Trafalgar Square · 1834 Charles Barry rebuilds the Houses of Parliament · 1835 Madame Tussaud opens her first waxwork show · 1837 The National Gallery opens · 1835 Madame Tussaud opens her first waxworks exhibition · 1839 Nelson’s Column is erected in Trafalgar Square · 1843 Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol · 1851 The Great Exhibition · 1856 The National Portrait Gallery opens · 1859 Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species · 1866 The first blue plaque is placed, for Lord Byron · 1870 Charles Dickens is buried in Westminster Abbey · 1876 The Albert Memorial is placed in Kensington Gardens · 1878 Cleopatra’s Needle is placed on the Embankment · 1881 The Savoy Theatre opens in the Strand · 1886 Work starts on Tower Bridge · 1887 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creates Sherlock Holmes · 1893 Eros statue is erected in Piccadilly Circus · 1897 The Tate Gallery opens for business · 1906 Work starts on Admiralty Arch · 1919 The Cenotaph is erected in Whitehall · 1922 The BBC makes its first radio broadcast · 1936 The BBC builds the world’s first television transmitter at Alexander Palace · 1938 Ealing Studios opens for business · 1951 Festival of Britain · 1958 Work starts of the Barbican Centre · 2000 The Millennium Dome opens, and closes