ABSTRACT
This paper is a response from a London historian to recent discoveries and interpretations concerning what we can now see as one of the defining episodes in London’s history: Alfred’s attitude to, control and organization of the place. That episode has much to tell us about the relationship, both then and now, between London and the state. These reflections do not offer new evidence or detailed interpretations, which are published elsewhere. They are based on the numerous contributions made by other scholars: archaeologists at the Museum of London and elsewhere, whose patient observations, careful chronologies and interpretative insights have reformed our understanding of London in this period; Tony Dyson, whose close examination of the documents concerning the city waterfront has done the same; and Mark Blackburn, Simon Keynes and others, whose reshuffling of the coinage and of relations between Wessex and Mercia has provided a new chronology and context for documented events. Taken together, these findings amount to one of the most striking clusters of paradigm shifts to have taken place in English historical studies in recent years.1
