London and the First World War

Abstract

This article outlines the relationship between London and the First World War. The metropolitan dimension of total war is an emerging field of research at the intersection of military history and urban studies. The article (and special issue) aims to set out an agenda for historians of war/the city. While it is true that what happened at the ‘home front’ generally occurred in the capital city too, the London experience of the Great War was in many respects distinctive. The nerve centre of both the national and imperial war effort, the metropolis was the site of heightened anticipation, dense experience and concentrated commemoration. For London, the First World War proved an accelerator and incubator of socio-cultural change. Even so, London’s stability vis-àvis other imperial capitals was remarkable. The true impact of the war and its legacy can only be gauged by contrasting it with the state of London around 1914.