London has always been the center of Jewish life in this country and is the oldest place of Jewish settlement in England.

The Jews of England arrived first of all in London in the wake of William of Normandy's conquest of England. It is thought they arrived shortly afterwards, though the first documented reference to a Jewish quarter in London, only comes in c.1127, when they had arguably been there for some 50 years or more. Initially they were probably only a small group, only reinforced in numbers with Jews fleeing from the Rouen pogrom in 1096.