Johann Sebastian Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian, moves to London and becomes known as the English Bach

The Pagoda, designed by Sir William Chambers, is completed in Kew Gardens. The roofs are covered with varnished iron plates and there are 80 carved golden dragons on the corners of the roofs

Elliot Bishop buys the 8-acre estate in the south east corner of Ham Common (the site of the future Cassel Hospital)

James Boswell meets Samuel Johnson for the first time, in the London bookshop of Thomas Davies

Some of Whitton Park's finest specimen trees and shrubs are transferred to the newly created botanical gardens at Kew.

American artist Benjamin West settles in London, where he becomes famous for his large-scale history scenes

The first mention of brewing in Mortlake describes two small adjacent breweries, in separate ownership, occupying between them about two acres

George Gostling buys Whitton Park, converts the greenhouse to a mansion and divides the estate, selling or leasing Whitton Place.

Lady Suffolk dies and the Marble Hill estate passes to her nephew the Earl of Buckinghamshire. He lives occasionally in the house but also rents it out.

The Royal Academy is established in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first president

Robert Mylne completes his new bridge at Blackfriars

Walpole adds the Great North Bedchamber to Strawberry Hill.

17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret

King George III pays for the church on Kew Green to be greatly enlarged. It is expanded again in 1810 and further additions are made in later years.

The London brokers who meet to do business in Jonathan's coffee house decide to call themselves the Stock Exchange

Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is produced in London's Covent Garden theatre

A tontine is launched in Richmond to raise money for the construction of a bridge across the Thames

Thomas Gainsborough moves from Bath to set up a studio in London

John Singleton Copley, already established as America's greatest portrait painter, moves to London

Walpole adds the Beauclerk Tower and hexagonal closet to Strawberry Hill.

Richmond Bridge, designed by James Paine and Kenton Couse, opens to traffic (and is now the oldest bridge in London)

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane theatre

Samual Prime inherits Kneller Hall from his father, Sir Samuel Prime, and enlarges the house and estate.

The second wooden Hampton Court Bridge, of sturdier construction than the first bridge, opens and is 350 feet long, 18 feet wide, and has ten arches raised on piles

London Bridge at risk from waterworks blaze