For more of all things London history, sign up for our new (free) newsletter and community: Londonist: Time Machine.
~500 BC: The wife of the great inventor Lu Ban invents the umbrella as a means of sheltering her husband from rain and sun while he works. Lu Ban presumably kicks himself for not coming up with the idea himself.
1066: The Normans introduce the umbrella to London... maybe. It's been suggested, but there's no tangible evidence.
1705: The first Londoners start using umbrellas en masse, although at this stage it's only women who are sensible enough to do so. Men laugh at them while getting rained on.
Mid 18th century: Philanthropist Jonas Hanway becomes the first man in London to regularly use an umbrella, which he has brought back from Paris, where the contraption has already caught on. He is widely mocked by every other man in London: "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you call a coach?"
30 March 1801: The first account we can find in the newspaper archives of an umbrella in London involves a theft of a consignment of them from a shop near the Mansion House: "Mr Rutherford stated, that about seven o' clock in the evening of the 18th inst. while the family were above stairs, his shop was broke open, and robbed of two dozen of finished skeleton umbrellas, 16 pounds of whalebone [this was used in the early days to make the 'whales' of umbrellas], some cane, and other property..."
1830: James Smith founds a small workshop and shop just off Regent Street, manufacturing and selling umbrellas. Almost 200 years later, the business — now on New Oxford Street — is still going strong, and renowned across the world.
1852: Samuel Fox invents the steel framed umbrella, thus revolutionising the invention, although he doesn't do this in London, so that's enough of that.
1868: Another, unrelated, Fox — Thomas Fox — sets up a shop in Fore Street (now London Wall) selling umbrellas. The business, Fox Umbrellas Ltd, goes on to make umbrellas for everyone from JFK to the Japanese royal family. It continues making umbrellas today, now in Shirley, Croydon.
Early 1900s: The District Messenger Company offers a scheme whereby Londoners can rent an umbrella for 6d a day. According to one paper, "the public failed to take any interest in the scheme, and it had a very short life." However, brolly hire becomes a thing in London (on and off), including in 1935, when Orpington station offers such a rental service, and in 2024, with Rentbrella.
1902: 560 umbrellas are left on the newly-opened Central line trains and in its stations within one year. They wind up in London Transport's lost property office, most remaining unclaimed.
28 October 1908: The well-known philanthropist Ernest Nixey Smith is fatally stabbed in the head by an umbrella while walking along Chiswick High Street.
1925: A classic year for umbrella related London Transport artworks, including Mary Koop's vibrant 'Summer Sales' poster and Frederick Charles Herrick's 'London's Umbrella' piece (which turns Trafalgar Square into an umbrella).
1964: Disney's adaptation of Mary Poppins is released, giving us THE iconic image of London/an umbrella (though you could argue P. L. Travers has been doing this since 1934.) The film also features a memorable scene in which nannies with umbrellas get blown away in a squall (some are actually dragged-up blokes).
September 1978: Another death by umbrella, this one very well-known. The Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov is walking by Bush House in central London on 7 September 1978, when "a well-built man with a foreign accent had pushed him in the leg with the point of his umbrella and said 'I am sorry' and disappeared into a taxi." Markov falls ill over the next few hours, and dies in hospital in Balham four days later. The tip of the umbrella, it's thought, has injected Markov's leg with a micro-pellet containing ricin or a similar highly poisonous substance.
30 June 1983: Singin' in the Rain opens for the first time on London's West End, starring Tommy Steele in the role of the umbrella-toting, puddle-sploshing Don Lockwood.
3 July 1996: As torrential rain hampers play at Wimbledon, Cliff Richard leads a damp crowd, huddled beneath umbrellas, in a singalong of Summer Holiday. The Lawn Tennis Association decide it's really time they put a roof over Centre Court.
22 October 2012: Rihanna & Jay-Z perform Umbrella at the BBC's Hackney Weekend.
December 2014: Londonist publishes the final word in umbrella etiquette, Don't Be A Brolly Wally In London.
2015: Julian McDonnell (aka 'Joolz') published his first London YouTube video, on London's Smallest Square. He is clutching his trusty umbrella, a prop he will use again and again to point out interesting London titbits.
February 2020: Statues of various film stars and characters are unveiled in Leicester Square — among them, Gene Kelly and Mary Poppins, both wielding umbrellas.
December 2021: The Umbrella Sky Project (fittingly) chooses the Center Court Shopping mall in Wimbledon as a venue for its display of dozens of suspended umbrellas. A similar thing has already been done years before in Borough Market, and more recently with Camden Market's 'Umbrella Street'.
May 2024: The Young V&A launches Lost and Found Yōkai, a vibrant installation in which umbrellas lost on London's trains, tubes and buses are transformed into playful sculptures inspired by Japanese folklore, literature, art and popular culture.
22 May 2024: Prime minister Rishi Sunak stands outside Downing Street and announces a general election in the p***ing rain. He has no umbrella and the world laughs at him. Six weeks later, as Sunak stands in the same spot to concede defeat, his wife stands behind him with an umbrella in case it rains again. It doesn't.
