The conditions of the first settlement of Greeks in London in the mid-17th century are vague. Sathas claims that about one hundred families from Samos and Melos migrated to London on the incitement of the archbishop of Samos Iossiph Georgeirinos whereas Rodokanakis reports that the Greek refugees of Spain were invited to the British capital on the incitement by his ancestor K. Rodokanakis, doctor of the king. However, neither of them present evidence to prove their information while there is also a third opinion, that of the historian Alan Haynes who considers that the first settlement of Greeks in Britain resulted from the commercial transactions of wine and textiles between Crete and Britain. Nevertheless, Britain conceded land in the Soho Fields area so that the first Greek migrants could build their houses.

The erection of the first Greek orthodox church of London was accomplished thanks to the efforts of the archbishop of Samos, Iossiph Georgeirinos. He managed to ensure the financial support of the church from the bishop of London, the king of Britain as well as from nobles of London so that the church of the Assumption of the Virgin could be inaugurated on the 10th May, 1677. Nevertheless, this church did not operate for more than six years because of financial difficulties. It was seized by the parish of Saint Martin and conceded to the French Huguenots (1682). The Greeks fulfilled their religious practices in the Russian church. In 1837 they decided to convert a warehouse of a large building complex in the region of Finsbury Circus into a church consecrated to the Soter (Saviour). In 1849 they erected a new temple in Winchester street, London Wall. Finally, much later in 1881 a third church consecrated to Saint Sophia was built in the Bayswater section.

The Greeks of London created their Community in 1837 and the first meeting of the board of trustees took place in August 1839. It was composed of the most wealthy members of the colony which were mostly from Chios. One of its first decisions was that all Greeks that needed a church for a marriage ceremony or other ceremonies had to pay regular contributions to the Community.

There is no confirmed information on the demographic composition of the Greek colony for the period before 1821. It was certainly not a big one since its members did not exceed two hundred while the majority were men. More women came to London after 1830; this raised considerably the number of marriages between men of mature age and much younger women. The information shows that there was a low mortality of both men and women. Moreover, the Greek colony reached six hundred members around 1871, at the time of its thriving.

A Greek school was founded in London much later, between 1870-1883. Until that time education was undertaken by private teachers. It is worth mentioning the effort of Dr. B.Woodroffe, a higher ecclesiastic dignitary of the Protestant church, who intended to convert the Gloucester College of Oxford into a school for Greek students (1694-1705). In cooperation with the Greek priest Ieremias Germanos they made up a syllabus, persuaded the Levant Company to provide scholarships and contacted patriarch Kallinikos II. Their efforts met with little response. Smyrna sent less than ten students while it is most likely that there was no student from the Greek colony of London. The students from Smyrna returned after a short time to Greece while Dr. B.Woodroffe who had spent great amounts of money for this purpose was imprisoned for debts.

London was never a cultural centre of modern Hellenism as Venice or Vienna. However a great number of Greek scholars were educated in London. G. Ermonymos, A. Kallistos, N. Noukios, M. Kritopoulos who had come to study in London and was also sent by Kyrillos Loukaris to see if there were possibilities of unification with the church of Britain, N. Metaxas who founded a printing office, N. Konopios, who seems to have been the first to import coffee drinking in Britain, L. Philaras, E. Timonis, Ph. Prosalentis and others. Finally, we must refer to the effort made in London in 1819 to publish a periodical titled "IRIS I TA NYN ELLINIKA" that aimed at transferring all the remarkable events of the "wise Europe", especially of Britain, to the unredeemed Greeks. Unfortunately, this effort did not meet with success.

The information on the commercial activities of the Greeks of London in the 17th and 18th centuries is poor. There were some merchants who traded raisins they imported from the Peloponnese via Zacynthos and Cephalonia as well as other merchants and bankers such as I. Chryssovelonis. But the golden century of the Greeks of London was the 19th century.

The small Greek colony of London was "engrafted" by new dynamic elements. A considerable number of Greek merchants migrated to Britain at the end of the 1810's and especially during the liberation war of 1821. First the Greeks of Chios whose island had been destroyed as well as those of Smyrna and Constantinople and others from the islands followed trends of trade of that period and founded branches in London and other parts of western Europe. Students, mostly children of west European merchants of the Levant followed the course of their teachers, surpassed them by taking advantage of their conflicts and acquired great wealth which offered them the possibility to own in 1850 about sixty commercial houses all over Britain. The commercial house of the Rallis brothers was the most important.

The routes that connected Britain with the East were sea routes while the most important stops were all the big ports of the Mediterranean: Marseille, Livorno, Trieste and other ones. Many merchants, mainly those from Chios had invested in the navigation sector and were shipowners. Therefore, they used their own ships for transportations. The combination of trade and navigation was one of the main factors that contributed to their success. The products they transported from the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea were cereals, wool, cotton, linseed, etc whereas the products imported by Britain were mainly textiles, yarn and colonial products.

The merchants were organized in collective companies. Their seat was in the Ottoman Empire and the branches were in the ports of the Mediterranean and in other commercial centres. The commercial house of the Rallis brothers was seated in Constantinople and had branches in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Odessa, Marseille, Trebizond and in other places. The partners were equal, they had the right of signing, they were legally independent and communicated by exchanging information to maximize their profit. Thus, a closed commercial shipping network with common mercantile strategic was created in the whole Mediterranean basin. In addition, the relationship and common place of origin created trust between them. In particular, the power of the families of Chios was based on their strong cohesion and endogamy. In order to maintain the company within the family they married between them, uncles with their nieces, cousins, etc., certainly in contradiction to the rules of the Greek orthodoxy. Finally, the usual tactic of the Greek merchants, that is buying products straight from the producers of the inland of the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean avoiding intermediaries as well as the promotion of their merchandise in Britain via the Baltic centre - which was founded in 1823 -, minimized the likelihood of loss or damage.

From 1850 onward the Greeks of London (e.g. the Rallis brothers, the Rodokanakis brothers) participated actively in banking and stock market activities.

The Greeks of London, as in other communities of the Greek diaspora were not easily mixed with the native population particularly in the 17th, 18th and in the early years of the 19th century. They stayed in separate Greek neighbourhoods in Soho Fields initially, and then in Finsbury Circus. They associated with one another and avoided participating in social events of London. They tried to preserve the cultural and religious identity rallied around the Greek church. The novel of D. Vikelas, "I zoi mou" provides information on the life of the Greeks. They lived in small and humble rooms next to or above their offices and tried to reduce their expenses and do without luxury. But later, particularly from the mid-19th century onward, things changed. Their way of thinking changed. This is attributed mainly to the economic strength they acquired and to the constant association with the natives. P. Rallis, the "Dias" of the Greek colony of London, was the first to abandon the gloomy Finsbury Circus and build a new luxurious house in Bayswater. The majority of other successful merchants followed him while they also participated in social events such as premieres of theatric plays, receptions, parties, etc., which makes them adapt to the dressing habits of the British capital.

The outbreak of the War of Greek Independence of 1821 did not appear to trouble the life of the Greek colony. The participation in the philhellenic committee of London was extremely limited. There is no information on donations, provisions of arms and munitions on behalf of the Greeks while we know only of A. Kontostauvlos, a Greek from Chios which left London to become a volunteer in the liberation war. Conversely, the most eminent family of the Greek colony, the Rallis family, appears to be involved in the scandalous management of the British loans to Greece which offered the possibility of profit-making actions.