London, Canada West, 1842 Lady Alexander Looking west on Dundas Street, from near Wellington Street. A large inn sign on a pole can be seen on the southwest corner. The first St. Paul's, visible at right, was lost to fire in 1844. The present church was finished in 1846. An opportunity to relocate the district capital appeared in 1825 when the court house in which the appointed justices regulated the area's affairs was destroyed by fire. Though the Forks was undeveloped, it was nearly surrounded by settlement, and several good mill sites, important to early settlements, could be found close by. A new courthouse and gaol was built overlooking the river and soon a small settlement grew up around it. London was named a market town in 1835, with a population of about 1000. The market brought surrounding settlers to town regularly to sell produce and to buy supplies. The 1830s were marked by civil unrest culminating in the Rebellion of 1837, which resulted in a series of treason trials held at London and the hanging of six men in the court house square. The rebellion also brought about the establishment of a permanent British Army Garrison just east of the town. As many as 500 Imperial soldiers were quartered there from various units, until 1853, when the Crimean War broke out. Trade and industry which began with importers and wholesalers, and foundries and tanneries in the 1830s, were offered wider markets and faster supply with the opening of railway service in 1853. Over the next five years, lines linked London to the Grand Trunk system through St. Mary's, to St. Thomas an important rail centre, and to Port Stanley, where Londoners began to travel for recreation and where their goods could be shipped out by boat.