Short answers, pulled from the story.
The population of London grew from roughly 50,000 souls in 1485 to 200,000 by 1603, making it thirteen times larger than its nearest rival, Norwich. This demographic surge transformed the city from a walled medieval settlement into a sprawling metropolis that stretched as far west as St. Giles. The growth was driven by immigrants fleeing religious persecution and displaced farmers from the English countryside.
Henry VIII initiated a frenzy of building and acquisition that began with the Palace of Westminster fire in 1512 and continued until his death in 1547. He transformed monastic sites into St. James's Palace and Whitehall Palace, built Nonsuch Palace in 1538, and acquired Hampton Court. Elizabeth I later visited bear-baiting contests in Paris Garden in 1599, though the palace building spree was primarily driven by Henry VIII.
Henry VIII broke the Church in England from the Catholic Church in Rome in the 1530s, seizing monastic lands that accounted for a third of all land within the city walls. The dissolution of the monasteries saw the Carthusian monks of London Charterhouse hanged, drawn, and quartered, while other houses were sold to aristocrats. The building of new churches in London stopped for over 70 years after 1550, with the next new construction not occurring until 1623.
Plague hit London so badly in 1563 that local authorities recorded 20,372 deaths across the whole year, with 17,404 of those deaths caused by the plague. The disease disproportionately affected the poor, who were left to die in the crowded streets while the wealthy left the city for the season. By 1603, the total deaths reached 40,040, of which 32,257 died of the plague.
The Tower of London served as the primary place of imprisonment and execution for high-ranking prisoners like Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey. Executions also took place on Tower Hill, near Holborn, and at Smithfield, which was the site of the only two instances of boiling alive in England. The heads of traitors were displayed on spikes on London Bridge as a grim warning to all who crossed.
The first known permanent theatre in London was the Red Lion in Whitechapel, evolving from miracle plays to secular plays performed by travelling companies. William Shakespeare wrote 25 of his plays including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream during the Tudor period. Other famous playwrights of the age included Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Nashe, Thomas Dekker, and Ben Jonson.