In 1986, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation of London’s financial markets, known as the “Big Bang,” fundamentally reshaped the city’s economy. This policy dismantled the protectionist structures that had kept London’s stock market insulated by shifting from face-to-face share dealing to electronic trading, ending fixed commissions on trades, and allowing foreign firms to own UK stockbrokers. These changes made the city “a magnet for international banks”: “The 300 member firms of the stock exchange had all been domestic - but within a year 75 were foreign-owned” (Robertson, Jamie. “How the Big Bang changed the City of London for Ever,” BBC, 27 Oct. 2016). The “Big Bang” created a massive influx of foreign capital but has also been tied to a rise in hypercompetitive, unethical business practices. In the decades that followed, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, London became a premier destination for global wealth, earning the nickname “Londongrad” for its role as a safe haven for the fortunes of Russian oligarchs. This influx of often illicit money created the gilded, hyper-capitalist environment that forms the backdrop of London Falling, fueling the very fantasies of power and wealth that captivate Zac.

In parallel, London’s criminal underworld underwent its own transformation. The era of localized armed robberies, epitomized by gangsters like the Brink’s-Mat crew, gave way to a more globalized and sophisticated model of organized crime. As a 1978 collapse of an extradition treaty with Spain turned its southern coast into a refuge known as the “Costa del Crime,” British criminals established international networks focused on lucrative drug trafficking. This new underworld, interconnected with global finance and far more violent than its predecessor, is the world that characters like Verinder “Indian Dave” Sharma inhabit. Zac’s story unfolds at the fatal intersection of these two transformed worlds, the glamorous, kleptocratic high society he aspired to join and the brutal, modern criminal underworld he ultimately could not escape.