London's rebuild reveals a shared cruiser design lineage

HMS London later received the most comprehensive modernization of any County-class cruiser. Accounts often describe her rebuilt appearance as based on the Crown Colony class. The design lineage ran through the earlier Town class, from which the Crown Colonies were derived. London's rebuild used the current design work then being prepared for the Crown Colonies. Calling the result simply a copy of a later cruiser obscures that sequence, even though the visual comparison is understandable.