Headquartered in the UK, originally marketing records in the US, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to the 1980s.

London arose from the split in ownership between the UK and US arms of Decca Records. Since Decca UK could not use the Decca brand in North America, it used the London label to release records there. The London label was also used by Decca in the UK market to release American labels (such as Imperial Records, Chess Records, Dot Records, Atlantic Records, Specialty Records and Sun Records).

After Decca UK was acquired by PolyGram in 1979, London followed a more independent course with subsidiary labels as Slash Records and Essential Records.

Universal Music (the owner of Decca US) acquired PolyGram in 1998. However, by this time, London Records had become a semi-independent label within the PolyGram group operated by Roger Aimes. When Aimes moved to the Warner Music Group, he took the label with him, and so London's back catalogue was acquired by Warner, which licensed the London name from Decca (which still owns the trademark). The name is still used, mainly for UK-based artists, and for ex-Factory Records artists.