The Royalist army faced a larger Parliamentarian force at Turnham Green near London on 13 November 1642. Charles I declined to launch a major assault and subsequently withdrew towards Oxford. Parliament thereby preserved its capital, financial centre and principal printing industry.

London's survival ensured that Parliament retained the presses and booksellers that sustained its public campaign. The mass mobilisation of citizens also entered popular memory as a moment when ordinary Londoners helped determine national events.