Houses were very narrow to street and 5-6 storeys high, overhanging to almost touch. Blocked sun and fire hazard. Night soil was thrown out into the street. Houses were timber framed and wattle and daub or plaster. Sometimes they collapsed.

Southwark at this time was outside city control. Brothels here were owned and regulated by the Bishop of Winchester! There were rules and opening hours, and proceeds from the brothels were used for good works of church. Prostitutes were called Winchester geese.

LONDON BRIDGE had shops and a drawbridge. The river was dotted with ships, there were a series of docks on the north bank of the THAMES around the bridge which gave London its wealth. There was a haze of smoke from wood fires which drifted East, as did the current carrying sewerage. East of TOWER were fields where Londoners enjoyed jousting and archery

In Chaucer’s day, there was still a wall. It had 8 gates which were shut at night to stop invasion. Each had a guardhouse. NEWGATE developed into a notorious prison. Heads of criminals displayed on top. 12 years Chaucer lived in ALDGATE tower for a while. The gates gave their names to areas and some tube stops today.

The wall was 18′ high and 6-9′ deep with battlements. Within was the official city, redeveloped haphazardly, so Roman grid pattern of roads was already distorted.

TOWER OF LONDON – In 1235, the King’s Menagerie or zoo was installed at the Tower, starting with 3 leopards donated by the Holy Roman Emporor. There was a polar bear too, and the menagerie was later opened to the public. (In 1830s, the animals were donated to London zoo). The crown jewels were kept here too, and monarchs from 13th-17th century spent the last night before their coronation there. It is one of few surviving Medieval buildings in London.

There were 50 Livery companies, one for each trade (most towns had 1). Livery Halls used to hold feasts and meetings, and set firm rules stopping people getting to rich or cheating, including setting prices and wages, as well as what could be produced. Different trades had different liveries or clothes. You had to be a member of a livery company to trade within the city walls. Shopkeepers in same business tended to congregate in same part of town as no competition. Guilds were charities also for members, and often endowed schools, almshouses and hospitals. Each guild had its own parish church and they vied with each other to make them grand. Economic life was organised around these companies to a declining extent well into the 19th century. Many of the Livery Companies and their buildings survive today.

Guilds were subject to the Guildhall, which you can still visit today. It was built in 1311, and would survive fire and a bomb hit in 1940.

The Guildhall was also a court, Thomas Cranmer was tried here for heresay, Lady Jane Grey for treason.

The Docks at this time were named for goods: Fish Wharf, by Fish Street, Hay Wharf, Wine Wharf, etc. There was hammering and sawing of carpenters and shipwrights; speech was to be heard in Middle English, Flemish, French, German; you could see stitching of sailmakers. – In the butchers’ area, were terrible smells and sights. Offal was dumped in the River Fleet, which eventually became a sewer. Lombard, Cornhill and Threadneedle streets were the economic heart of city then too. Cornhill was where grain sellers meet. Theadneedle was home to tailors. Lombard St was most interesting then as it is here that the Italian bankers the Lombards settled. The area remains London’s banking centre. At that time, bankers transacted business in open air in street, or sheltered in shops. They only moved indoors in reign of Elizabeth I. These three streets meet at Poultry, which was then London’s market for fowl, pigs and rabbits – smelly. From there ran one of widest and most impressive thoroughfares of the day: CHEAPSIDE. It was the main shopping street, lined with shops, with stalls in centre. The street was used for tournaments and civic processions like the Lord Mayors Procession. Conduits at either end of the street would run with wine. In Chaucer’s day. there were 354 taverns in the square mile! Cheapside also had pillories and was a place of execution, especially for commercial crimes like selling rotten food. Streets running off Cheapside like Milk Street and Bread Street named for what they sold. We still have streets like Goldsmiths Row, Grocers Lane, Ironmonger Alley.

In AD 1348, the Black Death arrived. Carried by fleas on rats. People could die within hours. Only one in 4 survived. Fires burned to try and cleanse the air. Cemeteries were overwhelmed – 200/day were buried at Smithfield and Southwark. 15,000 people died in total – 33 percent of city. It took a century for the population to recover. There where many other diseases like Smallpox at the time.

Religion in Chaucer’s day was hugely important. ST PAUL’S was huge. Its bell towers were used as prisons. WESTMINSTER ABBEY was the great national church where the corpses of Richard II and Henry VI were exhibited, and where Henry V had celebration after Agincourt, but St Paul’s church was like the Times newspaper of Medieval England, e.g. this is where new kings were announced. A folk moot was held in the church 3 times a year. Influential Sermons were given here outdoors. Printing developed in 14th century and the churchyard became home to stationers, booksellers and printers. Commerce also took place in the nave of the church itself. Scribes, lawyers and even tradesmen set up shop there. There was a pillar where prospective servants would stand to be hired. It was a social and cultural centre as well as a place of worship.

From City in the East, there was a narrow track known as the Strand lined with great inns and palaces belonging to bishops and abbots, some rented out to lawyers and law students. These inns represented power and wealth of church. (All Inns were later confiscated by Henry VIII). On the right, there were a few shops, but then open countryside.TEMPLE BAR was built in 1351 with a prison attached. The Bar or gateway, represented the outermost reaches of legal London. To Temple Bar you were still under aegis of the guildhall. The track continued to an impressive complex of buildings at WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

At the end of the Strand was Charing Cross. Royal stables stood where Trafalgare Sq is now, then more fields.

WESTMINSTER was not part of City of London. Like today, was all about government and religion. Most people got there by boat, as the STRAND was unpaved. In 1245 Chapter House at the Abbey was where the House of commons met until 1547. Outside were lots of shops, and beggers and thieves. The Abbey was a liberty, or sanctuary where king and city power didn’t necessarily operate. In AD 1476 Caxton had his shop here, England’s first print shop. South of the Abbey were more fields. Tournaments and fairs were held here. North and west were fields associated with Lepers Hospital which later became St James’ Park.

The abbey was administered by monks, a religious settlement since 7th century. Built in 10th century abbey expanded. William Conqueror was crowned here as were most subsequent monarchs. The old building was pulled down in 1245 and rebuilt as current Abbey in Purbeck marble. Subsequent kings added to it. It has the tallest nave in England. English kings are buried here. Chaucer was the first to be buried in what is now known as Poet’s Corner.

Next, in the mid 14th century, Convent Garden and Lincoln’s Inn were built.

From Tudor period, the TOWER of LONDON was a fortress and infamous prison for e.g. James 1 of Scotland, Richard II and Henry VII, the latter both murdered here as well as the two princes, whose skeletons were found under a staircase and buried in Westminster Abbey. Commoners were also imprisoned here and, executions took place.

TUDORS

1525-1600 50,000 to 200000 population growth. It was new people coming in 6,000 migrants per year for economic reasons

Thousands of chimneys made air dirtier. Ships crowded in with burgeoning trade. There was till only one bridge. The three main buildings were still there, the Tower, St Pauls and Westminster Abbey, but the spire gone off St Pauls. City limits had gone further east. It had been built up with market gardens and cattle fields where Whitechapel, Stepney, Hackney, Poplar and Bethnal Green now stand, but by 1590, fields east of tower filled in with houses, workshops and docks. Inns provided accommodation, food, drink, sometimes plays. Many were old and formerly bishops palaces. The George in Southwark, for example, is still there today. They were important meeting places. Shoreditch was where prostitutes went after Southwark was shut down. It was also the place where Burbidge built London’s first purpose-built theatre, The Theatre, in 1576. St Katherine’s Docks was there. Raw wool was loaded, wine and goods unloaded. Docks were much more organised now. There were 17 docks between London Bridge and the Tower, but more now crept east to Wapping and Shadwell. The East End was already regarded as the poorest, but also as colourful and industrious. The Tower was given over to animals and prisoners – lions, leopards, eagles, owls, moutain lions, and a jackall. Thomas Moore, Anne Bolyn Katherine Howard, Sir Walter Raleigh and Lady Jane Grey were all executed here. Royalty were executed inside the walls, others before huge crowds on Tower Hill. Street cries would be heard throughout the commercial area around London. The main meat market had moved to Smithfield. Billingsgate had become the new fish market. Bankers had now moved indoors. The Royal Exchange was built. Shops provided a meeting place for hundreds of merchants, buying, selling, hearing news, making deals – but also providing shops for normal people, who could see the new luxury goods pouring into the capital. Cheapside was still lined with magnificent shops. In 1590 livery companies were declining a bit because of the Reformation. This had cut down religion so they weren’t giving charity in the same way, and people were just setting up businesses outside the walls beyond the Guilds’ remit. There were 12 great Companies, Mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers goldsmiths, skinners, merchant tailors, haberdashers, salters, ironmongers, vintners and clothmakers.

St Pauls had lost its spire to lightning, and most of its land had been confiscated by Henry VIII. Its statues and stained glass and the altar had all been destroyed. They didn’t have money to upkeep the building. Its gardens full of printers. Its nave was used as a throughway. Sermons were still delivered from St Pauls Cross but that was destroyed in 1600s. Charles 1 commissioned Inigo Jones to do up the cathedral, and he added a classical portico. However, during the Civil War, the building was used as a barracks. At one point the roof fell in! By the time of the Great Fire, it was in terrible state.

Beyond Ludgate was legal London, with the Old Bailey court next to Newgate prison. There was great overcrowding and disease in prisons. Bridewell Prison had been a palace 1515, but was repurposed in 1553 as it lay next to the smelly Fleet. Henry VIII dissolved not only churches but also their almshouses and schools, so the poor were in a much worse position.

Once in the Strand, it was possible to see the growth of the city. It was paved in 1532, full of pits, smelly, horse and cart traffic. There were still the same series of stately parishes, but now instead of the Church, they were owned by aristocrats. incl. Somerset House, Whitehall palace and Savoy House. Lots of history was connected with these great houses because of the influential people who lived there. Somerset House, for example, was traditionally the home of the queen’s consort. Watergate, a lone stone gateway on the river, is all that remains of these palaces. To right of the Strand were now shops, the royal mews stables, and open fields. Between 1600-1750, the West End was all filled in. It began with Dissolution, which meant former church land was given to families favoured by the king. The Russell family, for example, were granted a lot of land. The owned a vast estate incl. Covent Garden. In 1627 they commisioned Inigo Jones to create grand houses in convent garden. It was London’s first planned housing development and square, with a church on one side and houses on the other three. The market was started in 1650.

The Palace of Whitehall stood on the site of York Place. Henry VIII added a tilt yard, which we now know as Horseguard’s Parade, and other buildings. The park was used by royalty for hunting. Westminster Hall was a collection of courts and some shops. Anne Boleyn, Guy Fawks and King Charles I were tried here. In 1590 Westminster Palace was used by Parliament. This is the building Guy Fawks tried to blow up. He was discovered, and hanged drawn and quartered. The house of commons didn’t have much space, so was very crowded with a hothouse atmospere. Meetings of Parliament were not regular, but periodic and brief. The area was also full of lodgings for courtiers, but alongside lots of poverty.

Southwark had 5 manors forming one ward. It was outside the city, so not subject to same rules. The famous Rose Theatre was here, and later also the Globe Theatre. London Bridge was still the medieval one. So many ships filled the Thames that it looked like a wood! The bridge had 19 arches and was very dangerous to shoot, and usually not attempted. At the end of 16th century, heads of traitors were displayed on pikes in Southwark, including those of Sir Thomas Moore and Thomas Cromwell. There is a somewhat macabre spike memorial there today.

There was terrible congestion throughout Tudor London. Lots of stairs and watergates led down to River Thames. Most aristocrats and royalty had magnificent barges. Since there was only one bridge, there were numerous ferries setting off from 2000 “wherries” You can still see some stone seats along the Thames bank where the wherrymen used to sit. There were swans on the river which were the personal property of the queen, with a sentence of death if you injured them. London was very international. At this time, there was a park of 100 acres called the Paris Garden, and here the public enjoyed bowling and gambling. It developed into London’s first Pleasure Garden. At Bankside there was a bear garden where bears and dogs tormented for sport, as well as horses and boars. Three outdoor theatres were constructed in 1587, 1597, 1598 where 3000 people could watch plays in the afternoon. They had 3 storeys. The Globe Theatre was thatched and once burned to the ground. The stage had a trap door in it to “Hell”, while above the stage, “Heaven” was a raised balcony. There were 3 doors at back of stage. Actors wrote plays too, and were shareholders in theatre.

The end of Elizabeth’s reign was characterised by economic crisis and endless war with France

The city of london was particularly dependent on the monarchy at this time to grant them charters guaranteeing them governmental power and trading privileges. Kings, on the other hand, depended on London to provide 10 percent of soldiers, and for loans. The city was growing rapidly. By 1600, there were 200,000 inhabitants; by the end of the century 500,000. The death rate in the city was still higher than its birth rate. New people coming in were foreign refugees and youth seeking work. This growth meant that the market economy and transportation and shipping had to expand and become more efficient to supply London. Different companies sprung up to trade with different countries through 16th century, incl. East India Company in 1600.

“In every street, cars and coaches make such a thundering as if the world ran upon wheels At every corner, men women and children meet in such shoals that posts are set up of purpose to strengthen the houses lest with jostling one another they should shoulder them down. Besides, hammers are beating in one place, tubs whooping in a third, pots clinking in a third, water tankards running a tilt in a fourth.” 1606 Thomas Deckard.

The Stuarts presided over a turbulent time in London with the Civil War leading to the imprisonment and eventual beheading of Charles I in 1649 just outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall. It is said that he wore two white shirts to prevent shivering from the cold to be misinterpreted as fear. Oliver Cromwell took control during the interregnum. He removing royal symbols from public spaces in London and seized properties owned by the monarchy for the Commonwealth. he was a Puritan and introduced a strict, oppressive religious atmosphere where theatres, for example, were banned, and yet his court saw a flourishing of music and the arts, including the first opera in the country.

After the Restoration of the Monarchy In 1654 the city still looked like Shakespeare’s city, but it had expanded to the east to include Shadwell, Radcliffe, Whitechapel, Deptford and Rotherhilthe, and Bermondsey to the south. West London was beginning to fill in between Temple Bar and Whitehall, Covent Garden and Lincolns Inn Fields. The population had doubled again to 400,000 people. There were Sewerage and air quality problems. Samuel Pepys gives us a fantastic insight into the London of the 17th Century. He was born in London in 1633. Through family he got job as clerk to Exchequer (state’s bank in effect). He then got an important job under Charles II, 1673 secretary of the admiralty and was an MP, also fellow and president of Royal Society. From 1660-69 he wrote his diary, written in shorthand. He worked at the docks in pre-industrial England. Over 100 ships.

A lot of business was done at inns and taverns, which were nearly as grand as inns, offering drink and food and private rooms to rent. Alehouses offered home-brewed beer and lower class prostitutes and fences and were sometimes used for criminal purposes. The coffehouses were a new craze. Coffee was introduced in 1652. Newspapers were distributed there and they were frequented by very mixed classes. In 1675 there was an unsuccessful attempt to shut them and aleshouses down. A famous coffee house was Wills in Covent Garden near the theatres. Dryden, the poet laureate, held court there by the fire. Certain coffeehouses were associated with businesses, such as Lloyds and Garroways. Gentleman’s clubs were also new. Whites began as coffeehouse, then became an aristocratic gambling house. The Grecian started to accommodate members who had attended the free lectures given at Gresham Collegewhich gave rise to the Royal Society. At these clubs, scientists were mixing with gentleman amateurs.

Barges were still popular. The court at Whitehall was centre of world. Anyone could walk in if they looked like a gentleman! The court was a social and cultural centre as well as just palace. Writers, painters, scientists needed patronage, and could get this by going to court. There were fabulous interiors, music, poetry, preachers, fantastic art collections, politics. At this time people could in theory approach the monarch outdoors still in St James’s or Hyde Park. There were porters at the gates who were meant to keep “unsuitables”. “Drawing Rooms” were gatherings a few times a week held by the monarch for important people where the royal family could be seen. You could ask for a private consultation with the king too. Plays were held in the Cockpit Theatre in Whitehall. Charles II reopened theatres and granted charters for the kings and the dukes theatre company. Drury Lane, Lincolns Inn and Haymarket theatres were indoors. Theatre had become expensive, so not for groundlings like in Elizabethan times. Charles II was known as the Merry Monarch. In 1661 ordered that women should be allowed on stage. Nell Gwynne was his mistress. Vauxhall Pleasure Garden was created as an amusement park for adults with manicured gardens, walkways, music, food, mazes and amorous opportunities.

There was an explosion of science, foreign and colonial trade and music. The king ordered Christmas celebrations and theatres to be allowed back after bans by Puritans.

During the period there were many devastating outbreaks of plague. Streets became empty. Shops shut up, large gatherings were avoided, and the city was deserted. Trade became impossible.

In 1666, the Great Fire of London led to the loss of 463 acres, 13,200 houses, 87 churches, 44 livery houses. One quarter of the population moved away.

Within a few weeks plans submitted by Wren and others to rebuild. Their plans featured elegant grids radiating from fine central plazas. However, land plots had been irregular for centuries, so owners simply rebuilt according to medieval street plan. One difference was that the 1667 Rebuilding Act, stipulated only 2 storeys in side roads, 3 along river and 4 in high streets. In addition, buildings had to be rebuilt in stone and brick, there were wider streets, and no houses could be built at docks.

The Great Plague and Fire of London are covered in the Diary of Samuel Pepys.

After the Fire, King Charles II ordered the rebuilding of London by Wren and others. Fifty of the 85 churches burnt down were rebuilt. The great centrepiece was St Pauls Cathedral. As London was being rebuilt, so was the West End being laid out by speculators and landowners with court connections. e.g. Russells laid out a series of west end squares. Earl of Southampton developed Bloomsbury. Sir Christopher Wren was professor of astronomy at Oxford. He was in charge of rebuilding customs house and neo classical churches with natural light, and St Pauls. As further fire precautions, pipe systems and water pumps were built and private insurance companies protected their clients from fire. You can still see the metal plaques of these fire companies on old townhouses. If your house didn’t have one, it would not be protected!

In 18th century thieves could be hanged for stealing a few pennies. Sometimes people survived the hanging and were revived by friends.

The Georgian period ran from 1714 to 1847 and encompassed the reigns of Hanovarian kings George I, II, III and IV, and William

London had become the largest city in the world following rapid expansion after the great fire of London. At the beginning of the century it encompassed the City as far as Limehouse in the East as far as Tottenham Road Westminster in the West with continuous housing a mile deep stretching between the two along the river. This was predominantly workers district.The 600 year old London Bridge connected Southwark on the south bank. it was 2 hours walk deep and 3 hours long. It was divided into City, Westminster and Southwark. Southwark was the area of trade and manufacturing. East London ran on both sides of river an was a seafarer’s town part poor, part extreme wealth. The City was where money was made. Westminster had the area of the law court Westminster Hall, the Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. There were a range of building styles but also combination of styles Post-fire building, restrictions stipulated flat fronts, windows recessed from front wall, and a wall hiding attic sash rather than casements. There were also terraces: First floor Drawing room floor had big windows with smaller windows above and below. Sometimes terraces were built to look like one mansion. Houses were laid out in grids where possible. Some streets took decades to complete. The Grosvenor estate of 100 acres in Mayfair was developed in the 20s. South and north of it was still countryside. It’s great Grosvenor Square was the largest in London apart from Lincoln’s in Fields. It was built as a self contained new town and was very socially mixed. Mews and courts, north of Grosvenor Square were downmarket and encroached upon by shops. Mayfair was covered by 1750. Most building in this period was in the west. The north was quieter. Clerkenwell and St Luke’s barely grew. There was also a lot of infilling of building on gardens and fields. The East was more dynamic. Shoreditch and Hoxton were high class areas, but in general homes in the East were more likely to be wooden framed. Many were one room deep and tenanted.

War and peace periods interrupted building.

What has now become Greater London was gradually built on by the rich wanting a home in the country, including in Clapham, Putney, Richmond, Acton, Hackney etc, although there was plenty of countryside left between these villages. The trend brought difficulties with transport. Roads were terrible, although main roads improved, Travellers paid tolls at turnpikes. Fire threats, especially in poor industrial warehouses, were quite frequent. They wiped out tens of houses at a time and better buildings were often built instead. In 1750 Westminster bridge was built. Robert Adam dominated architecture in the second half of the 18th century. This brought a revolution in style, eclectic, eccentric, called neoclassical. There were antique references, and he was famous for his reliefs, working from the 1760s to the end of the century. He also worked on many interiors. including staterooms in Isleworth and Osterley Houses, as well as building the Harley/Portland Estate and developing land north of Oxford street from the 1770s onwards. Prior to this, there was just countryside above Oxford Street apart from a bit into Marylebone to Cavendish square. Portland Place was now the widest street in London and attracted aristocratic tenants. Baker Street and Portland Square were also built in the 1770s as well as Drury Lane theatre, and the Adelphi. 1778 end of American War of Independence.

In the 1790s ,Adam designed Fitzroy Square in Fitzrovia, and the surrounds. Wars with France followed. Other bridges were built. The remaining old wall was removed, and the gates followed in the 1760s. Nowadays it is the buildings that represent the iconic style of central London.

London by the 18th century was more or less self-governing. From it stretched a world wide trading network. It was the time of the South Sea Bubble, the 1720s Stock Market Crash, and the awful Gin Craze of the 1730s and 40s. Poverty, crime, riot were rife. Samuel Johnson moved to London 1737.

By now the population of London had risen to 700,000 people. The docks advanced as far as Blackwall and the Isle of Dogs. The West End completely filled in to Grosvenor Square and Hyde Park Corner, though Notting Hill and Knightsbridge were still rural. South of river was a half-mile strip of urbanisation, and to the north Shoreditch, Lamb’s Conduit Fields and Tottenham Court Road followed suit. Suburban London had grown, as commuting by coach was possible. The City was much changed. Only The Tower of London was the same. Westminster Abbey now had towers added by Hawkesmoor. Westminster Palace had burnt down in 1698 so the royal family moved into St James’s Palace. There was a pall of smoke over city. Coal fires made for terrible air quality. A French visitor described black rain. Samuel Johnson moved to London in 1737, having walked there from the Midlands with the soon to be famous actor John Garrick. He wrote his great dictionary in 1755 in a garret at Gough square. Here he entertained lots of famous people. St Clements was his parish church.

There was a free press at this time. Newspapers were read out in coffee houses. Late 17th century clubs: investors went to Johnson and Garroways, it was the recian for lawyers and scholars, Wills then Buttons for writers, then the Bedford, frequented by very many literary men , Tories at one and whigs at another. Some went to taverns instead. These were more noisy and relaxed. They served dinner (lunchtime). Most fashionable establishments were French. Alehouses could be opened in people’s houses and were cheap, attracting lower classes and locals. Gin shops and Doss houses. Gin no license at first readily available and cheap led to gin craze causing huge problems including deaths GIN lane and beer street. One reason for alcoho consumption was that it was dangerous to drink water. The arts were no longer dominated by court. Aristocrats developed West London further, including Covent Garden, Tavistock Square, Russell Square, they went to coffee houses and theatres. Then they started going to private clubs instead of coffee houses. At the beginning of the 18th century, they commissioned art as well as drinking and gambling. The Kit Kat Club was the most famous. They commissioned paintings by members. Individuals Lord Summers and others like James Bridges who supported Handel. Aristocrats patronised artists in return for a good reference. New wealth of merchant classes, so artists were also patronised by the general public, e.g. paying audiences at theatres. Concert life moved out of church and court in 1670s and into other venues for the paying public. There were several concert halls by 1714, plus the pleasure gardens. Painters were also increasingly paid by middle classes commissioning portraits etc. New wealth also supported writers, who a century before would have had to work for the church or the court. People would pay subscriptions for writers’ work which came out in episodes.

The English and Dutch had the freest press in Europe. Artists started favouring London instead of places like Rome.

Problems in Johnson’s London (18th century)

Sondheim described London in song as a “great black pit”.

Overcrowding, disease, poverty crime, poor street paving, lighting, and sewerage were all ramant. By In 1700 the population of London was 200,000 but by 1800, there were 1 million people. East end houses were often still wattle and daub, and wood, they sometimes just fell down, or burnt down in fires. Homes were overcrowded. Smallpox, malaria, typhus, influenza and tuberculosis were common. Water quality was poor, and 40 percent of children died in first 2 years in 18th century. During this period, 9,000 arrived in London per year from Europe (English had reputation for giving asylum. Also from Britain for entertainment/work/ apprenticeships, poor laborours. The parish system, which had previously looked after the poor, was overwhelmed. There was the Poor Law, Workhouses, terrible conditions. So bad no-one would want to go there, many died. Especially bad for children and single mothers. Babies abandoned routinely. Thomas Coram stepped in and got Royal charter for the Foundling hospital 1741, first charity. Mothers had to pick a ball from a bag. White in, black out, red waiting list. If they got in they were trained to be maids or apprenticeships. 30 percent died anyway but relatively a success. Gainsborough, Hogarth, and Handel were patrons. Hospitals were for looking after the poor, rather than the ill. Royalty gave back some previously confiscated monastries/charitable, e.g. Bridewell was for vagrants, St Thomases for the old and lame, St Bartholemews for diseased beggars, Bethlehem /Bedlam for the mentally ill.

Famous london criminals like Jack Shepherd were folk heroes. Public hangings were audience. Death was deterrent because There was no police force, just volunteers, no standing army, so 200 crimes in 1800 were punishable by death (it was 50 in Tudor England. These included petty theft or pickpocketing of small amounts. Increasing numbers were executed through the century to something like 500 in one year. The condemned had a 2 hour procession from horrific Newgate prison to Tyburn Tree. Monday was execution day. Prisoners were accompanied by their own coffins. People lined the street. The procession stopped at taverns for the prisoners to receive a drink. 30,000 onlookers not uncommon. The record was 80,000. Clergyman accompanied the prisoners in a cart. There would be a speech, and there might be a royal pardon. The condemned stood on horse carts.

LIFE IN LONDON: In 19th century, london’s population exploded from one to six million. Terrible poverty, crime, huge pollution, horrendous traffic jams.Until 1829 children were used to crawl up inside chimneys. Characters Like Fagin in Oliver Twist gave children food and lodgings in return for picking pockets. Mudlarks searched for things to sell. cockney rhyming slang. There was tossing the pieman. if you called correctly you got pie and money back, if not, you got nothing. Penny Gaff – hundreds of small theatres. They had dancing and very rude songs. Punch and Judy men were common on street corners. People collected dog dirt to cure leather, crossing sweepers swept road hoping for a tip. Costermongers or street sellers used back to front language for look out theres a policeman. Newsboys now stood at corners selling fresh news every hour of day, a precursor to mass-media. Newspapers were cheap.

Better off moved to suburbs. 100,000 people had homes pulled down to make way for the railways. Whole families crammed in one room, ragged schools started in 1854 specially for poor children. Often had 1 teacher for 200 children most left at age 10 to work. The Victorian era is remembered for the macabre murders of Jack the Ripper in the East End – a story that perhaps captures the imagination to this day because it took place during the same period as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes walked the streets of London. Criminal London was immortalised in his books – the thick pea soup fogs, caused by industry and coal fires, raucous music halls, the Bobby on his beat, with his shrill whistle when he discovers something amiss, Holmes embodies everything we want to believe about rational and progressive Victorian London.

TRANSPORT – 1829 first horse-drawn omnibuses. The streets were packed with people and horses. Between 1838 and 1864, all of today’s main lines and stations were built. In 1863 the first underground opened. When the first, the Metropolitan Line, opened passengers sat in open carriages pulled by steam trains. Electrification in 1890s made deep tunnels possible. Oscar Wilde: “all Londoners look as if they’re running for a train”.

CULTURE AND SCIENCE: For growing number of educated people with money, London was cultural centre of world. Beatrix Potter‘s childhood home backed onto Brompton Cemetery. she used names on gravestones for characteras. American painter Whistler often painted the Thames at chelsea. French painter Monet came over to paint effect of smoke on light. Many of today’s theatres were built during 19th century. Bernard Shaw and Gilbert and Sulivan. The idea for Peter Pan came to J M Barrie in Kensington Gardens.

Great Exhibition 1851 showed new inventions, The new venue Crystal Palace had 900,000 panes of glass!. Six million people visited. Queen and prince Albert went 42 times. Albert was one of main organisers.Profits from GREAT EXHIBITION used to build Victoria and Albert, Natural History Museum and Science Museum.

DRINKING WATER – For drinking water, in the 1600’s, there had been springs at Sadlers Wells, Clerkenwell etc, but by 1700’s these were built over. Thames water had begun to be used and pumped. By 1800s, it was piped into people’s houses. Unfortunately the Thames was also sewer. Industrial waste and rubbish also went into the river. Most houses had cisterns in basement which would be cleaned out by nightsoil workers. Soil often found its way back into thames. By the early 1800s you could see sewerage in Thames. People, including children, drank beer as it was safer than water. Merchant ships brought Cholera through the century. Jon Snow 1854 was a physician who linked dirty drinking water to the outbreaks of Cholera in the city. In 1858 the Great Stink. River traffic stopped Thames Purification Act passed. Finally Joseph Basilgate. built brick-lined sewers, 1300 miles of sewers. In 1887 they started treating sewerage. The system was the greatest in the world. From 1868-74 the embankments were built, incorporating the new sewers. London wide boards were established e.g. to regulate traffic and sewerage

ROADS AND LIGHTING – At the start of the century the roads were unpaved. By 1862 most streets were paved. Lighting. In past people had been require to put candles in windows and hang lights. By 1685 there were some lights, but still at the start of the 19th century there was no uniform lighting. Gaslights appeared in 1804, and in 1807 one side of Pall Mall was lit. By the 1840s, most streets were lit by gaslamps. By 1880 there were gaslamps in people’s homes and shops. In 1858 there was the first electric lighting. By 1880s there was much more electric street lighting.

POLICING – Londons policing was in hands of citizens and volunteers because they didn’t want state control. Citizens were duty bound to intervene if they witnessed crime. In the late 1700s, people were given rewards for catching criminals. This began to change in the mid 19th century, when 6 “Bow Street Runners”,precursors to a police force, were established by Fielding. In 1829 Sir Robert Peel established a salaried police force. With their blue uniforms and top hats, they didn’t have jurisdiction within the City and were very unpopular. Known as Bobbies or Peelers.

It was an assumed right of Londoners to riot/protest as long as they behaved and had a just cause. In 1715, the Riot Act made it a crime to riot/protest if the Riot Act was literally read out to the crowd to tell them they were mob. This restricted the ancient right to march and demonstrate.

POLITICS – Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 and the Victorian Age began. By 1850 and Wellingtons victory at the Battle of Waterloo Britain was greatest power of Europe. Political emphasis was on splendid isolation – concentrate on trade and not get involved with Europe. Trade brought the country huge wealth, much of it going through London ports although increasingly through other ports like Liverpool too. 

Expansionist imperialism was very strong in the Victorian Age. Darwinism was used to justify colonialism. Slavs and semites were at the bottom of the social ladder. Anti semitism was very strong and London was very xenophobic . Jews and foreigners blamed for any negatives.

During the Industrial Revolution, cities of north for last 100 years had made Britain the workshop of the world. Exports flourished. London drove demand and provided investment, although not much manufacturing itself. The Great Exhibition was first of its kind in world. it showcased British manufacturing. Ironically, its fabulous venue, Crystal Palace, was built right next to abject poverty. 

QUEEN VICTORIA – In 1887 royalty was brought into the centre of public life by the lavish Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Mark Twain: “the procession stretched to the limit of sight in both directions” Interestingly, the Jubilee, pretty much made up traditions we now think of as ancient. It revived the State Opening of Parliament, and celebration of royal birthdays, jubilees, etc. which had fallen relatively quiet due to a series of rather reclusive kings since Charles II. As a result, there was an upsurge in Victoria’s popularity and a boost in the economy. London became a royal city again after long period of the ascendency of parliament. 
Buckingham Palace was lavishly decorated in Victorian style red and gilt. It was by now no longer possible for commoners to simply walk in.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), many men had been at war so women and unskilled workers had been brought in for starvation wages. This led by the Victorian Era to the demise of the Guilds, although they still owned lots of land they no longer had control. Women in this society often ended up vulnerable. On the one hand Victorian women were idealised as pure and angelic tenders of the home, needing the protection of men, but reality for poor women was very different. Women started to protest.

CHARLES DICKENS – Dickens’ books are sometimes interpreted as portraying a London of charm, snow, hustle, quaintness, pleasantness, eccentricity. London wasn’t like this. It was squalid, dirty and ragged. Dickens in fact was not only by far the best selling author of his age, but a prominent and effective reformer. Below is a description of London in his lifetime.

Dickens was born in 1812 and moved to London 1822. When he was 12 his father was committed to Marshalsea Prison for a debt to a baker, and Dickens was sent to work in a blacking factory by Charing Cross Station for 12 hours a day. Little Dorrit lived in Marshalsea prison. He loved to wander the streets of London . During the 1840s he became journalist. He mainly concentrated on the area of the City – the financial and shopping district. The London he would have seen as a child was dominated by blackened dome of St Paul’s, coaching inns, lships filling the Thames. The stench of the Thames was unendurable. Shops on London Bridge had been knocked down. Horses were everywhere, together with carts, omnibuses, sellers with sandwich boards all making a din greater than the city noise today. In David Copperfield, Nancy died on the steps of London Bridge The Royal Exchange was where Ebanezar Scrooge in a Christmas Carol would spend his mornings. Bob Scratchit lived in Camden Town. Crosskeys inn on Cheapside is where Pip arrived in Great Expectations: “I was scared by the immensity of London. I think I may have had some faint doubts whether or not it was rather ugly, crooked, narrow and dirty”. The City no longer had walls but still looked like it had in the 18th century. It was dominated by the Royal Exchange. Cornhill had been rebuilt after fire. There was a new Bank of England building. This was threatened by Gordon rioters in Barnaby Rudge. The Guildhall had survived, and saw trial of Pickwick in the Pickwick Papers. The Tower was where David Copperfield was a tourist. St Paul’s and Newgate were there. The latter featured much more in his work. Executions in latter part of century moved to Newgate and this was where Fagin in Oliver Twist suffered his final delirium. The artful Dodger frequented Clerkenwell Green. The City was still arranged in narrow courts and alleys, black with soot. It was becoming commercial and people were moving out. Fleet Street was still the centre of publishing and legal London. Dickens worked as clerk here and the area features strongly in his work. The Old Curiosity Shop was near Temple. In Great Expectations Madgwick confronts Pip in the Middle Temple. Pickwick was imprisoned for debt in the Fleet Prison. In 1878 Temple Bar was removed to tyr to ease the constant traffic jams. Somerset house, rebuilt in 1775, took the place of many of old palaces that had once stood along the Strand. At That time it was the registry of birth and death, and office of the Inland Revenue. Now it houses the Coultauld gallery. Further west was Theatreland. Many theatres standing then survive to this day. David Copperfield buys flowers for Dora in Covent Garden which was then just a flower market – the aristocrats and prostitutes that used to frequent the area were gone. In 1847 the Royal Opera House was begun. Dury lane retained its gin shops, pawn brokers and prostitutes, On Whitehall the muddle of houses had now been replaced by grand offices. Westminster Palace was still the medieval building, and Parliament sat in its small and cramped environs. Dickens worked here a while. The exchequer was there. This version of Westminster Palace burnt down when Dickens was a boy. The Westminster Palace we see today was designed by the winners of an open competition. Later in his life, Dickens moved to Bloomsbury and his house there is a fascinating museum. Incredibly at that time there were still open fields to the north. Silas Wegg in Our Mutual Friend had stall on St James Square. In these wealthy areas, there were also poor people living in the area to service the rich. London was full of poverty. Of the infamous 7 Dials slum in Covent Garden Dickens wrote: “Streets and courts dart in all directions until they are lost in the unwholesome vapour which hangs over the housetops and renders the dirty prospective uncertain and confined”. Belgravia Square was just a few steps away. 

Due to the reform efforts of Dickens himself and others, living conditions for the poor did improve in his lifetime

The LCC was set up to make improvements. Transportation tube, railway, etc. allowed people to live in better housing outside centre. 

Prisons like Marshalsea and Fleet were demolished, together with 7 dials slum, but that area and the East End remained squalid. By the late 19th century magnificent and well run imperial capital but there were still extremes of wealth and poverty.

Common entertainment were music halls – bawdy, their atmosphere thick with smoke, drink and opium.