The walled city of London was a distinct political unit, although it
owed a certain allegiance to that one of the kingdoms around it which
was the most powerful for the time being. This allegiance therefore
frequently changed, but London retained its identity and individuality
all through. Essex seems seldom to have held an independent position,
for when London first appears as connected with the East Saxons the real
power was in the hands of the king of Kent. According to Bede, Wini,
being expelled from his bishopric of Wessex in 635, took refuge with
Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, of whom he purchased the see of London.
Hence the Mercian king must then have been the overlord of London. Not
many years afterwards the king of Kent again seems to have held some
jurisdiction here. From the laws of the Kentish kings Lhothhere and
Eadric (673-685) we learn that the Wic-reeve was an officer of the king
of Kent, who exercised a jurisdiction over the Kentish men trading with
or at London, or was appointed to watch over their interests.
The origin of the two counties in which London is chiefly situated opens
up an interesting question. It is necessary to remember that London is
older than these counties, whose names, Middlesex and Surrey, indicate
their relative positions to the city and the surrounding county. We have
neither record of their settlement nor of the origin of their names.
Both must have been peopled from the river. The name Middle Saxons
plainly shows that Middlesex must have been settled after the East and
West Saxons had given their names to their respective districts. The
name Surrey clearly refers to the southern position of the county.
Aldwich.
Reference has already been made to a Danish settlement, and there seems
some reason for placing it on the ground now occupied by the parishes of
St Clement Danes and St Giles's. For many centuries this district
between London and Westminster was a kind of "no man's land" having
certain archaic customs. Gomme in his _Governance of London_ (1907)
gives an account of the connexion of this with the old village of
Aldwich, a name that survived in Wych Street, and has been revived by
the London County Council in Aldwych, the crescent which leads to
Kingsway.
The Conquest.
3. _Norman_ (1066-1154).--To return to the condition of things after the
great battle. The citizens of London were a divided body, and Duke
William knowing that he had many friends in the city saw that a waiting
game was the best for his cause in the end. The defeated chiefs retired
on the city, led by Ansgar the Staller, under whom as sheriff the
citizens of London had marched to fight for Harold at Senlac. They
elected Edgar Atheling, the grandson of Edmund Ironside, as king, which
the _Saxon Chronicle_ says "was indeed his natural right." On hearing of
this action William marched towards London, when the citizens sallied
forth to meet him. They were repulsed by the Norman horse, but with such
loss to the latter that the duke thought it imprudent to lay siege to
the city at that time, and he retired to Berkhampstead.[5] It is
reported that William sent a private message to Ansgar asking for his
support. The result was that Edgar and Earls Edwin and Morkere and "the
best men of London" repaired to Berkhampstead, where they submitted
themselves and swore fealty to the Conqueror.
Changes in the City.
Thus ends the Saxon period, and the Norman period in London begins with
the submission of the citizens as distinct from the action of the rest
of the kingdom, which submission resulted soon afterwards in the
Conqueror's remarkable charter to William the bishop and Gosfrith the
portreeve, supposed to be the elder Geoffrey de Mandeville. A great
change was at once made both in the appearance and in the government of
the city under Norman rule. One of the earliest acts of the Conqueror
was to undertake the erection of a citadel which should overawe the
citizens and give him the command of the city. The Tower was situated at
the eastern limit of the city, and not far from the western extremity
Castle Baynard was built.
The position of the city grew in importance, but the citizens suffered
from severe laws and from serious restrictions upon their liberties. In
August 1077 occurred a most extensive fire, such a one, says the
_Chronicle_, as "never was before since London was founded." This
constant burning of large portions of the city is a marked feature of
its early history, and we must remember that, although stone buildings
were rising on all sides, these were churches, monasteries, and other
public edifices; the ordinary houses remained as before, small wooden
structures. The White Tower, the famous keep of the Tower of London, was
begun by Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, c. 1078. In 1083 the old
cathedral of St Paul's was begun on the site of the church which
Æthelbert is said to have founded in 610. But four years afterwards the
chronicler tells us "the holy monastery of St Paul, the episcopal see of
London, was burnt, and many other monasteries, and the greatest and
fairest part of the whole city." In this same year (1087) william the
Conqueror died. In 1090 a tremendous hurricane passed over London, and
blew down six hundred houses and many churches. The Tower was injured,
and a portion of the roof of the church of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside,
was carried off and fell some distance away, being forced into the
ground as much as 20 ft., a proof of the badness of the thoroughfares as
well as of the force of the wind, William Rufus inherited from his
father a love for building, and in the year 1097 he exacted large sums
of money from his subjects with the object of carrying on some of the
undertakings he had in hand. These were the walling round of the Tower
and the rebuilding of London Bridge, which had been almost destroyed by
a flood. In 1100 Rufus was slain, and Henry I. was crowned in London.
This king granted the citizens their first real charter, but this was
constantly violated, when Stephen seized the crown on the death of Henry
I., he tried successfully to obtain the support of the people of London.
He published a charter confirming in general terms the one granted by
Henry, and commanding that the good laws of Edward the Confessor should
be observed. The citizens, however, did not obtain their rights without
paying for them, and in 1139 they paid Stephen one hundred marks of
silver to enable them to choose their own sheriffs. In this reign the
all-powerfulness of the Londoners is brought prominently forward.
Stephen became by the shifting fortune of war a prisoner, and the
empress Matilda might, if she had had the wisdom to favour the citizens,
have held the throne, which was hers by right of birth. She, however,
made them her enemies by delivering up the office of justiciary of
London and the sheriffwick to her partisan Geoffrey, earl of Essex, and
attempting to reduce the citizens to the enslaved condition of the rest
of the country. This made her influential enemies, who soon afterwards
replaced Stephen upon the throne. The Norman era closes with the death
of Stephen in 1154.
Early parishes.
Religious foundations.
One of the most striking changes in the appearance of Norman London was
caused by the rebuilding of old churches and the building of new ones,
and also by the foundation of the great monastic establishments. The
early history of the parishes of London is one of great difficulty and
complexity. Although some of the parishes must be of great antiquity, we
have little authentic information respecting them before the Conquest.
The dedications of many of the churches indicate their great age, but
the constant fires in London destroyed these buildings. The original
churches appear to have been very small, as may be judged from their
number. It is not easy, however, to understand how it was that when the
first parishes were formed so small an area was attached to each. The
parish church of which we have the most authentic notice before the
Conquest is St Helen's, Bishopsgate. It was in existence many years
before the priory of the nuns of St Helen's was founded. Bishop Stubbs
in his Introduction to the Historical Works of Ralph de Diceto writes:
"St Paul's stood at the head of the religious life of London, and by its
side, at some considerable interval, however, St Martin's le Grand
(1056), St Bartholomew's, Smithfield (1123) and the great and ancient
foundation of Trinity, Aldgate" (1108). The great Benedictine monastery
of Black Monks was situated away from the city at Westminster, and it
was the only monastic house subject to the rule of St Benedict in the
neighbourhood of London, although the houses of nuns, of which there
were many dotted over the suburbs of London, were governed by this rule.
In course of time there was a widespread desire in Europe for a stricter
rule among the monks, and reforms of the Benedictine rule were
instituted at Cluni (910), Chartreuse (about 1080) and Citeaux (1098).
All these reforms were represented in London.
_Cluniac Order._--This order was first brought to England by William,
earl of Warren (son-in-law of William the Conqueror), who built the
first house at Lewes in Sussex about 1077. The priory of Bermondsey in
Surrey was founded by Aylwin Child, citizen of London about 1082.
_Carthusians._--When this order was brought to England in 1178 the
first house was founded at Witham in Somersetshire. In all there were
nine houses of the order in England. One of these was the Charterhouse
of London which was not founded until 1371 by Sir Walter Manny, K.G.
_Cistercians._--It was usual to plant these monasteries in solitary
and uncultivated places, and no other house, even of their own order,
was allowed to build within a certain distance of the original
establishment. This makes it surprising to learn that there were two
separate houses of this order in the near neighbourhood of London. A
branch of the order came to England about 1128 and the first house was
founded at Waverley in Surrey. Very shortly after (about 1134) the
abbey of Stratford Langthorne in Essex was founded by William de
Montfichet, who endowed it with all his lordship in West Ham. It was
not until two centuries afterwards that the second Cistercian house in
the immediate neighbourhood of London was founded. This was the Abbey
of St Mary Graces, East-Minster or New Abbey without the walls of
London, beyond Tower Hill, which Edward III. instituted in 1350 after
a severe scourge of plague (the so-called Black Death).
The two great Military Orders--the Knights Hospitallers of St John of
Jerusalem and the Templars--followed the Augustinian rule and were
both settled in London. The Hospital or Priory of St John was founded
in 1100 by Jordan Briset and his wife Muriel, outside the northern
wall of London, and the original village of Clerkenwell grew up around
the buildings of the knights. A few years after this the Brethren of
the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem or Knights of the Temple came into
being at the Holy City, and they settled first on the south side of
Holborn near Southampton Row. They removed to Fleet Street or the New
Temple in 1184. On the suppression of the order by command of the pope
the house in Fleet Street was given in 1313 by Edward II. to Aymer de
Valence, earl of Pembroke, at whose death in 1324 the property passed
to the knights of St John, who leased the new Temple to the lawyers,
still the occupants of the district.
The queen of Henry I. (Matilda or Maud) was one of the chief founders
of religious houses, and so great was the number of monasteries built
in this king's reign that it was said almost all the labourers became
bricklayers and carpenters and there was much discontent in
consequence.
Fitzstephen's description of London.
4. _Plantagenet (1154-1485)._--Henry II. appears to have been to a
certain extent prejudiced against the citizens of London on account of
their attitude towards his mother, and he treated them with some
severity. In 1176 the rebuilding of London Bridge with stone was begun
by Peter of Colechurch. This was the bridge which was pulled down early
in the 19th century. It consisted of twenty stone arches and a
drawbridge. There was a gatehouse at each end and a chapel or crypt in
the centre, dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, in which Peter of
Colechurch was buried in 1205. The large amount of building at this time
proves that the citizens were wealthy. Fitzstephen, the monk of
Canterbury, has left us the first picture of London. He speaks of its
wealth, commerce, grandeur and magnificence--of the mildness of the
climate, the beauty of the gardens, the sweet, clear and salubrious
springs, the flowing streams, and the pleasant clack of the watermills.
Even the vast forest of Middlesex, with its densely wooded thickets, its
coverts of game, stags, fallow deer, boars and wild bulls is pressed
into the description to give a contrast which shall enhance the beauty
of the city itself. Fitzstephen tells how, when the great marsh that
washed the walls of the city on the north (Moorfields) was frozen over,
the young men went out to slide and skate and sport on the ice. Skates
made of bones have been dug up in this district. This sport was allowed
to fall into disuse, and was not again prevalent until it was introduced
from Holland after the Restoration.
In spite of Fitzstephen's glowing description we must remember that the
houses of London were wholly built of wood and thatched with straw or
reeds. These houses were specially liable to be destroyed by fire, and
in order to save the city from this imminent danger the famous Assize of
Building known as "Fitz-Ailwyne's Assize" was drawn up in 1189. In this
document the following statement was made: "Many citizens, to avoid such
danger, built according to their means, on their ground, a stone house
covered and protected by thick tiles against the fury of fire, whereby
it often happened that when a fire arose in the city and burnt many
edifices and had reached such a house, not being able to injure it, it
then became extinguished, so that many neighbours' houses were wholly
saved from fire by that house."
Various privileges were conceded to those who built in stone, but no
provision was made as to the material to be used in roofing tenements.
This Assize, which has been described as the earliest English Building
Act, is of great value from an historical point of view, but
unfortunately it had little practical effect, and in 1212 what was
called "Fitz-Ailwyne's Second Assize," with certain compulsory
regulations, was enacted. Thenceforth everyone who built a house was
strictly charged not to cover it with reeds, rushes, stubble or straw,
but only with tiles, shingle boards or lead. In future, in order to stop
a fire, houses could be pulled down in case of need with an alderman's
hook and cord. For the speedy removal of burning houses each ward was to
provide a strong iron hook, with a wooden handle, two chains and two
strong cords, which were to be left in the charge of the bedel of the
ward, who was also provided with a good horn, "loudly sounding."
Richard I. was a popular king, but his fighting in the Holy Land cost
his subjects much. London had to pay heavily towards his ransom; and,
when the king made his triumphal entry into London after his release
from imprisonment, a German nobleman is said to have remarked that had
the emperor known of the wealth of England he would have insisted on a
larger sum. The Londoners were the more glad to welcome Richard back in
that the head of the regency, Longchamp, bishop of Ely, was very
unpopular from the encroachments he made upon the city with his works at
the Tower.
The first charter by which the city claims the jurisdiction and
conservancy of the river Thames was granted by Richard I. John granted
several charters to the city, and it was expressly stipulated in Magna
Charta that the city of London should have all its ancient privileges
and free customs. The citizens opposed the king during the wars of the
barons. In the year 1215 the barons having received intelligence
secretly that they might enter London with ease through Aldgate, which
was then in a very ruinous state, removed their camp from Bedford to
Ware, and shortly after marched into the city in the night-time. Having
succeeded in their object, they determined that so important a gate
should no longer remain in a defenceless condition. They therefore
spoiled the religious houses and robbed the monastery coffers in order
to have means wherewith to rebuild it. Much of the material was obtained
from the destroyed houses of the unfortunate Jews, but the stone for the
bulwarks was obtained from Caen, and the small bricks or tiles from
Flanders.
Allusion has already been made to the great change in the aspect of
London and its surroundings made during the Norman period by the
establishment of a large number of monasteries. A still more important
change in the configuration of the interior of London was made in the
13th century, when the various orders of the friars established
themselves there. The Benedictine monks preferred secluded sites; the
Augustinians did not cultivate seclusion so strictly; but the friars
chose the interior of towns by preference. At the beginning of the 13th
century the remarkable evangelical revival, instituted almost
simultaneously by St Dominic and St Francis, swept over Europe.
The four chief orders of Mendicant friars were magnificently housed in
London:--
Mendicant friars.
_Blackfriars._--The Black, Preaching or Dominican Friars came to
England in 1221 and their first house was at Oxford. Shortly after
this they came London and settled in Holborn near Lincoln's Inn, where
they remained for more than fifty years. In 1276 they removed to the
neighbourhood of Baynard Castle, and their house gave a name to a
London district which it still retains.
_Greyfriars._--The Greyfriars, Minorites or Franciscans, first settled
in Cornhill, and in 1224 John Ewin made over to them an estate
situated in the ward of Farringdon Within and in the parish of St
Nicholas in the Shambles, where their friary was built. Christ Church,
Newgate Street, occupies the site of the choir of the great church of
the Greyfriars.
_Austin Friars._--The house of the Austin Friars or Friars Eremites
was founded in Broad Street ward in 1253.
_White Friars._--The Friars of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel or
Carmelites or Whitefriars came to London in 1241, and made their home
on land between Fleet Street and the Thames given by Edward I.
Besides the four chief orders of friars there were the Crutched Friars
in the parish of St Olave, Hart Street (about 1298), and the Friars
of the Sac first outside Aldersgate (about 1257) and afterwards in the
Old Jewry.
The names of places in London form valuable records of the habitations
of different classes of the population. The monasteries and friaries are
kept in memory by their names in various parts of London. In the same
way the residences of the Jews have been marked. When Edward I. expelled
the Jews from England in 1290 the district in which they had lived since
William the Conqueror's day came to be called the Old Jewry. On their
return after many centuries of exile most of them settled in the
neighbourhood of Aldgate and Aldersgate. There is a reminder of them in
the names of Jewry Street near the former and of Jewin Street near the
latter place. Jewin Street was built on the site of the burying-place of
the Jews before the expulsion.
Pageants.
In the middle ages there was a constant succession of pageants,
processions and tournaments. The royal processions arranged in connexion
with coronations were of great antiquity, but one of the earliest to be
described is that of Henry III. in 1236, which was chronicled by Matthew
Paris. After the marriage at Canterbury of the king with Eleanor of
Provence the royal personages came to London, and were met by the mayor,
aldermen and principal citizens to the number of 360, sumptuously
apparelled in silken robes embroidered, riding upon stately horses.
After the death of Henry III. (1272) the country had to wait for their
new king, who was then in the Holy Land. Edward I. came to London on the
2nd of August 1274, when he was received with the wildest expressions of
joy. The streets were hung with rich cloths of silk arras and tapestry;
the aldermen and principal men of the city threw out of their windows
handsful of gold and silver, to signify their gladness at the king's
return; and the conduits ran with wine, both white and red.
Dr Jessopp gives a vivid picture of what occurred when King Edward III.
entered London in triumph on the 14th of October 1347. He was the
foremost man in Europe, and England had reached a height of power and
glory such as she had never attained before. Ten years after this, one
of the most famous scenes in the streets of London occurred, when Edward
the Black Prince brought the French King John and other prisoners after
the battle of Poitiers to England. This was a scene unequalled until
Henry V. returned from the glorious field of Agincourt in 1415. The
mayor and aldermen apparelled in orient-grained scarlet, and four
hundred commoners in murrey, well mounted, with rich collars and chains,
met the king at Blackheath. At the entrance to London Bridge the towers
were adorned with banners of the royal arms, and in the front of them
was inscribed _Civitas Regis Justicie_.
During the troubles of the 15th century the authorities had seen the
necessity of paying more attention to the security of the gates and
walls of the city, and when Thomas Nevill, son of William, Lord
Fauconberg, made his attack upon London in 1471 he experienced a
spirited resistance. He first attempted to land from his ships in the
city, but the Thames side from Baynard's Castle to the Tower was so well
fortified that he had to seek a quieter and less prepared position. He
then set upon the several gates in succession, and was repulsed at all.
On the 11th of May he made a desperate attack upon Aldgate, followed by
500 men. He won the bulwarks and some of his followers entered into the
city, but the portcullis being let down these were cut off from their
own party and were slain by the enemy. The portcullis was drawn up, and
the besieged issued forth against the rebels, who were soon forced to
flee.
When Richard, duke of Gloucester, laid his plans for seizing the crown,
he obtained the countenance of the lord mayor, Sir Edmund Shaw, whose
brother Dr Shaw praised Richard at Paul's Cross. Crosby Hall, in
Bishopsgate Street, then lately built, was made the lodging of the
Protector. There he acted the accessible prince in the eyes of the
people, for the last of the Plantagenets was another of the usurpers who
found favour in the eyes of the men of London. His day, however, was
short, and with the battle of Bosworth ends Plantagenet London.
First maps of London.
5. _Tudor (1485-1603)._--It was during this period that the first maps
of London were drawn. No representation of the city earlier than the
middle of the 16th century has been discovered, although it seems more
than probable that some plans must have been produced at an earlier
period.[6] The earliest known view is the drawing of Van den Wyngaerde
in the Bodleian Library (dated 1550). Braun and Hogenberg's map was
published in 1572-1573, and the so-called Agas's map was probably
produced soon afterwards, and was doubtless influenced by the
publication of Braun and Hogenberg's excellent engraving; Norden's maps
of London and Westminster are dated 1593. Some of these maps were pasted
upon walls, and must have been largely destroyed by ordinary wear and
tear. It is curious that the only two existing copies of Agas's map[7]
were published in the reign of James I., although apparently they had
not been altered from the earlier editions of Elizabeth's reign which
have been lost. By the help of these maps we are able to obtain a clear
notion of the extent and chief characteristics of Tudor London. Henry
VII. did little to connect his name with the history of London, although
the erection of the exquisite specimen of florid Gothic at Westminster
Abbey has carried his memory down in its popular name of Henry VII.'s
chapel. Soon after this king obtained the throne he borrowed the sum of
3000 marks from the city, and moreover founded the excellent precedent
of repaying it at the appointed time. The citizens were so pleased at
this unexpected occurrence that they willingly lent the king £6000 in
1488, which he required for military preparations against France. In
1497 London was threatened by the rebels favourable to Perkin Warbeck,
who encamped on Blackheath on the 17th of June. At first there was a
panic among the citizens, but subsequently the city was placed in a
proper state of defence, and the king himself encamped in St George's
Fields. On June 22 he entirely routed the rebels; and some time
afterwards Perkin Warbeck gave himself up, and was conducted in triumph
through London to the Tower.
Suppression of religious houses.
As the chief feature of Norman London was the foundation of monasteries,
and that of Plantagenet London was the establishment of friaries, so
Tudor London was specially characterized by the suppression of the whole
of these religious houses, and also of the almost numberless religious
gilds and brotherhoods. When we remember that more than half of the area
of London was occupied by these establishments, and that about a third
of the inhabitants were monks, nuns and friars, it is easy to imagine
how great must have been the disorganization caused by this root and
branch reform. One of the earliest of the religious houses to be
suppressed was the hospital of St Thomas of Acon (or Acre) on the north
side of Cheapside, the site of which is now occupied by Mercers' Hall.
The larger houses soon followed, and the Black, the White and the Grey
Friars, with the Carthusians and many others, were all condemned in
November 1538.
Love of show was so marked a characteristic of Henry VIII. that we are
not surprised to find him encouraging the citizens in the same expensive
taste. On the occasion of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon the city
was gorgeously ornamented with rich silks and tapestry, and Goldsmiths'
Row (Cheapside) and part of Cornhill were hung with golden brocades.
When on the eve of St John's Day, 1510, the king in the habit of a
yeoman of his own guard saw the famous march of the city watch, he was
so delighted that on the following St Peter's Eve he again attended in
Cheapside to see the march, but this time he was accompanied by the
queen and the principal nobility. The cost of these two marches in the
year was very considerable, and, having been suspended in 1528 on
account of the prevalence of the sweating sickness, they were soon
afterwards forbidden by the king, and discontinued during the remainder
of his reign. Sir John Gresham, mayor in 1548, revived the march of the
city watch, which was made more splendid by the addition of three
hundred light horsemen raised by the citizens for the king's service.
The best mode of utilizing the buildings of the suppressed religious
houses was a difficult question left unsolved by Henry VIII. That king,
shortly before his death, refounded Rahere's St Bartholomew's Hospital,
"for the continual relief and help of an hundred sore and diseased," but
most of the large buildings were left unoccupied to be filled by his
successor. The first parliament of Edward's reign gave all the lands and
possessions of colleges, chantries, &c., to the king, when the different
companies of London redeemed those which they had held for the payment
of priests' wages, obits and lights at the price of £20,000, and applied
the rents arising from them to charitable purposes. In 1550 the citizens
purchased the manor of Southwark, and with it they became possessed of
the monastery of St Thomas, which was enlarged and prepared for the
reception of "poor, sick and helpless objects." Thus was refounded St
Thomas's Hospital, which was moved to Lambeth in 1870-1871. Shortly
before his death Edward founded Christ's Hospital in the Grey Friars,
and gave the old palace of Bridewell to the city "for the lodging of
poor wayfaring people, the correction of vagabonds and disorderly
persons, and for finding them work." On the death of Edward VI. Lady
Jane Grey was received at the Tower as queen, she having gone there by
water from Durham House in the Strand. The citizens, however, soon found
out their mistake, and the lord mayor, aldermen and recorder proclaimed
Queen Mary at Cheapside. London was then gay with pageants, but when the
queen made known her intention of marrying Philip of Spain the
discontent of the country found vent in the rising of Sir Thomas Wyat,
and the city had to prepare itself against attack. Wyat took possession
of Southwark, and expected to have been admitted into London; but
finding the gates shut against him and the drawbridge cut down he
marched to Kingston, the bridge at which place had been destroyed. This
he restored, and then proceeded towards London. In consequence of the
breakdown of some of his guns he imprudently halted at Turnham Green.
Had he not done so it is probable that he might have obtained possession
of the city. He planted his ordnance on Hay Hill, and then marched by St
James's Palace to Charing Cross. Here he was attacked by Sir John Gage
with a thousand men, but he repulsed them and reached Ludgate without
further opposition. He was disappointed at the resistance which was
made, and after musing a while "upon a stall over against the Bell
Savadge Gate" he turned back. His retreat was cut off, and he
surrendered to Sir Maurice Berkeley, we have somewhat fully described
this historical incident here because it has an important bearing on the
history of London, and shows also the small importance of the districts
outside the walls at that period.
Tudor London.
We now come to consider the appearance of London during the reign of the
last of the Tudors. At no other period were so many great men associated
with its history; the latter years of Elizabeth's reign are specially
interesting to us because it was then that Shakespeare lived in London,
and introduced its streets and people into his plays. In those days the
frequent visitation of plagues made men fear the gathering together of
multitudes. This dread of pestilence, united with a puritanic hatred of
plays, made the citizens do all they could to discountenance theatrical
entertainments. The queen acknowledged the validity of the first reason,
but she repudiated the religious objection provided ordinary care was
taken to allow "such plays only as were fitted to yield honest
recreation and no example of evil." On April 11, 1582, the lords of the
council wrote to the lord mayor to the effect that, as "her Majesty
sometimes took delight in those pastimes, it had been thought not unfit,
having regard to the season of the year and the clearance of the city
from infection, to allow of certain companies of players in London,
partly that they might thereby attain more dexterity and perfection the
better to content her Majesty" (Analytical Index to the _Remembrancia_).
When theatres were established the lord mayor took care that they should
not be built within the city. The "Theatre" and the "Curtain" were
situated at Shoreditch; the "Globe," the "Swan," the "Rose" and the
"Hope" on the Bankside; and the Blackfriars theatre, although within the
walls, was without the city jurisdiction.
In 1561 St Paul's steeple and roof were destroyed by lightning, and the
spire was never replaced. This circumstance allows us to test the date
of certain views; thus Wyngaerde's map has the spire, but Agas's map is
without it. In 1566 the first stone was laid of the "Burse," which owed
its origin to Sir Thomas Gresham. In 1571 Queen Elizabeth changed its
name to the Royal Exchange. The Strand was filled with noble mansions
washed by the waters of the Thames, but the street, if street it could
be called, was little used by pedestrians. Londoners frequented the
river, which was their great highway. The banks were crowded with stairs
for boats, and the watermen of that day answered to the chairmen of a
later date and the cabmen of to-day. The Bankside was of old a favourite
place for entertainments, but two only--the bull-baiting and the
bear-baiting--were in existence when Agas's map was first planned. On
Norden's map,[8] however, we find the gardens of Paris Garden, the
bearhouse and the playhouse.
The settled character of the later years of Elizabeth's reign appears
to have caused a considerable change in the habits of the people. Many
of the chief citizens followed the example of the courtiers, and built
for themselves country residences in Middlesex, Essex and Surrey; thus
we learn from Norden that Alderman Roe lived at Muswell Hill, and we
know that Sir Thomas Gresham built a fine house and planned a
beautiful park at Osterley. The maps show us much that remains
somewhat the same as it was, but also much that has greatly altered.
St Giles's was literally a village in the fields; Piccadilly was "the
waye to Redinge," Oxford Street "the way to Uxbridge," Covent Garden
an open field or garden, and Leicester Fields lammas land. Moorfields
was drained and laid out in walks in Elizabeth's reign. At
Spitalfields crowds used to congregate on Easter Monday and Tuesday to
hear the Spital sermons preached from the pulpit cross. The ground was
originally a Roman Cemetery, and about the year 1576 bricks were
largely made from the clayey earth, the recollection of which is kept
alive in the name of Brick Lane. Citizens went to Holborn and
Bloomsbury for change of air, and houses were there prepared for the
reception of children, invalids and convalescents. In the north were
sprinkled the outlying villages of Islington, Hoxton and Clerkenwell.
6. _Stuart (1603-1714)._--The Stuart period, from the accession of James
I. to the death of Queen Anne, extends over little more than a century,
and yet greater changes occurred during those years than at any previous
period. The early years of Stuart London may be said to be closely
linked with the last years of Elizabethan London, for the greatest men,
such as Raleigh, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, lived on into James's
reign. Much of the life of the time was then in the City, but the last
years of Stuart London take us to the 18th century, when social life had
permanently shifted to the west end. In the middle of the period
occurred the civil wars, and then the fire which changed the whole
aspect of London. When James came to the throne the term suburbs had a
bad name, as all those disreputable persons who could find no shelter in
the city itself settled in these outlying districts. Stubbs denounced
suburban gardens and garden houses in his _Anatomy of Abuses_, and
another writer observed "how happy were cities if they had no suburbs."
The preparations for the coronation of King James were interrupted by a
severe visitation of the plague, which killed off as many as 30,578
persons, and it was not till March 15, 1604, that the king, the queen
and Prince Henry passed triumphantly from the Tower to Westminster. The
lord mayor's shows, which had been discontinued for some years, were
revived by order of the king in 1609. The dissolved monastery of the
Charterhouse, which had been bought and sold by the courtiers several
times, was obtained from Thomas, earl of Suffolk, by Thomas Sutton for
£13,000. The new hospital chapel and schoolhouse were begun in 1611,
and in the same year Sutton died.
Social life.
With the death of James I. in 1625 the older history of London may be
said to have closed. During the reign of his successor the great change
in the relative positions of London within and without the walls had set
in. Before going on to consider the chief incidents of this change it
will be well to refer to some features of the social life of James's
reign. Ben Jonson places one of the scenes of _Every Man in his Humour_
in Moorfields, which at the time he wrote the play had, as stated above,
lately been drained and laid out in walks. Beggars frequented the place,
and travellers from the village of Hoxton, who crossed it in order to
get into London, did so with as much expedition as possible. Adjoining
Moorfields were Finsbury Fields, a favourite practising ground for the
archers. Mile End, a common on the Great Eastern Road, was long famous
as a rendezvous for the troops. These places are frequently referred to
by the old dramatists; Justice Shallow boasts of his doings at Mile End
Green when he was Dagonet in Arthur's Show. Fleet Street was the
show-place of London, in which were exhibited a constant succession of
puppets, naked Indians and strange fishes. The great meeting-place of
Londoners in the day-time was the nave of old St Paul's. Crowds of
merchants with their hats on transacted business in the aisles, and used
the font as a counter upon which to make their payments; lawyers
received clients at their several pillars; and masterless serving-men
waited to be engaged upon their own particular bench. Besides those who
came on business there were gallants dressed in fashionable finery, so
that it was worth the tailor's while to stand behind a pillar and fill
his table-books with notes. The middle or Mediterranean aisle was the
Paul's walk, also called the Duke's Gallery from the erroneous
supposition that the tomb of Sir Guy Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, was
that of the "good" Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. After the Restoration a
fence was erected on the inside of the great north door to hinder a
concourse of rude people, and when the cathedral was being rebuilt Sir
Christopher Wren made a strict order against any profanation of the
sacred building. St Paul's churchyard was from the earliest days of
printing until the end of the 18th century the headquarters of the book
trade, when it shifted to Paternoster Row. Another of the favourite
haunts of the people was the garden of Gray's Inn, where the choicest
society was to be met. There, under the shadow of the elm trees which
Bacon had planted, Pepys and his wife constantly walked. Mrs Pepys went
on one occasion specially to observe the fashions of the ladies because
she was then "making some clothes."
Taverns.
In those days of public conviviality, and for many years afterwards, the
taverns of London held a very important place. The Boar's Head in Great
Eastcheap was an inn of Shakespeare's own day, and the characters he
introduces into his plays are really his own contemporaries. The
"Mermaid" is sometimes described as in Bread Street, and at other times
in Friday Street and also in Cheapside. We are thus able to fix its
exact position; for a little to the west of Bow church is Bread Street,
then came a block of houses, and the next thoroughfare was Friday
Street. It was in this block that the "Mermaid" was situated, and there
appear to have been entrances from each street. What makes this fact
still more certain is the circumstance that a haberdasher in Cheapside
living "'twixt Wood Street and Milk Street," two streets on the north
side opposite Bread and Friday Streets, described himself as "over
against the Mermaid tavern in Cheapside." The Windmill tavern occupies a
prominent position in the action of _Every Man in his Humour_.[9] The
Windmill stood at the corner of the Old Jewry towards Lothbury, and the
Mitre close by the Mermaid in Bread Street. The Mitre in Fleet Street,
so intimately associated with Dr Johnson, also existed at this time. It
is mentioned in a comedy entitled _Ram Alley_ (1611) and Lilly the
astrologer frequented it in 1640. At the Mermaid Ben Jonson had such
companions as Shakespeare, Raleigh, Beaumont, Fletcher, Carew, Donne,
Cotton and Selden, but at the Devil in Fleet Street, where he started
the Apollo Club, he was omnipotent. Herrick, in his well-known _Ode to
Ben_, mentions several of the inns of the day.
Theatres.
Under James I. the theatre, which established itself so firmly in the
latter years of Elizabeth, had still further increased its influence,
and to the entertainments given at the many playhouses may be added the
masques so expensively produced at court and by the lawyers at the inns
of court. In 1613 _The Masque of Flowers_ was presented by the members
of Gray's Inn in the Old Banqueting House in honour of the marriage of
the infamous Carr, earl of Somerset, and the equally infamous Lady
Frances, daughter of the earl of Suffolk. The entertainment was prepared
by Sir Francis Bacon at a cost of about £2000.