6. London Geography and Economy

London Life14th Century

Environment & Economy

London 1300

London 1543 London Bridge

Trades

Codes

Assize of buildings– Party walls, gutters, location of cesspits, fire

prevention

Assize of Nuisance– Blocked drains, blocked roads, sewage

overflows, ruinous structures

Regulations on minimum fish sizeCurfew

Air Pollution - Seacoal

1285 Royal Commission to look into results of burning coal in lime kilns1298 Smiths forgo night work because of pollution

Population and Wood

• Late 12th C. Increased population leads to conversion of woodland to arable land– Wood prices rise– Water transport improves– Newcastle coal replaces wood

Population and Wood

• Plague leads to restoration of woodland– Wood prices drop– Wood exported– Coal use drops

• Elizabethan period– Population rises and demand for coal rises

Water Supply

• Thames• Shallow wells• Walbrook• Great Conduit (begun 1245)– 1345 Built so rich and middling persons … might there

have water for preparing their food, and the poor for their drink; the water aforesaid was now so wasted by brewers, and persons keeping brewhouses, and making malt, that in these modern times it will no longer suffice for the rich and middling, or for the poor; to the common loss of the whole community.

Sewage Disposal Overview

Sanitation

• Latrines– Cesspits– Streams

• Chamber pots• Gutters

Sidbury, Worcester Barrel Latrine

Sanitation

1357 Royal order for cleansing the streets of the City, and the banks of the Thames.1388 Town Sanitation Statute

they who do cast and lay all such annoyances, dung, garbages, entrails, and other ordure, in ditches, rivers, waters, and other places, shall cause them utterly to be removed, avoided, and carried away, every one on pain to pay a fine of £20.

Cleaning the waterways

• 1357 Tolls for cleaning Port at Queenhythe• Tolls on vessels carrying hay and straw

Enforcement

1326 Littering and murderFines for littering

1275 4d 1345 2s 1372 2-4s

Problem Locations

ButchersSt Nicholas Shambles, inside NewgateStocks Market, Walbrook, West Cheap; East Cheap

Garbage dumpsPortsoken, east; Farringdon Without, west

TannersFleet

Shambles York

Roadways

• Paved with stone slabs, cobbles, bricks or packed clay

• Gutters

Curfew

1352-3 No one wander about the City after curfew rung at St. Martin le Grand except he be of good character and carry a light; … with a mask (od fause visage) or with his face covered1368 Forbid the holding of "Evynchepynge" for old clothes on Cornhill after the bell at sunset

Cornhill

"Then into Corn Hyl anon I yode,Where was mutch stolen gere amonge;I saw where honge myne owne hoode,That I had lost amonge the thronge;To buy my own hood I thought it wronge,I knew it well as I dyd my crede,But for lack of money I could not spede.”

Lydgate

London and Southwark 1543

Video

Economic Life in Chaucer’s LondonRobert Bucholz Loyola U, Chicago