LONDON
1550-1700.
Queen Elizabeth‟s London.
How did London Change?
The Great Plague.
The Great Fire.
Rebuilding.
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Queen Elizabeth‟s London
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A prospect of London from the late 1500s.
London Bridge can be seen on the right of the picture.
3
Old St. Paul’s cathedral.
This sight would have been familiar to Londoners up to 1666.
HOW DID LONDON CHANGE BETWEEN
1550 AND 1700?
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Source 1. An artist‟s impression of late Tudor London.
The artist‟s impression in Source 1 gives you some idea what London was like in the
sixteenth century. The buildings were predominately made of wood and plaster and
were built so close together that it was possible to walk around large parts of the city
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on the rooftops. There had been no street planning when houses were built and the
city was a chaotic maze of medieval streets and buildings.
Source 2. London‟s commercial district.
There were some grand palaces owned by the very rich and a few big houses built by
prosperous merchants. Likewise, there were many poorer parts of London where
people were packed into ramshackle buildings that were poorly built.
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Source 3. A Merchant‟s House built in the 1500s. Buildings like this would have been
found along streets such as Cheapside, the equivalent of modern day Oxford Street.
Sanitation was a constant problem. Many of London‟s courtyards (a little like a
modern city block) had communal privies that were simple shafts dug into the ground.
All human waste would go into here. The “Night-men or Night-soil farmers” would
empty them when full, at night. They would dig out the privies and cart the contents
to the outskirts of the city where it would be buried, turned into farmland fertiliser or
recycled as a tanning agent for the leather industry. In low-lying parts of London,
where the water table was high, during periods of wet weather, the water supply could
become contaminated with the human waste. Water borne diseases such as typhoid
were a fact of life.
London‟s rivers, the Thames, the Fleet and the Walbrook Stream acted as a water
supply. They also acted as sewers and drains. The Walbrook Stream was heavily
contaminated with the waste from many industrial processes that were carried out
along its banks.
Population and Plague.
Between 1500 and 1700, the population of London grew from 120,000 to 500,000. In
1500, four per cent of the English population lived there, by 1700 it was ten per cent.
This growth is remarkable because London was frequently hit by outbreaks of plague
roughly every twenty years or so in this time period. In 1563, nearly 40,000 people (a
quarter of London‟s population) died. Further outbreaks occurred in 1603 and 1625
each claimed 25,000 lives. Londoner‟s were used to such outbreaks, but in 1665 one
of the worst epidemics ever occurred killing 80,000 people.
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Bills of Mortality
The London Bills of Mortality were introduced in the early sixteenth century,
mainly as a way of warning about plague epidemics. The information was collected
by Parish Clerks and published every week. By 1570 the bills included baptisms;
in 1629 the cause of death was given, and in the early eighteenth century the age at
death.
Most of the information was supplied by searchers. Their lack of medical
knowledge meant that the causes of death were often vague or hopelessly wrong.
This is a Bill of Mortality from the early eighteenth century:
Abortive
Aged
Ague
Apoplexy
Asthma
Bloody Flux
Cancer
Childbed
Chrisoms [1]
Colick
Consumption
Convulsion
Dropsie
Evil
Fever
French-Pox
Gangrene
Gout
Griping in the Guts
Headmouldshot [2]
3
52
12
1
2
1
4
4
2
2
78
112
26
1
76
2
1
1
14
2
Jaundies
Imposthume [3]
Mortification
Plurisie
Rash
Rheumatism
Rickets
Rising of the Lights [4]
Rupture
Small-Pox
Stilborn
Stone
Stoppage in the Stomach
Suddenly
Teeth
Thrush
Tissick [5]
Twisting of the Guts
Ulcers
1
2
7
2
1
1
1
1
1
54
9
2
2
1
39
1
5
6
1
1 Infant who died before being baptised 2 Inflammation or water in the brain
3 Cyst or abscess 4 Lung problems 5 Tuberculosis
Other causes of death included in the bills over the years include being affrighted,
bladder in the throat, breakbone fever, canine madness, commotion, eel thing, frogg,
gathering, grocer's itch, hectic fever, kink, milk leg, screws, stranguary, stuffing, rag
picker's disease, St. Anthony's fire, tympany, worm fit, wolf, and being planet
struck.
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Annual return of the Bills of Mortality for 1665; the front cover and the statistics or
the period of the plague.
Source 4. A Bill of Mortality for one week in London in 1665.
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At the end of each year, a comprehensive list of baptisms and the causes of deaths
could be compiled.
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Source 5 describes one person‟s view of what life was like in London during the
plague year of 1665.
Look carefully at the street names in Source 2. Use them to make a list of all the
occupations that were carried out in this part of London.
Look at Source 4. How many deaths were there in London during this particular
week? Which were the three most common causes of death? Which of these causes do
not kill today? Can you explain what is meant by: “found dead‟, „aged‟ and „teeth‟ as
causes of death?
Look at Source 5. What do you think „plague water‟ might be? What measures did
Samuel Pepys take to avoid catching the plague? What measures did he see or hear of
other people taking?
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Source 6. Scenes of London during the Great Plague. From a contemporary
engraving.
What is happening in each of the pictures? You may need to make some reference to
source 7 and the information on the Great Plague that follows this section to
successfully interpret what you see here.
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Source 7. In 1665 the Lord Mayor issued the Plague Orders to the citizens of
London. These were measures that were taken to try to avoid the spread of the
disease. The Plague Orders would have been familiar to many Londoners in 1665;
they were last issued in 1643, the last time that there had been an outbreak of Plague
in the city.
Using the information on the Great Plague you have read so far make a complete list
of the following things:
How Londoners thought the Plague was caused and how it spread?
What methods they employed to prevent the spread of disease and to protect
themselves?
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THE GREAT PLAGUE 1665.
P
lague had been around in England for centuries but in 1665 the so-called Great
Plague hit the country - though it was Stuart London that took the worst of the
plague. The plague was only finally brought under control in 1666 when the Great
Fire of London burned down the areas most affected by plague – the city slums
inhabited by the poor. Stuart England was never free from the plague but 1665 saw
the worst.
1665 had experienced a very hot summer. London‟s population had continued to grow
and many lived in squalor and poverty. The only way people had to get rid of rubbish
was to throw it out into the streets. This would include normal household waste as
well as human waste. As a result, London was filthy. But this was a perfect breeding
place for rats. A popular belief during the plague was that dogs and cats caused the
disease. This was not so. Disease-carrying fleas carried on the bodies of rats caused
the plague. A pair of rats in the perfect environment could breed many offspring. The
filth found in the streets of London provided the perfect environment for rats.
Not surprisingly, the first victims of the plague were found in the poorer districts of
the city. The cramped living conditions these people lived in, and the fact that so
many actually lived in the slum areas of London, meant that many people could not
avoid contact with either the rats or someone who had the disease.
What were the symptoms of the plague?
This is best summed up in a popular nursery rhyme (although there is no real evidence
to suggest that this rhyme was in existence before the early 1800s):
"Ring-a-ring of roses,
A pocketful of posies,
Attischo, Attischo,
We all fall down."
The first comment in the poem was a reference to red circular blotches that were
found on the skin. These could also develop into large pus filled sacs found primarily
under the armpits and in the groin. These buboes were very painful to the sufferer.
The second line refers to the belief that the plague was spread by a cloud of poisonous
gas that was colourless (known as a miasma). This miasma could only be stopped, so
it was believed, if you carried flowers with you as the smell of the flowers would
overpower the germs carried by the miasma. There was also another „benefit‟ to
carrying sweet smelling flowers. A victim‟s breath started to go off as the disease got
worse. The flowers perfume would have covered up this unpleasantness.
The final symptom was a sneezing fit that was promptly followed by death. Some of
the victims did not get as far as this stage presumably as their lives were so poor that
their bodies were even less able to cope with the disease. For some, a swift death was
merciful.
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Once the disease took a hold it spread with frightening speed. Those who could, the
wealthy, left London for the comparative safety of the countryside. No such option
existed for those who lived in the slums. In fact, militiamen were paid by the city‟s
council to guard the parish boundaries of the area they lived in and to let no one out
unless they had a certificate to leave from their local parish leader. Very few of these
certificates were issued.
The poor were very badly hit by the plague. The authorities in London decided on
drastic action to ensure that the plague did not spread.
Any family that had one member infected by the plague was locked in their home for
forty days and nights. A red cross was painted on the door to warn others of the plight
of those in the house. No one was allowed in except „nurses‟.
The „nurses‟ were local women with no training whatsoever but they got paid to visit
the homes of plague victims to see how they were getting on and to take food to them
if the victims could afford to pay for it. Samuel Pepys, a diarist who lived in London
at this time, condemned the work done by these „nurses‟. He claimed that they used
the opportunities presented to them to steal from the homes they visited. One of his
close friends at this time was Nathaniel Hodges – a qualified doctor who helped
plague victims. It is possible that Pepys got such information from him.
Searchers were people who were paid to hunt out dead bodies or possible plague
victims who had yet to be found by the authorities. The shouted phrase "bring out
your dead" was heard with great frequency in September 1665. The collected bodies
were then put on a cart and taken to a mass burial pit.
Those who assessed whether someone had the plague or not, were called plague
doctors. None of these were qualified physicians as most real doctors had fled the city
for their own safety. However, their decision was final and would result in your home
being chained shut from the outside and the red cross being painted on your door.
Londoners were also paid to kill dogs and cats as it was assumed that these spread the
disease.
Cures for the plague were pointless but sort after if someone had the money to pay for
them. Nathaniel Hodges believed that sweating out the disease was a sound approach
and he encouraged those victims he came across to burn anything they could to create
heat and smoke. In view of the fact that Londoners lived in wooden houses then, this
was not particularly sound advice even from a proper doctor. However, many were
desperate to try anything.
The plague was at its worst in September 1665 when the heat of the summer was at its
peak. Each parish in London had to produce a week-by-week Bill of Mortality for the
authorities. For every parish in London, the biggest weekly killer was plague – no
other disease came anywhere near it.
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A Bill of Mortality
The approaching winter halted the spread of the disease as the weather took its toll on
the rats and fleas. However, though the worst had passed by the end of 1665, the end
of the plague as a major killer only occurred with the Great Fire of London – the
city‟s second tragedy in two years. The fire devastated the filthy city areas where rats
had prospered. The rebuilt London was more spacious and open. Never again was the
city going to be affected so badly by this disease.
Some entries into the diary of Samuel Pepys:
"June 7th. This day I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross
upon their doors and "Lord have mercy upon us" writ there, which was a sad sight to
me." Plague was so common that this would have been a common sight in London with
the person seeing it simply feeling sorry for the family inside the locked house.
June 21st. I found all the town almost going out of town, the coaches and wagons being all
full of people going into the country."
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The Great Fire: A Blessing in Disguise?
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n September 1666, the Plague still had a grip on the city but it was beginning to
weaken. King Charles II deemed it safe for the Court to return to Whitehall.
England was a war with the French and the Dutch and despite some success in a
Battle at sea that June, there were rumours that France intended to invade with 30,000
soldiers . Londoners were therefore in a dangerously excited mood when early on the
morning of Sunday 2ns September, a fire broke out in the premises of one Thomas
Farrinor, Baker to the King, in Pudding Lane.
We shall use the BBC and Channel 4 Website to chart what happened next. One of
these sites has an animation showing hoe the fire spread and linking its spread with
several eyewitness accounts. Your task is to produce a timeline of events from the
fire breaking out to the fire’s ending.
Source 1. A map showing the spread of the fire.
Source 2. The estimated damage to London:
13,000 houses destroyed
87 children killed
52 company halls (the backbone of London‟s trade and industry) destroyed
London, once famed for the chiming bells of her city churches, saw over 80
parish churches destroyed
The total loss was values at £10 million (by 1666 values) at a time when
London‟s total income was £12,000 per year.
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Source 3. A Dutch engraving of the fire made soon afterwards.
Source 4. An English painting of the fire made not long after.
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LONDON REBUILT
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Source 1. Wren‟s monument to the Great Fire.
Source 2. Sir Christopher Wren, grand architect of the rebuilding of London.
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Source 3. Wren‟s grand plan for the new streets of the City of London. This plan had
to be abandoned because to build it would mean the authorities would have had to
issue what we would call today compulsory purchase orders on many city plots. The
money was simply unavailable.
Source 4. St. Paul‟s Cathedral, 1700. Rebuilding St. Paul‟s was a long Job. Wren
continually changed his plans as time went on. Work began to rebuild the cathedral in
1675. After twenty-five years, Londoners were yet to see the famous dome! Much of
Wren‟s work was disliked by his contemporaries as he drew his inspiration from
Italian architecture of the time. It was feared that his ecclesiastical designs leaned
towards Roman Catholicism.
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Source 5. A View of London in 1731.
Source 6. New building regulations insisted that only brick be used to build within
the city. Fine brick buildings replaced the old mediaeval wooden structures although
not entirely. In areas unaffected by the fire, these ancient buildings continued to be
used. The second illustration shows buildings in Grub Street in 1791.
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Before the Great Fire, London had been a dirty, unhealthy and overcrowded city. The
fire offered the opportunity to build a new capital. Rebuilding on this scale was
unknown at that time, but it was a success.
Over 100 streets were widened
Timber was banned for building and new regulations insisted that red brick
and white stone be used instead
The polluted Fleet river was canalised and eventually covered over
61 new churches were rebuilt, including a new city cathedral all designed by
Sir Christopher Wren
By 1671 9000 houses were completed
By the early eighteenth century, London was a cleaner safer city. The streets and
buildings looked as if they had been planned properly. For the first time, houses were
all built to in the same style, materials and size. London had some of the most elegant
buildings in Europe. The rebuilding also made it more difficult for Plague to spread.
After 1666, London never suffered another Plague epidemic.
Describe the City of London before the Great Fire?
Explain the consequences of the Great Fire.
In the eighteenth century London life was changing too. In the 1700s business and
trade were growing in many parts of the United Kingdom. London was the financial
powerhouse of this economic expansion. Banking and businesses grew quickly with
new offices being built all the time.
London was also Britain‟s biggest and busiest port. Flowing into and out of it each
day was a rapidly expanding world of trade. This was putting into the hands and
mouths of people all around Britain products and foods that would have been
completely unknown 250 years earlier.
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