6. london geography and economy
DESCRIPTION
London in the 14th century. Layout of the city and some particular trades. Infrastructure: water supply, sewage, air pollution.TRANSCRIPT
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