The actor William Kemp, in describing his remarkable morris dance from London to Norwich (1600), writes: “Being past Whitechappel and having left fair London, multitudes of Londoners left not me, eyther to keepe a custome which many holde, that Mile-end is no walke without a recreation at Stratford Bow with cream and cakes, or else for love they beare towards me, or perhaps to make themselves merry if I should chance (as many thought) to give over my morrice within a mile of Mile-end.”
Shakespeare lived outside the city walls, and although we cannot exactly tell the position of his houses it is pretty certain that he lived both in the parish of St. Helen, Bishopsgate, and in the Clink on the Bankside.
Stuart London followed Tudor London, but with the death of James I. in 1625 the older history may be said to close, for there was a considerable change during the reign of Charles I. The upper classes moved westward to Lincoln’s Inn and Great Queen Street and Covent Garden. The great architect, Inigo Jones, built houses for them in both these districts.
There was a certain stagnation in the movements of the population during the period of the Commonwealth, but at the Restoration of Charles II. a new life came into existence. The exiled Cavaliers returned to their country and found their fathers’ houses in the City of London either occupied by others or unfitted for their reception. In consequence, they migrated to a district far from the city. The builders were busy in covering fields with houses, and Pall Mall, where the game of that name had been played, was planned out as a fine street, which it remains to the present day. Lords Clarendon, Burlington and Berkeley erected mansions in Piccadilly, and Lord St. Albans created St. James’s Square. Many others followed the example of these leaders of Society, and the upper classes were completely cut off from the city. The contemptuous references to the traders of London, which are first noticed in Elizabeth’s reign, became common. The cits were laughed at, and the courtiers poured out a torrent of abuse upon all those who lived in the east.
The Great Fire of 1666 made an enormous change in the topography of London, and caused great misery, but it is supposed to have been a blessing in disguise as it cleared out many a centre of plague and disease.
When we read of the heroism of the homeless Londoner we must feel proud of our ancestors. They had lost everything, but they did not sit down and wring their hands. When the streets were destroyed by fire the river became more than ever a highway, and boats filled with the goods of the sufferers covered the waters. Moorfields formed a handy open space, and soon streets of huts were raised to shelter the homeless families. Wren, England’s greatest architect, John Evelyn, the most accomplished man of his time and the model of a Royalist gentleman, and Robert Hooke, the great philosopher, were all three, ready within a few hours of the fire with plans for the rebuilding of the city, but none of the plans were adopted although all had their good points, and Wren’s especially would certainly have given us fine avenues and convenient thoroughfares.
The difficulties in carrying out these schemes would no doubt have been very great, and it is useless now to regret that a great opportunity was lost.
Wren and Hooke were appointed to superintend the progress of the work of making London arise anew out of its ashes. The Act of Parliament passed to regulate the work of rebuilding was a very practical, and altogether excellent, statute. In fact, the way in which all concerned in the complicated business of raising a new city worked in unison is worthy of every praise. At the same time that they proceeded with their labours they did not allow the trade and business of the countr