"A Fox may steal your hens, sir,
A Whore your health and pence, sir,
Your daughter rob your chest, sir,
Your wife may steal your rest, sir,
A thief your goods and plate.
But this is all but picking,
With rest, pence, chest and chicken,
It ever was decreed, sir,
If Lawyer's hand is fee'd, sir,
He steals your whole estate."
The Thames was crowded with sailing boats and with a line of boats waiting to unload. Foreign and native ships lined the river banks in rows. Theft of cargo from docked ships was still a problem and pirates were still executed at low tide on gallows. Londoners went to the bridges across the Thames to breathe fresh air. London air was so smoky and polluted by coal-burning in kitchens and factories that it gave a cough to newcomers. The river was so polluted by the sewers by 1760 that all the swans and most of the fish had disappeared. A Mansion House was built for the Mayor in 1753. The king's zoo had ten lions, one panther, two tigers, and four leopards. Deer hunting in Hyde Park was now confined to its northwest corner, which was enclosed for the king, who occasionally hunted here. Elsewhere in the park were laid out walks and fountains. Gardens were now natural instead of formal. The streets were usually crowded with people and traffic. Many people traveled by sedan chair. On the streets were barrows with goods such as lace, threads, fruits, and chickens; beggars, ballad singers, musicians, bands, street dancers, apple women, piemen, muffin men, fruit sellers, nut sellers, pudding sellers, milk maids selling milk from buckets, milk sold directly from the cow, vendors of asses' milk, hawkers, newspaper boys, scavengers with carts, postal collectors, lamplighters on their ladders, wenches, chimney sweeps, rat catchers, pick pockets, swaggering bravados, strolling strumpets, brawling watermen, card sharps, overdressed beaux, dancing dogs, and acrobatic monkeys. Each trade had it own call. Billingsgate open-air market was now exclusively for the sale of fish. Small tradesmen such as dairymen, butchers, bakers, fishmongers, and chandlers delivered to regular customers food bought from distributing centers. Workers by necessity lived near their place of work because there was no cheap transport and walking through the streets after dark was unpleasant and dangerous. Hours of work for most craftsmen was from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., six days a week.
It was common for working class families in London to live in a single room of their house and rent the rest, furnished, to people of different degrees of prosperity and even of different social grades. Servants and apprentices slept in the kitchen, the shop, or the garret. The very poor, such as casual laborers and street sellers, silk winders, charwomen, usually lived in damp cellars subject to floods from excessive rain, or in cold and windy garrets. Tenancy was usually on a weekly basis because of the general uncertainty of life and trade. Conditions were so cramped that cabinet makers made beds which masqueraded in the day time as tables, bureaus, cupboards, or bookcases. The very poor slept in common lodging houses, sleeping uncovered on the floor, twenty to a room. Some poor families slept in small hovels made of mud and straw with their pigs, domestic fowl, dogs, and even asses and horses. Homeless children slept on the streets. All classes lived so much at coffee houses, alehouses or clubs, which they often used as their addresses, that house room was a secondary consideration. There was an alehouse on almost every street in London to provide cheap food and beer, lodging, employment information, credit, newspapers, tobacco, and meeting places for tradesmen. Some alehouses were recognized employment agencies for certain trades, such as the hatters, smiths, carpenters, weavers, boot and shoe makers, metal workers, bakers, tailors, plumbers, painter and glaziers, and bookbinders. They were often run by one of the trade, retired or otherwise. Some alehouses catered to criminals and prostitutes. For cheap and simple eating there were chophouses, cookshops, and beef steak houses.
There were about 10,000 English immigrants a year to London in the 1700s. They were mostly young people. London needed many immigrants because of its high death rate. Over twenty London people a week died from starvation alone; they were mostly women. Only about one-fourth of London's population had been born in London. Especially welcome were sturdy country people for heavy manual labor, the better educated boys from the north for shops and offices, and the honest country people, as contrasted with London's poor, for domestic service. Girls mostly looked for domestic service, but were sometimes made the mistress of the house-keeper or steered into prostitution as soon as they entered the city. Ambitious young men would seek a job as an apprentice, work hard, flatter his master, and try to marry the master's daughter. It was easier to find a place to live in London than in the villages, though there was much overcrowding. Many shopkeepers and workshop owners in London were involved in leasing, purchases, and contracts.
Queen Anne was authorized to build about 50 more churches in London and Westminster and their suburbs, to be paid for by a coal tax on imports into the port of London. Churches in London were to be rebuilt with money paid by funeral rates, rates for tolling the bells, and rates for the use of palls [altar cloths]. Queen Anne also appropriated all her revenues from the first fruits and tenths of ecclesiastical benefices, 16,500 pounds, to the clerical poor in 1704.
There were fewer quarrels among passersby on the London streets; men were less likely to wear their swords. But there were fist fights by common men which gathered crowds and occasioned betting. Most crime was petty theft, but mobs and riots were frequent, as there were no police. Watchmen and constables were often old and physically incapacitated. The watchmen were householders taking their turn. This duty of householders watching the streets had evolved from the ancient obligation of wards to provide men to guard the walls at night. But few wanted these jobs by which they could offend their neighbors. Many citizens paid a rate to be excused from watch and ward duty. Constables were often tavern keepers. Many riots were started when penal laws against the Catholics were repealed. They began with the cries of "no popery", but came to came to target rich men's houses. Mobs sacked and pillaged at will, burned houses, and flung open the prisons to increase their numbers. There were political riots between Tories and Whigs. Working men still used violence to protect their livelihoods, such as destroying the lodgings and public houses of cheap immigrant labor such as the Irish. Another instance was destroying stocking-knitting frames so not too many apprentices could be employed contrary to the regulations of the stocking knitters guild. The use of parish workhouse children also was a cheap supply of labor which forced down the wages of the stocking knitters. In 1720 a statute banned wearing of calico after mobs tore calico garments off women. In 1765, thousands marched on Parliament and persuaded it to ban foreign silk imports. But when a mob destroyed engine-looms, the army was used against the rioters and two of them were hanged. This was the last major mob action. Around the Tower, there were still demagogues standing on upturned carts haranguing passing crowds. The Tower area was a favorite place for demonstrators, and for unemployed and dissatisfied workmen, particularly coal heavers and underpaid seamen protesting their low pay and poor living conditions. There was more crime, especially at night, now with organized bands of men or gangs of children. Bounty hunters made a lot of money catching offenders. In 1736, to deter the frequent robberies, burglaries, and other felonies at night, many glass lamps were set up in places determined by the mayor. They had to burn from sunset to sunrise. In 1736, a lighting rate was imposed by the City to pay for all night lighting all year by hired lamplighters. Anyone breaking or damaging the lights of London would forfeit 40s. for the first offense, 50s. for the second offense, and 3 pounds for the third offense. The aldermen had to contract to pay for lighting, trimming, snuffing, cleaning, supplying, maintaining, and repairing them. To pay for this system, citizens paid according to the amount of rent their holdings were worth. If they didn't pay, they could not vote.
Bad areas of thieves and prostitutes and the slums east of the City were gradually being replaced by warehouses and offices. In 1757, London Bridge was widened and the houses were cleared off it. There were lanes for carriages in the middle and for pedestrians on each side. Its arches were also widened. Lights were put on it to be lit all night. And watchmen were put on it for safety and protection of passengers. (This was paid for by tolls of 1/2 d. per horse, 1d. per carriage, and 2d.-1s. for vessels with goods.) About 1762, a body of enterprising citizens secured private acts of Parliament which allowed them to levy a house tax in return for providing paving and lighting, which then greatly improved, as did sanitation. Sidewalks were raised between the street proper and the buildings, replacing the protective posts which had lined the roads. Flat stones were put in place of the pebbles on the roadway. Signs hanging in from of stores, which had blocked the sunlight, were placed flat in front of the buildings. This also made the streets more airy. The buildings were given numbered addresses and street names were placed on buildings. Loading and unloading could not exceed one hour. Nuisances like empty carts could be removed. Cranes used in warehouses had to be stored in unobtrusive places. One who drove on the foot pavement had to forfeit 10s. for the first offense, 20s. for the second offense, and 40s. for other offenses. Wells were dug and pumps erected for watering the streets. Pavements were to be repaired on complaint. Dust boxes and dust holes were built and had to be used for refuse awaiting pickup by the raker or forfeit 10s. In 1762, the system of having every man responsible for cleaning the street in front of his door, which occasioned piles of rubbish in the central troughs of the streets waiting for the next rain to be washed away, was abandoned. But house occupants were required to keep the sidewalk in front of their house clean or forfeit 2s. If one broke a light, he had to pay damages if it was accidental, and also 20s. if willful. There were special stands for hackney coaches, which were 12d.6d. for a day of twelve hours. Their regulations were extended to Sundays. Wards were to chose substantial inhabitants to be collectors for a year at a time to collect the rates, which were not to exceed 1s.6d. per pound of rents. If one declined to be a collector, he had to forfeit 50 pounds.
In London, the normal system of building was for builders to buy up leases, put up a new building, and sell it before the lease became due. The rules for party walls between buildings were made more stringent: 2 1/2 bricks thick in cellar, 2 bricks thick to the garret floor, and 1 1/2 bricks above the roofs or gutters. They had to be made of brick or stone. In 1772, rain water from roofs had to be carried to the streets in lead or other pipes that were affixed against the side of the building. In 1774, iron, copper, or other pipe or funnel for conveying smoke or steam were not to be near any inside timber, or in front of most any building or next to any public street, square, or court.
In the 1720s firefighters had to fill a tank on a wagon by hand with buckets. On top of the bucket was a hose that could spray water high. London parishes were authorized to place upon the water pipes underground stop-blocks of wood with a plug and firecocks to go into such pipe at various distances so that there would be no loss in time in digging down to the pipes to get water to fight fires. Parishes were required to keep at known places, ladders and a large engine and a hand engine to throw up water to extinguish fires including one leather hose with socket fitting the plug or firecock, so that buckets would not be needed. The Sun Insurance Company was incorporated for fire insurance in 1711. Insurance offices were authorized to employ watermen with poles, hooks, and hatchets to be always ready at a call to extinguish fires.
No more than 12 sacks of meal, 12 quarters of malt, 750 bricks, or 1 chalder of coal per load on wagons or carts with wheels bound with [narrow] iron tire are allowed within ten miles of London or Westminster, or forfeit one horse. This is to prevent decay of the roads.