I have not forgotten the hospitals, public workhouses to employ the poor in, and prisons; which being built and re-endowed at the common charge, should be disposed of in convenient quarters of the City: the hospitals would become one of the principal streets: but the prisons, and tribunal for trial of criminal offenders, might be built (as of old) near some entrance of the City; about Newgate were a fitting place, as my plate represents it.
The College of Physicians would be in one of the best parts of the town, encircled with an handsome Piazza for the dwelling of those learned persons, with the Chirurgeons, Apothecaries and Druggists in the streets about them; for I am greatly inclined to wish, that all of a mystery should be destined to their several quarters: those of the better sort of shop-keepers, who sell by retail, might be allotted to the sweetest and most eminent streets and piazzas: the artificers to the more ordinary houses, intermediate and narrower passages (for such will hardly be avoided) that the noise and tintamar of their instruments may be the less importunate: the taverns and victualling houses sprinkled amongst them, and built accordingly: but all these too, even the very meanest, should exactly respect uniformity, and be more substantially built than those in Covent-Garden, and other places; where once in twenty or thirty years they had need be built again, and therefore to be indulged a longer term.
Spaces for ample courts, yards and gardens, even in the heart of the City there may be some to the principal houses, for state and refreshment; but with great reservation, because of the fractions they will make; and therefore rarely towards any principal street: and I hope it will please his Majesty to prescribe by a public and irreversible edict, that no houses whatsoever, may for the future presume to be erected, not only about this City, but all the Nation besides, within such a distance from magazines, places of public records and Churches, which should be preserved as sanctuaries.
The gates and entries of the City, which are to be rebuilt, might be the subjects of handsome architecture, in form of triumphal arches, adorned with statues, relievo's and apposite inscriptions, as prefaces to the rest within, and should therefore by no means be obstructed by sheds, and ugly shops, or houses adhering to them: and I wish this reformation, and the infinite danger of their being continued, might extend to the demolishing those deformed buildings on London-Bridge; which not only endanger all the rest, but take away from the beauty of it, and indeed of the whole City near the Thames: instead of them, if there went a substantial baluster of iron, decorated with statues upon their pedestals at convenient distances, and the footway on each side, it would be exceedingly convenient; whilst, to secure the passengers by night, it might be guarded by responsible house-keepers in their turns: or, if they will need have shops, let them be built of solid stone, made narrow and very low, like to those upon the Rialto at Venice; but it were far better without them.
AN ACT CONCERNING THE STREETS (1671).
Such statutes as the following are particularly useful in enabling us to understand in detail the conditions which governed matters of everyday life in the City. The fact that certain proceedings are forbidden implies that it was found necessary to issue the prohibition by reason of the common occurrence of such proceedings. From this statute and from similar sources we obtain the inevitable impression that the streets of London during the seventeenth century must have been dangerous and disagreeable places. These instructions, of course, were issued at a time when special attention was being directed to the care of the city from reasons of health and safety.
I. Item, That hereafter all streets within this city, called, known, or set down to be High Streets, shall be paved round, or causeway fashion: and upon notice given to the commissioners of any defective pavements in any of the streets, lanes, and passages within this city and liberties, the same shall be forthwith made good and amended, unless by general consent some better expedient be found and published.
II. That inasmuch as it hath been found by common experience that the paviours, to hide and cover their bad workmanship, have oftentimes spread and laid great quantities of gravel over their pavements, to greater charge of the persons setting them on work than was needful, and which, upon a sudden rain, did either choke the common sewers, or turn to dirt and mire in the streets; therefore the said paviours are required, that hereafter they do forbear to lay or spread any more gravel on the pavements than will only fill up the joints of their work, and cause the same to be swept and well rammed, and leave the pavements bare of gravel, and keep a regular method of paving, not paving one door higher than another, upon pain of paying five shillings for every complaint.
III. That the breadth of six foot at the least from the foundation of the houses, in such of the said High Streets which shall be allowed to be posted, shall be paved by the inhabitants or owners with flat or broad stone for a foot passage; unless such parts thereof as shall lie before any gateway, which may be done with square rag by the said breadth of six feet, upon pain of paying five shillings for every week the same shall be omitted to be done after notice given.
VIII. That the several inhabitants within this city and liberties, or their servants, do take care that the dirt, ashes, and soil of their houses be in readiness for the carmen, their agents, or servants, either by setting out the same over night in tubs, boxes, baskets, or other vessel, near and contiguous to their houses, or by bringing out the same within convenient time, before the hours for their departure as aforesaid.