Early London: Prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and Norman

by Walter Besant

There were two fortresses in the City, as we have seen, both belonging to the King. The modern idea of a street with its opposite row of houses all in line must be altogether laid aside when we go back to the eleventh century. It is, in fact, quite impossible to lay down a street as it actually existed at that time. The most important street in the City, Thames Street, did certainly possess a tolerably even line on its south side; the old course of the river wall and the quays compelled a certain amount of alignment; but on the north side the street was sometimes narrow, sometimes broad, because there was no such reason for an even line; sometimes a great house pushed out a gabled front into the street; sometimes a garden interposed or a warehouse stood back, leaving a broad space in front. As for regularity of alignment, no one thought of such a thing; even down to the reign of Queen Elizabeth only the main streets, such as Cheapside, possessed any such regularity. In one of the exhibitions, a few years since, there was a show which they called a street of Old London. The houses were represented as being all in line, as they would be to-day, or as they were in Cheapside in the time of Elizabeth. Considered as a street of Plantagenet London, the thing was absurd, but no one took the trouble to say so, and it pleased many.

CRAFTSMAN AT WORK ON A HOUSE
From Claud MS., B. iv. (11th cent.).

On the north part of the City the manors, which were the original wards of the City, were still in the eleventh century held by families who had been possessed of them for many generations; even since the resettlement of the City by Alfred. The names of some of the old City families survive. For instance, Bukerel, Orgar, Aylwyn, Ansgar, Luard, Farringdon, Haverhill, Basing, Horne, Algar, and others. On the south part, along the river, it is probable that they had long since been sold and cut up, just as would happen in modern times, for building purposes. The northern quarter, however, was not so thickly built upon, and the manors still preserved something of a rural appearance with broad gardens and orchards. Therefore, in this quarter, the industries of the City found room to establish themselves. It must be remembered that a mediæval city made everything that was wanted for the daily life. In modern times we have separated the industries: for instance, the thousand and one things that are wanted in iron are made in Birmingham; our knives and cutlery are made in Sheffield; but in the eleventh century London made its own iron-work, its own steel-work, its own goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ work, its saddlery, its leather-work, its furniture, everything. The craftsmen gathered together according to their trades: first, because the craft was hereditary by unwritten law and custom, so that the men of the same trade married in their trade, and formed a tribe apart; they were all one family; next, because there was but one market or place of sale for each trade, the saddlers having their own sheds or shops, the goldsmiths theirs, and so on; a separate craftsman, if it had been possible for such a man to exist, would have found it impossible to sell his wares, except at the appointed place. Of shops there were none except in the markets. Next, the workmen had to live together because they had in their own place their workshops and the use of common tools and appliances; and lastly, because a trade working for little more than the needs of the City must be careful not to produce too much, not to receive too many apprentices, and to watch over the standard of work. Every craft, therefore, lived together, under laws and regulations of its own, with a warden and a governing body. The men understood, long before the modern creation of trades unions, what was meant by a trades union; they formed these unions, not only because they were created in the interests of all, but because they were absolutely necessary for mere existence.

They lived, I say, together and close to each other; each craft with its own group of houses or cottages—perhaps mere huts of wattle and daub with thatched roofs and a hole in the roof for the smoke to go out. And they lived in the north part of London, because it was thinly populated and removed from those to whom the noise of their work might give offence. One proof of the comparative thinness of population in the north quarter is furnished by the fact that south of Cheapside there were more than twice as many churches as in the north.

Now, when these people began to cluster together, which was long before the Norman Conquest, in fact, soon after Alfred’s settlement, they built their cottages each to please himself. Thus it was that one house faced the east, another the south, another the north-west. The winding ways were not required for carts or vehicles, which could not be used in these narrow lanes; only for a means of communication by which the things the craftsmen made might be carried to Cheapside or Eastcheap or wherever their productions were exposed for sale. On the north side of Cheapside, therefore, London presented the appearance of a cluster of villages with their parish churches. Each village contained the craftsmen of some trade or mystery. Perhaps the same parish church served for two or more such villages. This part of London was extremely picturesque, according to our ideas. The parish churches were small, and, as I have already said, mostly built of wood; around them were the houses and workshops of the craftsmen; the green churchyard lay about the church; on the north between the houses and the wall were orchards and gardens. The lane from the village to West or East Chepe lay between the houses, winding and turning, sometimes narrow, sometimes broad; the prentices carried the wares, as they were made, to the market, where they were exposed for sale all day; from every one of these villages, from six in the morning till eight in the evening, the sounds of labour were heard: the clang of the hammer on the anvil, the roar of the furnace, the grating of the saw, and the multitudinous tapping, beating, and banging of work and industry; it was a busy and industrious place, where everything was made in the City that was wanted by the City.

We shall have to consider the gilds or guilds in connection with the rise of the Companies separately. It must be remembered, however, that guilds were already in existence, and that there were many of them. (See Mediæval London, vol. ii. p. 108.)

We have been speaking of the northern quarter of London. Let us turn next to that part which lay south of Cheapside. The removal of the river wall followed, but gradually, the reclaiming of the foreshore along the north bank.

We have seen how the first ports of London—Walbrook and Billingsgate—were constructed. The former, a natural harbour but very small, was protected by towers or bastions on either side, and was provided with quays, resting on piles driven into the mud. The latter was simply cut out of the mud and shingle, kept in shape by piles driven close together and provided with quays laid upon the piles. As trade increased the quays increased, not only laterally, but by being advanced farther out into the foreshore. Consider that the process was going on continually, that not only did the quays extend, but that warehouses and houses of all kinds were built upon the sloping bank. The section shows what was going on. The quay (Q) resting on piles driven into the bed of the river (ab), in front of the sloping bank (bc); the warehouse erected behind it, resting against the wall: the level space (cd) cleared for the wall (W), where is now Thames Street: the low hill behind (de). The wall was in the way: without authority, without order, the people pierced it with posterns leading to quays and stairs; without authority they gradually pulled it down.