London and the Thames, from Speed’s Map, 1610 LONDON BEFORE THE CONQUEST BY W. R. LETHABY LONDON MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY MCMII All rights reserved CONTENTS   NOTES ON FIGURES  ...

A great burh, Lundunaborg, which is the greatest and most famous of all burhs in the northern lands.— Ragnar Lodbrok Saga. Of the hundreds of books concerning London, there is not one which treats of its ancient topography as a whole. There are, it is true, a great number of studies dealing in an accurate way with details, and most of the general histories incidentally touch on questions of reconstruction. Of these, the former are, of course, the more valuable from the topographical point of vie

ORIGINS—THE LEGEND OF LONDON—THE BRITISH CHURCH—THE ENGLISH COME TO LONDON—ALFRED’S LONDON Origins. —The earliest historic monument of London is its name. The name Londinium first appears in Tacitus under the date of A.D. 61 as that of an oppidum “not dignified with the name of a colony, but celebrated for the gathering of dealers and commodities.” Dr. Guest propounded the theory that the city was founded by Plautius, the general of Claudius: “When in 43 he drew the lines round his camp, he foun

RIVERS AND FORDS The city of London, when the Roman garrison was withdrawn from its walls, occupied two hills on the north river-bank, between which ran the Walbrook. The river, which still retains its British or pre-British name of Thames, [28] spread, as may be seen from a geological map, over wide tracts of morass, which at an early time began to be protected by embankments, which are “no less than 50 feet above low water, and, counting side creeks, 300 miles long.” The Chronicle of Bermondse

ROADS AND THE BRIDGE Roads. —The Roman roads of the Antonine Itinerary which affect London are: Iter 2, the great road from Canterbury to London and St. Albans and beyond (the Watling Street); Iter 5, London to Colchester, and from thence to Lincoln; Iter 6, London to Lincoln, starting by the Watling Street; Iter 7, from Chichester through Silchester and passing the river at Staines ( Pontes ), through Brentford to London. [51]   Fig. 17.—London and the Roman Roads.   In the (so-called) Laws of

THE WALLS, GATES, AND QUAYS On board his bark he goes straight to London, beneath the bridge; his merchandise he there shows, his cloths of silk smoothes and opens out.— Roman de Tristan. Walls. —The walls and gates of London are frequently mentioned incidentally by the chroniclers of the Saxon period. In the charter given by William the Conqueror to St. Martin’s le Grand, the city guarded by them is called the Burh, and the defences themselves are called Burhwealles. Their complete circuit can

THE CITADEL—SOUTHWARK—THE DANES’ QUARTER—THE PORTLANDS AND CNIHTENGILD The Citadel. —The Saxon Chronicle under the year 886 reads: “In this year gesette Alfred Lundenburh and gave the burh to Æthered the ealdorman to hold.” This is usually understood to mean that Alfred restored the city wall, but Mr. John Earle in a note on the passage argues that the burh was a citadel. He points out that Æthelweard’s Latin paraphrase reads, “ dux Æthered ... custodiendi arcem ”; he says further that gesette m

THE WARDS AND PARISHES—THE PALACE So Hawk fared west to England to see King Athelstane, and found the king in London, and thereat was there a bidding and a feast full worthy. So they went into the hall thirty men in company, and Hawk went before the king and greeted him, and the king bade him welcome. Saga of Harold Hairfair. Wards and Parishes. —The earliest lists of wards which give the present traditional names have been printed by Dr. Sharpe in his Calendar of London Wills and his Letter Boo

STREETS—CRAFT GILDS AND SCHOOLS—CHURCHES They answered and said that there were many more churches there [in London] than they might wot to what man they were hallowed. Heimskringla. Streets. —As has been said, a large number, probably most, of the streets of London as they existed before the fire can be traced in records back to the thirteenth century. It is evident that the extra-mural approaches and the gates necessitated the existence of some of these at a still earlier time; the sites of an

THE GUILDHALL—LONDON STONE—TOWN BELL AND FOLKMOTE The Guildhall is frequently spoken of in the thirteenth century; for instance, the Assise of Buildings of 1212 was given from “Gilde Hall.” Mr. Price, its historian, shows that at this time it must have stood near the west end of the present hall. This agrees with Stow, who says that it “of old time” stood on the east side of Aldermansbury, and adds that the latter was so named from the “court there kept in their bury or court hall now called the

THE GOVERNMENT OF EARLY LONDON The kynges chambre of custom men this calle.— Lydgate. The Kings Peace. —When Alfred took over London it must have been in the main a decayed Roman city. In giving the great burh into the hands of the Mercian Ealdorman, Ethered, he was but restoring its capital to Mercia, but he must also, and mainly, have had in view the need for providing means of defence to the frontier fortress of the March country. Even so, alongside of a supreme military rule a more domestic

LONDINIUM “London was built on the first spot going up the river where any considerable tract of dry land touches the stream. It is a tract of good gravel, well supplied with water, not liable to flooding, and not commanded by neighbouring higher ground.”— Lord Avebury , Scenery of England . From the standing-ground of what is known of London in the Middle Ages, I have endeavoured to reach back towards Londinium Augusta. To set out adequately all the data that we have for reconstructing the Roma

ON MATERIALS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF MAPS OF EARLY LONDON In bringing this topographical essay to a conclusion, it may be desirable to note a few observations on the materials we possess for making a map of early London, the reconstruction of which, with considerable fulness and accuracy, is possible. We have in the Survey of Leeke, made directly after the great fire, and engraved on two sheets by Vertue from a parchment original, now in the MS. room of the British Museum (5415. E.I.), an admira