London (England) -- History -- 17th century; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 17th century
Let us turn to London rebuilt after the Fire. The City now began to
grow outside the walls with determination; it was found impossible to
stop its expansion any longer. London spread out long arms and planted
colonies, so to speak; the craftsmen, driven out of their old quarters
in the City by the increase of trade, and consequently of warehouses,
quays, shops, and offices, settled down in the new colonies. The City
joined hands with Westminster; it ran houses along Holborn to the
Tyburn Road; it reared a suburb at Bloomsbury; it turned Clerkenwell
into a crowded town; it made settlements at Ratcliffe, Mile End, and
Stepney; it created a river-side population beyond Wapping (_see_
Appendix VI.)
The map of Porter, _circa_ 1660 (London Topographical Society, 1898),
shows us the suburbs of that date.
Beginning with the east, we find a continuous line of houses “on the
wall between St. Katherine’s and Limehouse.” Wapping contains two
streets parallel with the river; at intervals there are stairs. What
was afterwards Ratcliffe Highway is a broad road with cottages on
either side, half a mile long; on the north of this road are fields
intersected by country lanes. Stepney Church stands in the middle of
fields. In the Whitechapel Road there are no houses beyond the church.
On the north-east of the Tower is a broad open area, on the north of
which stand, apparently, some of the remains of Eastminster. In the
Minories, however, we look in vain for the ruins of the nunnery,
though these were undoubtedly still standing at the time. Petticoat
Lane, running into Wentworth Street, is the only street leading out of
Whitechapel. On the north of Wentworth Street are the Spittle Fields;
the Cloister and Cross of St. Mary Spital are visible. Lines of houses
run north along Bishopsgate Street as far as Shoreditch Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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