The chief source of information on the houses of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is Fitz-Aylwin’s Assize, of which an abridgment will be found in Appendix VII. The regulations were drawn up in consequence of a fire in 1212, which destroyed a part of Southwark and a part of London Bridge. The following by Riley (Introduction to _Liber Albus_, p. xxx) is an explanation or commentary chiefly on that Assize:— “The party-walls of the houses were of freestone, three feet thick and sixteen feet high, from which the roof (whether covered with tiles or thatch) ran up to a point, with the gable towards the street. Along this wall rain-gutters were laid, to carry off the water, either on to the ground of the party to whom the house belonged or into the high road. Kennels for its reception are not mentioned in the Assize, but they were very general, about 100 years later. If arches were left in the walls, for ‘almeria’ or ‘aumbries’ (cupboards or larders), they were to be one foot in depth, and no more. The framework rising from the top of the party-wall was of course of wood, and the gable facing the street, as well as the one opposite to it, seems to have been in general made of the same material, plastered over probably by the ‘daubers,’ and perhaps whitewashed. The upper room was generally known as the ‘solar,’ and is also called in Fitz-Alwyne’s Assize the ‘domus,’ or ‘house’: its usual height in comparison with the room below does not appear from the present work; but from a deed bearing date 1217 or 1218, it appears that the corbels or joists for supporting the upper floor were inserted at a height of eight feet from the ground. Apart from the main room or rooms on the ground floor in the houses of the citizens was the ‘necessary chamber’; in reference to which it was enacted by the Assize, that if the pit was walled with stone, the mouth of it was to be two and a half feet from the neighbour’s land; but in case it was not faced with stone, the distance was to be three and a half feet. The same regulation too held good, at a somewhat later period, in reference to sinks for receiving refuse or dirty water. At the time of the promulgation of Fitz-Alwyne’s Assize, it is evident that the houses in London consisted of but one storey over the ground floor and no more. At what period more storeys were first added does not appear; but in the early part of the fourteenth century we find houses in London of two or three storeys mentioned; each of which storeys, as also the cellar beneath, occasionally formed the freehold of different individuals: a state of things which caused such multiplied disputes between the owners, that the King (Edward the Second) was at length obliged to interfere by mandate, directing each owner to keep his own part in due repair. The upper storeys in houses of this description were entered probably by stairs on the outside.