Para1In 1600, London had an estimated population of 200,000 people. These citizens and residents came from every social level, a huge number of trades, and many nationalities. The city and its surrounding communities had grown rapidly, doubling in size between 1550 and 1600. Though there were many different districts (or neighborhoods) which surrounded the official City of London, several stand out as particularly important in the drama of the period.

Para2Though the River Thames is not a neighborhood in which people worked or lived, it was central to the city’s life and character. It was a major factor in London as a place of growing business and commerce in the European world. The Thames provided an important port where goods from all over the world could be traded, bought, and shipped back out again. It was that center of commerce which led many international merchants to immigrate to London to build their businesses, creating a culturally diverse atmosphere of languages and customs.

Para3During the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I, the royal court would travel between the districts of Westminster (home of Westminster Abbey), Whitehall (the largest palace at the time), Greenwich, Richmond, Hampton Court, and Windsor Castle. The royal court moved from one location to another because the sanitation capabilities of each location would be overwhelmed by the large number of people which comprised the royal court. Many courtiers built grand houses adjacent to both Westminster and Whitehall.

Para4Westminster Abbey was the coronation place of the Kings and Queens of England while nearby Westminster Hall was the king's principal palace according to chronicler John Stowe. Westminster Hall was built soon after the Norman Conquest by King William II, around 1100 CE. King Richard II remodeled the Hall, and in an ironic twist of fate, was himself the first to be tried there in 1399, shortly after it was finished. Westminster Abbey still stands and remains the site of coronations (most recently of King Charles III in 2023), but of the massive complex of medieval and early modern buildings once in the area, only Westminster Hall and the Banqueting House from Whitehall Palace survive.

Para5In 1574 a law was created which prohibited theatres, which were growing in popularity, from being built within the city limits of London. Because of this law, many theatres were built just outside of London’s city limits in suburbs just north of the City such as Shoreditch or just across the river in Southwark to escape the regulations.

Para6Shoreditch was the home of the first permanent theatre building, called The Theatre, which was built in 1576 by James Burbage and later used by his son, the actor Richard Burbage and his company. This same company eventually became The Lord Chamberlain’s Men and included William Shakespeare. Shakespeare became part-owner (a sharer) in The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The company had a dispute about the lease of The Theater with the landowner, so the troupe took the building apart and carried the pieces across the Thames. They rebuilt the theatre in the Bankside district of Southwark and named it the Globe Theatre in 1599.

Para7The company also performed plays at the Curtain Theater in Shoreditch, which is currently undergoing excavation by the Museum of London after its foundations were discovered in 2012.

Para8Located in the district of Southwark is Southwark Cathedral, but in the 16th and 17th centuries, the area was also an entertainment district, housing several theaters such as The Swan and The Rose (where Christopher Marlowe’s plays were performed), but also bear-baiting arenas and brothels. Using the vantage point of the steeple of Southwark Cathedral, Wenceslaus Hollar was able to draw a map of London before the great fire of 1666.

Para9Smithfield has a diverse history that goes back a thousand years to when Romans occupied Britain. The district had a plethora of natural resources, including open fertile fields, the freshwater Fleet River, and a natural protective border on the west side which made this a popular area to occupy. In 1123, the area received its first charter to build a priory (a small monastery) called St. Bartholomew the Great, also known today as St. Bart’s. Soon several other religious buildings were built around the town center of Smithfield just inside the city walls. St. Bart’s started a small annual fair meant to sell cloth, but the fair soon became renowned throughout Europe and attracted buyers and sellers from several different countries. The fair had gained so much popularity that by Shakespeare’s time it had expanded from being three days long to two weeks long. Playwright Ben Jonson immortalized the raucous atmosphere of the fair’s merchants, puppetry performances, music, crime, and food in his 1614 play Bartholomew Fair.

Para10The network of churches and priories in Smithfield created the base of the modern medical system in Britain. It became a place known for medical research and study. Due to the large population and international visitors, people in Smithfield came in contact with a variety of diseases and diverse injuries, so patients were plentiful; these factors led to major medical discoveries such as the circulation of blood by William Harvey in 1628.

Para11The open fields outside of Smithfield were the site of two important aspects of London life. The first was that Smithfield was a part of the execution triad in London, with the Tower of London and Tyburn being the other two. Smithfield was mainly the site for executions of religious dissenters.

Para12The second use of the open fields was the meat market. Chronicler John Stowe’s Survey of London notes the division of the city into distinct neighborhoods, often associated with a trade: […] the brewers for the more part remain near to the friendly water of the Thames; the butchers in Eastcheape, St. Nicholas shambles, and the Stockes market; the hosiers of old time in Hosier lane, near unto Smithfield, are since removed into Cordwayner street […] labourers every work-day are to be found in Cheape, about Soper’s land end; horse-coursers and sellers of oxen, sheep, swine, and such like, remain in their old market of Smithfield. Up until the 1800’s, Smithfield was an open-air market for the selling and butchering of livestock. The meat market still exists today, though it has been rebuilt as an indoor market.