London Streets, Crime, and Poverty London Streets, Crime, and Poverty Author Cassidy Stoker Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

Intellectual copyright in this entry is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Cassidy Stoker, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Crime London Punishment Science Sanitation Published file. Updated metadata proofed Review of article finished. Created File. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 Cassidy Stoker Cassidy Stoker

Cassidy Stoker was a student at Washington College.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
London’s Growth

In 2024, London had estimated population of 9.75 million people, but while it had long been Englands capitol city, it did not become one of Europe’s largest cities until about 1600. Its population began increasingly rapidly in the 1500s, rising from about 100,000 in 1550 to about 200,000 in 1600. During the 1600s, London’s narrow streets were crowded with pedestrians, merchants, horses, and carts, and carriages. Traveling on foot or horseback through the streets was difficult, with shops on the ground floor of merchants’ or artisans’ homes, itinerant sellers of goods, puppet shows, beggars, and curiosities brought from across the seas lining the way.

Hygiene

London lacked a reliable sewer system, so human waste and food waste flowed down gutters in the center of the cobbled streets. Rats were attracted to this waste and carried fleas which brought forth outbreaks of the bubonic plague, including significant ones in 1518 and a larger one in 1592–1593. In the latter outbreak, almost 15,000 people died, and all trading was put to a stop. Smallpox and sweating sickness (likely malaria, but possibly also influenza or even hantavirus) also regularly appeared, as the lack of hygiene and crowds helped spread disease.

One of London’s most famous streets was called Fleet Street, a very busy street often referred to as a double street because of its width and congestion. Close to Fleet Street flowed the Fleet River, a once-navigable river that flowed into the Thames. The river became heavily polluted starting in the Middle Ages and went from river, to sewer, to empty canal. As historian Pat Rogers notes, periodic attempts were made to clean the waterway, but these were quickly undone by the presence along the banks of wharves, mills and commercial premises, notably those of butchers who threw offal into its stream, not to mention the waste left by pig-keepers and oyster sellers plying their trade there. From time to time, the authorities found it necessary to remove houses of office (communal toilets) from the neighbourhood of the river.

Street Crime in London

Starting in the 1400’s, London became one of the more important trading centers in Europe, attracting all types of people from aristocrats to artists to merchants to criminals who preyed on its growing population and prosperity. Like any big city, London’s large population allowed for anonymity and easy targets. According to Paul Griffiths, thieves, pick pockets, and extortionists were common around London, along with more occasional instances of other serious crimes such as murder, rape, and kidnappings.

The prisons in London, known at the time as houses of correction, were spread all over the city, among them major institutions such as Bridewell, Newgate, The Clink, The Cage, The Cripplegate, and The Compter or Counter (referenced in Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors). These prisons were full of the poor, as many were arrested not only for crimes like theft but also for unpaid debts. A prisoner’s food and accommodation had to be paid for by the prisoner or their family, so the poorest criminals lived in appalling conditions and often died of starvation. London residents and civic organizations often assisted prisoners by giving food or clothing.

Poverty

When Henry VIII left the Church of Rome in 1533 and began to purge or close the monasteries that once provided charity, London’s streets experienced more extensive poverty. Some former religious buildings were turned into lodging for the poor and sick, but these buildings were soon destroyed or taken by Henry VIII’s government. Overpopulation and immigrants contributed to financial strain in the burgeoning city.

Queen Elizabeth I did little to help alleviate overpopulation and the poverty that came along with it. On her accession to the throne, Elizabeth I issued a proclamation prohibiting any unlicensed building within three miles of London. The lack of space meant that the poor had nowhere to go, a problem which would continue under James I. Numerous poor laws were passed between 1562 and 1601. Documentary historian Alexandra Brisoe notes that it was decided that the poor were now the communities’ responsibility. Able-bodied beggars were regularly arrested and whipped.

When it came to work, wages were depressed and many people lacked work, particularly in the country as agricultural practices changed; land once used in common was enclosed for use only by the landowners. These displaced farm laborers migrated to the city in hopes of finding work. In addition, an influx of Protestant French Huguenot and Flemish refugees eroded the power of the guilds by establishing new industries in cloth trades outside the city’s jurisdiction. Dismissed soldiers and sailors also added to the already substantial number of unemployed.

On top of the many unemployed, hunger was exacerbated by increases in food prices during the Elizabethan period due to several poor harvests in the 1590s. Due to the crowded living conditions and the lack of resources for the poor, living in London was challenging for English people newly arrived from the country, laborers without much skill, or immigrants without wealth.

Key Print Sources Griffiths, Paul. Lost Londons: Change, Crime and Control in the Capital City, 1550–1660. Cambridge University Press, 2008. Salgado, Gamini. The Elizabethan Underworld. Rowman & Littlefield, 1977. Smith, Roger. The History of Incarceration. Mason Crest, 2006.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. London: Streets and Bridges.Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. 4 Jan. 2011. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/city%20life/citylondonstreets.html. Briscoe, Alexandra. Poverty in Elizabethan England. BBC. 17 Feb. 2011. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/poverty_01.shtml. Drouillard, Tara. The Prison System. The Map of Early Modern London. 7.0. ed. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. University of Victoria, 5 May 2022. https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/PRIS1.htm. Rogers, Pat. Fleet Ditch. The Grub Street Project. Ed. Allison Muri. University of Saskatchewan, Nov. 2022. https://www.grubstreetproject.net/. Thornbury, Walter. Fleet Street—General Introduction. Old and New London. Vol. 1. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1878. Project Gutenburg. 26 Feb. 2010. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31412/31412-h/31412-h.htm#CHAPTER_III.