LONDON
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LONDON
St. Mary Overy, Southwark; the convents at Clerken-
well, Hoiywell, St. Helen's Bishopsgate, Kilburn, and
Stratford, and all the houses of the friars were seized
by the king and the religious were dispersed. On
Henry's death (1547) things went from bad to worse.
Protector Somerset and the Reformation party were
in the ascendant, the substitution of Englisn for Latin
was ordered in all the churches, and crucifixes and
images were pulled down. All property belonging to
colleges and chantries was seized for royal uses, and
even the great city guilds, which held lands for the pur-
poses of providing stipends for priests, obits, and lights,
had to redeem such lands at a total cost of £20,000,
and to apply the rents arising therefrom to other char-
itable purposes.
The Catnolic life of London thus received blow after blow. There can be Httle doubt moreover that a con- Biderable]section of the populace was in sjrmpathv with the Reformers, a fact wnich was largely due to the fre- quent communication between London and the Conti- nent. The brief Catholic revival under Mary met with considerable opposition in London, and comparatively little had been aone in the way of restoration when the accession of Elizabeth, in 1558, led to the complete overthrow of the Catholic religion. From the feast of St. John Baptist on 24 June, 1559 the Mass was for- bidden and the Holy Sacrifice ceased to be offered in London churches; St. Paul's cathedral under the ener- getic influence of Bishop Bonner being one of the last where Mass was said. The bishop himself and many of his clergy were imprisoned and after the excom- munication of Elizabeth^ in 1570, the martyrdoms be- gan again, reaching their hei^t in point of numbers in 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada. From this time forward London became a Protestant city and the history of the dwindling number of Catholics will be described later.
It is at this time that the first maps of London were produced. Anthony van den Wyngaerde produced nis panorama between 1543 and 1550. Probably the first actual map is that of Hoefnagel, sometimes known as Braun and Hog;enberg's map from the work in which it appeared. It is dat^ 1572. Others give priority to the undated map, attributed to Agas, which must have been noAde between 1570 and 1600. The citv at this time was at the height of its prosperity. The bril- liant Court of Elizabeth attracted men of action and men of letters, so that there never was a time when London held more distinguished Englishmen. Thea- tres now began to be built, though always outside the city boundaries: the Theatre" and the ** Curtain" at Shoreditch; the " Globe", " Rose" and Hope" on the Bankside. There was also a theatre at Blackfriars. In 1566 the Royal Exchange was founded by Sir Thomas Gresham, receiving its name from Elizabeth in 1571. Attempts were now made to restrict the growth of London, but in vain, for its ever-increasing material prosperity made it a centre which drew men from all sides. Moorfields was drained and laid out as a pleasure-ground. The wealthier citizens be^an to build country houses, while courtiers built mansions in the neighbourhoods of Westminster, Whitehall, The Strand, and Lincoln's Inn Fields. This extension of the city led to the beginnings of a regular water-sup-
{)ly, the water being conveyed from the Thames m eadcn pipes. The river itself was then the great high- way of London, the streets being unmade and often foul and muddy. Drainage and refuse alike poured ipto the river and the question of a fresh water supply became an urgent one, especially in view of the rapid CTOWth of London. To meet the want, Sir Hugh Myd- dleton devised and executed a wise scheme by which he provided London with a canal which brought water from Hertfordshire. This was completed in 1613. The population of London in the last years of Eliza- beth was estimated at 145,000. Lmidan under the Stuarts. — Between 1603 and 1714
a very great change came over London, for during tliifl
period the centre of social life slowly passed from the
City to the west end of the town, leaving the City as
the centre of municipal and commercial me only. The
suburbs grew until tney became a vast town encircling
this centre, and many times larger and more populous.
Little by little the old walls were pulled down and
many of the open spaces were covert with a network
of streets many houses in which were now built of
brick. Pavements for foot-passengers were also in-
troduced. During the Civil War, London was the
strength and mainstay of the Parliamentarians, and
new fortifications consisting chiefly of earthworks
were necessary. The execution of Charles I, which
took place at the banqueting hall of the royal palace of
Whitehall, in presence of vast crowds of Londoners,
was a memorable event in London history. It was
followed by the Commonwealth, during which Jews
were allowed by Cromwell to return to London, and in
1660 by the R^toration when the separation between
the fashionable court life of the West End and the
commercial life of the City was completed. In 1664
London was stricken by the Great Pla^e, last and
worst of the pestilences, which raged with increasing
violence throughout the following year. The number
of victims is not known for certain. Nearly 70,000
deaths from plague were actually registered, but in
this time of horror the registers could not be efficiently
kept, and it is probable that at least 100,000 persona
perisned. A year after the plague had ceased, in
1666, the Great Fire occurred when for three days the
whole city was in flames. It is not easy to overesti-
mate the damage caused by this conflagration in which
almost all the remains of medieval London were de-
stroyed. The great Gothic cathedral and eighty-six
of the old Catholic churches perished, together with
the palaces and mansions of the City and the dwellings
of the citizens. One good result ensued: the seeds
of the plague were d^royed and the old insanitary
streets were no more. In rebuilding the City a great
opportunity was lost. For Wren's noble plan was not
adopted and the old lines of streets were adhered to,
though the new houses were all of brick. Owing to
this decision, many of the ancient topographical and
historical associations have been preserved, it is true,
but at the cost of both appearance and convenience.
In 1675 Wren began the rebuilding of St. Paul's which was not finally completed till 1711. Built in the classical style its beauty lies in its proportions and in the noble and massive simphcity of^the great dome which lifts the cross 404 feet above the pavements of London. In it lie buried Nelson. Wellington, and others chiefly of military and naval renown, though many famous painters and musicians are also interred there. Besides this masterpiece Wren designed thirty- five of the new City churches all distinguished by their fine steeples or towers and the harmonious propor- tions of their interiors, enriched as they are also by the noble carving of Grinling Gibbons. In 1671 tl>e Monument was erected to commemorate the fire; it is a noble column 202 feet high, originally disfigured by an inscription explaining that the fire waa " begun and carried on by the treachery and malice" of the Catho- lics, a calumny which was deservedly pilloried in Pope's lines: —
" Where linden's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully lifts its head, and lies." The offensive inscription was removed during the reign of James II, but having been replaced after the Revolution was finally obliterated in 1831, consequent on the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. By the time of the Revolution London was acknowledged as the greatest capital in Europe and boasted half a million inhabitants. In 1694 the Bank of England was founded, and in 1698 the old peJaoe of Whitehall was burnt down. The rebuilding of London was still proceeding when the century drew to a close.
