Life in the Suburbs: Health, Domesticity and Status in Early Modern London
Beginning June 2008, this is a three year collaborative investigation with the Centre for Metropolitan History at the Institute of Historical Research and Birkbeck, University of London. Work by the Cambridge team, led by Richard Smith and Gill Newton, focuses on the demographic and economic development of London's eastern suburb between c. 1550 and c. 1700 in our study area of the parishes of St Botolph Aldgate and Holy Trinity Minories. Our aim is to investigate the consequences of nearly six-fold population increase and extensive urbanisation in this area, to determine the economic attributes of residents, and to evaluate the impact of this changing environment upon health. Our colleagues at the Centre for Metropolitan History and Birkbeck are investigating social changes, including the nature of domestic units and the development of the built environment, and further aspects of the health of the inhabitants. This research follows on from the Wellcome Trust funded project Housing, Environment and Health in Early Modern London and our previous AHRB funded work on reconstituting London families.
Map of our study area [click for larger version]
London played a crucial role in the economic and social transformation of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Up to a sixth of England's population lived at least part of their lives in London by the end of the period, during which the impact of immigration saw the metropolis grow from c. 80 000 inhabitants in 1550 to over 500 000 by 1700. This dramatic growth was essentially suburban: by the later date, suburban living was the way of life for about four-fifths of the metropolitan population.
Covering just under 80 acres to the east of the city, extending down to the Thames, St Botolph Aldgate and Holy Trinity Minories experienced a population explosion from c. 3 500 inhabitants in 1540 to over 11 000 by 1650, and up to 20 000 by 1700. At the beginning of the period, much of the area was open ground or gardens, but by its end the parish was densely built up. Proliferating alleys and closes were home to large numbers of London's workforce and of the poor, interspersed with mercantile and industrial premises such as brewhouses and armament works. Other local industries included the manufacture of tallow, vinegar and saltpetre. Holy Trinity Minories was a centre of irregular or clandestine marriages, including those of many Aldgate inhabitants.
Using parish registers rich in address and occupational detail and taxation listings of inhabitants, we will be investigating patterns of marriage, conception and death, and the seasonality of residence. We will also be constructing micro-geographies of the distribution of wealth and mortality through street and precinct level GIS mapping.