Reading - Part 3

London was a good place to live in the fourteenth century, and all Londoners were very proud of it. It had a population of about forty thousand and that made it as large as the next four towns in England combined. Its political prestige was enormous, and whatever king occupied the throne in nearby Westminster, the opinions of Londoners had to be considered.

In so busy a city, the problem of adequate water supply and sewage disposal and city cleaning were necessarily complicated. Each of the twenty-five areas of the city had at least one full-time street cleaner. Untidy trades like that of the butchers were kept as far away as possible from the centre. Each citizen had to have the road paved in front of his house.

The city was democratically and intelligently run, and mostly by men who received no pay for their services. The mayor received a large grant for entertainment purposes, and the town-sergeant and town-clerk were given salaries because theirs were full-time posts, but aldermen and members of the common council worked for nothing. They watched over the welfare of the city because they were its citizens.

The houses were somewhat dark, especially when the wooden shutters had to be closed, as glass was expensive and of poor quality. Most of the houses in London were built tightly packed together, with each storey extending further towards the street than the last one and sometimes the top floors of buildings on opposite sides of the street were so big that they actually met in the middle.

As if to compensate for the crooked dark streets and the small dark houses, the outsides of the houses were painted and carved, and priests walked in red and green boots. Even burial cloths were crimson and blue and gold. In churches, there were cloths of gold, with flowers and ostrich feathers woven of jewels and metallic thread. No one could have called London dull.

A well-to-do family lived in a house where the main room was the hall. There were painted tables, cupboards and chairs with matching curtains in some bright, cheerful colour. The bedroom was a single upstairs room usually used by the whole family. The beds were the most valuable articles of furniture in the whole house. The kitchen and pantry were well equipped.