The Great Plague. The Story of London\'s Most Deadly Year

Winter, 1664–1665 • 27

In the 1630 s, the energetic young Charles I and his advisors had tried to
limit new building within the walls and clear the suburbs of vagrants, cut-

purses, and precarious housing—lean-tos, shacks, and sheds—but royal regu-
lations failed dismally. After Charles I’s execution, expansion resumed under
Oliver Cromwell’s republican rule in the 1650 s. The monarchy was restored in
1660 under the late king’s oldest son, and the pace of building quickened.

Plague or no plague, it was hard to argue with Graunt’s statistics, which pre-
dicted a bright future for the city and suburbs of the nation’s capital.

A City of Guilds

Write to Mr. Reurgot to send the cloths as soon as might be. If the waters frozen

then by land, and if he can with ye first parcel of the Spanish fashion.

—Sir William Turnerto his Paris partners, March 3 , 1665

A wealthy importer of European silks and other fine fabrics shared Pepys’

and Graunt’s upbeat feelings about the magical square mile of the old city.
Sir William Turner had the ideal spot for his shop, the Golden Fleece, on the
south side of the large churchyard that surrounded Saint Paul’s cathedral.
The gigantic “yard” and nearby Paternoster Row, with all their bookstalls

and shops, symbolized the inner city’s prosperity. Here in January 1665 Pepys
bought his copy of Robert Hook’sMicroscopyand had it handsomely bound.
Saint Paul’s yard was a meeting place for gossip, a designated spot to pick up
odd jobs, and a paradise for “gull-catchers,” the con artists of the day. Idlers

could expect to see poets and painters, and the wares of makers of pins and
looking glasses were a short walk away.^33 Best of all for Sir William, the
Golden Fleece was accessible to wealthy wholesale buyers in the neighbor-
hood and fashion-conscious courtiers a carriage ride away in Westminster.

The nearby docks and Custom House on the Thames held cloths he im-
ported by ship from Flanders, France, and the Italian city-states. He proba-
bly thought as little as possible about the shabby alley dwellings behind the
cathedral, rented out by the dean of Saint Paul’s, William Sancroft.

The square-mile city within London’s wall thrived on the close connec-
tion between private enterprise and civic governance. The councilmen, al-
dermen, and mayor (chosen annually from the aldermanic ranks) came al-
most exclusively from the city’s merchant guilds. The guildsmen were among

the richest persons in England, eclipsed only by the great landed magnates,