Dimensions
130 x 198 x 23mm
In 1700 London was a capital on the verge of a new century at the dawn of the modern age. England looked forward to the unprecedented riches of commerce and colonialism which began to appear on the horizon.
London's citizens had witnessed the public execution of a king, the Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666. But from the ashes rose a phoenix. The city was rebuilt, the shining dome of Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral symbolising a new strength and confidence. London, with a population of over half a million, was now Europe's largest, riches and most cosmopolitan city - as well as one of its poorest.
But there was a less glittering side to London's success. Life was precarious, drink, gambling and cruel sports were the people's palliatives. As men, women and children poured into the metropolis, employment, shelter and sustenance became increasingly scarce. As London flourished, so too did crime and prostitution.
Maureen Waller describes a familiar yet alien world - it is as if we are looking in a distorted mirror. A panoply of anecdotes, detail and amusing contrasts, the book draws upon a range of sources from court records, newspapers and pamphlets to eyewitness accounts in diaries, letters, travelogues and memoirs. She has created a vividly colourful vision of a city at a unique moment in its - and our history.
