CENTRE FOR METROPOLITAN HISTORY
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECT

Life in the Suburbs: health, domesticity and status in early modern London

Directors: Matthew Davies, M.A., D.Phil., Vanessa Harding, M.A., Ph.D., Professor Richard Smith, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., FBA
Researchers (CMH): Philip Baker, B.A., M.A.; Mark Merry, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (to 31 December 2009); Mark Latham, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (from 1 January 2010); (Cambridge): Gill Newton, B.A., M.A.
Funded by: The Economic and Social Research Council (Grant Reference: RES-062-23-1260) (1 June 2008-31 May 2011)
Amount Awarded: £733,779.61

This project seeks to investigate the character and development of London’s eastern suburb by examining the life of the inhabitants of the extra-mural parishes of St Botolph Aldgate and Holy Trinity Minories from c.1550-c.1700. Covering just under 80 acres running south from the parish of St Botolph Bishopsgate to the Thames, this area experienced a population explosion during the early modern period, from c.3,500 inhabitants in 1540, over 11,000 by 1650, to nearly 20,000 by 1700. The area offers a population with a unique range of social and economic experiences which allow the greatest possible scope for studying suburban living in early modern London. Moreover, it also offers an unprecedented array of sources, including parish registers, records of poor relief, numerous taxation and household listings, and the observations of the parish clerks of St Botolph. The project will: assess the impact of burgeoning population and industrialisation on the topography of the study area; examine the social and economic characteristics of the area’s population; and study the relationship between rapid urbanisation and health and mortality. These analyses will inform and underpin large-scale explanations of the development of the early modern metropolis and its role in the ‘modernisation’ of English society. See also Cambridge Group pages.

The project is the third phase of a collaboration with Birkbeck, University of London, and the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure (University of Cambridge) and will build upon the work of previous projects, 'People in Place: families, households and housing in early modern London' (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council) and 'Housing Environments and Health in Early Modern London 1550-1750' (funded by the Wellcome Trust for the History of Medicine).