Was London a Nice place to live in the 16th century?

Answer 1

No really. The streets were filled with sewage from human waste thrown from houses, animal waste mixed with this. There was wide spread poverty. The port of London grew rapidly. By the late 17th century London had a population of more than half a million. Many of the grander houses and wealthy merchants lived in the west of the city, the poor people lived in the east of the of the Thames.

During the 17th century towns grew much larger. That was despite outbreaks of plague. Fleas that lived on rats transmitted bubonic plague. If the fleas bit humans they were likely to fall victim to the disease. Unfortunately at the time nobody knew what caused the plague and nobody had any idea how to treat it.

Plague broke out in London in 1603, 1636 and in 1665. Each time it killed a significant part of the population but each time London recovered. There were always plenty of poor people in the countryside willing to come and work in the town. Of course, other towns as well as London were also periodically devastated by the plague.