What was the city of London like in the time of shakespeare?

Answer 1

The London of William Shakespeare's time was quite smaller than it is today,measuring just about one square mile.The streets were very narrow,cobbled,and slippery with the slime caused by refuse.Houses were crammed together,and there were a lot of furtive alleys and lanes.Chamber pots,or jordans,were emptied out of windows,as in those days there was no drainage.The city stank so bad that it would make a man throw up his gorge.But the city had plenty of natural cleaners-the kites,graceful birds that made their nests of rags and refuse in the forks of the trees.They scavenged,eating anything with relish...And counteracting the bad smells,the smells of the countryside floated in.There were rosy milkmaids in the early morning streets,and sellers of fesh cresses.It was a city of loud noises-horses and coach wheels on the cobblestones,the yells of traders,the brawling of apprentices,and scuffles when the many inns turned-out the drunkards.Even normal conversation must of been loud since everybody was,by our standards,tipsy.Nobody drank water,and tea had not yet come in.Ale was the standard tipple,and it was strong.Ale for breakfast was a good means of starting the day in euphoria or truculence.Ale for dinner refocillated the wasted tissues of the morning.Ale for supper ensured a heavy snoring repose-which just added to the noise.The better sort drank wine,which prompted good fellowship and led to sword fights.It definitely was not,what we call "a sober city".Along the banks of the river Thames there would often be criminals,chained to the walls at low tide,who had to abide the "the washing of the three tides".The river had to look on other emblems of the brutality of the age-the severed heads on Temple Bar and on London Bridge itself,there displayed for all to see.

Answer 2

Life when Shakespeare was around was not one of the best of times to be alive. Things were very tough and not so easy. People were struggling for money and had to live in mostly 1 room unless you were very rich, and then you would have maybe more than1 room, but it was not much easier when you were rich, things were still tough.and everyone sucked dick, yes even the men

Answer 3

It was, for the time, a very large city. Bear in mind that the development of large cities is conditioned by the availability of enough food to feed everyone and by the availability of facilities to dispose of the waste created by so many people. On the food front, you must remember that they had no refrigeration and no way of pasteurizing milk. Food had to be eaten when it was fresh, which meant that meat had to be slaughtered in the middle of the city. This compounded their waste disposal problems, because it was not only human waste, but also the waste of the cattle and chickens and so on, and also the animal parts which slaughterhouses just dumped on a pile in their backyard. (You've heard the word "shambles"; that was the word for a slaughterhouse--a mess of flies, blood and rotting body parts.) Waste that was not stored in piles in the backyard called middens was dumped into the river.

So, basically, it was pretty smelly. Add to that the fact that nobody took regular baths or ever cleaned their teeth, and you have people who were pretty smelly as well. Some of them tried to cover it up with perfumes which only made it worse.

It was also crowded. There was no mass transit or motorized vehicles, so just about everyone had to walk to where they were going. (Yes, some people had horses, but most didn't. They were expensive to buy and even more expensive to maintain.) That meant that most things had to be reasonably close to each other. If you look at a map of London/ Westminster in Shakespeare's day, you will be amazed at how compact it was.

Answer 4

It was filled with wine and cheese ladys on the sidewalk bidding a dew . Most woman were very poor and would beg for food tyou would see most on their knees and men were dressed well and would stay out late ... It reminds me just like pooty tang.

Answer 5

He got in a coach, went to London, and rented accommodations there. He did not have very many possessions and he left most of those with his wife. He might have had a second suit of clothes . . . maybe.

Answer 6

He became involved with the theatre crowd.

Answer 7

Crowded and smelly. It was one of the largest cities in the world at the time, and had no sewer system. People only took baths to try to cure themselves of syphilis.

Answer 8

Large, busy and dirty. Very dirty.