Stephen Porter – författare

The Great Fire of London was the greatest catastrophe of its kind in Western Europe. Although detailed fire precautions and fire-fighting arrangements were in place, the fire raged for four days and destroyed 13,200 houses, 87 churches and 44 of the City of London's great livery halls. The 'great fire' of 1666 closely followed by the 'great plague' of 1665; as the antiquary Anthony Wood wrote left London 'much impoverished, discontented, afflicted, cast downe'. In this comprehensive account, Stephen Porter examines the background to 1666, events leading up to and during the fire, the proposals to rebuild the city and the progress of the five-year programme which followed. He places the fire firmly in context, revealing not only its destructive impact on London but also its implications for town planning, building styles and fire precautions both in the capital and provincial towns.

Plague was the most deadly disease across Europe for more than four hundred years after the onset of the Black Death in the 1340s. Because of the number of its victims, the foulness of the disease, the disruption which it caused and the literature which it generated, plague has cast a very long shadow, and its reputation is such that it still makes headlines and has the capacity to frighten us.As England's biggest city and an international seaport, London was especially vulnerable and suffered periodic epidemics, some of which killed at least one-fifth of its population and brought normal life to a virtual standstill. Only after the Great Plague of 1665 had claimed more victims than any previous outbreak was the city free from the ravages of the disease. In this absorbing history Stephen Porter uses the voices of stricken Londoners themselves to describe what life was like in the plague-riven capital.

Plague was the most deadly disease across Europe for more than four hundred years after the onset of the Black Death in the 1340s. Because of the number of its victims, the foulness of the disease, the disruption which it caused and the literature which it generated, plague has cast a very long shadow, and its reputation is such that it still makes headlines and has the capacity to frighten us. As England’s biggest city and an international seaport, London was especially vulnerable and suffered periodic epidemics, some of which killed at least one-fifth of its population and brought normal life to a virtual standstill. Only after the Great Plague of 1665 had claimed more victims than any previous outbreak was the city free from the ravages of the disease. In this absorbing history Stephen Porter uses the voices of stricken Londoners themselves to describe what life was like in the plague-riven capital.

Evidence of the foulness and cruelty of the greatest catastrophe ever to hit London is still being unearthed under the streets of the capital today. The fresh plague pits containing thousands of skeletons uncovered during the construction of Crossrail are a reminder of the painful, drawn-out death suffered by Londoners as pustules and abscesses broke out all over their bodies. Plague has been a scourge of mankind since its onset in the sixth century. Its distinctive and repulsive symptoms, the excruciatingly painful effects inflicted on its victims, with a very high mortality rate, evoked a fear and repulsion that was caused by no other disease. Attempts to control its spread proved futile.The second plague pandemic in Europe began when the disease reached Sicily in October 1347. From there it spread remorselessly across the entire continent and erupted in London in the autumn of 1348, killing at least one-third, and perhaps one-half, of its inhabitants. As the largest city in England, London suffered a higher death-toll than any other community during the many subsequent outbreaks. Tudor and Stuart London was a city afflicted by plague, yet its population continued to grow inexorably, as it drew people from the rest of the country to replace the losses. Plague’s last visitation came in 1665 and was its most destructive, claiming at least 70,000 victims in the space of just eight months and becoming known as the Great Plague. The legacy of plague has been a dread that has scarcely been overcome even today.

Tudor London was a vibrant capital city, the very hub of English cultural and political life. The thriving metropolis had a strong royal presence, at the long established Tower of London and Westminster, and later at the palaces of Whitehall, Bridewell and St James’s, built by Henry VIII to host his glittering court. Anne Boleyn was assigned a house in the Strand, with gardens running down to the river, while Elizabeth I stayed occasionally at Somerset House.The great and the good gravitated to the city too: Erasmus lodged with Sir Thomas More and his family in Bucklesbury, off Cheapside; Sir Walter Raleigh wrote poetry in his study in Durham House, overlooking the Thames and William Shakespeare lodged in Silver Street. Like today, streets and areas grew up with their own distinct personality: Bankside and Shoreditch were the first theatre and entertainment districts where the Globe Theatre was built to sit alongside the bear-baiting rings. Londoners themselves, and the many immigrants who flocked from the continent, created a lively, raucous society in the streets, markets and the hundreds of inns and ale-houses.Everyday Life in Tudor London vividly recreates this colourful city.

Among the array of diseases which brought death to Tudor England, the sweating sickness stood out, for the speed with which it struck, its dreadful effects on its victims and the death rates which it produced, that together generated a fear verging on panic when it was identified. The sweating sickness attacked the cities, towns and the countryside, not sparing the palaces. It threatened everyone, from the king in his castle to the beggars at his gates, including members of the dynasty and the political structure, the courtiers and those who directed the government, the church and the law. Contemporaries could do little more than make a bolt for it, and that included the king and his closest advisors, who moved furtively in a small group from one house to another away from London. The principal epidemics came between 1485, when it made its first appearance, and 1551, and it was confined to England and Wales, apart from one major eruption across northern Europe in 1529. Known as the English disease, this rapidly acting virus became Henry VIII's overriding fear, aggravating his well-known hypochondria and controlling his movements.The nature of the sweating sickness, its incidence and impact are all examined in this book, in the context not only of Tudor England and the problems of the Henrician succession, but also in the context of epidemic disease in Europe more widely. This book teases out the similarities and differences between 'the sweat' and its better-known, if equally feared, contemporary infectious disease, bubonic plague.

The Tower of London is an icon of England's history. William the Conqueror built the White Tower after his invasion and conquest in 1066, to dominate London and it has become infamous as a place of torture, execution and murder. The deaths of royals attracted most attention; the murder of Princes in the Tower, the beheading of Henry VIII's wives, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey, Henry's great-niece, and queen for just nine days. Few prisoners recorded their experiences, but John Gerard, a Catholic priest imprisoned during Elizabeth I's reign, wrote of being questioned in the torture-room, which contained 'every device and instrument of torture'. After being hung from manacles, his wrists were swollen and he could barely walk. Members of the aristocracy could not be tortured, and those incarcerated for a long time used their time to write. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote his vast History of the World in the Tower. Control of the Tower was vital at times of crisis, during rebellions and civil wars. It has also been the country's principal arsenal, it housed the royal mint, the national archives, the crown jewels and wealthy Londoners' riches, and in the royal menagerie it contained one of the earliest zoos. Stephen Porter's landmark new history traces the evolution of the Tower and it's changing role, the many personalities who lived or were imprisoned there, and the 'voices' of contemporaries during the Tower's long history, spanning almost 1000 years.

The story of the battle of Turnham Green and how 'the sack of London' was prevented by Londoners. As Charles I's army marched on the capital in the autumn of 1642, Nehemiah Wallington, a wood-turner living near London Bridge, wrote in his journal, 'those cruel cavilers doe so plonder & pillage & commit Rapin & use such cruelty that the poore people are caused to fly from house and home to save their children'. Most Londoners shared his fears that city would be pillaged and burnt by the king's supporters, who had been vilified in the London press and from the pulpits. Londoners had willingly joined the Earl of Essex's army that summer but had failed to stop the advance of the king's army. The capture and sack of Brentford, so close to their city, confirmed their worst fears, for their own safety and that of their families. London would be next. At Turnham Green the Civil War that had pitched Englishman against Englishman came to London. On 13 November thousands of volunteers streamed out of the city to join the army and the most ferocious battle in London's long history began. The outcome would mark a turning point in the conflict that had split the nation.

The bubonic plague epidemic which struck England in 1665-6 was responsible for the deaths of almost a third of London's population. Its sheer scale was overwhelming and it was well-recorded, featuring in the works of Pepys and Defoe and described in terrible detail in the contemporary Bills of Mortality. Often remembered because of its devastating impact on London, the plague struck other urban communities as well, carrying off half the population of Colchester and causing high mortality in cities such as Norwich and Cambridge. Nor were country villages spared, with Eyam in Derbyshire - where the inhabitants sealed themselves off to prevent the spread of the disease and a third of the inhabitants died - being the most famous. Stephen Porter describes the disease and how people at the time thought it was caused. He gives details of the treatments available (such as they were) and evokes its impact on the country. We will probably never know the reasons for the disappearance of the bubonic plague from England after 1665. What is clear is the fascination the subject still holds.

Samuel Pepys's London was a turbulent, boisterous city, enduring the strains caused by foreign wars, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, yet growing and prospering. The Restoration in 1660 brought the reopening of the theatres, with women appearing on the stage for the first time, and the period saw the development of English opera and the first public concerts. Pepys lived through a time of change in a city of contrasts, which maintained a sophisticated cultural scene, yet was a focus for political turmoil that spilled over into violence. Against this changing and sometimes troubled background Londoners strived to make a living and to enjoy the benefits of their efforts, as consumers of an increasing range of food and drink, luxuries and entertainments. The London of Wren, Dryden and Purcell was also the city of Nell Gwyn, an orange seller in the theatre who became an actress and the king's mistress; of 'Colonel' Thomas Blood, who attempted to steal the crown jewels from the Tower and yet escaped punishment; and of Titus Oates, whose invention of a Popish Plot provoked a major political crisis. London was the country's political, economic, social and intellectual capital, described by a visitor from Tuscany as 'the metropolis of the whole island'.

London has been an irresistible subject for generations of artists and draughtsmen, who have captured scenes of everyday life as well as the grand occasions in a variety of moods and weather. Their work has provided us with a rich legacy that is a record of London and its people, complementing the testimony of writers in portraying the splendour and the variety, the humour and sometimes the folly within the metropolis.The range of illustrations includes the atmospheric paintings of Claude de Jongh from the early seventeenth century, the Georgian elegance shown on Canaletto’s cultured canvases, and Gustave Doré’s disturbingly grim images of slum dwellers in Victorian London. The map-makers, too, captured the layout and character of the city and its many districts. But there are other illustrations, by little-known or anonymous draughtsmen, of particular corners or details of life within London’s many worlds. A Dutch visitor, Johannes de Witt, was at the Swan Theatre on Bankside in 1596 and sent a sketch of the interior to an acquaintance, whose copy is the only contemporary illustration of the interior of a playhouse of Shakespeare’s time. That is just one of the invaluable survivals which provide us with windows into London’s past.This spectacular collection of images from medieval times to the present includes paintings, sketches and prints, and is accompanied by authoritative explanatory accounts of the places, people and subjects illustrated.

The Tower of London is an icon of England’s history. William the Conqueror built the White Tower after his invasion and conquest in 1066 to dominate London, and it has become infamous as a place of torture, execution and murder.The deaths of royals attracted most attention: the murder of the Princes in the Tower, the beheading of Henry VIII’s wives Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey, Henry’s great-niece, and queen for just nine days. Few prisoners recorded their experiences, but John Gerard, a Catholic priest imprisoned during Elizabeth I’s reign, wrote of being questioned in the torture room, which contained ‘every device and instrument of torture’. After being hung from manacles, his wrists were swollen and he could barely walk. Members of the aristocracy could not be tortured, and those incarcerated for a long time used their time to write. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote his vast History of the World in the Tower.Control of the Tower was vital at times of crisis, during rebellions and civil wars. It has also been the country’s principal arsenal. It housed the Royal Mint, the national archives, the Crown jewels and wealthy Londoners’ riches, and in the royal menagerie it contained one of the earliest zoos. Stephen Porter’s landmark history traces the evolution of the Tower and its changing role, the many personalities who lived or were imprisoned there, and the ‘voices’ of contemporaries during the Tower’s long history, spanning more than 900 years.

From its foundation by the Romans in the middle of the first century and its revival under Alfred the Great in the late ninth century, London grew and flourished. It prospered as a trading city, as well as the centre of government and the foremost economic and cultural force within Britain, and developed a global influence as the capital of a worldwide empire and one of the world’s leading cities. Yet its history was punctuated by devastating epidemics and fires, periods of depression as well as prosperity, and dramatic political events. This concise history, illustrated with over sixty colour pictures, traces the fascinating and sometimes turbulent history of Britain's greatest city.

Tudor London was a vibrant capital city, the very hub of English cultural and political life. The thriving metropolis had a strong royal presence, at the long established Tower of London and Westminster, and later at the palaces of Whitehall, Bridewell and St James’s, built by Henry VIII to host his glittering court. Anne Boleyn was assigned a house in the Strand, with gardens running down to the river, while Elizabeth I stayed occasionally at Somerset House.The great and the good gravitated to the city too: Erasmus lodged with Sir Thomas More and his family in Bucklesbury, off Cheapside; Sir Walter Raleigh wrote poetry in his study in Durham House, overlooking the Thames and William Shakespeare lodged in Silver Street. Like today, streets and areas grew up with their own distinct personality: Bankside and Shoreditch were the first theatre and entertainment districts where the Globe Theatre was built to sit alongside the bear-baiting rings. Londoners themselves, and the many immigrants who flocked from the continent, created a lively, raucous society in the streets, markets and the hundreds of inns and ale-houses.Everyday Life in Tudor London vividly recreates this colourful city.

Evidence of the foulness and cruelty of the greatest catastrophe ever to hit London is still being unearthed under the streets of the capital today. The fresh plague pits containing thousands of skeletons uncovered during the construction of Crossrail are a reminder of the painful, drawn-out death suffered by Londoners as pustules and abscesses broke out all over their bodies. Plague has been a scourge of mankind since its onset in the sixth century. Its distinctive and repulsive symptoms, the excruciatingly painful effects inflicted on its victims, with a very high mortality rate, evoked a fear and repulsion that was caused by no other disease. Attempts to control its spread proved futile. The second plague pandemic in Europe began when the disease reached Sicily in October 1347. From there it spread remorselessly across the entire continent and erupted in London in the autumn of 1348, killing at least one-third, and perhaps one-half, of its inhabitants. As the largest city in England, London suffered a higher death-toll than any other community during the many subsequent outbreaks. Tudor and Stuart London was a city afflicted by plague, yet its population continued to grow inexorably, as it drew people from the rest of the country to replace the losses. Plague’s last visitation came in 1665 and was its most destructive, claiming at least 70,000 victims in the space of just eight months and becoming known as the Great Plague. The legacy of plague has been a dread that has scarcely been overcome even today.

Tudor London was a vibrant capital city, the very hub of English cultural and political life. The thriving metropolis had a strong royal presence, at the long established Tower of London and Westminster, and later at the palaces of Whitehall, Bridewell and St James’s, built by Henry VIII to host his glittering court. Anne Boleyn was assigned a house in the Strand, with gardens running down to the river, while Elizabeth I stayed occasionally at Somerset House.The great and the good gravitated to the city too: Erasmus lodged with Sir Thomas More and his family in Bucklesbury, off Cheapside; Sir Walter Raleigh wrote poetry in his study in Durham House, overlooking the Thames and William Shakespeare lodged in Silver Street. Like today, streets and areas grew up with their own distinct personality: Bankside and Shoreditch were the first theatre and entertainment districts where the Globe Theatre was built to sit alongside the bear-baiting rings. Londoners themselves, and the many immigrants who flocked from the continent, created a lively, raucous society in the streets, markets and the hundreds of inns and ale-houses.Everyday Life in Tudor London vividly recreates this colourful city.

Everyday life in the teeming metropolis during William Shakespeare's time in the city (c.1580-1616), the height of Queen Elizabeth I's reign. Shakespeare's London was a bustling, teeming metropolis that was growing so rapidly that the government took repeated, and ineffectual, steps to curb its expansion. From contemporary letters, journals and diaries, a vivid picture emerges of this fascinating city, with its many opportunities and also its persistent problems. By far the largest city in the country, it was the centre of government, the law and the church, the focus of politics and culture. It had a vigorous economy, with a range of industries and a lucrative trade in luxury goods for the courtiers and wealthy citizens. Growth produced overcrowding and high mortality, with shockingly high death tolls during the periodic plague epidemics, yet London attracted an endless stream of people, who were absorbed into its diverse communities and economic structures. Here the first playhouses were built, patronised by large audiences, who were treated to a rich and varied diet of plays to keep them, and the court, entertained. The London that Shakespeare knew was an expanding, changing and exciting city.

The official guidebook to Charterhouse - a hidden historic gem in the heart of London. The Charterhouse is a peaceful spot that has rightly been described as 'a place of leafy seclusion'. Yet it stands close to Smithfield and London's busy traffic, adjoining a Black Death burial ground. A Carthusian priory was founded here in 1371 and, after it had been dissolved by Henry VIII, one of his leading courtiers built a mansion on the site. Elizabeth I visited the house a number of times and her cousin the Duke of Norfolk was kept under house arrest here before his execution for treason in 1572. In 1611 it was bought by the immensely wealthy financier Thomas Sutton, who endowed an almshouse and school. The school was moved away in 1872, but the almshouse for elderly men who are in need of financial and social support remains. Known as the Brothers, recalling the monastic past, they are selected from a wide variety of backgrounds and include teachers, clergymen, writers and editors, musicians and artists, and many have served in the armed forces. The chapel, the great hall, great chamber and Norfolk Cloister are especially fine rooms in a building which is one of the best preserved, yet least known, historic sites in London. It is an architectural gem incorporating fabric from the mid-fourteenth century to the turn of the twenty-first century.

The story of the battle of Turnham Green and how 'the sack of London' was prevented by Londoners. As Charles I's army marched on the capital in the autumn of 1642, Nehemiah Wallington, a wood-turner living near London Bridge, wrote in his journal, 'those cruel cavilers doe so plonder & pillage & commit Rapin & use such cruelty that the poore people are caused to fly from house and home to save their children'. Most Londoners shared his fears that city would be pillaged and burnt by the king's supporters, who had been vilified in the London press and from the pulpits. Londoners had willingly joined the Earl of Essex's army that summer but had failed to stop the advance of the king's army. The capture and sack of Brentford, so close to their city, confirmed their worst fears, for their own safety and that of their families. London would be next. At Turnham Green the Civil War that had pitched Englishman against Englishman came to London. On 13 November thousands of volunteers streamed out of the city to join the army and the most ferocious battle in London's long history began. The outcome would mark a turning point in the conflict that had split the nation.