Last modified on Tue 25 May 2021 11.43 EDT
London around the year 1300 was a major European city, with a population of 80,000-100,000, comparable with the great urban centres of that time, Venice and Florence. In the city centre were streets such as Cheapside, with buildings of three or four storeys packed with people living in cramped conditions.
Many of them were recent migrants from the countryside, and they created a lively and productive society. On the ground floor of the buildings were shops and stalls, many of them clustered in “selds” – small-scale arcades or malls, offering customers a choice of goods.
The city’s influence extended over the whole of the south-east of England, so that farmers in south Oxfordshire planted the wheat that they knew was in demand by London consumers and farmers in Northamptonshire sent their sons to train as apprentices to London traders. This vivid picture of the metropolis was revealed by Derek Keene, who has died aged 79 after suff