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6. THE VISITS OF THE ELIZABETHS

When the second Queen Elizabeth visited Islington she was welcomed by cheering crowds.

The first Elizabeth did not get such a friendly reception. In fact in 1581 she was turned back from Islington by crowds of hostile beggars.

She was furious and 74 of the brotherhood were arrested and punished.

7. CLASS HATREDS

Elizabethan England is often pictured as a patriotic Eden. In fact there were bitter political, religious and class conflicts.

The poor were regarded sub-human. When speaking to their betters, they had to lower their eyes, doff their hats and kneel.

A Scottish visitor to England was appalled at the workers' hatred of the gentry. He described their attitude as bitter and distrustful.

8. LONDON GROWING

The poor, the homeless, and the immigrants contributed to the growth of London's population. Estimates of its size vary from 100,000 to 400,000.

Compared with the size of England's population, it was swollen out of all proportion.

9. BUILDING, BUILDING

The sites of the vacated monastic properties were built on. Soon there was no spare space in the city.

Every square inch of London was valuable. Land was too expensive to permit the planning of streets. London developed into a maze of alleys.

To provide accommodation extra storeys were built on existing buildings; gardens used for houses; basements excavated for cellar dwellings.

10. WESTWARD EXPANSION

With the crowding came the smells and the smoke. The prevailing wind blew them eastwards. So the rich began their move to the west of London.

As they sold up their mansions, they were converted into tenements for the swarming poor.

11. GOVERNMENT CONCERN

The government was worried by London's continual growth. How could it cope with such a mass of people crowding dangerously into the city.

Its response in 1580 was a proclamation forbidding any more building within 3 miles of the city.

20 years later another proclamation threatened any house so built with demolition.

So panicky was the government that it even forbade London householders from taking in lodgers.



12. LAWS BUT NO ACTION

But no one took any notice of the Elizabethan proclamation.

The small speculator ran up cheap rickety buildings and disappeared with his profits.

The rich found other ways around the law - by bribes and by legal dodges. One gambit was to be used in our times to evade the housing rent legislation. Houses built in Islington were classified as holiday chalets.

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