Book Description

Southwark, situated directly opposite the City of London at the southern end of London Bridge, was London's first suburb. Martha Carlin examines the urban development of medieval Southwark from its Roman origins. She traces in detail Southwark's transformation from a semirural straggle of dwellings into a denselyinhabited community displaying such characteristically urban features as a diversified economy, a stratified and heterogeneous society, an excess of rubbish, and a traffic problem. This book is an important contribution to the study of medieval urban history.