Book: London 1100 - 1600 The Archaeology of a Capital City

In 1534 there were more than 100 churches and about 30 monastic houses and convents within the walls of the City of London. The religious provided charitable hospitals - St Bartholomews, St Mary's at Bishopsgate, The Savoy, St Bethlehem, St Johns and more. Others specialised in teaching and learning, care for lepers, the insane and elderly poor.

By 1540, all these institutions, many of them hundreds of years old, had gone, after Henry VIII ordered their closure and sold the land and buildings. It is hard to imagine the impact on the people of London. The Reformation, Oliver Cromwell, the Great Fire, the rapid expansion of the City after the Industrial Revolution, and the impact of the Blitz has destroyed a great deal of evidence from this period - yet there is much still to be seen through the eyes of an archaeologist.

In his new book: London 1100 - 1600 The Archaology of a Capital City, John Schofield, who worked at the Museum of London from 1974 to 2008, documents the evidence that has been discovered up to the present time.

Accompanied by detailed maps and drawings, and reports of findings from digs, his book outlines the growth of the City, and focuses on public and private houses, selling and making, religion and religious ways of life and human health and the environment. There are examinations of skeletons to determine their lifestyle and cause of death; painstaking analysis of medicinal plants and seeds; evidence of vanished palaces, gardens and rivers.

Its a not a light read, but absolutely fascinating. A walk anywhere in London will not feel the same after reading this book.

London 1100 - 1600 The Archaeology of a Capital City by John Schofield, ISBN 978-1-908049-72--8 (paperback) and ISBN 978-1-84553-551-3 (hardback) is available from all good bookshops and can be bought from Amazon on ICN: www.amazon.co.uk/London-1100-1600-Archaeology-Capital-Medieval/dp/1908049723