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to step straight from their water gates into their grand
river-cars known as shallops.
The Strand led to open fields and the church of
St Martin-in-the-Fields in the Liberty of Westminster.
This was the posher side of the fields, on the other
side on the crossroads between the Great Western
Road (now called Oxford Street) and the north-south
thoroughfare that runs through Drury Lane lay the
parish of St Giles in the Fields. It stands, says London
historian and writer Peter Ackroyd, on the
crossroads
between time and eternit
y. St Giles has always been
the way in and the way out – for those arriving from
upcountry for the great mediaeval fairs in the City
and for those leaving this earthly plane on their way
from Newgate Gaol in the City to the Tyburn Tree
which stood at the end of Oxford Street, near today’s
Marble Arch. The big wheeled carts or lurches
carrying the condemned men, women and ghastly,
but true, the children, by tradition stopped at St Giles
for a last drink from The Angel which still stands
next to the church. This was a last chance for friends
of the prisoners to rescue them from their grisly fate
or they’d be well and truly
left in the lurch
.
The Great Plague did not arrive in the London of
1665 out of the blue. From 1603 to 1665 only four
years had no recorded cases in the capital and in some
years the death toll was frighteningly high. During
1625 plague had killed more than 40,000 Londoners –
an outbreak known as The Great Plague until 100,000
perished in 1665. Reports of plague in Europe began
to reach England in the 1660s and in November 1663
the Privy Council introduced quarantine for ships
coming from the continent. Two British naval ships
intercepted any vessel entering the Thames estuary.
If it was found to be a ship from an infected port a
ship and its crew would be held in quarantine at Hole
Haven on Canvey Island for 30 days before they were
allowed to travel upriver to the Port of London. Ships
completing their quarantine or from plague-free ports
were given a certificate of health which would be
examined at a second check point between Gravesend
and Tilbury before being allowed to pass
.
By May 1664 the quarantine for ships was increased
to 40 days. That Christmas Eve an unusually bright
comet seen high above the city was thought to be an
ill omen – a pessimism that seemed justified when
temperatures fell low enough for the Thames to freeze
over - a Frost Fair was held. The ground remained
frozen until March. The very same evening of the
comet the searchers of the Parish of St Giles-in-the-
Fields, old women paid to determine the cause of
death for entry in the Bills of Mortality recorded that
Goodwoman Phillips of Drury Lane had perished
from the plague. The house was locked up, with the
grieving family still inside, and on the door was
written, in red paint the fearful and fateful words
"Lord Have Mercy On Us".
The cold weather probably suppressed the outbreak
until the spring thaw and although the death rate in
the parishes began to creep up few cases of plague
were recorded. Impoverished old women are easily
bribed by families desperate to avoid the red cross on
their door. By the following Christmas, the pathogen
that had felled Goodwoman Phillips would kill nearly
a third of those in London, those who did not flee to
the countryside. The Great Plague would have a
devastating effect on the city's economy and social
fabric but somehow the city continued to function
and the humdrum activities of daily life went on.
Next month we follow Samuel Pepys and his fellow
Londoners into April 1665. On 20 November 2015
a blockbuster exhibition
Samuel Pepys: Plague,
Fire and Revolution
opens at the National Maritime
Museum in Greenwich. It runs through until 28
March 2016. Your group can visit the exhibition as
part of our
Pepys: Plague & Fire
day trip which is a
great idea for the winter months and to kick start your
2016 programmes. Read about the tour
