LIVING CONDITIONS


Indoors – In its simplest form the medieval Londoner’s house was a squalid, unhealthy hovel. Built of timber and clay, as we have seen, it would probably have no more than two rooms. The floor would be of beaten earth, perhaps strewn with rushes. In winter it would be cold, damp, and smelly; in summer hot and smelly. If it had a fire at all, it would be in a clay-lined depression or on a slab of stone in the floor, the smoke having to escape as best it could through the thatch. The “windows” would be small and unglazed, and in cold weather wooden shutters, cutting down the already limited light to almost total darkness, would close them. After sunset the only lighting would be by tallow candles (cheaper than wax) or more probably by tallow dip- smoky, dim and evil- smelling. If the house had more than one floor the stair would be an external ladder.
Sanitary arrangements were primitive and consisted at most of a rudimentary earth closet; but many of the citizens had to use the public latrines provided in each ward. Such animals as the householder might own would share the “comforts” of the home with the family.
The furniture would hardly compete with what a modern camper- and a stoic at that – would consider the absolute minimum; a trestle table, a wooden bench, a couple of stools, the beds mere ledges with straw-filled palliasses. One can imagine with what joy the medieval family would welcome the end of winter and the approach of spring, with the prospect of escape from these miserable surroundings into the fresh air.
In the better- class town houses one might find wooden floors and in the wealthiest even stone paving or tiles. Furniture would include a few wooden chairs and stools, and probably big chests both for seating and for storing household vgoods. Rushes would still be strewn on the floor, unless the owners were able to afford an imported rug or two. The wooden bed- frames would have a criss- cross mesh of rope netting to support the