A Journal of the Plague Year

by Daniel Defoe

  HERMITAGE pp. 108, 110. East of the Tower on the north bank of the Thames and including Hermitage Stairs and Dock.

  HIGHGATE p. 115. Famed as a health resort and from 1622 site of a Congregational chapel, banned within five miles of the City.

  HOLBORN pp. 4, 74. The chief western thoroughfare in and out of the City, named after a tributary of the Fleet River, the Holebourne.

  HOLLOWAY p. 115. North part of Islington and named after its sunken, treacherous highway.

  HOLLOWAY LANE p. 198. See Black Ditch.

  HORNSEY p. 115. Four miles north-west of London and still a small village in 1722.

  HOUNDSDITCH pp. 43, 53, 55, 56, 73, 88. Street running between Aldgate and Bishopsgate and a relic of the moat that ran round the eastern city wall (formerly used for kennels and disposing of dead dogs); at the corner with Whitechapel stood St Botolph’s, the Defoe family church.

  HUMMERTON p. 112. See Hackney.

  ISLINGTON pp. 33, 62, 63, 70, 114, 115, 122. In 1665 a rural suburb, gateway to the north and leisure resort. Its distance from the City also made it a popular place for duels and for non-juring clergymen. See also Newington.

  LEADEN HALL (Ward 2) p. 80. Market for the sale of food and fabrics, burnt down in 1666 and swiftly rebuilt.

  LEADEN HALL STREET (Ward 2) pp. 87, 189. Roman street between Aldgate and the Royal Exchange, towards which it became Cornhill.

  LIME HOUSE pp. 95, 98, 104, 108, 186. The fast-growing eastern fringe of London in 1722, home to sailors, shipbuilders, and associated trades.

  LINCOLN’S INN p. 16. South of High Holborn and one of twelve Inns of Court and Chancery, for the legal and social education of young men, including Oliver Cromwell. Untouched by the Great Fire, it was extended in 1682–93.

  LONDON WALL p. 79. The street called London Wall extends east from Aldersgate Street to Bishopsgate, along the northern reach of the second-century wall, with Cripplegate at the Aldersgate end. Defoe’s piper, taken for dead when he was merely sleeping off a big dinner, had walked about 200 yards north-west from Coleman Street.

  LONG ACRE pp. 3, 6, 79, 97, 167, 175. A street of fashionable residences before the Civil War that had started to go commercial by the time plague broke out near the junction with Drury Lane. A centre for coach-making and, in the 1720s, furniture.

  LONG REACH p. 96. The bend of the Thames near Gravesend, just after Blackwall Reach going seaward.

  LOTHBURY (Ward 12) p. 70. North of Cornhill and parallel to it; in the midst of change between 1665 and 1722, from metal trades to banking.

  LUDGATE PRISON p. 80. Defoe may have meant the Fleet Prison, just north of the junction of Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt soon afterwards, with Wycherley and Penn its most celebrated inmates. But there was also a small prison for petty criminals above Ludgate itself, demolished after being damaged in 1666 and then, in the words of the Tour, ‘beautifully re-built’.

  LUSUM p. 99. A colloquial spelling of Lewisham, South London, originally called Leueseham and still referred to locally as ‘Loosiham’ or ‘Loosham’.

  MIDDLESEX pp. 33, 61, 81, 128. The county was both part of London, subject to aspects of City authority and appointments, and outside it. Middlesex sessions of the peace were held at Clerkenwell and Westminster and there was no separate county town.

  MILE END p. 68. In 1665 a hamlet of Stepney, east of the City; the western end developed so fast between then and 1722 that it acquired a separate identity as Mile End New Town, home to tradesmen and labourers.

  MINORIES (Ward 22) pp. 42, 54, 74, 88, 211. Running south from Whitechapel to Tower Hill and named after the abbey of St Clare Minories, dissolved in 1538. Like many of the streets in the Journal it was in transition, with aristocratic houses giving way to merchants and tradesmen.

  MONUMENT (Ward 7) p. 80. Column on Fish Street Hill to commemorate the Great Fire. Designed by Wren, it was completed in 1676. Defoe thought it better than ‘all the Obelisks and Pillars of the Ancients, at least that I have seen’ (Tour, i. 333).

  MOORFIELDS p. 199. Low-lying marshy ground to the north outside the City Wall; ‘noysome and offensive’ until improved from the early seventeenth century. See also Bethlehem Hospital.

  MOSES AND AARON ALLEY pp. 149, 155. Schonhorn finds no evidence of it before 1676. It ran north from Whitechapel Street.

  MOUNT MILL pp. 79, 198. Running east from Goswell Street (see above); site of a Parliamentary fort in 1642–3 and a plague pit in 1665.

  NEWGATE (Ward 19) p. 207. Last of the gateways to the City, probably post-Roman. Destroyed by fire several times before 1666, rebuilt in 1672, and demolished in 1767.

  NEWGATE MARKET (Ward 19) p. 207. Defoe’s assertion that there was ‘no such place’ before the Great Fire is misleading. There was a meat market there before 1666 with some butchers’ shops and it remained as a meat market until the formation of the Central Market at Smithfield in 1868.

  NEWGATE PRISON (Ward 19) p. 80. Restored shortly before the Great Fire, in which it burned down. The new building began to operate from 1672 and its external magnificence contrasted with the dire conditions within that led Fielding to describe it as the ‘prototype of hell’.

  NEWINGTON p. 115. From the 1660s, a semi-rural centre to the north for Nonconformist clergy unable to minister in the City after the Act of Uniformity. At Newington Green, Defoe attended Charles Morton’s academy.

  NORWOOD p. 99. Surrounded by woodland until the nineteenth century, now part of Lambeth and Croydon.

  OLD BETHLEM (Ward 5) p. 199. Running west from Bishopsgate Street towards the Old Bethlem burying ground mentioned by Defoe.

  OLD-FORD pp. 111, 112. District of East London then in Bow parish, and for a time the lowest point at which the River Lea could be crossed; the building of Bow Bridge in the Middle Ages made Old Ford a rural community of farmers and dyers until the Industrial Revolution.

  OLD STREET pp. 142, 156, 161. Running north-east from Goswell Street and predating Bishopsgate as the main route north. Tindal’s burying ground lay to the south, down Royal Row.

  PETTICOAT LANE pp. 145, 199. In Whitechapel, close to H.F., and formerly home to London’s Spanish community and home to second-hand clothiers. Huguenot weavers and Jewish traders moved in after the plague.

  PETTY-FRANCE (Ward 5) p. 21. An alley just outside the city wall in Bishopsgate parish and not to be confused with the larger street of the same name next to St James’s Park. Both were home to French merchants.

  POPLAR pp. 92, 104, 108. Hamlet of Stepney catering for ocean-going vessels at Blackwall.

  PORTSOKEN (Ward 22) p. 137. The easternmost of the City wards, straddling the wall and coinciding in part with the Defoe family parish of St Botolph, Aldgate.

  PYE TAVERN (Ward 15) pp. 55, 56. In Houndsditch, near the Three Nuns Inn and the Defoe family church of St Botolph. Identified here as a local for rowdy blasphemers, it had a large room where plays were occasionally performed.

  PYED BULL INN p. 62. Schonhorn finds various candidates in different locations. The most likely was in Church Row, near Islington; once a country villa and said to have been Sir Walter Raleigh’s house.

  QUEENHITHE (Ward 17) p. 189. On the Thames, south-east of St Paul’s; an important commercial quay for landing wool, hides, and corn.

  RATCLIFF pp. 17, 96, 97, 98, 104, 108, 160, 163. Largest of the hamlets of Stepney, centre for repairing and supplying ships and, after the Great Fire, temporary home to the city authorities.

  REDRIFF, OR ROTHERHITHE (also known as ‘The Pool’) pp. 17, 95, 96, 97, 98, 108, 111. Redriff was the older name, still used by Pepys. Defoe uses both, along with the name he says the locals gave it, the Pool. 1699 saw the construction of London’s first enclosed wet dock here, the Howland Dock.

  ROSE ALLEY (Ward 5) p. 199. One of seven London alleys by this name in Defoe’s lifetime; east of Bishopsgate Street beyond the wall.

  ST ALL HALLOWS IN THE WALL (Ward 12) p. 198. Defoe’s term for the church always kno
wn as All Hallows London Wall, abutting the outside of the Roman wall near New Broad Street. Repaired in 1627, it escaped the Great Fire and was rebuilt in 1765–7.

  ST ANDREW’S HOLBORN (Ward 19) pp. 4, 6, 14, 98, 160. At the junction of Holborn Hill and Shoe Lane, a pre-medieval church repaired in 1632 that escaped damage in 1666 but was rebuilt by Wren 1684–90. In 1703 the tower was clad in stone and heightened.

  ST BRIDE’S pp. 4, 5, 160. On the west side of Fleet Street, the church was destroyed by the Great Fire and Wren’s lavish replacement, with its landmark spire, was complete by 1703.

  ST BUT BISHOPSGATE p. 42. Presumably St Botolph’s, on the west side of Bishopsgate Street Without. The medieval church escaped damage in 1666 but had to be demolished and rebuilt from 1724.

  ST CLEMENT DANES pp. 6, 33, 160. On the north side of the Strand; the church escaped the Fire but was demolished in 1679; Wren’s replacement, with heightened tower, was complete by 1719.

  ST GEORGE’S FIELDS p. 69. An extensive open space on the south side of the Thames, between Southwark and Lambeth. Used for large gatherings and as a resort by people from all levels of society.

  ST GILES CRIPPLEGATE (Ward 15) pp. 42, 160, 162. The medieval church of St Giles Without Cripplegate stood a few yards north-west of the Roman gate. It survived the Great Fire but not the Blitz.

  ST GILES’S IN THE FIELDS (sometimes referred to as ‘St Giles’) pp. 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 19, 21, 30, 33, 74, 98, 160, 162, 208. The parish which included Long Acre and Drury Lane, the streets where plague broke out. So many plague victims were buried around the medieval church that it suffered structural damage and a new building was planned in 1711 under the Fifty New Churches Act. Flitcroft’s new building opened in 1733.

  ST HELEN’S (Ward 5) p. 189. East of Bishopsgate and a former Benedictine nunnery. In 1665 Sir John Lawrence, the Lord Mayor, lived in Great St Helen’s Street and probably used the South Door or ‘Royal Entrance’, as it is now called. A sword rest in the church dated 1665 carries Lawrence’s crest of arms and that of the City of London.

  ST JAMES CLERKENWELL pp. 4, 5, 160. At the northernmost reach of built London, the church was rebuilt in 1625 and again in 1792.

  ST JOHN STREET (Ward 19) p. 142. Leading north from Smithfield into the Islington Road.

  ST JOHN AT WAPPING p. 200. Formerly part of Stepney parish and made distinct from it in 1694; the church was rebuilt in 1756.

  ST KATHARINES (BY THE) TOWER (Ward 2) pp. 42, 98. Now referred to as the Royal Foundation of St Katherine, it escaped the dissolution and became home to migrant workers.

  ST LEONARD’S SHOREDITCH pp. 42, 162, 163. East of the upper end of Shoreditch, and with a burying ground 100 yards north up the Hackney road, the church was rebuilt in the 1730s after the tower had collapsed during a service in 1716.

  ST MAGNUS (Ward 7) p. 190. The church of St Magnus the Martyr stands at the eastern corner of Thames Street and London Bridge. Destroyed in 1666, it was rebuilt by Wren in 1676 and a steeple added in 1705.

  ST MARY MAGDALENE, BERMONDSEY p. 98. On the south bank, city side of Rotherhithe, and the site of wharves and warehouses; the church was demolished and rebuilt in 1680.

  ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS pp. 14, 33, 160. In 1665 and 1722 the church looked out over the Royal Mews; in the latter year, Gibbs started work on the present building.

  ST MARTIN’S LE GRAND (Ward 18) p. 195. Formerly the site of a monastery, then the street leading from the east end of Newgate Street north to Aldersgate.

  ST MARY WOOL-CHURCH (Ward 14) p. 6. South of Lombard Street, the church was damaged in 1666, demolished, and not rebuilt.

  ST PAUL’S (Ward 10) p. 189. Destroyed in 1666; Wren’s new building opened in 1697.

  ST PAUL’S SHADWELL p. 200. Made a separate parish from Stepney in 1666 and sometimes known as the church of the Sea Captains.

  ST SEPULCHRE’S (Ward 19) pp. 111, 160, 161, 162, 163. St Sepulchre’s church stood just west of Newgate; badly damaged in 1666 and rebuilt 1670–1.

  ST STEPHEN COLEMAN STREET (Ward 12) p. 77. Destroyed in 1666, rebuilt by Wren 1674–6 and destroyed again, for the last time, in the Blitz. For a time the parish of Defoe’s father.

  SESSION HOUSE (Ward 19) p. 80. Otherwise known as the Hall of Justice in the Old Bailey, until 1774 located next to Newgate Prison; damaged in 1666 and restored.

  SHADWELL pp. 51, 98, 200. District of Stepney on the north bank of the Thames. An area of significant population growth and home to nautical industries and brewers, it became a parish in 1666.

  SHOREDITCH pp. 14, 18, 33, 98, 110, 111, 154, 160, 161, 162, 198, 199, 208. Northern suburb outside the city walls, undeveloped until the 1680s, when the first of fashionable squares was built. Almshouses for haberdashers and ironmongers followed.

  SMITHFIELD p. 161. West of Aldersgate Street, the cattle market was increasingly surrounded by urban spread but still the site of disorder among people and animals.

  SOUTHWARK pp. 7, 14, 15, 17, 64, 69, 74, 81, 97, 160, 161, 162, 163, 184. Although spared in 1666 thanks to its position on the south bank of the Thames, Southwark had its own great fire in 1676 which saw to the many medieval inns that had characterized this historic leisure quarter.

  SPITAL-FIELDS pp. 18, 69, 98, 199. Fields to the east of the city that saw rapid urban growth in Defoe’s lifetime, partly due to the influx of Huguenot weavers. Site of England’s first Baptist church and a centre of Nonconformity, to combat which Hawksmoor’s superb church was begun in 1714.

  STAMFORD HILL pp. 112, 115. In Middlesex, about four miles north-east of St Paul’s Cathedral, between Stoke Newington and Tottenham, and part of the Great North Road.

  STEPNEY pp. 14, 17, 18, 33, 42, 51, 86, 98, 108, 110, 111, 160, 161, 162, 163, 184, 199, 200, 203, 208. East of the City and subdivided into the four hamlets of Ratcliff, Limehouse, Poplar, and Mile End until rapid growth after 1660 led to new parishes being created from them, culminating with Bow in 1719.

  SWAN ALLEY (Ward 12) pp. 75, 77, 142. At first citation Defoe makes it sound as if this alley, running east from Coleman Street and close to James Foe’s warehouse, would not be recognizable to readers of 1722, but on second citation he says it is still there; it features (with nine other alleys of the same name) in John Rocque’s 1746 map.

  THAMES STREET p. 208. Running north of and parallel to the river from south of St Paul’s to the Tower.

  THREE CRANES (Ward 17) p. 189. Defoe’s wording, ‘The Three Cranes’, suggests the tavern, the Three Cranes, in the Vintry on Upper Thames Street, which according to Pepys (Diary, 23 Jan. 1661) was ‘a narrow dog-hole’ barely fit for his embarrassing poor relations. Three Cranes Stairs and Three Cranes Dock were nearby.

  THREE NUNS INN p. 53. A large and prosperous coaching inn on the east side of St Botolph’s church, Whitechapel.

  THROCKMORTON STREET (Ward 12) p. 49. Running east from Lothbury and usually spelt ‘Throgmorton’. The drapers had taken over Thomas Cromwell’s house on his death in 1540 and the street was home to wealthy merchants.

  TOKEN HOUSE YARD (Ward 12) p. 70. Running north from Lothbury and site of a minting house for the issue of royal farthing tokens; gruesomely, Defoe compares the plague spot to ‘a little silver Peny’ (p. 168).

  TOWER HAMLETS pp. 42, 89. The collection of hamlets east of the Tower recognized as an entity for military recruitment from 1605. H.F. implies that there were only five parishes in it, but Strype listed sixteen more, including a number of eastern parishes noticed separately in the Journal.

  TRINITY MINORIES (Ward 22) p. 42. The church of Holy Trinity Minories, just north of Tower Hill and formerly part of the convent of St Clare, survived 1666 but needed rebuilding anyway in 1706.

  WAPPING pp. 17, 51, 97, 98, 104, 106, 108, 110, 111, 112, 160, 163, 200. Made independent of Stepney parish in 1694, home to maritime industries and, according to Pepys, (Diary, 19 Dec. 1666), riotous seamen.

  WARE RIVER p. 141. Defoe’s name for the Lea River, east of Hackney.

  WESTMINSTER pp. 14, 15, 74, 81
, 98, 156, 160, 184, 207. In 1665 Westminster was a separate entity from the city, governed by a high steward and other officers chosen by the Dean and Chapter of the Abbey, who claimed civil jurisdiction. An insalubrious district in which petty crime flourished, it grew fast after 1660.

  WHETSTONE p. 106. Hamlet on the Great North Road and home to innkeepers, wheelwrights, smiths and farriers.

  WHITE-CHAPPEL pp. 7, 8, 14, 18, 33, 42, 52, 53, 68, 69, 74, 86, 87, 88, 89, 96, 108, 136, 147, 160, 161, 162, 163, 184, 190, 203, 208. Stow depicts a large street, going north-east from Aldgate, cluttered with cottages and alleys; this was H.F.’s home and familiar territory for Defoe’s father, a member of the Butchers’ Company based here. Between 1665 and the Journal the area saw substantial Jewish immigration.

  WHITE CROSS STREET (Ward 12) pp. 74, 142. Presumably the one north of the river, west of Moorfields.

  WHITEHALL p. 61. The environs of the royal palace suffered considerable damage in a fire of 1698, while the increase in traffic led to demolitions and road-widening the year after the Journal was published.

  WHITE HORSE ALLEY (Ward 12) p. 77. Not one of the five White Horse Alleys that existed in 1722, but the lane leading west from Coleman Street to the White Horse Inn.

  WHITE HORSE INN p. 62. From eleven candidates, probably the one on the north side of Barbican where it leads out of Aldersgate at the junction with Goswell Street.

  WHITES ALLEY (Ward 12) pp. 47, 77. Going east from Coleman Street, parallel to and south of the Swan Alley referred to in the same passage on p. 89.

  WOOD STREET (Ward 18) p. 7. Leading south from St Giles Cripplegate.

  WOOD’S CLOSE p. 69. Branching off the Islington Road and starting to be built on by 1722, after the hide market was established.

  WOOLWICH p. 93. Site of Henry VIII’s Royal Dockyard, it grew rapidly between 1665 and 1722. In 1694, the Royal Laboratory opened; also the Brass Foundry (1717) and the Royal Military Academy (1719).

  1 John Carey (ed.), The Faber Book of Reportage (London: Faber and Faber, 1987), p. xxxv.

  2 For disparaging comments about Defoe, The Review, no. 7, 23 August 1712; for his response, no. 8, 26 August 1712.