Living conditions


indoors in its simplest form the medieval londoners 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 t...