The first detailed survey of the metropolis, ward by ward and street by street, came from the antiquarian John Stow in 1598. He ventured into what were now the City’s suburbs, north, south, east and west. He found new buildings obliterating open spaces, and alleys ‘pestered with small tenements and homely cottages . . . by men that more regard their own private gain than the common good of the city’. Times to Stow were never what they used to be. His London was ‘the most scoffing, respectless and unthankful age that ever was’. Its growth had to stop if it was to remain a habitable metropolis, a litany of woe that would echo throughout London’s subsequent history.
Stow saw migrants everywhere. ‘The gentlemen of all shires do fly and flock to this city, the younger sort of them to see and show vanity, the elder . . . to find a quick and ready market.’ Even the traffic evokes a moan. ‘The world runs on wheels, with many whose parents were glad to go on foot.’ Stow was London’s first urban economist.
