AD 1580 · Southwark and the river · In research
Welcome to 1580.
A city growing faster than its water, its housing or its patience.
Arrival mode
Who are you?
You are a market trader. Age 34. Living at A rented room south of the river.
You wake to the river. Everything you sell today has to be sold today.
Now explore your day
- Before dawn — buy at the wholesale market.
- Morning — carry stock over the bridge or pay a waterman.
- Afternoon — sell, haggle, watch for the searcher checking weights.
- Evening — the playhouse if there is a penny spare and no plague order.
Everyday life · historical layers
What we know, what was written, what we think
Homes
Excavated cellars, tenement subdivision, ceramic and glass assemblages.
Entertainment
The Rose and Globe excavations: stage position, hazelnut shells, admission boxes.
Money
Coin finds, tokens issued by traders, weights and scales.
Medicine
Burial evidence, plague pits, apothecary jars and instruments.
Living museum
Walk through it
Rented room
Playhouse
Harbour
Time compare
The achievements and the limitations of each era, side by side.
Bills of mortality
↓ Public health dashboard
Weekly counted deaths versus real-time data.
Watermen
↓ Taxis
The river as the fastest route across the city.
Soundscape
Environmental sound only. No music unless it would have been heard.
Historical garden
What was growing
Rosemary
Medicinal and household
Carried against bad air during plague.
Apricot
Fruit
A recent and fashionable introduction.
Hops
Beer
Changed English brewing entirely.
A day in the life