Historical Background

Intelligence on the Peace (1783) Intelligence on the Peace (1783). © Trustees of the British Museum..

These pages provide background information about the datasets and maps used on this website. For more general introductions to London life in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, you may find the background pages of the Old Bailey Online and London Lives helpful.

Datasets

Centre for Metropolitan History Datasets

  • Hearth tax for 1666, Mortality and Plague in 1665

London Lives, 1690-1800: Crime, Poverty and Social Policy in the Metropolis

  • A wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners

Museum of London Archaeological Data (MOLA)

  • Records of clay tobacco pipes and glass tableware from London archaeological sites

Old Bailey Proceedings

  • Accounts of trials from London's central criminal court

Estimating London's Population

  • Parish population figures from the Bills of Mortality, Marriage Duty Assessments, and the 1801 census

Maps

John Rocque's Survey of London, Westminster & Southwark, 1746

  • The historic base map for Locating London's Past

Ordnance Survey, 1st Edition Map of London 1863-80

  • The first accurate map of London, used for geo-referencing Rocque