The Survey of London

The opening pages introduce a remarkable 16th‑century chronicler who set out to map every street, church and courtyard of his native city. Listeners will hear how he combined official records, personal observation, and stories from the elderly who remembered a London that no longer exists. His eye for everyday details—such as buying three pints of milk for a halfpenny or watching Thomas Cromwell claim garden plots—brings the bustling streets to life.

Beyond the anecdotes, the work offers a systematic walk through the city’s monuments, markets and neighborhoods as they stood in Shakespeare’s time. The narrator guides you through St. Paul’s, the riverbanks, and the dense network of alleys, explaining the origins of place‑names with the mix of solid evidence and educated guesswork typical of early modern scholarship. As a result, the listener gains both a vivid portrait of Elizabethan life and a sense of how London’s past was recorded by someone who lived it.