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A low-lying marshy area just northeast of Moorgate and on the way to the Curtain, Moorfields was home to a surprising range of activities and accompanying cultural associations in early modern London. Beggars and the mentally ill patients of neighbouring Bethlehem Hospital often frequented the area. Some used the public space to bleach and dry linen, and the full of noysome waters
(Stow 2:77) until
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Suburb without the wall(Stow 2:69-91), but it was a suburb that was easily accessible to city-dwellers. The Agas map clearly labels the plot of land just above Moorgate as
More Fyeld.As can be seen in
Moorfields has various alternate spellings, including
moorish nature of that ground
(Stow 1:33).
Entries in the
fenne, or maryshe(Richard Huloet,
incultivated ground(Richard Hogarth,
The Suburbes without the Walles,under the subtitle
Fensbery fields & Morefieldes an vnprofitable ground,
this fielde of old time was called the More, as appeareth by the Charter of(Stow 2:76). The wordWilliam Conqueror to the Colledge of S. Martin declaring a running water to passe into the Citie from the same More
moor, cognate with Old Saxon
there builded a Posterne, now called Moregate, vpon the Moore
side where was neuer gate before, for the ease of the Cittizens to walke that waye vppon Causeyes towardes Iseldon and Hoxton
(Stow 2:76).
The need to build Moorgate for the ease of the Cittizens
indicates that Londoners
had already been crossing Moorfields to go
to the more northern areas in greater London. This travel presumably became more accessible with
the building of Moorgate, which was refurbished in
Moorfields was not only a means to go elsewhere, but a destination in itself. Despite its risk of flooding and presumably odorous airs, Moorfields was desirable real estate. continuall building throughout, of Garden houses, and small Cottages; and the fields on either side
(Stow 1:126). very commodious for Citizens therein to walke, shoote, and otherwise to recreate and refresh
their dulled spirites
(Stow 1:127). Indeed, as Sports and pastimes
section, Moorfields had a history of recreation. When its waters froze in the
winter, Londoners used the field as an ice skating rink.
When the great fenne or Moore, which watereth the wals of the Citie on the North side, is frozen, many yong men play vpon the yce, some striding as wide as they may, doe slide swiftly: others make themselues seates of yce, as great as Milstones: one sits downe, many hand in hand doe draw him, and one slipping on a sudden, all fall togither: some tie bones to their feete, and vnder their heeles, and shouing themselues by a little picked Staffe, doe slide as swiftly as a bird flieth in the ayre, or an arrow out of a Crossebow. Sometime two runne togither with Poles, and hitting one the other, eyther one or both doe fall, not without hurt: some breake their armes, some their legges.
Although the land was not arable, Londoners found multiple uses for the suburban fen.
With increasing pressures from ongoing urban expansion and construction, the condition of Moorfields
as a natural space suffered. As by which meanes this
fielde was made the worse for a long time
(Stow 2:76).
Then, in to
witte, aboute and beyonde the Lordship of Finsbery, were destroyed
in order to make a plain field for archery (Stow 2:77).
In the somewhat more commodious,
but yet it stood full of noysome waters
(Stow 2:77). As the
disagreeable, unpleasant, offensive(
harmful, injurious, noxious(
by these degrees was this Fenne or More at length made main and hard ground, which before being ouergrowne with Flagges, sedges and rushes, serued to no vse(Stow 2:77).
With Moorfields more or less hardened, in want of Room about our said City of London
, the renewed patent granted full Power and Authority
that might be used for archery or other kinds of shooting practice and to reduce [them] to such order and estate for archers
. Though the training grounds moved to other fields later in the This field, until the third year of
(Howe 131). Once it was drained and tree-lined pedestrian paths were planted, however, Moorfields became a fashionable suburban place to see and to be seen. Moorfields competed with other sites within the City of London, such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, as a place to display new fashions in pleasant weather.
Due to its location and its unique ecological background, Moorfields carried a few different, overlapping kinds of significance in the cultural imagination of early modern London. It was a place with social significance, as many different classes and groups of people spent time there for different purposes; a place with political and environmental significance, as politicians and citizens fought over what could be built on that land and what were the land’s uses; and a place with medical significance, as shown by comments at different times about the effects of its polluted or unpolluted air. Moorfields marked historical changes happening in London due to its proximity to London’s city limits, yet it also acquired connotations as a place separate from the city and beyond the bounds of the wards’ constables. Moorfields was a place that was known both for both unwholesome and wholesome air, that attracted both the lower class and the upper class, and that was partly publicly owned and also partly used for private laundry and homes. The consistency of stark contrasts within the space itself is part of the overall significance of Moorfields.
Given the variety of activities and social groups that were found at Moorfields, it is not surprising that most of the identifications by
Prockter and Taylor in the Moorfields section of the Agas Map fall
into their laundresses laying out the
washing to dry
(Prockter and Taylor 57nP13–P14).
The details on the Agas Map, however, do not give a comprehensive picture of the activities and people at Moorfields.
In addition to laundresses, other early modern
materials indicate that beggars, patients from the neighbouring Bethlehem Hospital, duellers, soldiers in the
In addition to its social significance, the history of Moorfields is important
for scholars analyzing the intersection of space and class in urban social relations and the political regulation of land. Situated just outside the London Wall,
Moorfields was a public suburban
area that also housed some private summer homes. Prockter and Taylor identify the house next to the dog
house at the top of the Moorfields
section as one such home
(Prockter and Taylor 61 nX144). As Prockter and Taylor note, the building
of elaborate garden houses in the rural suburbs was
very popular in the
(Prockter and Taylor 61 nX144). Although
The political significance of Moorfields relates to its environmental significance. As Moorfields and other marshlands
around England were drained and levelled,
groups such as the Levellers and the Diggers advocated for differing views on land use. Ken Hiltner has argued that the levelling and draining of Moorfields
is
particularly significant as a representative example of how Londoners began to acknowledge and pay attention to the countryside as soon as it was threatened or being
otherwise reformed. According to Hiltner, as a result of the extraordinarily ambitious efforts to drain early modern England’s vast tracts of wetlands and fens
in order
to put the land to new use[,] such previously
(Hiltner 12). For Hiltner, increased
activity at Moorfields
indicates the marginal
countryside began emerging into appearance across the islandmass emergence of an environmental consciousness in the Renaissance, as early modern London’s citizens not only increasingly became conscious of their
environment,
but also became aware of it as withdrawing and endangered
(Hiltner 63). As a wetland that was only successfully drained and transformed in the
The history of Moorfields also pertains to scholarship on early modern miasmic, humoral, and medical theory. On the one hand, the difficulty
to drain Moorfields provides insight into
the unsanitary sewage and waste management conditions in early modern London (
There is a surprising number of early modern playwrights imaginatively transformed urban places into settings for specific kinds of social interaction
(Howard 3). Therefore, this section shows how drama, poetry, and prose in the period imagined laundresses, beggars, patients from the Bethlehem Hospital, duelers, soldiers in the
References to Moorfields as a site for doing laundry include
Only for Cittizens to walke in, to take the ayre, and for Merchants’ maides to dry clothes in, which want necessary gardens at their dwellings(Johnson sig. A3v). This comment highlights the class dynamic of laundry at Moorfields; only maids without private gardens to dry the household’s clothing would have used the public Moorfields space for setting out laundry. In
You talk’d of Hebe, / Of Iris, and I know not what; but were they / Dress’d as we are? They were sure some chandler’s daughters, / Bleaching linen in Moorfields(Massinger 4.4). In
I have now no more to say but what refers to a few private notes which I shall give you in a whisper when we meet in Moorfields, from whence—because the place was meant for public pleasure and to shew the munificence of your city, I shall desire you to banish the laundresses and bleachers, whose acres of old linen make a shew like the fields of Carthagena, when the five months’ shifts of the whole fleet are washt and spread(Davenant 221). Although the
Moorfields was also largely associated with beggars. In
Godamercy, zoones methinks I see my selfe in Moorfields, upon a wodden leg, begging three pence(Field 4.2.119–120). In
Thou wilt undo thyself. Alas, I behold thee with pity, not with anger. Thou common shotclog, gull of all companies, methinks I see thee already walking in Moorfields without a cloack, with half a hat, without a band, a doublet with three buttons, without a girdle, a hose with one point and no garter, with a cudgel under thine arm, borrowing and begging threepence(Chapman, Jonson, and Marston 1.1.120–126). As
cunning-men in Cow Lanetold
within this sennight(Jonson 1.2.42, 1.2.44).a madman
Littlewit : Aye, but it must be a gentleman madman.Win : Yes, so the t’other man of Moorfields says.Winwife : But does she believe him?Littlewit : Yes, and has been at Bedlam twice since, every day, to enquire of any gentleman be there, or to come there, mad!
madmanand
gentleman,this excerpt shows that the geographical proximity between Moorfields and Bedlam contributed to their imaginative entwining and also, sometimes, their conflation. In
Methinks I see him ent’ring ordinaries, Dispensing for the pox; and plaguy houses, Reaching his dose; walking Moorfields for lepers, And off’ring citizens’ wives pomander-bracelets As his preservative, made of the elixir.
Although the above passage does not directly reference Bethlehem Hospital, it confirms the association of Moorfields with illness.
Moorfields was also imagined as a place where violence and shooting might take place without penalty. While it was an official training grounds for the
Is this the Moorfields to muster in?(Shakespeare 5.4.31). The
knock ’em down by th’ dozens(Shakespeare 5.4.30). When the
rabbleand exclaims,
Y’are lazy knaves; / And here ye lie baiting of bombards, when / Ye should do service(Shakespeare 5.4.68, 5.4.77–79). Referring to the crowds as the
faithful friends o’ th’ suburbs(Shakespeare 5.4.69), the
In the play
I’ll play with thee at blunt here in Cheapside, and when thou hast done, if thou beest angry, I’ll fight with thee at sharp in Moore fields. I have a sword to serve my turn in a favor(Munday 2.1.17-20). Though they may fight in jest in the crowded, urban commercial area of Cheapside Ward, they may inflict real harm with a sharp sword at Moorfields, away from the sight of authorities. In the next scene,
I’ll tell ye what: we’ll drag the strangers out into Moorfields, and there bombast them till they stink again(Munday 2.2.42–44). While
Then took I up my bow and shaft in hand, / And walked into Moorfields to cool myself; / But there grim, cruel Death met me again, / And shot this forked arrow through my head(Beaumont and Fletcher 5.3.172-174). In
Dramatic references to Moorfields also comment on its transformed status as a place to
O, what strange / Varietie of Silkes were on th’ Exchange! / Or in Moore-fields, this other night!(Jonson 66). Similarly, in
I challenge all Cheapside to shew such another: Moorfields, Pimlico-path, or the Exchange, in a summer evening(Jonson 1.2.6–7).
Your sister shall lodge at a garden-house of mine in Moorfields(Webster and Dekker 2.2).
While the majority of the aforementioned literary references are dramatic, the associations with Moorfields also extend into
set downe a few notes of ancient recordesof Moorfields,
of their being a kinde of morish ground in times past(Johnson sig. A2r). Given
Published at the time of the draining, levelling, and beautification of Moorfields,
of all pleasures that contents me, these sweet walkes of Moore fields are the chiefest; and the causers thereof deserue much commendations(Johnson sig. A3v). In reply, the
worthy(Johnson sig. A3v). TheAldermen andCommon-counsell of London , who, seeing the disorder used in these fields, have bestowed this cost, and, as occasion requires, intends further to beautifie the same
no doubt but this field will be maintained(Johnson sig. A4r). In praising the beneficence of the city officials,in as good order as it is nowe kept, for what you citizens meane to give glory to, neither costs nor care can be wanting
lay any filthy thing within these fields, or make water in the same(Johnson sig. A4r), his warning calls attention to the previous history of people littering and urinating in the fields.
I ask’d the number of the plaguing bill; Ask’d if the custom farmers held out still; Of the Virginian plot, and whether Ward The traffic of the island seas had marr’d Whether the Brittaine Burse did fill apace, And likely were to give th’Exchange disgrace; Of new-built Algate, and the More-field crosses. Of store of bankrupts, and poor merchants’ losses, I urged him to speak.
[bear] the fashion of a crosse, equally divided foure ways(Johnson sig. A3v). It appears, then, that the speaker in
new-built Aldgateand
the Moor-field crossesmight provide insight into the later dating of at least this elegy.
Later in the never saw so much
of before, between the north and west countrymen
(Pepys). A few years later, on
great discourse yesterday of the fray in Moorfields, how the butchers at first did beat the weavers,
between whom there hath been ever an old competition for mastery, but at last the weavers rallied and beat them
(Pepys).
During the Great Fire of London, refugees from the fire set up temporary
camps and tents at Moorfields, even though The Sabbath is the queen of days; and therefore when He [God] sees we offer violence to her by our looseness and prophaneness, by our Moore-fields walkes and
Hide-park Recreations,
Execution shall be done upon us
(Elborough 13–14). In other words, according to I walked into Moor Fields, and, as is said, did
find houses built two stories high, and like to stand; and must become a place of great trade, till the City be built; and the street is
already paved as London streets used to be
(Pepys).
Open-air markets,
auctions, and shows took place at Moorfields, and booksellers and preachers competed for audiences. In the