John Stow and the Survey of London

Q. Who was he

A. John Stow was a 16th-century London tailor, who, among other things, was one of the first writers in England to use what we would consider proper documentary evidence to produce well-researched historical works. Previously historians had tended to rely on folk tales and legends, but Stow was painstaking in his transcription of manuscripts and genuinely concerned with factual accuracy, exercising discretion in choosing between what he felt were authoritative and merely fabulous accounts. He copied inscriptions, read wills and deeds and recorded the details of monuments. He was one of the first to make a systematic use of public records, all of which he examined and cited with care.

Q. And all this was new

A. To make such an effort to use empirical evidence, yes. However, he was not entirely immune from the odd lapse into the 'fabulous'. For example, he continued to believe the myth that Britain had been founded by Homer's Brutus, a Trojan who escaped after the destruction of Troy: in A Summary of English Chronicles he describes his work as a 'summary of the chiefest chances and accidents that have happened in this realm, from the time of Brutus to this our age'.

Q. And his background

A. The son and grandson of tallow-chandlers, Stow (1525-1605) was a prosperous tailor until the late 1560s, after which he devoted his time to collecting rare books and manuscripts, a hobby that wiped out most of his savings. Self-educated, with a passion for learning, he became the friend of famous antiquaries and was employed by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, to edit medieval chronicles. He published an edition of Chaucer in 1561, A Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles (1565), The Chronicles of England (1580, revised as Annales of England in 1592). However, he had little preparation for a scholarly career, as he was mostly self-educated.

Q. How about the Survey

A. Originally recorded at Stationer's Hall in London on 7 July 1598 (and revised and expanded in 1603), The Suruey of London, containing the originall, antiquitie, encrease, moderne estate, and description of that Citie was an exhaustive topographical 'discovery' of the city and its institutions. Stow expressed his hope, in his dedication to the Lord Mayor, that similar works might be organised into a 'whole body of the English chorography'.

Arranged as a 'perambulation' around London, the narrative proceeds chronologically within a topographical frame based on the actual layout of the city, along with chapters devoted to the antiquity of London and its walls, waters, gates, towers, schools and customs.

Stow's London was a city undergoing massive transformation. Overpopulation and blight were much in evidence and to accommodate the rapidly growing population the monasteries that had been abandoned during the Reformation were being turned into flats and tenements were tacked onto the city walls. All of this Stow regarded with suspicion and unease, but what really angered him was the disappearance of open spaces and the destruction of church monuments, as old graves were emptied to make room for the new dead. With a sense that the London he knew was disappearing before his eyes, Stow carefully recorded the condition of churches, gravestones and landmarks, some of which literally vanished as he was writing the book. Of course, 60 years after his death, the Great Fire of 1666 wiped out pretty much all of that remained.

When Stow died, on 6 April 1605, he was buried in the church of Saint Andrew Undershaft in London. Though the monument that his wife had erected in his honour survives, in an irony that would not have been lost on him, Stow's remains suffered the same desecration he had often angrily witnessed and recorded: his grave was emptied to make way for someone else.

Q. So scholars still find the Survey useful today

A. Peter Ackroyd in his excellent London: The Biography says that Stow, whom he describes as a 'great sixteenth-century antiquarian', gives us 'the most vivid and elaborate description of Tudor London' and that he 'stands alone among the chroniclers of the city'. So, in short, yes. Stow is without doubt the best primary source we have for the London of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Raleigh, at a time when the medieval city was poised to burst beyond the walls that had contained it for over 1,500 years and start the growth that, within a century and a half, saw it develop into the largest city the world had ever known and the pattern for all modern industrial urban sprawls today.

Q. Where can I read more

A. If you want to have a look at Stowe's original material the largest collection of his notes, drafts and correspondence, as well as material from his manuscript library, is in the Harley and Cotton holdings at the British Library in London, and this includes an original draft of A Survey of London. Other important manuscripts are in the Bodleian Library's Tanner and Ashmole collections in Oxford. Alternatively, you can get hold of a copy of the Survey (ISBN 07509080270) or you can have a look at extracts on the web at http://parallel.park.uga.edu/~oxford/course/desmet_texts/stow_survey.html

See also the answerbank articles on the British Library and the Venerable Bede

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By Simon Smith