The Black Death

The Black Death in London

London in 1348 was the largest city in England, with a population of approximately 80,000 to 100,000 people. A major commercial centre, the seat of royal government, and the headquarters of the English Church, London was connected to the wider world through its port on the Thames and its trade networks across the Channel and the North Sea. The Black Death struck the city in the autumn of 1348, killing perhaps thirty-five to fifty percent of the population and leaving physical traces that have been revealed by modern archaeological excavations.

The Arrival of the Plague

The plague reached London by November 1348, though some sources suggest it may have arrived as early as September. The disease was likely carried by ships from Gascony or Flanders, arriving at the port of London and spreading through the crowded streets of the City.

The chronicler Robert of Avesbury recorded that “the plague began about Michaelmas [29 September] and lasted until the feast of St. Edward [5 January], and then it began to abate.” The city’s existing cemeteries were quickly overwhelmed, and new burial grounds were established outside the city walls.

The Plague Cemeteries

The most significant archaeological evidence for the Black Death in London comes from the plague cemeteries at East Smithfield and Spitalfields. The East Smithfield cemetery was established in 1349 by Sir Walter Manny specifically for plague victims. Excavations in the 1980s and 1990s revealed approximately 600 skeletons buried in orderly trenches, and DNA analysis of teeth from these burials confirmed the presence of Yersinia pestis.

The Spitalfields cemetery, north of the city, contained similar evidence of mass burial. The scale of these cemeteries — each containing thousands of bodies — testifies to the sheer volume of death in the capital.

The Mortality

Contemporary estimates of London’s mortality vary widely. Some sources claim that 50,000 or even 100,000 people died. Modern scholars generally estimate that London lost between thirty-five and fifty percent of its inhabitants. The mortality was not evenly distributed: the poor, who lived in crowded, unsanitary housing near the river, suffered the highest death rates.

The loss of population had significant consequences for the city’s economy and administration. The royal government, based at Westminster, was disrupted by the loss of clerks and officials. The guilds of the City lost masters and apprentices, and the disruption of trade and manufacturing was severe.

The Aftermath

London recovered relatively quickly from the Black Death. The city’s commercial importance ensured that it attracted migrants from the countryside, and the population began to recover within a generation. However, the plague returned in recurring waves throughout the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, culminating in the Great Plague of 1665.

The economic transformations that followed the plague — rising wages, declining rents, the growth of the cloth trade — affected London as they affected the rest of England. The city’s role as the centre of English commerce and government ensured that it benefited from the concentration of wealth and the expansion of trade that characterised the post-plague period.