Barbon built rows of
identical townhouses. Sometimes houses were built on all the lots
around a square, which had gardens reserved for the use of those
who lived on the square. Most of the new building was beyond the
old City walls. Marine insurance for storms, shipwreck, piracy,
mutiny, and enemy action was also initiated. Before the fire, e.g.
in Tudor times, the writing of risks had been carried on as a
sideline by merchants, bankers, and even money-lenders in their
private offices and was a private transaction between individuals.
London was residential and commercial. Around the outside were
tenements of the poor. From 1520 to 1690, London's population had
risen tenfold, while the nation's had only doubled. London went
from 2% to 11% of the nation's population. In 1690, London's
population was about half a million. After 1690, London's
population grew at the same rate as the nation's. The first
directory of addresses in London was published in 1677. Business
began to follow the clock more strictly and many people thought of
their watches as a necessity.
London coffee houses, which also sold wine, liquors, and meals,
became specialty meeting places. They were quieter and cheaper
than taverns; for a penny, one could sip a cup of coffee by the
fire, read the newspapers, and engage in conversation. Merchants,
stock jobbers, politician groups, soldiers, doctors and clergymen,
scholars, and literary men all had special coffee house meeting
places.
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