They were often run by one
of the trade, retired or otherwise. Some alehouses catered to
criminals and prostitutes. For cheap and simple eating there were
chophouses, cookshops, and beef steak houses.
There were about 10,000 English immigrants a year to London in the
1700s. They were mostly young people. London needed many
immigrants because of its high death rate. Over twenty London
people a week died from starvation alone; they were mostly women.
Only about one-fourth of London's population had been born in
London. Especially welcome were sturdy country people for heavy
manual labor, the better educated boys from the north for shops
and offices, and the honest country people, as contrasted with
London's poor, for domestic service. Girls mostly looked for
domestic service, but were sometimes made the mistress of the
house-keeper or steered into prostitution as soon as they entered
the city. Ambitious young men would seek a job as an apprentice,
work hard, flatter his master, and try to marry the master's
daughter. It was easier to find a place to live in London than in
the villages, though there was much overcrowding. Many shopkeepers
and workshop owners in London were involved in leasing, purchases,
and contracts.
Queen Anne was authorized to build about 50 more churches in
London and Westminster and their suburbs, to be paid for by a coal
tax on imports into the port of London.
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