and saddlers, as well as of weavers. Vendors on the
Thames River bank sold cooked fish caught from the river and wine
from ships and wine cellars. Cook shops sold roasted meats covered
with hotly spiced sauces.

London Bridge was built of stone for the first time. It was
supported by a series of stone arches standing on small man-made
islands. It had such a width that a row of wood houses and a
chapel was built on top of it. In the spring it was impassable by
ships because the flow of water under it varied in height on
either side of the bridge by several feet at half tide. The bridge
had the effect of slowing down the flow upstream, which invited
wherries and rowboats and stately barges of the nobility. In
winters in which it froze over, there was ice skating, ice
boating, and fishing through holes in the ice.

Outside each city gate were clusters of ragged buildings, small
monasteries and hostelries, groups of huntsmen's kennels, and
fencing schools. Outside one of the gates, a horse market was held
every week. Horses wore horseshoes made of iron or of a crude
steel. From the southwest gate of the city along the north river
bank toward Westminster, there was a gradually extending line of
rich men's mansions and bishops' palaces. On the southern bank of
the Thames River was growing the disorderly suburb of Southwark,
with fishermen's and boatmens' hovels, and taverns and brothels
that were frequented by drunkards, rakes, and whores. On the north
side of the city was a great forest with fields and wells where
students and other young men from the city took walks in the fresh
evening air. In some fields, country folk sold pigs, cows, oxen and
sheep. Mill wheels turned at various streams. Near London in the
country was a glass factory. At sunset, the gates of London were
closed for the night. All taverns had to be closed, all lights put
out, and all fires banked or covered when the bell of the church
of St. Martin le Grand rang at 9:00 p.m. Anyone found on the
streets after this curfew could be arrested. Gangs of young nobles
or gangs of thieves, cutpurses, and looters roamed the streets
after dark and sometimes rioted. Offenders were often beheaded and
their heads placed on spikes on London Bridge.

Men in London had begun weaving cloth, which formerly had been
done by women. Some of the cloth was exported. The weavers guild
of London received a charter by the King in 1155, the first
granted to any London craft: "K