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Medieval London Houses JOHN SCHOFIELD, 1994 New Haven and London. Yale University Press. 272pp, 264 illustrations (14 in colour), 4 maps. £40.00 ISBN 0-300-05578-1
John Schofield is Academic Editor at the Museum of London Archaeology Service and has been working on archaeological sites in and around the City of London for over twenty years. During much of that period London archaeology has enjoyed a Golden Age in which knowledge of the early history of the capital has been immensely enlarged to an extent undreamed of by earlier generations of scholars; and Dr. Schofield has been at or near the centre of this revolution throughout its whole course. His publications include numerous and important articles as well as a full-length study of The Building of London from the Conquest to the Great fire (1984). The book under review, which is based on research for a PhD as well as on archaeological field work, is therefore the culmination of half a life-time's accumulated knowledge and experience.
The result is a comprehensive and authoritative account of domestic buildings in London - their form, construction and decoration - from about 1200 to the opening years of the seventeenth century. Besides describing houses and such related buildings as almshouses, taverns, inns, shops and livery company halls, he also provides a most valuable and of course up-to-date overview of the topography of the medieval city, reconstructing its streets, defences,...