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itself, being founded after the fall of Troy by the Trojan exile Brutus, long before Romulus and Remus founded Rome. Indeed, it was Londoners, William explained – in another flight of fancy – who had repulsed Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain. He counted 139 churches, thirteen major ones and 126 parish churches, within the city and its suburbs; seven gates piercing the great wall that enclosed it on the north, linking the king’s massive Tower of London in the east with Baynard’s Castle and the Tower of Montfichet in the west. Two miles further west, joined to the city by a continuous line of development, lay ‘the incomparable royal palace’, which was Westminster. It is clear that, just as they are today, London and Westminster were already seen in combination, as the commercial and political capitals of the nation.
    William drew attention to three springs famous for their healing waters in the northern suburbs: Holywell, Clerkenwell and St Clement’s Well. He described how: ‘Beyond the walls to the north lie arable fields, pasture and meadows, with brooks flowing between them and the happy sound of mill wheels turning. Beyond is the forest, where well-wooded copses and the lairs of wild animals can be found: stags and does, wild bulls and boars.’ Among the city’s amenities of which he was particularly proud was a shop selling ready-cooked meals at all hours of the day and night. Situated on the riverbank, amid the premises of the wine importers, it catered for travellers no matter how early or late they arrived or departed. Besides, William pointed out, if an unexpected guest suddenly turned up on your doorstep, you could pop down to the bankside shop and have a meal before them in no time. Its impressive menu offered a wide range of fish, meat, venison and poultry, either roast, boiled or fried – convenience food to suit all tastes and all pockets. It was this kind of thing, William emphasised, that made city life truly civilised.
    He mentioned London Bridge only in passing, which shows that he was writing before the magnificent new stone bridge was built. It was begun in 1176 and took some thirty years to complete. Over a thousand feet long, it remained until 1831. Soon after its completion it survived a disaster that would have destroyed any of its Roman and medieval wooden predecessors. In 1212 a fire broke out on the south bank in Southwark. Crowds crossed the bridge either to view the scene or help put it out but were then surrounded by flames when the fire, driven by a south wind, took hold on the north bank too – presumably via the timber or thatched roofs of houses on the bridge. Boats went to rescue those trapped on the bridge, but so many jumped in them that they sank. Some reports spoke of 3000 dead, others of 3000 badly burned bodies washed up on the banks of the Thames, with an unknown number totally consumed by the flames. Three days after the fire a city ordinance was issued against thatched roofs. From then on London would be a timber city but one in which roofs were tiled. An ordinance issued on the same day ordered that ‘scot-ales’ (in effect, bring-a-bottle parties) were not to be held except by licence, which suggests that the fire started at a party. In William FitzStephen’s view, the two plagues of London were the frequency of fires and the excessive drinking of fools.
    A year or two later, William might have added a third plague: a rash of muggings and murders were carried out by gangs of youths, often the sons of rich citizens such as the Bucuinte family, a thoroughly respectable city dynasty – despite their name, which means ‘greasy mouth’. As these well-heeled robbers grew in confidence, they broke into the houses of the wealthy and looted them. On one occasion they even used crowbars to break into a stone-built house, but this time a well-armed home owner was waiting for them. Their leader John Old, reputedly one of the city’s ‘richest and noblest’