CMH Publications

List and Guides to Sources

Collections of Conference and Working Papers

Monographs

Collective Volumes

Titles available from the bookshop

Tides and Floods: New Research on London and the Tidal Thames from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century

Edited by James A. Galloway

The crucial importance of the Thames to London has been familiar to contemporaries and historians alike for centuries. Important as a vital commercial artery, it was also a complex hydrological system, supporting a wide variety of ecosystems within and adjacent to the main channel of the river. This volume of five papers aims to demonstrate some of the variety of work currently being undertaken on Thames history and archaeology, beyond the most common encapsulation of the Thames as a trade route. Three of the papers explore the Thames as a hazard, as well as a resource between the fourteenth and twentieth centuries. The remaining papers are the work of archaeologists presenting preliminary reports on the tidal mills uncovered at Northfleet and Greenwich, and an overview of the work of the Thames Discovery Programme.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, Nov 2010 ISBN: 9781905165599

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Clergy in London in the Late Middle Ages

By Virginia Davis

This book and CD-Rom make available the contents of all the surviving medieval London episcopal ordination lists. The CD-Rom contains two textbases, providing the ordination details of just over 30000 records of secular and regular clergy from 1361 to 1539. The accompanying volume provides an introduction to the ordination lists as sources and to clerical recruitment trends in London between the Black Death and the Reformation. Together they make a valuable contribution to the history of the late medieval English church.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, January 2000; ISBN: 9781871348590

OUT OF PRINT

 

Guilds and Association in Europe, 900-1900

Edited by Ian A. Gadd and Patrick Wallis

A selection of papers from the 'Guilds: London...England...Europe...' conference held in 2003, these essays engage with guilds as part of the much wider variety of associations and associational cultures that existed in Europe between the tenth and nineteenth centuries. Together, they demonstrate the vitality and the importance of extending the remit of guild scholarship to include periphery as well as core, their afterlife and anticipations as well as their time of fullest flourishing.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, October 2006; ISBN: 9781905165131

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Guilds, Society and Economy in London 1450-1800

Edited by Ian A. Gadd and Patrick Wallis

This book is made up of a collection of papers from the 'Revisiting the livery companies of early modern London' conference held in April 2000 by the CMH, exploring the history of London livery companies from a variety of perspectives. Employing historical and interdisciplinary approaches it examines print culture and early histories civic myths charity the family artisans mercantile elites and the control and regulation of guild and economy. Contributions by Ian W. Archer, Matthew Davies, John Forbes, Ian Anders Gadd, Perry Gauci, Ronald F. Homer, Mark Jenner, Derek Keene, Giorgio Riello, James Robertson, Patrick Wallis, Joseph P. Ward.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, April 2002; ISBN 9781871348651

Buy now £14.00

 

London in the 1690s: a social atlas

By Craig Spence

London in the 1690s guides the reader through the development of the built environment and the vital economic and social patterns indicated by the property values and the density of households. It includes discussion of London's elite, the distribution of male and female householders and broad patterns of wealth. Supported by extensive statistical tables and maps the book is also illustrated with images from the period.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, January 2000; ISBN: 9781871348576

Buy now £19.95 - very limited stock!

 

Reinventing History: The Enlightenment Origins of Ancient History

Edited by James Moore, Ian Macgregor Morris and Andrew J Bayliss

This volume examines these changes through an analysis of the nature of historical narrative, debates about sources, methods and material culture, and through the ‘political’ uses of history in eighteenth-century constitutional debate. The development of these interpretations and approaches would become the defining feature of Enlightenment engagement with antiquity. Moreover, they would lay the foundations of the modern discipline of Ancient History. This is a book that challenges traditional accounts of historiographical development and highlights how the politics of scholarly culture have distorted views of the ancient past.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, 2008; ISBN: 9781905165377

Buy now £25.00

 

The Religious Houses of London and Middlesex

Edited by Caroline M. Barron and Matthew Davies

The Religious Houses of London and Middlesex brings together, for the first time, the remarkably detailed accounts of the sixty-five religious houses in London and Middlesex that were originally published by the Victoria County History in 1909 and 1969. These range from the larger and better known houses, such as Westminster abbey, to the many small cells and hospitals that were founded in and around London in the centuries before the Reformation. New material has been added for every house in the form of brief guides to recent research, along with revised lists of the heads of these institutions up to the Dissolution. There is also an entirely new introduction, which explores the significance of the religious houses in the spiritual and social life of the city and county during the half millennium of their existence.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, 2007; ISBN: 9781905165124

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Other CMH Publications

Lists and Guides to Sources

Bibliography of Printed Works on London History to 1939

Edited by Heather Creaton

The history of London is so important in national and indeed international terms, it seems extraordinary that this is the first general bibliography of the subject to appear. It contains over 22,000 selected references to books and articles on the history of London, from the Dark Ages to the beginning of the Second World War. The whole of the former GLC area plus the City is covered. Arrangement is by subject, and there is a substantial analytical index. More details
Published: Library Association Publishing, Jan 1994; ISBN: 1856040747

NOTE: This volume provided much of the core data on London History incorporated in the Bibliography of British and Irish History.

Available from Amazon

 

Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516

By Samantha Letters (with Mario Fernandes, Derek Keene and Olwen Myhill)

This is the printed version of the Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs to 1516 which is available online. It is a catalogue that aims to provide systematic information regarding the establishment and operation of markets and fairs in England and Wales from c.900 onwards. Every reference to a market or fair in the source material has been recorded. This includes both prescriptive (generally the oldest, which were held by established custom) and granted markets and fairs, which were usually held by virtue of a royal charter.
Published: List and Index Society, Aug 2003

Available from The List and Index Society

 

Kentish Demesne Accounts up to 1350

Edited by James A. Galloway, Margaret Murphy and Olwen Myhill

Demesne account rolls form the most important source for the history of English agriculture in the Middle Ages. They provide a wealth of information on the crops grown and livestock reared on manorial demesnes - those parts of manors managed directly by or for their lords - as well as on prices, marketing, rents, building expenses and many other aspects of rural life. Contact the Centre
Published: Institute of Historical Research; ISBN: 187134817X

 

Lists of Londoners

Edited by Jeremy Gibson and Heather Creaton

A guide to unpublished lists and indexes containing information about London inhabitants of the past. 3rd edn. Published by the Federation of Family History Societies in association with the Centre for Metropolitan History.
Published: Federation of Family History Societies, Aug 1999; ISBN: 978-1860061073

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London and Southwark Inventories 1316-1650

by Martha Carlin

Household and commercial inventories are among the most evocative of sources for economic and social historians. They are especially important to those studying the medieval and early modern periods, since they can provide valuable evidence for many aspects of daily or economic life that are otherwise poorly recorded. An extensive collection of medieval and early modern inventories of defaulting mercantile debtors in the Public Record Office has been little used. There are three overlapping collections of such debtors' inventories in the classes known as 'Extents for Debts' (C131, C239 and DL23). This volume seeks to provide a handlist of all extents concerning real and personal property in the city of London and in Southwark. There are 1904 entries in all, dating from 1316 to 1650, with indexes to names, places, status and occupations of nearly 1600 individual debtors. It should be of interest and value to students of a wide range of disciplines.
Published: Institute of Historical Research, Dec 1997; ISBN: 1871348

Please note: this publication is now out of print. Contact the Centre for Metropolitan History.

 

Sources for the History of London, 1939-45

By Heather Creaton

his volume aims to point readers to the enormous variety of primary sources available to the historian of the period, covering every conceivable aspect of London life. It also lists as many as possible of the printed works likely to be useful for information and analysis.  Records of national and local government, businesses and institutions, diaries, letters, sound recordings, paintings, film and photographs are all discussed. Extracts from the documents are quoted wherever possible, to give a flavour of their coverage and the use that might be made of them. There is a subject index and a list of useful addresses. The accompanying bibliography runs to over 950 items and includes contemporary writings as well as historical assessments.
Published: British Records Association, 1996; ISBN: 0900222123

Currently unavailable 

 

Unpublished London Diaries

By Heather Creaton

The checklist  includes 883 unpublished diaries ranging in date from 1581 to 1971 and includes diarists of all ages and both sexes. The checklist endeavours to provide general guidance concerning the contents of each diary. There is an index of the diarists and a subject index to the more detailed descriptions of the diaries. The select bibliography of published diaries contains 222 items ranging in date from 1544 to 1997 and these diarists are also indexed.
Published: London Record Society, Apr 2003 ISBN: 0900952377

Available from Boydell & Brewer. Also available https://www.routledge.com/Cities-into-Battlefields-Metropolitan-Scenarios-Experiences-and-Commemorations/Goebel-Keene/p/book/9780754660385online through British History Online

 

Collections of Conference and Working Papers

Archives and the Metropolis

Edited by M.V. Roberts

A collection of twenty-six papers delivered at the 'Archives and the Metropolis Conference' in July 1996. The conference's aim was to increase understanding of the role of archives in metropolitan life and of the problems of providing for them. It explored the particular political, cultural, social, and economic contexts in which the archives have been created and maintained, throughout the world and from Antiquity to the present. The papers in this collection therefore address issues of wide general interest concerning cities, states and power.
Published: Guildhall Library Publications in association with the Centre for Metropolitan History; ISBN: 0 900422 45 9

Available from Guildhall Library Bookshop, Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ (Tel: 020 7332 1858)

 

Cities into Battlefields: Metropolitan Scenarios, Experiences and Commemorations of Total War  

Edited by Stefan Goebel and Derek Keene

'Cities into Battlefields' explores the cultural imprint of military conflict on metropolises world wide in the era of the First and Second World Wars. It brings together cultural and urban historians and scholars of related disciplines including anthropology, education, and geography. The volume examines how the emergence of 'total' warfare blurred the boundaries between home and front and transformed cities into battlefields. The logic of total mobilisation turned the social and cultural fabric of urban life upside down.
Published: Ashgate, September 2011; ISBN: 978-0-7546-6038-5

Available from Routledge

 

Epidemic Disease in London

Edited by J.A.I. Champion

This collections of six papers originates from a symposium, held at the Institute of Historical Research in March 1992, on Epidemic Disease in London from the Black Death to Cholera. The essays included reflect the diversity of approaches discussed at the symposium and those currently being adopted in studying the relationship between disease and society. The collection, which both sets out the findings of on-going research projects and tries to outline some of the central methodological and historical concerns for future investigations, will be of value for the established scholar and the student embarking on new research into the history of epidemic disease. More details and online version
Published: Institute of Historical Research, Mar 1993 ISBN: 1 871348 18 8

 

Goldsmiths, Silversmiths and Bankers: Innovation and the Transfer of Skill, 1550 to 1750

Edited by David Mitchell

This lavishly-illustrated collection of ten papers originates from a study day held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in November 1993, 'Innovation and Skill in Goldsmiths' Work'. The essays included here consider the many changes which took place between 1550 and 1750. In England, this period witnessed dramatic developments in the form and style of plate, in new consumer demand, in the organisation of manufacture, in the use of more focused sales techniques and in the expansion of the banking services provided by the goldsmith. The role of apprenticeship in the transfer of skill across the generations in three centres - Paris, Zurich and London - is discussed, together with the question of skill transfer between immigrant and native goldsmiths.
Published: Alan Sutton Publishing in association with the Centre for Metropolitan History, Mar 1995; ISBN: 0 7509 0908 0

NB: This publication is now out of print. Contact the CMH.

 

New Windows on London's Past: Information Technology and the Transformation of Metropolitan History

Edited by Matthew Woollard

Big cities — with their thronging populations, their endlessly replicated houses and households, their commerce and markets, and their elaborate systems of taxation and control — foster a culture of numbers and listing. For urban historians the tools of information science and the computer fit into a recognisable intellectual tradition, but at the same time enormously enlarge the boundaries of what it is possible to explore. The essays and analyses in this collection range over some four centuries. The quantitative approach which characterises them is likely to retain a key role in metropolitan history, not least because it replaces estimation by certainty (or awareness of uncertainty) and so while answering some questions provides firm bases from which to pose new ones.
Published: Association for History and Computing (UK), December 2000; ISBN 0 9539766 0 2

Unavailable

 

Trade, Urban Hinterlands and Market Integration c.1300-1600

Edited by James A. Galloway

The essays in this volume arise from a conference held in July 1999 and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). They make a major contribution to the debate on continuity versus transformation in the period c.1300-1600 and present important new evidence on market integration and the structure of local and regional economies in the past. They consider the ways in which towns promoted change in the countryside - largely through economic influence in the case of London and other English towns, through a combination of economic and political domination in the German case-studies of Cologne and Nuremberg - and assess urban impact upon the organisation and stability of regional grain markets.

Published: Institute of Historical Research, May 2000; ISBN: 1 871348 55 2 OUT OF PRINT - PDF versions of essays (via SAS-Space).

 

Monographs

The History of the Merchant Taylors' Company

By Matthew Davies and Ann Saunders

One of the 'Great Twelve' livery companies of the City of London, the Merchant Taylors' Company has been in existence for some seven hundred years. This new history charts the remarkable story of the Company and its members from its origins until the 1950s, encompassing the lives and achievements of men such as Sir Thomas White (founder of St John's College, Oxford) and the celebrated chronicler, John Stow, as well as the roles played by the Company in the City and beyond in different periods.
Published: Maney Publishing; Jun 2004 ISBN: 1902653998

Available from Amazon

 

London's Dreaded Visitation: The Social Geography of the Great Plague in 1665

by J.A.I. Champion

Using data derived from tax assessments, the Bills of Mortality, burial registers and churchwardens' accounts, this study explores the complex relationship between the various patterns of death — seasonal, sexual and spatial — and the diverse social, environmental and economic characteriestics which the metropolis exhibited during the 'Great Plague' epidemic of 1665. Both the general impact of the crisis on Restoration london and Westminster, and the widely varying experiences of ten sample parishes, are examined and illustrated by maps, graphs and tables.
Published: Historical Geography Research Group; Sep 1995 ISBN: 1870074130

Available from the Historical Geography Research Group (see here for details of all HGRG publications and order form).

 

A Medieval Capital and its Grain Supply

By Bruce M.S. Campbell, James A. Galloway, Derek Keene, and Margaret Murphy

At its peak, around 1300, medieval London was in the second rank of west European cities, and by far the largest city in Britain. Combining innovative methods of analysing the abundant records of the period with theoretical approaches based in economic geography, the study assesses the impact of London's demand for grain on production and distribution in its region.
Published: Historical Geography Research Group; Jan 1993 ISBN: 1870074122

OUT OF PRINT 

 

Collective Volumes

St Paul's. The Cathedral Church of London 604-2004

Edited by Derek Keene, Arthur Burns and Andrew Saint

As London's mother church, St Paul's cathedral has for long been the dominant symbol of the city and of its survival through adversity, including warfare and numberous fires. By virtue of its situation in the capital, St Paul's has shaped the English church and state. Besides its position in the hierarchy of the church, the wealth of its estates in earlier times and its connection to monarch and government, the cathedral has enjoyed a profound link with the city and people of London. These relationships, often controversial, give St Paul's its unique character among English cathedrals.
Published: Yale University Press; Apr 2004 ISBN: 0300092768

Available from Yalebooks