, by Pierre de Bruyn after
Jacob van Oost the Younger Several large fairs were held throughout the year around London, with the largest being
Bartholomew Fair in
Smithfield, held at the end of August. It featured acrobats, circus acts, freak shows and theatrical performances alongside market stalls. Famous performers in London included the acrobat
Jacob Hall. St. Margaret's Fair took place in Southwark in September, and a May Fair was held in the region of modern-day Mayfair. Its most famous character was a
gingerbread seller called Tiddy Doll, who dressed like a gentleman with a suit trimmed in gold lace. In January 1684, a
frost fair was held on the Thames, which had frozen solid enough not only to walk on, but to drive a coach, erect tents, and even roast an ox on. Many of the traditional celebrations for religious festivals such as Christmas were banned or suppressed during the Interregnum period. Blood sports such as
bear-baiting,
bull-baiting and
cockfights were popular, and there is even a recorded instance of lion-baiting in 1604, when three
mastiffs were pitted against a lion from the Tower of London with the king and queen in attendance. The lion and one of the dogs survived; the dog was adopted by
St. James's Palace as a reward. In Lambeth, visitors could see Tradescant's Ark, a collection of rare plants and other curios put together by
John Tradescant the Elder and
John Tradescant the Younger. Other private houses had similar collections of curiosities, such as that belonging to
Thomas Browne, William Charlton, the
Royal Society, and
Hans Sloane, the latter of which went on to become the core of the
British Museum. Tourists came to London for sightseeing, particularly Whitehall Palace, the Royal Exchange, Westminster Abbey,
Nonsuch Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Hampton Court Palace, the tapestry makers at
Mortlake, and the
Tower of London.'''' 1661 saw the opening of
Vauxhall Gardens, which featured ornamental plantings, concerts, food and spectacles, and was known as a place to have secret liaisons.
Literature , painted by
Peter Lely c.1670. Poetry was the most important form of literature in this period.'
Famous poets of the period included William Shakespeare, John Denham, Margaret Cavendish, John Milton, and John Dryden.' In 1668, Charles II appointed John Dryden as the very first
Poet Laureate. He was succeeded by
Thomas Shadwell and
Nahum Tate.'''' The form of the novel began to coalesce in the latter half of the period, with works by London authors such as
John Bunyan's ''
The Pilgrim's Progress'' and
Aphra Behn's Oroonoko. There were also important works of philosophy being written such as
Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and
John Locke's Two Treatises of Government.'''' London saw several wealthy men accrue large private libraries in this period.
Lambeth Palace Library was founded in 1610 by the
Archbishop of Canterbury,
Richard Bancroft. The largest private library in the country was owned by the
Earl of Anglesey, Arthur Annesley, at his house near
Drury Lane. It was broken up after his death in 1686. The
Bishop of Worcester's house in
Twickenham had 6,000 books in 1689, and the diarist
John Evelyn had 5,000.
St. James' Palace had the "
Old Royal Library", containing 2,000 medieval manuscripts. Other important publications from this period include Britain's first daily newspaper,
The Daily Courant, which began publication in London in 1702, and could be bought near the Fleet Bridge; and
The Tatler, which was first published in 1709, and contained society gossip and caricatures of prominent figures.
Theatre of 1616 showing
The Globe (right) and the
Bear Garden (left) The playwright
William Shakespeare was working in London at the beginning of this period, and some of his most famous tragedies come from the 1600s, such as
Othello, King Lear, and
Macbeth. Within ten days of taking the throne,
King James I gave Shakespeare's theatre troupe his royal patronage, making them the "
King's Men". In 1608, the company moved into a site at
Blackfriars and built their first
indoor theatre. It had 700 seats, was lit by candlelight, and had a roof, meaning the company could put on plays during winter. In 1623, after Shakespeare's death, his colleagues
John Heminges and
Henry Condell published a collected version of his plays known as the
First Folio. James I was particularly fond of a type of theatre called a
masque. These featured courtiers, or occasionally even the king himself, dressed as allegorical concepts and included song, dance, and live animals. They were the only mode of theatre at the beginning of the period open to women. The playwright
Ben Jonson also wrote masques, such as
Satyr and
The Masque of Blackness. The opening of the New Exchange on 11 April 1609, a market and retail centre, was celebrated with a masque, ''
The Entertainment at Britain's Burse'', and the
Lord Mayor's Show, which had been discontinued for some years, was revived by order of the king. In 1610,
Prince Henry was made
Prince of Wales. The event was celebrated by another
masque, ''
Tethys' Festival at Whitehall Palace and a pageant on the River Thames, London's Love to Prince Henry.During the Interregnum period, masques'' and maypoles were prohibited. Coffee and tea were novelty refreshments in England, but the purpose of the coffeehouse expanded well beyond serving exotic drinks to serve as multi-functional venues for socializing, debate, to trade gossip, and conduct business. Coffee houses also functioned as shops where customers could post and receive mail, and buy the latest books, gazettes, and stationery. In London, certain coffeehouses were defined by the professionals who met there to conduct business; some businessmen even maintained regular "office hours" at their coffeehouses of choice. Both Batson's on
Cornhill and
Garraway's in
Change Alley were known for their doctors, surgeons, and apothecaries; the former served as an informal consulting room for doctors and their patients.
The Grecian was attended by lawyers, the Jerusalem was a meeting place for West Indian traders, and the Baltic on
Threadneedle Street was a meeting place for Russian traders. One such business,
Lloyd's Coffee House (established 1686), became an exchange for merchants and shipowners who met there daily to insure ships and cargoes, and to trade intelligence on world trade, shipping disasters, and maritime news. This coffee house would go on to lend its name to the insurance market
Lloyd's of London. Other coffeehouses were distinctly political in character: the St. James's on
St. James's Street and
Old Slaughter's were frequented by
Whigs, while the
Tories and
Jacobites preferred the Coffee-Tree on the corner of St. James's Street and
Pall Mall. In 1706, Tom's Coffee House off the Strand was bought by
Thomas Twining, who began selling tea there as well as coffee, and later founded the
Twinings tea company. Besides coffeehouses, the main public eating and meeting areas were
alehouses and victualling-houses, of which London had around 1,000 during the Stuart era. The word "restaurant" did not yet exist, but London had many eateries in the form of inns, cookshops, ordinaries, taverns and eating houses. The largest inn in London was the
Angel, with 20 rooms. The most exclusive establishments were based on French cooking, like Chatelin's in Covent Garden, and Pontac's Head in Abchurch Lane. The long-standing gentlemen's club
White's was founded in 1693 as White's Chocolate House on
St. James's Street. Britain's strengthening connections to the wider world meant that Londoners were able to access and afford foreign foods like coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar cane more easily. The
Black Eagle Brewery on
Brick Lane was founded in 1661. == Science ==