ABSTRACT
The parish of St. Katherine Creechurch was one of the largest parochial communities in early seventeenth-century London and lay in the less fashionable east end of the metropolis by Aldgate and the city wall. Dirty, smelly and noisy, subject to the polluting stench carried across the City by the prevailing westerly wind, the parish, like much of intra-mural London, was an inhospitable place for all save the wealthy. The months of January and February brought with them biting cold, snow and sleet; March and April were marked by windy days and heavy rainfall; with June came stifling heat; with July and August the odd flash of lightning and the sound of thunder; October and November could bring heavy fog; and with December came the hard, bitter winter. So cold was the weather that even the Thames sometimes froze over in the winter months, a spectacle swiftly followed by fairs and games on the river’s icy surface.
