TUDORS

ENTERTAINMENT

There were many types of entertainment available in Tudor London. The main entertainment district was Bank side on the south side of the River Thames. Here there were the playhouses (purpose-built open-air theatres) for watching plays, pleasure gardens for admiring the plants and many taverns for drinking and eating. There were cock-fighting pits and the bull- and bear-baiting arenas where animals were made to fight each other for sport. People paid between two and four pence to watch bears and bulls being attacked by mastiff dogs.There was also nights dulling along side lovely songs.

HEALTH AND HYGIENE

In Tudor times people did not understand exactly how diseases were spread and how to treat different illnesses so they tried cures that might seem strange to us today. The plague was a disease that killed thousands of Londoners in the 16th century. One of the ways people tried to prevent the plague was to burn sweet smelling herbs as many believed the plague was spread through bad smells. People bought medicines in jars like we do today but they also believed in the power of objects to heal the sick, such as gold coins given by the king as a cure for the skin disease scrofula.

CLOTHING

Portraits and paintings are very useful for showing us what people wore in Tudor times but they often only depict wealthy people who could afford the most expensive clothes. Archaeological excavations frequently reveal the type of clothing worn by ordinary Londoners. Archaeologists have found the shoe buckles, leather jerkins, shoes, pins, headdress frames and laces that were part of everyday Tudor clothing.