London Stories

If you walk along the North bank of the Thames just past Cannon St. Station you will come across the following signage (see above), it denotes the location of the medieval Hanseatic trading post in London, "The Steelyard" a compound of wooden houses and warehouses that was the centre of the Hanseatic League in the UK. They also had other sites in Kings Lynn and Boston (Norfolk) but London was obviously the "big apple" as far as medieval markets in the UK went.

This ancient trading group, centred in Lubeck Germany, set up shop in the 1100's and lasted all the way into the 1600's a decent innings for a league of loosely associated people from various Northern European and Baltic cities. They traded various staples of the age, wool, metals, amber, fish, grains and honey and they grew rich over time, garnering various "favours" from the various ruling classes of the cities in which they set up their trading posts. Of course, after a while things became "political" and as the riches built up direct competition from host nation states grew and after a couple of trading wars with various nations, including England, their power and influence gradually waned and by the mid 1600's they'd all but vanished.

I learned more about this period of history while visiting Bergen, Norway last year. Bergen was one of the main Hanseatic centres where a large living museum of their dockside buildings, living quarters and churches still exists today. It's a good tour, like stepping back in time. From Norway the traders took "salt-cod" and amber down to cities like London and Bruges and traded it for things like wool and metal tools. In the snap I took below you can see the crowded wooded warehouses and dwellings in Bergen, most of which are original or restored in their original setting.

Getting back to the "Steelyard", below is a schematic of the area between All Hallows and Cousin Lanes, from the 1600's. Today it's all gone, sold off to the railway companies in the 1800's and is now the site of Cannon St. Station and a few office buildings. In remembrance of that era the bankside pathway in that area is called the "Hanseatic Walk" a reminder that London once contained cities within cities and little (rich) foreign enclaves that helped it grow and prosper.