The king, Charles II, imposed a lockdown to prevent people mixing, ships with infection aboard were quarantined, food deliveries were organised for the poor, trade was suspended, fairs banned and the Scottish border closed. This is 1665 as attempts were made to halt the great plague. London lost 15% of its population. Officially the capital’s death toll was 68,596 but it was probably nearer to 100,000. Other big cities suffered too, especially York.
The king and his courtiers decamped to the safety of Oxford. Lawyers, rich merchants and doctors fled to the countryside. What sounds horribly familiar is that it was the poor and deprived, living in cramped conditions in the inner-city suburbs, that suffered most. The servants, shoemakers and tradesmen lost their jobs. A contact with an infectious person meant 40 days in quarantine at home. A red cross was painted on the door and watchmen were employed to make sure order was enforced. At night, carts passed through the streets with cries of “bring out your dead”.
The difference is that on this day, 10 November, the number of deaths began to fall dramatically, having peaked at 7,000 a day in September. The winter cold was killing off the rats and their fleas that spread the bubonic plague. Life began to return to normal by Christmas.
