The work offers a comprehensive historical and social survey of medieval London, opening with concise portraits of successive sovereigns and their interactions with the city, then shifting to civic life: port and trade, the rise of commerce and gentility, street plan and architecture, domestic furnishings, wealth and social customs, food and recreation, literature, libraries, medical practice, recurring disasters such as fire, plague, and famine, and systems of crime and punishment, concluding with onomastic notes and appendices; the text is supplemented by maps, illustrations, and documentary material to illuminate urban institutions and daily life.