This book, written by an urban archaeologist who worked for the Museum of London from 1974 to 2008, represents a summary of the most intensively studied city, archaeologically speaking, in the world. As such it is a major contribution to the series, Studies in the Archaeology of Medieval Europe. Schofield thinks there was a degree of cultural homogeneity throughout the Continent and refers frequently to parallel developments in other European towns such as Rome, Lubeck, Paris, Prague and Regensburg.

Starting with public buildings and concerns, he proceeds to consider castles, palaces and royal houses, moves thence to lesser houses – about which he himself has contributed a major work (Schofield Reference Schofield2003) – and from there progresses to look at daily life and neighbourhoods. The importance of religion in every aspect of the city's day-to-day activities is stressed. This then leads on to a description of human health and the environment. At this point he extends his survey to the Home Counties, still surprisingly rich in timber-framed houses. The book comes to an end with the Reformation and impact of the Tudors on the city.

Among the most striking conclusions from all this is that the archaeological evidence is good and thick in the central conurbation despite the damaging digging of basements. He claims that ‘made ground’ found bordering the Thames offers great archaeological potential, yielding thousands of finds which have been closely studied and published in books on such subjects as textiles, knives, scabbards, shoes and dress accessories. A second conclusion is that the site of London itself shifted about in the Anglo-Saxon period; it moved from the Roman walled city to the area around the modern Aldwych and back again under King Alfred. One reason for London's astonishing growth is the construction of London Bridge, perhaps the greatest piece of civil engineering undertaken in medieval England. It was built c 1000 and rebuilt throughout the period. The distribution of pottery from many European sources proves that pre-Conquest London was part of a commercial network centred on the Baltic and North Sea. After the Norman Conquest cross-channel trade changed the trading focus, a point not made by Schofield. All this contributed to a great rise in population, particularly in the second half of the sixteenth century (from 50,000 to 200,000) but with no commensurate growth in the area of the city, forcing buildings to be extended upwards. Further, the city spread into the area previously occupied by a ring of monastic establishments. The Roman origins of London continued to influence the medieval layout, the Guildhall being built on the site of the Roman amphitheatre, for example. London's public buildings also included the fifteenth-century Leadenhall, creating a huge storage chamber for grain with a market underneath, paralleled by similar buildings in Cologne and Nuremburg.

When considering the city's defences Schofield reminds us that the Londoners were a difficult lot to govern. The Normans recognised this by building the Tower, a fortress to overawe the eastern part of the city. The astonishing concentration of monastic houses in London was accompanied by the construction and maintenance of more than a hundred churches, only to be thinned by the Great Fire of 1666. The elite vied with one another to be buried in the priories, and the monasteries were centres of craft production. The churches themselves would seem to have exploited the rich potential of religious tourism. More than 260 different types of religious badge have been identified by Brian Spencer, many thrown into the river and picked up from the foreshore mud. Schofield makes the entertaining suggestion that the Church would have encouraged this to forestall pilgrims from chipping off pieces of shrines for souvenirs! The large mortality suffered by a population vulnerable to disease by malnutrition was exacerbated by the economic difficulties of the early fourteenth century. However, plague pits are few, which is strange.

The book is valuable not only for bringing the reader up to date with archaeological discoveries; it also sets out an agenda for future work. There is as yet no comprehensive study of the city's defences. The extension of the walls to the south and west of Ludgate, the additions of the bastions and the nature of the gateways all need further research. Much remains to be done to explain how churches fitted into the landscape, the detailed processes of their construction, furnishings, tombs and decoration. Other aspects needing research are the artefacts associated with civic power. Prisons, the operation of the law and the penal system all need in-depth study. It seems that London had two significant functions: to provide both the necessities and the luxuries to the institutions and people who came from the country round about, and to draw on the region for its own sustenance and growth. Finally, Schofield admits that he is not equipped to survey the possible effects of changes in the climate and weather on the citizens but it appears that by the seventeenth century the west end of London was developed to protect rich people from the effects of atmospheric pollution.

Perhaps the most significant gap in the book is the question of what actually is meant by the phrase ‘a capital city’.