Regulating the Streets

Abstract

The summary courts of the City also concerned themselves with a range of regulatory actions, as well as interpersonal violence and petty theft, arising from daily life in the capital. These can be roughly divided into two types: economic and social regulatory offences and issues concerning the discipline, mobility and sexuality of the poor. Combined, these two areas probably accounted for around a third of all offences brought before the summary courts. This area of the courts’ business covered disorderly behaviour, which often meant drunkenness on the City’s streets, prostitution, problems with beggars and vagrants as well as traffic problems such as dangerous driving and obstruction. Much of the business of the summary courts is therefore best seen as the simple regulation of everyday life. Most of the individuals involved in these prosecutions would have been the constables, watchmen and street keepers who were the historical predecessors of modern policemen and traffic wardens.