Six students from De Montfort University have created a stellar 3D representation of 17th century London, as it existed before The Great Fire of 1666. The three-minute video provides a realistic animation of Tudor London, and particularly a section called Pudding Lane where the fire started. As Londonist notes, “Although most of the buildings are conjectural, the students used a realistic street pattern [taken from historical maps] and even included the hanging signs of genuine inns and businesses” mentioned in diaries from the period.
For their efforts, the De Montfort team was awarded first prize in the Off the Map contest, a competition run by The British Library and video game developers GameCity and Crytek.
Commenting on the video, one judge from the esteemed British Library had this to say:
Some of these vistas would not look at all out of place as special effects in a Hollywood studio production. The haze effect lying over the city is brilliant, and great attention has been given to key features of London Bridge, the wooden structure of Queenshithe on the river, even the glittering window casements. I’m really pleased that the Pudding Lane team was able to repurpose some of the maps from the British Library’s amazing map collection – a storehouse of virtual worlds – in such a considered way.
You can find more information about how the animation came together over at the animators’ blog, plus at The British Library’s Digital Scholarship blog.
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Mind-bogglingly WONDERFUL. These students deserve to graduate instantly in whatever discipline for which they’re enrolled. Can’t finish without noting that their uni is in Leicester: does all the very best stuff in history get done there …?
Well, if it’s good enough for Richard III, it should be good enough for anyone!
I BEG YOUR PARDON!!! – is there really any need for this negative kind of comment? Or are you pulling my leg (I hope!)?
I see a York-ist here. :-) nnOddly Leicester does seem to have a big history dept as I’ve seen them mentioned in other similar works. Maybe a speciality of the university?
It’s magnificent. If only you could add in the sounds and smells of the time. I often wonder if my 21st century nose could withstand the odor of thousands who have not bathed or washed their clothes, waste and refuse in the street, decomposing food, etc. How would a person today react to such a sudden influx of smells?
Man they have got to use this for the basis of a video game of some kind – some sort of swashbuckling adventure me thinks
This is spectacular, the images and the music. This will facilitate my dreams of flight, I suspect. Just stunning.
All of those I have shared this with have been stunned. This is a magnificent piece of work. The students deserve the highest praise!
Really great! Enjoyed their work.
I wonder if any reputable “students” of Tudor London have an opinion on the degree of authenticity of this rendering. We humans are very visual animals – seems many of us easily “believe” a visual image to be accurate, whether it really is, or is not. The still images near the beginning of the video included (sick/dying?) persons on the streets, but the animated scenes do not. Sure, not every detail can be included without a movie-sized budget, but I wonder if those things shown **are** accurate and I wonder what things are omitted. I commend these students for creating this thought-provoking suggestion of 400 yrs ago. Well done!!!
Not a history student, but from what I remember in school, there is quite a bit missing such as throwing the rubbish and other stuff out the windows, sewers down the middle of the streets and lots & lots of rats.nnBut I suspect the people behind it wanted to concentrate more on the buildings and what it might have looked like rather than all the details.nnAs mentioned above, the building designs are likely a guess partly based on maps which showed certain businesses, and our visual understanding of what Tudor buildings looked like – maybe more based on what we see in Chester for example.nnIs very very well done for sure.
I didn’t want it to stop, in fact I wanted to get in there and have a wander about! Well done!
I thought that this was absolutely amazing. The detail and colors are outstanding. Well done to the students for creating this video of 17th century London for us all to enjoy. :-)
I thought that this was absolutely amazing. The detail and colors are outstanding. Well done to the students for creating this video of 17th century London for us all to enjoy. :-)
Brilliant – great job, well done to everyone.
Really excellent. Congratulations on your winning entry. Well deserved. I may use this with my class as a stimuli for writing.
Awesome, it’s like a smelly version of World of Warcraft. :)
lol!
Should have used 17th-century music, instead of 21st-century music!
Joe – it’s a traditional ballad of Great Britain – or do you mean the arrangement? Apparently, it’s thought to be about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages; it also may have a connection to an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight and is generally believed to have originated in the 17th century.
In 1666 you had the second great period of English music dawning (after that during Elizabeth’s reign), and they chose to go with movie music from 2013. It’s a pity, but it’s also indicative of how far music as an academic discipline has moved away from the other humanities. The other humanities now know nothing about it and produce things like this–excellent in most regards, but failing to produce a true picture of the time. nnnBallads are not really appropriate in any case for the ethos of 1666 London, which was determinedly cosmopolitan and very proud of its secular and sacred music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbuvFkn9CYU Some epoch-appropriate music which is also very moody and appropriate. Orlando Gibbons, early 17th century, London.
I thin the depiction is not so much to evoke the latest upper class fashions of that year, but to give a sense of that area of London at the time. The average person would still be playing old ballads and living much as their ancestors did hundreds of years previously.
Its great.
The tudor period ended in 1603, when we’re talking 17th century we’re talking Stuarts, just a fyi for historical accuracy. (I’m a history teacher, I can’t help it!)
I should add that I think it’s a great piece of work! It would be amazing to use in the classroom.
I think the point intended was that most of the building were Tudor, Tudor style, built in Elizabeth’s time and still standing. Just as Dickensian London was primarily Georgian not Victorian.
That’s why they all burned so quickly – wood content.
What is the song in the background?
A slowed down ‘are you going to strawberry fair’
It’s the “Scarborough Fair” ballad.
Only two bars are Scarborough Faire – the rest is something different.
The music is from the film “Black Hawk Down” The title is Leave No Man Behind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcxQfCZ_9V8&feature=kp
The music is from the film “Black Hawk Down” The title is Leave No Man Behind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcxQfCZ_9V8&feature=kp
Absolotly brilliant
terrific,,other than the black plague..It makes me want to live there,, :)
Am I the only one who feels like I’m here to upgrade my armor and find the next quest-giver?
Just what I thought…:)
Very nice. But unpopulated.
Brilliant!nnhttp://keithpp.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/pudding-lane/
Brilliant!nnhttp://keithpp.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/pudding-lane/
A bit fast, slow it down, hard on those with motion sickness issues. and the drifting in and out of focus is a bit tough as well. But that maybe solved with slowing it down.. I love it! the details like the flies and garbage is wonderful as well. Will there be more?
Looks like a backdrop to a Fairy tale; so familiar and yet so alien.
very fable 2-esque, very good though.
Too fast, with scenes that demand lingering but are passed over. Bad angles. Poor cinematic direction because it meanders with no reference points during the “flyover” (excluding the beginning which was slow and interesting). I felt a bit nauseous with the veering. It would have been much better as a walk-through; not thought out as either a bird nor plane, just crazy veering. But the graphic renditions of old England were heart rendingly beautiful – why not give them their due?
I wonder if you could do better?
m, Tudor England ended in 1603, when Elizabeth died, and Stuart England started, so I am sure you mean Stuart England…
I think the point intended was that many, perhaps most, of the building were Tudor, Tudor style, built in Elizabeth’s time and still standing. Just as Dickensian London was primarily Georgian not Victorian.
It DOES say 17th century, not 16th.
Way too fast, had trouble focussing and then it was gone already. Half the speed would be good and then I would love it and watch it over and over. Can you slow it down please, as if walking through the allies and stopping to look around you every now and then… This could be so good!
Wonderful! Thank you for creating this magnificent journey into the past. So much detail. Great talents here!
I was totally and utterly spellbound by this. Words can’t express just how good this is. To the students who created this, THANK YOU.
I’m wondering about all the windows in the buildings. I had heard that one of the reasons the houses were so dark is that people were taxed by the number of windows in their houses.
The ‘window tax’ was introduced in 1696 by King William II – a long time after the Tudors.
This is quite amazing but rather static, in my opinion. Only once did I see any human shapes in the streets, yet we know from historical sources that the streets were not nearly so clean. This city in this era was full of people, smells, rats, dogs and cats, horse droppings and garbage. Where are the mudlarks, those little kids who swarmed the banks of the river to find pickings they might sell for a few pennies?
They where left with the other 6 members of the team.
Develop it a little more, combine it with ipad accelerometer and map it using gps, and you could walk through old london, looking at it through your ipad
I really liked it, and can’t wait for the next production, but that video converter overlay at the end is highly deceptive and strikes me as an illegitimate use of an advertiser’s prerogatives, implying among other things both that the production Is downloadable and that Video converter is required to download the production and to run it.. Definitely leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth about the whole show, which is really sad.
they should go into game development…
Hey all, I’m a member of the team and would just like to say a big thanks for the feature here and the comments below. Just to clarify, we aren’t animators, nor are we historians, so if there are any historical inaccuracies (of which I’m sure there are many) then we apologise! As for populating the world, we worked on this over a 14 week period, so had neither the time nor resources to populate it as much as we’d like. Please head on over to our blog to read more about the team and the processes behind the level. Thanks againnnhttp://puddinglanedmuga.blogspot.co.uk/
Beautiful work…aesthetically, musically, emotionally and spiritually. Congratulations on this accomplishment.
Please share the name of that haunting melody..it also is marvelous….
Loved it – and as realistic as you’re likely to get for this period, unless someone takes a camcorder back on Dr. Emmett Brown’s time Delorean !
Very realistic looking, great work! Would make a great game platform
I think that this is wonderful, but believe that 3 things are missing: the mass of humanity, the dark/dank/dreary/wet cold, and the filth.
Everything moves too fast.
The Elder Scrolls: London ;)
fantastic, thank you, my eight year loves it.
One quibble. This is not Tudor London. The Tudors died out in 1601 with the death of Elizabeth I. This is Stewart London.
Actually, the Stuarts came to power with Elizabeth’s death in 1603.
1603, Danny-Jane, and it’s spelled Stuart, but your point is well-taken.
This is superb. Having worked until recently only a few streets away from Pudding Lane, it is brilliant to see a representation of what it may have looked like. Well done
Breathtaking! Absolutely beautiful! If I may make one suggestion – slow it down so viewers can enjoy it more!
Well I loved it and perhaps yes it could
have been a little slower to take it all in but I thought it wonderful. Thank you.
Nice work! What program was used to create? Painstaking research (or labor of love) into the buildings on particular streets and lanes, if this is all accurate. I’ve done the same thing with 1600 and 1700s Boston, in a picturebook form (not yet published). Beautiful work!
http://www.historicalplayhouses.com Here are 18 VR reconstructions of lost theatres and playhouses from historical eras from the Ancient Greeks through the 17th Century. “Worls of Warcraft for theatre historians.”
Inspired choice to use the Hans Zimmer music as the soundtrack. As an archaeologist who has just been involved in excavating part of a medieval burgh, I found the whole thing realistic and absolutely fascinating
As a student if this period, I found it amazing that the architecture and the views of the daily life, could be so realistically reproduced.
Em! Yes – I suppose a rather idealised video portrayal without the effluent and streets running with ‘you know what’. And, where were the people, beasts of burden, miscreant malnourished urchins and dictatorial militia, etc? And, please can you add an app that could give us the putrid smell of the times as well as the quaint cottage upon cottage struggling poverty people of the time view?nnEver so sorry! This is a travesty of history. And, we all know it!
I’ve worked with games engines for about 9 years as an animator and 3D model artist so I guess I’ve come to expect more from people =/
not very evocative – few distinctive London places, most of it might be anywhere. no London bridge, whitehall palace, st paul’s churchyard full of bookshops, no theatres etc. and no people – where are they all? the thames was a busy thoeoughfare, full of. Boats of all kinds – where are they?
I assume that this was in the first half of the 17th century, prior to the Great Fire? This was a time when chamber pots were emptied by being dumped out the window. The stench must have been terrific.
Bob Locke
wonderful images of London in 16 century. I watched it over again. As others have said, would be better a little slower. Please make some more…..love it.
Very interesting, but (as others have said) too fast, and the “camera” swoops and veers too much. An indication of street names would have been good.
I wondered about some of the incidental detail. For instance, was any effort made to identify the kind of clothing that might have been hung out to dry? I saw lots of longjohns, but no baggy breeches and no women’s shifts (though given the speed, maybe I just didn’t notice them).
How accurate is it to show tombstones in a graveyard at this period? The tomb and gravestones shown look typical of the 18th and 19th century. My understanding is that monuments would have been inside the churches: it wasn’t till later that a. the rich would have buried in the churchyard, and b. the less rich would have been able to afford gravestones.
Nice, but I missed seeing all the people ( Yes I know that makes the animation that much more complicated) it was like looking at a ghost town!
amazingly clever,i feel it could have been slowed down a little so you could read signs and actually take in more of the buildings.We were kind of whizzed through.
I’m interested. Please forward any necessary details to subscribe.
Thank you,
C. E. Crist-Schwab
Absolutely amazing! The only thing I would change is the speed, I would love to see it slower so you can take more in.
Thank you-really enjoyed your work.
So much so that I wish it moved a bit slower.
Keep up the good work-looking forward to seeing your next project.
What might it have been like living in 17 century London before the great fire of 1666? This short video feast with music is a GREAT possible depiction. This is fun to watch and quite well done. Read the background information first for the best experience. Best in full screen with your sound up. Having walked the streets and back alleys of modern London myself a few times I found this more than interesting. I even did a pub walk one time with a historian leading the group through the area of “Jack the Ripper”.
London is one of the great cities of the world (one of my 5 most favorites of Europe), and this is a new and different way to experience it.
Enjoy! Jack.
if it was a tad faster we could wave our hands in the air and squeal.
I really enjoyed watching this but agree with other comments that is have liked it to be a little slower. I would also like to comment on the music. Why choose something that is not representative of 17th century London? You’ve gone to all this effort to create an amazing representation but the music is completely inappropriate. Shame.
Those complaining about the reference to this being “Stuart England” not Tudor are missing the mark. While the time-period was Stuart England, the area of London being portrayed was built in Tudor times and had not changed one iota. It quite literally WAS Tudor London. One doesn’t refer to a Tudor building as 21st century simply because we are viewing it in 2015. Old Tudor London was destroyed by the fire of 1666 and rebuilt. Until then, it remained Tudor London.
I meant to say “complaining about the reference to this being Tudor London, not Stuart London”.
Excellent but a little bit spooky having non of the residents of old London on the scene. The first and second images remind me of Fish Street in Shrewsbury, it still looks very much the same today.
This is amazing, I’ve watched it three times so far! The music is lovely and fits my idea of what a tune could sound like at that time. Great work, students!
My architect friend shared this on facebook with me, it is wonderful.
Would love to show it to a year 2 class( age 6-7) in a primary school in London if possible? They are currently studying the great fire of London, soon to visit pudding lane ,and this would no doubt truly inspire them.
Could you suggest how I would do this.. We have a whiteboard and computers but might you have a link please.
You should copyright this ASAP and sell it to the schools in the uk as it is on the curriculum! Go for it.
Good luck
Clare fraser( mother of 3 and teaching assistant)
Excellent! An amzing job! I can think of so many uses for this with my students.
Only one comment…it might be nice to slow it down a little…but that might be an age thing and me needing more time to pick up detail. My students seem to be much faster at picking up visual detail – that itself is an activity!
Thank you.
It’s a great piece of work, but I feel the viewer is hurried along at ‘modern’ dizzying speed, rather than walking pace. Also: shouldn’t all the paths and cobbled streets have runnels in the centre, for the slops, dead dogs and other rubbish?
Gosh, this is awesome.
I would have LOVED to have explored 17th century London Bridge which is SO amazingly different to that which we have today. There was a tantalising moment I thought we were going to go onto it.
London Bridge Fantasy. Would be great to see under it, over it, from a distance and through it from north to south and back again.
Please please please can you do a tour of London Bridge please???? Pretty please?
Wonderful detail but it needs to pan a little slower to give the viewer time to take in what they are seeing. Also, some of the sequences are too short. Walking pace would make this so much better.
very cool!
I was lucky enough to have a month in Britain just 2 weeks ago and got a glimpse of the old buildings every so often and loved them, coming from a country that does not have buildings much older than 100-150 years old, I would have loved to have the opportunity to have seen these in their original state although life would probably have been too hard for me, so thank you for the little trip into the past
too much glass I think – most places would be shuttered and shutters closed at night. Pane glass was very expensive and rare but seems almost abundant here.
Those saying about open sewers, many sewers were underground in the walled city of London, romans built sewers that weren’t weren’t replaced till 1800 or so.
This project wasn’t by history students, so just a shared interest I think.
Insisting this be labeled “Stuart” London and not, “Tudor,” is the height of pretentious absurdity.
Very nice indeed.
No bad there weren’t people in the video though,
Well, they’ve certainly got the Thomas Kincaid lighting down.
Hope they do it so that we can watch with 3D glasses, using the mapping ‘Street View’ technique.
thank you
THANK YOU……..
PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO GAME BASED ON THIS!!!
There are so few actually good historical games. Red dead Redemption took advantage of this and turned out MAGICAL.
Wow, this is the period and place I have found most interesting, and I have chill bumps. This was incredible.
Great post full of great points
youtube have a feature if you press the video quality icon you can select a slower speed.
Brilliant….magical even.
Yes they should have used some music recorded in 1666 on records made of sliced oak trunk.
I really enjoyed your production. You did a fantastic job and you can be proud. Okay, you didn’t choose music from that time period, but I still liked the mood that the music you chose set. I think it created an interesting affect and really that’s what music is about, to enhance the overall experience. Good Work!
Excellent piece of work. I think people who make minor complaints are being pedantic – this is not a Hollywood production! As for one of the early comments about there being no smell, I think if you go to Yorvik in York they do a roller-coster type of tour through the ‘old town’ with authentic odours. I don’t actually know as the woman in the carriage in front of me was wearing a really pungent perfume which knumbed my nasal passages! Anyway, great job, although it did rather remind me of parts of modern-day Bristol!
The platform reminds me a lot of SecondLife. I have met many builders and gaming engineers crafting make your “sims” – servers just.like this. Very well done. If you are ever looking at a similar platform to work on check out that program.
Crafting on a platform such as this called sims.* Which are servers. Sorry my autocorrect killed my earlier post.
Too clean and underpopulated.
Turn it into a ‘Streetmap’ with street names and allow the view to control the speed/direction/aerial controls then add life..rats,people,horses,donkeys,cat, dogs…. Vomit enducing images would make it realistic also as the place looks far too clean for the period. Thoroughly enjoyed but was over in a flash… I want to look in the windows and see life going on ;) great work otherwise thanks.
Excellent, first-rate, and speaking as a writer, inspiring!
First time I have seen this. It is lovely… sets the imagination going, Could “smell” the atmosphere and feel the heat form the braziers…Would have liked it a bit slower and looked into the shops and wander up the alleys…Are you going to make another one about another subject? It must take many, many hours…Thank you.
Anyone ever tell you you’re a tiresome, boring snob? This video is amazing and took a tremendous amount of skill – skill I’m sure you don’t have. Appreciate what is there, which is masterful, instead of whining about the lack of “beasts of burden, miscreant malnourished urchins and dictatorial militia” in a vain attempt to impress people with your “knowledge”. You sound like the kind of person who knows she will never create anything of value, so needs to pedantically throw cold water over those who do.
Really enjoyed that….Fantastic imagery..Along with a lot of other observers I would have liked more time though.It did fly past a little to quickly to take in fully.
Really enjoyed that….Fantastic imagery..Along with a lot of other observers I would have liked more time though.It did fly past a little to quickly to take in fully.
Sorry about the spelling….Didn’t check
I think this is just bloody marvellous. Be proud young people of your fantastic achievement. To the naysayers, just ignore them. I have played it through twice now and will do it again and again to enjoy it.
I would imagine nose blindness played a big part. Surrounded by all the horrid smells 24/7 you’d eventually stop noticing. Someone new coming into the city though, you’d smell it a mile away I’d bet.
This is FABULOUS!! I love it. Is there a way to slow it down? I would so very much like to watch it so I could look at the details. Congratulations on a wonderful piece of work. I hope to see more in the future.
I was thinking Fable 3. And I was seriously wondering if this wasn’t plagiarized from Lionshead.
just brilliant!! many thanks.
It’s Bree Town from lotro! :)
Must admit, I was imagining the smells, noise, and crowdedness of as the video advanced.
I was curious to know the name of the music used with this video. It’s lovely. :)
Also would be interested to know which ballad it’s based on.
Thanks for the reference to The Elfin Knight. That one’s clearly related to the more modern Scarborough Fair.
Really well done despite some petty criticism. I visited Dicken’s World at Chatham on my last visit ‘home’ about 3 years ago and thought that was fantastic also.
Beautiful and very moving, thank you.
Absolutely amazing! Would be great to slow it down a little bit, but can always pause it. The detail though is phenomenal. My son is 6 and has been learning about the Great Fire of London and has been constantly asking what London really looked like back then. This just answered all of his questions, thank you! Six years on from creating this, it would be fascinating to see what the team could add further to this with newer technology.
I teach British Literature to high school students. Is there any way to get this in the classroom? I would love for them to see this!
Wonderful Imaginary, the streetscapes of the city were so gloomy and I couldn’t imagine myself living in such a dismal place? But the students “should” be commended on such an excellent rendition of time and place back when! I loved it! Now I know why explorers sailed the seven seas to discover new worlds and the Americas? I sure as hell would have lived in the countryside! My God man?
Glenn Ford, Canadian
This was absolutely amazing!!! I loved it. Thank you!!!
This is just like when I fly in my dreams!! INCREDIBLE!!
MORE, PLEASE!
I loved it, didn’t realize there were so many churches then, and Oh! how I longed to peer into those windows!
wheres all the crap and filth on the streets.
I came across this via a Tudor page and was thoroughly enthralled by the content. I could almost have been ‘in there’ it was ,to me, very realistic and left me wanting more. Thank you to the brilliant students who created this video and I wish them every success in their future.
Terrific. Thanks.
During covid, & its budget cuts, it was surprising how tall weeds quickly sprang up along modern tarmac-sealed roads.
With ancient streets awash with human & animal nutrients, & no weedkiller sprays, & little centralised cleaning, I’d imagine patches of quite thick weeds would be in almost every view. Loved the falling leaf effect in the film, but leaves would drift & rot against walls.
Similarly with narrow, very damp streets, the walls themselves would tend to grow patches of weeds & have mould patches amongst the soot stains. Horses’ hooves & cart wheels would tend to splatter an excrement stain, say 2ft up most walls.
But perhaps London was far more sophisticated, & its just a Monty-Python-style urge to imagine historic images covered in far more crap?
Perhaps a decent smattering of derilict properties & building plots, if ownership was less clearcut & inheritance courts glacially slow?
Also a healthy percentage of properties undergoing building work? Semi-permanant rebuilding projects seems to be a standard feature of most world cities, especialy where mortgage-finance is rare?