What was in a Medieval City?

Introduction

We've all been there. The characters wander into a town or village. You start describing it: it's late, so there aren't many people around. The only life from the town comes from the tavern, from which you can hear singing... yadda yadda yadda. How many towns can be that way? Bustling with people going about their business during the day, deserted by night, filled with... um... blacksmiths and general store owners and innkeepers, mostly. What else is there, anyway?

The purpose of this document is to give you some ideas about what's in all these towns the players come to.

Medieval Occupations

There were many lines of work in the Middle Ages. Luckily for everybody, I distilled a whole bunch of medieval occupations off of the Internet for your perusal and edification. Here they are

The Streets of a Medieval City

Their Substance

Some streets in the Middle Ages were paved: particularly main thoroughfares. Paving was done by laying stones down. XXX expand

Many streets in the Middle Ages were not paved -- instead, just being packed earth. This worked well enough until it rained, when the streets were transformed into swirling quagmires of mud that sucked at your shoes.

The consequences of this are often overlooked in fantasy game worlds. Mud would often be tracked into buildings, and the richer members of society would brush off boots before entering one another's homes, to avoid sullying their host's living spaces.

Even when it didn't rain, the streets were dusty (causing dust to cling to pants, boots, and clothes) and rough and rutted (causing wheels to break, carts to overturn, and people's tempers to flare). The lack of smooth, clean city streets is something often overlooked when thinking about times gone by.

Their names

People of similar occupations tended to congregate in certain areas of cities. Thus, certain streets were named after th> predominant occupation of its inhabitants. The Street of Moneylenders, the Street of Rope Makers, etc.

Names like Main Street and King Street were already in vogue... that is where many of our current street names come from.

Sections of the city could be named after the occupants of the section, either their race, their religious beliefs, or any other aspect of the people.