This building on the right shows how some of the buildings were built to make use of every square inch. You can see that the second floor is larger than the ground level. Originally the taxes were paid on the ground level only, so the landowners figured out a way to get a couple of tax-free feet! This particular building has a tea room upstairs and when we went up for tea, I couldn't believe how it was built. The photo below shows the ceiling right above Hein's head! Above that ceiling is another floor for the tea room that is used when the floor we were on is full. And the floor of that level sloped down toward the front of the building. The decor is lovely old-old English with fresh flowers on every table. We were the only ones there and it was relaxing to just have tea and cake and watch the people walking on the street below. It was definately obvious that it was an ancient building.

This next picture is of a street called "The Shambles". Cities in many parts of this area had a street like this which was originally lined with butcher shops. These streets were among the worst places to go because the meat would be hung out in the open during the day, then the scraps (entrails, etc) would just be thrown out in the street at night for the dogs and whatever or whoever else happened along. The sanitary conditions were nonexistent and unless it rained, like in the picture, you can just imagine what being there would be like. This was considered to be one of the contributors of the plagues that Europe had during the dark ages.