Oh dear, just as we start imagining the romantic, colourful side of life in medieval London, we’re obliged to consider the other side of that particular coin. My trawlings through the Close Rolls and Richard II brought me to the following entry for 12 March 1393:
“….To the bailiffs of Westminster of the abbot of Westminster. Order upon sight etc. to cause proclamation to be made of an order made in the parliament last holden at Winchester with assent of parliament, for the credit of the city of London and of other places between the palace of Westminster and the Tower of London and to avoid pollution of the air there, that all unclean entrails, issues and intestines of beasts, dung, dunghills, ordure, rubbish, lastage, filth etc. between those places on either side of the Thames shall before Whitsuntide next be removed, abolished and taken away, and that henceforward no man shall put or cast any into the river, or cause that to be done, under a pain of 40l., and order to cause the same to be observed….”
Lord above. And to think I start jumping up and down and squawking when the darling seagulls of Gloucester start pulling black refuse bags apart! Their ancestors in 1393 must have thought they were in Paradise!
I found the Close Rolls entry here which requires a subscription. But the quote is complete.
murreyandblue 
If the city standard hadn’t demanded a level of cleanliness, the requirement wouldn’t have existed.
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