Update 1st Feb 2019: I've made a few changes to the layout due to recent updates to the game.
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You've heard of the six-by-six, well how about the eight-by-eight?

I was initially using Pooh's 6x6 design and came up with this idea when trying to figure out the optimal placement for Markets, Hospitals and Bakers. The answer was: in the neighborhood itself!
And thus the eight-by-eight was born.

The 8x8 consists of an outer rim of 12 manors and a 16-tile inner sqaure consisting of two Taverns, a Library, a Baker, a Well, a Hospital and a Market. The Library, Tavern and Well all provide full coverage to the 8x8 unit. Total housing capacity is 300 per unit.


^ Detailed building placement ^

You will have probably have noticed by now that you can't place the inner buildings due to them being too far away from a road. The solution to this is to create a temporary dirt road 2 tiles long into the centre of your 8x8 square. This will allow you to place your inner buildings. Once the inner buildings are in place you are then free to remove the temporary road and put down your final manor.


^ Start the plot like this ^

The second Tavern is closed because it is only there to offset the unhappiness penalty due to overcrowding. It provides no additional happiness from being open and just consumes food and occupies workers.

You can get 5000 population with this method easily. Below is an overview of my current kingdom at 5100 population on a medium-sized map. And I still have three spare plots for addtional housing/farmland.


^ Kingdom overview ^

Good luck and happy city-building!

On Overcrowding:

The Merchants and Ports update introduced the mechanic of overcrowding.
Previously, your kingdom would suffer an unhappiness penalty for dwellings that were not within the radius of a Tavern or Library/Church. Now you will also incur an additional unhappiness penalty if you don't have a certain number of each, this includes the new Bath House as well.

For the purposes of this particular guide it means that for every TWO 8x8 plots you will need ONE additional Library. It should be noted that these extra buildings do not provide any addtional happiness, they just counteract the unhappiness penalty. Therefore, they do NOT need to be within the radius of the 8x8 unit, they can be anywhere in your kingdom. And, at the time of writing, these buildings do not even need to be OPEN. The just need to be built, or at least under construction.

As for Bath Houses, your first unhappiness penalty will occur at 351 population. Subsequent penalties will ocurr at population levels of 1001, 2001, 3001, and so on. So a kingdom of 2000 people will require 2 Bath Houses, but a kingdom of 2001 people will require 3. It should be noted that, like the Library and Tavern, the Bath Houses do not have to be within range of any dwellings to remove the unhappiness penalty.