London in the 18th Century presents a stunning reproduction of pioneering cartographer John Rocque’s 1746 masterpiece “An Exact Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster,” a new map which provided an unprecedented, detailed bird’s-eye view of London for the first time.
Superior in clarity to anything that had gone before, Roque’s 1746 map of London was nothing short of revolutionary – presenting the city and its rural surrounds in fine and accurate detail for the very first time.
Anyone who compares Rocque’s map with its modern counterparts will find it remarkably precise, for by his day the instrumental survey, with perambulator, plane-table and theodolite, was already nearly two centuries old.
The map, in 24 sections, has been carefully conserved and the contemporary illustrations restored to pristine quality to give unique insight into Georgian London. Each section of Rocque’s map is brought to life with an accompanying history and illustrations, exploring what life in London’s districts was like at the time, while identifying streets and buildings which still exist and plotting the course of major thoroughfares yet to come.
Section of map featuring Brick Lane, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, marking the edge of the city of London
An eye opening guide to 18th century London, Roque’s map transports readers to a time when London was the most intensely industrialised area of the country and a global centre for trade, when tall ships sailed up the Thames. When London Bridge had 551 inhabitants, only two bridges spanned the river, heads could be seen on spikes outside Temple Bar and people travelled to the capital from across the county to trade in coal, wool, cloth, meat and corn.
The first London Bridge, as it appeared before the houses were pulled down in 1757.
Each section of Roque’s detailed map reveal the stories of different areas of London, at a time when Bermondsey was the centre of Ropemaking, watchmakers in Clerkenwell and weavers in Spitalfields, where Marylebone fields was an area of scrubland used for duels and hampered by highway men, where Bethnal Green was a country retreat where gentlefolk went for fresh air, cake and ale, where Mile End was a small country town and Whitechapel was the city’s rubbish dump, where Bloomsbury had fresh water springs that were fed to water nearby Holborn and where the city stopped at the river, with South London a land of fields, orchards, Inns, farms, timber yards and military camping grounds as well as the famous Vauxhall Gardens were all of society would convene for fashionable gatherings.
