DESCRIPTION.--In some ways this map is the most interesting of the whole
series, for it comes nearest to our own times, and yet by studying it we
can infer the remarkable changes that have taken place within the memory of
man. It is much more comprehensive than Ogilby's, including the whole of
the outlying suburbs, and even going as far as Edgware and Tottenham, which
are still no part even of Greater London.
DESIGNER.--Very little is known about John Rocque. He was probably a native
of France, but was residing in England about 1750. He engraved maps and a
few views from his own designs.
ORIGINAL.--The original is in twenty-four sheets, and is 13 feet in length
and 6¾ feet in depth. It can be seen at the British Museum. That which is
here presented is the central part of this, not reduced, but on the same
scale. Its interest is greatly increased by the fact that the names are
printed on the map, and are not given separately as in other instances. To
facilitate this Rocque has marked the houses bordering streets in white,
and only blocked them in black where they line market-gardens and other
parts indicated by a light surface. The map is a model of care and
comprehensive detail.
DETAIL.--Beginning in the lower left-hand corner, we have the Royal
Hospital, with its neatly-laid-out grounds. Close to it the Westbourne,
whose irregular line determined the boundaries of Chelsea, falls into the
Thames; higher up its course is through the Five Fields, now one of the
most wealthy and popular districts of London--namely, Belgravia. St.
George's Hospital is already standing at Hyde Park Corner, and a fringe of
houses lines the road to Knightsbridge. Westminster is still largely open
in the west by Tothill Fields, scene of so many tournaments and jousts, and
the curve of the river encloses innumerable market-gardens. In St. James's
Park the stiff canal, memento of Dutch influence, has not yet been
transformed into the more attractive ornamental water. Carlton House
Terrace has not come into existence. Here Carlton House, which does not
appear to be marked, was standing, and was occupied by Frederick, Prince of
Wales, father of George III. North of this, with the omission of Regent
Street, made in 1813-20, the streets are pretty much as we know them. It is
beyond Oxford Street northward that the difference is striking. This
district was only just being built upon, and the well-laid-out streets soon
run off into open country. "Marybone" Gardens, a favourite tea-garden, and
the church, and a few houses, form a little hamlet just connected with the
other part of London by a single street, and further westward, north of
Berkeley Square, are fields. In the midst of these is the "Yorkshire
Stingo," the public-house from which the first omnibus in the Metropolis
began to run in 1829. The Tyburn Gallows still had much work to do; it was
fifty years later that the last execution took place here. Just within the
Hyde Park is the gruesome record, "where soldiers are shot." If we follow
Oxford Street eastward to Tottenham Court Road, we find that it is only
connected with High Holborn by the curve through High and Broad Streets at
St. Giles's. To the south is the star of Seven Dials, and all the district
so completely altered by the cutting through of Charing Cross Road, and
then Shaftesbury Avenue in modern times. To the north, Montagu House
occupies the site the British Museum was destined to fill; it was purchased
by the Government in 1753, and pulled down about a hundred years later.
Bedford House, the town residence of the Dukes of Bedford, stood until
1800. Behind, Lamb's Conduit Fields run up to Battle Bridge, where one of
the early British battles was fought; this is now the site of King's Cross
Station. Not far off Bagnigge Wells and Sadler's Wells are in the heyday of
their prosperity. The Fleet or River of Wells may be traced passing through
the former, but further south it is covered in, and does not appear in the
open again until below Fleet Bridge, when it is ignominiously called Fleet
Ditch.
Thames side is still fringed with "stairs to take water at" leading from
the great houses on the margin, and there is as yet no embankment.
Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, however, afford easy access to the
southern side. The labyrinth of the City is not seriously different from
that of the present day except in the omission of Cannon Street. Bethlehem
Hospital is still conspicuous, and the City wall has vanished strangely.
What we now call Finsbury Square is marked as Upper Moorfields. We have to
go far before we clear the houses to the east. Stepney and Bethnal Green
are fairly thickly populated, and though surrounded by open ground, are
connected by houses all the way from the City. But in the bend of the river
by Wapping the chief area is occupied by market-gardens. Crossing over to
the other side, we find the market-gardens very prominent; as London grows
larger she thrusts her sources of supply further from her. The central
ganglion of the Borough Road and its ray-like connections are marked out.
At one end is the "King's Bench," which was close to the Marshalsea,
associated with "Little Dorrit." The Marshalsea itself is not marked.
Dickens was yet to come, and it was only through his writings that it
gained a sentimental interest. A great part of the Borough is very marshy
indeed, and we note frequent ponds. The "Dog and Duck," otherwise "St.
George's Spaw," is almost surrounded by them.
To sum up in Sir Walter Besant's words:
"London, then, in the eighteenth century consisted first of the City,
nearly the whole of which had been rebuilt after the Fire, only a small
portion in the east and north containing the older buildings; a workmen's
quarter at Whitechapel; a lawyer's quarter from Gray's Inn to the Temple,
both inclusive; a quarter north of the Strand occupied by coffee-houses,
taverns, theatres, a great market, and the people belonging to these
places; an aristocratic quarter lying east of Hyde Park; and Westminster,
with its Houses of Parliament, its Abbey, and the worst slums in the whole
City. On the other side of the river, between London Bridge and St.
George's, was a busy High Street with streets to right and left; the river
bank was lined with houses from Paris Gardens to Rotherhithe; there were
streets at the back of St. Thomas's and Guy's; Lambeth Marsh lay in open
fields, and gardens intersected by sluggish streams and ditches; and
Rotherhithe Marsh lay equally open in meadows and gardens, with ponds and
ditches in the east....
"From any part of London it was possible to get into the country in a
quarter of an hour. One realizes the rural surroundings of the City by
considering that north of Gray's Inn was open country with fields; that
Queen Square, Bloomsbury, had its north side left purposely open in order
that the residents might enjoy the view of the Highgate and Hampstead
Hills. On the south side of the river Camberwell was a leafy grove; Herne
Hill was a park set with stately trees; Denmark Hill was a wooded wild; the
hanging woods of Penge and Norwood were as lovely as those that one can now
see at Cliveden or on the banks of the Wye" (_London in the Eighteenth
Century_, pp. 77-79).
* * * * *
[Illustration]
1. The Palace of Westminster.
2. St. Stephen's Chapel.
3. Westminster Hall.
4. Westminster Abbey.
5. Old Palace Yard.
6. The Clock Tower.
7. The Gate House.
8. St. Margaret's Church.
9. The King's Stairs.
10. Star Chamber.
11. Lambeth Palace.
12. Stangate Horse Ferry.
13. St. James's Hospital.
14. St. James's.
15. Whitehall.
16. Holbein's Gate.
17. Scotland Yard.
18. Charing Cross.
19. King's Mews.
20. St. Martin's Church.
21. St. Mary's Hospital.
22. St. Giles's Church.
23. Convent Garden.
24. The Strand.
25. York House.
26. Durham House.
27. Savoy Palace.
28. Somerset Place.
29. St. Mary Le Strand.
30. St. Clement's Dane.
31. Lincoln's Inn.
32. Lincoln's Inn Fields.
33. Gray's Inn.
34. Ely House.
35. Fetter Lane.
36. Rolls Place.
37. St. Dunstan's Church.
38. The Temple Church.
39. The Temple.
40. Fleet Street.
41. Grey Friars.
42. Palace of Bridewell.
43. St. Bride's.
44. St. Andrew's Church.
45. St. Sepulchre's Church.
46. Fleet Ditch.
47. St. John's Hospital.
48. Smithfield.
49. St. James's, Clerkenwell.
50. Newgate.
51. Ludgate.
52. Blackfriars.
53. The Wardrobe.
54. Baynard Castle.
55. St. Paul's Cathedral.
56. St. Paul's Cross.
57. St. Bartholomew's the Great.
58. Grey Friars.
59. Queen Hythe.
64. The Standard.
66. Rochester House.
69. The Stews.
128. Bank Side.
From the Panorama of "London, Westminster, and Southwark, in 1543." By
Anthony Van den Wyngaerde. (Sutherland Collection, Bodleian Library,
Oxford.) _For continuation see pp. 234 and 350._
_pp. 218, 219._
* * * * *
[Illustration]
47. St. John's Hospital.
48. Smithfield.
49. St. James's, Clerkenwell.
54. Baynard Castle.
55. St. Paul's Cathedral.
58. Grey Friars.
59. Queen Hythe.
60. St. Martin's le Grand.
61. Aldersgate.
62. Jews' Cemetery.
63. Cheapside.
64. The Standard.
65. Cross, Cheapside.
66. Rochester House.
67. Winchester House.
68. St. Mary's Overie.
70. St. Thomas's Hospital.
71. St. George's Church.
72. Kent Road.
73. Suffolk House.
74. St. Giles's, Cripplegate.
75. Cripplegate.
76. The Barbican.
77. St. Albans, Wood Street.
78. Bow Church.
79. Broken Wharf.
80. The Cranes.
81. The Steel Yard.
82. Cold Harbour.
83. Fishmongers' Hall.
84. St. Thomas of Acons.
85. Guildhall.
86. Moorgate.
87. Austin Friars.
88. Bishopsgate.
89. Church of St. Magnus.
90. London Bridge.
91. St. Thomas's Chapel.
92. Bridge House.
93. St. Olave's Church.
94. St. Agnes's le Clare.
95. Hoxton.
96. St. Botolph, Bishopsgate.
97. Leadenhall.
98. Botolph Wharf.
99. Billingsgate.
100. St. Mary Spittal.
101. Walls of London.
107. High Street, Southwark.
From the Panorama of "London, Westminster, and Southwark, in 1543." By
Anthony Van den Wyngaerde. (Sutherland Collection, Bodleian Library,
Oxford.) _For continuation see pp. 218 and 350._
_pp. 234-235._
* * * * *
[Illustration]
100. St. Mary Spittal.
102. Houndsditch.
103. Crutched Friars.
104. Priory of Holy Trinity.
105. Aldgate.
106. St. Botolph. Aldgate.
107. The Minories.
108. The Postern Gate.
109. Great Tower Hill.
110. Place of Execution.
111. Allhallow's Church, Barking.
112. The Custom House.
113. Tower of London.
114. The White Tower.
115. Traitors' Gate.
116. Little Tower Hill.
117. East Smithfield.
118. Stepney.
119. St. Catherine's Church.
120. St. Catherine's Dock.
121. St. Catherine's Hospital.
122. Isle of Dogs.
123. Monastery of Bermondsey.
124. Says Court, Deptford.
125. Palace of Placentia.
126. Greenwich.
From the Panorama of "London, Westminster, and Southwark in 1543." By
Anthony Van den Wyngaerde. (Sutherland Collection, Bodleian Library.
Oxford.) _For continuation see pp. 234, 235._
_pp. 350. 351._
* * * * *
LONDON IN THE TIME OF THE TUDORS. A REPRODUCTION, REDUCED, OF THE MAP BY
RALPH AGAS, CIRCA 1580.
[Illustration]
This antient and famous City of London, was first founded by _Brute_ the
Trojan, in the year of the World two thousand, eight hundred thirty & two,
and before the Nativity of our Saviour Christ, one thousand, one hundred,
and 30. So that since the first building, it is 2 thousand 6 hundred 60 & 3
years. And afterward was repaired & enlarged by King _Lud_, but at this
present so flourisheth, that it containeth in length from the East to the
West about 3. English miles, from the North to the South about 2. English
miles. It is also so plentifully peopled, that it is divided into a hundred
and 22 Parishes within the Liberties, besides 16 Parishes that are in the
suburbs. It is planted on a very good soyle: for on the one side it is
compassed with corne & pasture ground, and on the other side it is inclosed
with the river of Thames, which not only aboundeth in allkind of fresh
water-fish, but also is so navigable, that it as well bringeth abundance of
commoditities as the plentifulnesse of our Contry doth yeild us:which both
augments the fame thereof abroad, and also increaseth the riches thereof at
hom; so that as it is head and chief City ofthe whole Realm, so is it
likewise head and chief Chamber of the whole Realm, as well for our outward
as inward commoditites. God prosper it at his pleasure. Amen.
New Troy my name, when firts my fame begun
By Trajon Brute: who then me placed here:
On fruitfull soyle, where pleasant Thames doth run
Sith Lud my Lord, my King and Lover dear,
Encreast my boundes and London (far that rings
Through Regions large) he called then my name
How famous since (I stately seat of Kings)
Have flourish'd aye: let others that proclaim.
And let me joy thus happy still to see
This vertuous Peer my Sovereign King to be.
_From a facsimile reproduction of the original map by Edward J. Francis, in
the possession of John C. Francis._
_MAP ACCOMPANYING "LONDON IN THE TIME OF THE TUDORS," BY SIR WALTER BESANT.
PUBLISHED BY ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, 1904_
* * * * *
THE PARISH OF St. Giles in the Fields, LONDON.
[Illustration]