In addition to the Tower, there was in Cromwell's time the fortification of
Baynard's Castle, near Blackfriars, and the city gates were also
fortifications on a small scale; they were rebuilt (St. John's,
Clerkenwell, excepted, which was spared) after the Great Fire, and were
taken down somewhere about 1760. Can any of your readers tell me whether
there is any series of prints extant of the most remarkable buildings which
were destroyed by the fire? There are some few maps, and a print or two
interspersed here and there, in the British Museum; but is there any
regular series of plates? We know that Inigo Jones built a Grecian portico
on to the east end of the Gothic cathedral of old St. Paul's, surmounted
with statues of Charles I., &c.; that the Puritans destroyed a beautiful
conduit at the top of Cheapside; that Sir Thomas Gresham's Exchange was
standing. But among the many city halls burnt down, were there any fine
specimens of architecture, any churches worthy of note? And as Guildhall
was not entirely consumed, what parts of the present edifice belong to the
olden time?
You are doubtless aware that the fire did not extend to St. Giles's
Cripplegate, and that at the back of the church are remains of the old city
walls.