London
A collection of c. 40 plans and maps of the Cities of London and Westminster and their environs, especially Southwark. Various dates, sizes, publishers and artists, c.1723-1860; variously mounted, some laid down on card, some on linen, some loose.
Compiled by a District Surveyor of the City of London, this collection focuses on the same area across the 18th and 19th century. This focus allows a dramatic view of the constant pace of development and expansion across the City. Amongst the maps are City Guides for tourists, street views and other plans including Faden's Pocket Plan 1812, sometime annotated in red and blue showing troop dispositions during the 1816 Spitalfields Riots (a not unsurprising number of positions mark locations around Grosvenor and Portman Squares and the Bank, the Mint and Somerset House). Amongst the most interesting maps are the sewer systems for 1847, 1850, 1854 and 1860 - crossing the period of the infamous Soho cholera outbreak and the beginnings of Bazalgette's majestic sewerage system. There is also an eye to comparisons, with two maps (1807 and 1814) mounted side-by-side to show before and after Regent's Park. The earliest map is the most striking in terms of the changes to the area. Vertue's 1723 edition of John Leake's 1667 map shows the aftermath of the Great Fire, the comparison to the mid-19th century examples is incredible. The precise focus of the collection allows for a detailed examination of how London changed from the conflagration which levelled it, to the period of huge growth during the Industrial Revolution. These maps tell a story through the movements of the lines and dots of their engravers.
with Stanford's New Map of the County of London, 1894 (loose between boards, lacking 7 and 12) and two others.