SCARCE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PRINTED PLAN OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY LONDON 1780

LONDON AND WESTMINSTER IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH ANNO DOM 1563

£245

A rare 18th century pull out town plan of London, as it was known during the time of Elizabeth I. This work is very much patterned after the famous first large scale plan of London, published in 1560 by Ralph Agas.

The engraving is quite detailed with highlights of many key sites such as St. Paul's, The Tower of London and Shakespeare's Play House (south bank of the River Thames).

This is a retrospective map of Elizabethan London, giving us an idea of how people in the late 18th century viewed the Elizabethan capital. The present-day Covent Garden is an area of fields named "Convent Garden", indicating that the area belonged to the Abbey of St Peter's at Westminster before the dissolution of monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII.

The location of Tower Bridge is marked, although the actual bridge was not planned until 1879. This indicates that Londoners were thinking about bridging the river at this point one hundred years before the decisive plan to do so.

It contains an explanatory table along with a 10 point legend.

A rather interesting and attractive piece.

Excellent hand colour

Very good condition