A rare, highly detailed and fantastically handcoloured map of London, originally published in 1784 by Alexander Hogg.
This map catches London at a very interesting time - the core of Westminster and the City of London are here, but as you can clearly see, most of the land outside this central core is still fields. This is most notable in south London, where Southwark has started to build up along the Thames, but Lambeth basically doesn't exist... it's just fields.
The handcolouring on this map is really lovely, with a nicely blue tinted Thames, red houses, and green and yellow fields.
This map looks great at all sizes, but it looks even better when printed large. I can create beautiful, large prints of this map up to 100 inches (250cm) wide. Please get in touch if you're looking for larger, customised or different framing options. Please note that the 24x14 inch unframed map has white edges that can be easily snipped off (or they may help with framing). All other maps, and all framed maps, look just like the listing images.
The model in the listing images is holding the 36x24 inch (90x60cm) version of this map.
The fifth listing image shows an example of my map personalisation service.
The map shows the whole of the City of London (of course!), some parts around the City that have started to develop (Shoreditch, Old St), and all of Westminster. In 1784, Westminster had only expanded to Parliament in the south to Hyde Park in the west, to Oxford St and High Holborn in the north and Soho/Covent Garden in the east. You can see that the Marylebone and Paddington parts of Westminster are just starting to be laid down when this map was published.
Many of the landmarks that would be laid down in the 19th century are missing - but many have already been erected in 1784, including St Paul's Cathedral, the British Museum, Tower of London, St James' Square (and what would become Buckingham Palace just down the road).
Everything north and west of there... fields.
Take a look at the detailed images and try to spot your favourite landmark or street! Feel free to message me if you want to confirm if a certain street or place is on this map.
This would make a wonderful birthday, housewarming or Christmas gift for someone from London or who has spent a lot of time there.
You can order the map itself, or you can order a framed version. The frame is a nice, simple black frame that really makes the map pop out when on a wall. Please get in touch if you'd like a different frame. I use super-clear acrylic (perspex/acrylite) in my frames - it's less reflective than glass and better for transport.