Westminster and Lambeth from an important large-scale survey of London

HORWOOD, Richard.

[Westminster & Lambeth.]
London: 1799 Two sheets conjoined, total 570 x 1010mm. Some original outline colour.

Top corners repaired with some fill.

Two sheets from a map which Howgego describes as the 'largest and most important London map of the eighteenth century', on a scale of 26 inches to a mile. The western part of the map shows the eastern end of St James's Park, with part of Pall Mall, Charing Cross with the King's Mews, Westminster Abbey and Hall, Great Peter Street and what is now Smith Square. Across Westminster Bridge Lambeth is shown, with St George's Circus and King's Bench Prison. Further north the Thames riverside is filled with timber yards where the South Bank Centre now stands. Near Westminster Bridge is Astley's Theatre, dedicated to equestrian shows.

Horwood's intention was to mark each house's number (a practice started in 1735), but this was abandoned as impractical. He started his scheme in 1790, expecting to be finished by 1792: by 1794 he was apologising to his subscribers (including George III); in 1798 he received a loan of £500 from the Phoenix Fire-Office, for whom Horwood worked as a surveyor, to finish the map. However this assistance was not enough to stop Horwood dying in poverty in 1803.

HOWGEGO: 200, and pp.21-22.
Stock ID : 12670