Online maps that ‘drill down’ through history
Digital project charts growth of the capital over past 500 years
NEW online maps allow users to peel back London’s streets to trace its growth and changes over the past 500 years.
Layers of London reveal lost fields, open rivers and debtor prisons in what are now dense urban streets.
Three searchable maps chart the capital’s growth from the Tudor era to the Blitz in the digital project by the University of London’s Institute of Historical Research.
Users can overlay the historical maps onto the modern city to follow its evolution since the reign of Henry VIII.
The 1520-era map focuses on the Square Mile, which is surrounded by the London Walle, with a ditch to protect from attack. Hundesdich, now Houndsditch running from Bishopsgate to Aldgate, is marked as “rubbish dumping ground”, while at Tower Hill a scaffold and gallows are highlighted as matter-of-factly as a post office.
London Bridge, the onlyThames crossing with some 200 buildings on it, is dotted with piers. The Tudor map was compiled from documents and information gleaned on archaeological digs.
The 1682 Stuart-period map is dedicated by cartographer William Morgan to “a continuation of the nobility of England” and was scanned by researchers from original paper sheets. His references to modern-day streets include Westminster’s “The Road to Oxford” — now Oxford Street.
The 1746 Georgian map, hand-drawn by surveyor John Rocque, runs from Regent’s Park down to Chelsea and across to the East End, which was then mostly fields and orchards east of Whitechapel.
The notorious Fleet Prison, off presentday Farringdon Street, is also shown on all three maps. It was built on the banks of the river Fleet and first held high-pro- file suspects awaiting prosecution in the Star Chamber, and then debtors, bankrupts and their families. The poet John Donne, and Samuel Byrom — son of the writer and poet John Byrom — were among the notable inmates. Landmarks of today visible over five centuries are the Tower of London, Leadenhall Market and the original St Paul’s, shown before it was destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire. Some 24,000 post-war aerial images are to be uploaded to allow research by schoolchildren. The institute collaborated with the Historic Towns Trust and Museum of London Archaeology, which “geo-referenced” the maps for accurate overlaying.
Professor Matthew Davies, director of the Bloomsbury-based institute, said the old maps were surprisingly accurate, with Rocque using the City’s church towers as vantage points. He said: “This project is about how London has changed over the centuries and we want to engage thousands of people with the city’s history and heritage by using these map layers. The theory for us is you can take any point and drill down from the 21st century through satellite imagery... right back to the Tudor period.” The project’s next phase is adding Saxon and Roman maps.
⬤ To see the maps, go to: www.layersoflondon.org