Maps of Old London/Ogilby

Description.—This is more exclusively a plan of the City than any we have yet considered. It runs roughly from the Tower to Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the reason why it is thus limited is that it was made as a survey to assist in the plotting out of land in the City after the Fire.

Designer.—John Ogilby was born about 1600, and did not turn his attention to surveying until he was about sixty-six, when he secured the appointment as "King's Cosmographer and Geographical Printer." He died in 1676, the year before his map was published. He was assisted in the work by William Morgan, his wife's grandson, and most of the actual engraving of the map was done by Hollar.

Original.—The original is 8 feet 5 inches by 4 feet 7 inches, and is in twenty sheets. It is on the scale of 100 feet to the inch. It may be seen in the British Museum (Crace Collection) and in the Guildhall. The two examples differ a little, and that in the Guildhall has an additional sheet. The reproduction here given is taken from that made by the London and Middlesex Archæological Society from the British Museum copy. The arms of the City are in the left-hand top corner, and those of Sir Thomas Davies, Lord Mayor 1676-77, in the right-hand corner.

Details.—Beginning at the left-hand top corner, we find pastures, bowling-greens, and market-gardens. Aylesbury House, next to St. John Street, has magnificent private gardens, and beyond the Charterhouse bowling-green there is a wood. Further east the Honourable Artillery Company, which had been revived by Cromwell, can be seen, with their equipment and tents. This company is directly descended from the Finsbury Archers, whom we noted in the last map, and it is interesting to know that the actual ground on which they are here depicted is still reserved for their use. Moorfields is neatly laid out and planned, and south of it is new Bethlehem Hospital, now transferred across the river. Eastward, again, there is a large open space at Devonshire House Garden, and southward innumerable gardens can be seen, some of which are preserved to this day behind City halls, etc., but so hidden that no one who did not know of their existence could possibly find them.

On tracing the line of the City wall on the north side we see how some of the churches, notably St. Giles's and St. Botolph's, have taken a part of the town ditch for the enlargement of their churchyards; near St. Bartholomew's the town ditch is still marked. This ditch caused the Mayor and Council as much worry as the increase of houses, because it was the receptacle for every kind of filth, and its cleansing annually swallowed up a large sum of money. The Fleet River is shown flowing down in the open, and is called the New Canal. It is crossed by a bridge at Holborn and another at Fleet Street. We can mark the sinuous line of the great thoroughfare of Holborn as it was before the viaduct and approaches were made. The Strand outside Temple Bar shows the obstructions which have only finally been removed in our own time. Butcher Row disappeared first in 1813; other streets followed to make way for the new Law Courts, and with the destruction of Holywell Row and the opening of Kingsway the improvements here may be considered complete.

To the south are the great houses of Essex and Arundel, with their gardens; their names are preserved in the streets that flow over their sites. Somerset House, the Protector's palace, was then standing, and did not make way for its present representative for another hundred years. The river is covered with wherries, clustered as thickly as ants. It is still the main highway for most people, though there were hackney coaches for hire. There was still only London Bridge by which to get across the river on foot, and the boats were used as ferries. There were tilt-boats, too, as well as the smaller wherries; these ran at stated intervals, like our own omnibuses, and were protected by an awning. Near the Fleet mouth is Bridewell, once a palace, and the scene of the meeting of Parliament, but given by Edward VI. to be a prison. On the east is a blank space, where is now the station of the London Chatham and Dover Railway Co., who purchased it in 1844. The site of St. Paul's was plotted out, but not yet built upon. In fact, the rebuilding of the houses was the first consideration, and was done with remarkable promptness, for in the meantime the poor houseless wretches were camping on Moorfields. The churches and city halls were therefore left to the last; yet even so we may see that, though only eleven years had elapsed since the destruction of the City, about twenty churches had been rebuilt out of the eighty-seven that were destroyed. The picturesque Old London of the gable-ends and overhanging stories was gone, never to return; but gone also was a great deal of rubbish and an insanitariness never afterwards quite so bad. As for the overcrowding, we must see what Sir Walter Besant says:

"If we look into Ogilby's map, we see plainly that as regards the streets and courts London after the Fire was very much the same as London before the Fire; there were the same narrow streets, the same crowded alleys, the same courts and yards. Take, for instance, the small area lying between Bread Street Hill on the west and Garlick Hill on the east, between Trinity Lane on the north and Thames Street on the south: is it possible to crowd more courts and alleys into this area? Can we believe that after the Fire London was relieved of its narrow courts with this map before us? Look at the closely-shut-in places marked on the maps—'1 g., m. 46, m. 47, m. 48, m. 40.' These are respectively Jack Alley, Newman's Rents, Sugar-Loaf Court, Three Cranes Court, and Cowden's Rents. Some of these courts survive to this day. They were formed, as the demand for land grew, by running narrow lanes between the backs of houses and swallowing up the gardens. There were 479 such courts in Ogilby's London of 1677, 472 alleys, and 172 yards, besides 128 inns, each of which, with its open courts for the standing of vehicles and its galleries, stood retired from the street on a spot which had once been the fair garden of a citizen's house" (London in the Time of the Stuarts, p. 280).

We Proceed to the Explanation of the Map, containing 25 Wards, 122 Parishes and Liberties, and therein 189 Streets, 153 Lanes, 522 Alleys, 458 Courts, and 210 Yards bearing Name.

The Broad Black Line is the City Wall. The Line of the Freedom is a Chain. The Division of the Wards, thus oooo. The Parishes, Liberties, and Precincts by a Prick-line, .... Each Ward and Parish is known by the Letters and Figures Distributed within their Bounds, which are placed in the Tables before their Names.... The Wards by Capitals without Figures. The Parishes, &c., by Numbers without Letters. The Great Letters with Numbers refer to Halls, Great Buildings, and Inns. The Small Letters to Courts, Yards, and Alleys, every Letter being repeated 99 times, and sprinkled in the Space of 5 Inches, running through the Map, from the Left Hand to the Right, &c. Churches and Eminent Buildings are double Hatch'd, Streets, Lanes, Alleys, Courts, and Yards, are left White. Gardens, &c. faintly Prick'd. Where the Space admits the Name of the Place is in Words at length, but where there is not room, a Letter and Figure refers you to the Table in which the Streets are Alphabetically dispos'd, and in every Street the Churches and Halls, Places of Note, and Inns, with the Courts, Yards, and Alleys, are named; then the Lanes in that Street, and the Churches, &c. as aforesaid, in each Lane.