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More Long Forgotten London

April 1, 2014
by the gentle author

After my first excursion to explore the sights of long forgotten London in the volumes of Walter Thornbury’s London Old & New, I could not resist returning to this shadowy realm, conjured as if from a dream or nightmare. This was how Londoners of the late nineteenth century looked back upon the city that had gone within living memory, a London that was already vanishing into reminiscence and anecdote in their time – a lost city, only recalled today in dark and dingy engravings such as these.

Golden Buildings, off the Strand

Boar’s Head Yard, Borough High St

Jacob’s Island, Southwark

Floating Dock, Deptford

Painted Hall, Greenwich

Waterloo Bridge Rd

Balloon Ascent at Vauxhall Gardens, 1840

House in Westminster, believed to have been inhabited by Oliver Cromwell

Old shops in Holborn

Mammalia at the British Museum

Rookery, St Giles 1850

Manor House of Toten Hall, Tottenham Court Rd 1813

Marylebone Gardens, 1780

Turkish Baths, Jermyn St

Old house in Wych St

Butcher’s Row, Strand 1810

The Fox Under The Hill, Strand

Ivy Bridge Lane, Strand

Turner’s House,  Maiden Lane

Covent Garden

Whistling Oyster, Covent Garden

Tothill St, Westminster

Old house on Tothill St

The Manor House at Dalston

Old Rectory, Stoke Newington 1856

Sights of Stoke Newington – 1. Rogers House 1877 2. Fleetwood House, 1750 3. St Mary’s Rectory 4. St Mary’s New Church 5, New River at Stoke Newington 6. Queen Elizabeth’s Walk, 1800 7. Old gateway

Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

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13 Responses leave one →
  1. April 1, 2014

    Next best thing to a time machine 🙂

  2. April 1, 2014

    I believe these engravings are more meaningful than any photograph could ever be. Very impressive!

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  3. April 1, 2014

    I love received all your daily posts this was particularly moving, for some reason these drawings sent tingles up my spine. Thank you.

  4. Greg Tingey permalink
    April 1, 2014

    Two queries
    1: Where, actually, was “Jacob’s Island?
    2: Is there a small typo on the one for Marylebone Gardens? The usual clue – ladies’ fashions – suggests it’s more like 1840-50 …

  5. Sally permalink
    April 1, 2014

    Love these especially the Tothill Street Westminster image. Thanks for posting these.

  6. Colin Hose permalink
    April 1, 2014

    Brilliant, keep them coming

  7. Peter Holford permalink
    April 1, 2014

    A fabulous record from before photography. Interesting to see a shop sign in French – ‘Aux mille couleurs’. It shows that fashionable London has always been cosmopolitan – so much so that my 4 x great-grandfather from Wakefield ran a hairdressing business in Piccadilly!

  8. Garfer permalink
    April 1, 2014

    I wish the Whistling Oyster was still serving beer and victuals. Fings just ain’t wot they used to be.

  9. Gary Arber permalink
    April 1, 2014

    No petrol fumes, just the pleasent smell of horses.
    Gary

  10. April 3, 2014

    Much as I love seeing these lost views, I’d be a bit apprehensive of going inside some of the buildings shown – particularly the one in Butcher’s Row that’s propped up with beams on either side!

    Also, @Greg Tingey, I’d agree with the date given in the post for the Marylebone Gardens image given the frock coats, tricorns, and wig styles of the men for whom I can make out such details. The women also appear to be wearing late-18th century styles; can’t quite make out if the woman in the lower left with her back to us is wearing a sack-back gown or not.

  11. April 6, 2014

    Wonderful – very atmospheric!

  12. Ron Tiner permalink
    May 2, 2017

    I wonder if anyone out there could post an old map showing the location of each of these scenes, please? It would be interesting to be able to lay such a map over a map of modern London, to show how changed London is – and, depressingly, how much has been lost…

  13. April 13, 2020

    Great pictures. Do you know when Ivy Bridge Lane was closed to the public?

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