Comments on: John Thomas Smith’s Antiquities Of London

By: Robert G. Redford

Robert G. Redford — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 08:02:26 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing these wonderful images. Thank goodness that the majority of old buildings within the Tower have been preserved although sad that this World Heritage site is now completely overshadowed by brutal modern architecture in the form of giant office blocks.

By: Valkrye

Valkrye — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 18:22:34 +0000

Dear “Gentle author” Can’t tell you how much your posts entertain, enlighten, educate and most of all,simply delight. Reading your posts each day is one of the pure , true highlights of my day. This one, I adore with the sheer richness and variety of the architecture ~ it’s quirkiness and diverse unique beauties. Thank you for sharing all that you so generously do.

By: violet hoarder

violet hoarder — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:08:06 +0000

Truly appreciate your sharing these marvelous architectural images–so much character and ornament and hardly a plumb line among them. Beautiful art works that capture a past so rapidly disappearing.

By: Caroline Murray

Caroline Murray — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 13:56:12 +0000

These are wonderful images, and remind us what has been lost through neglect and/or deliberate destruction. BTW, Smith had been a pupil of the sculptor Nollekens, and was expecting a legacy, which he didn’t in fact receive. It is thought that this two-volume biography of his mentor, full of gossip, was partly intended as revenge!

By: John McVey

John McVey — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 13:08:03 +0000

beautiful etchings.
love their details, like the pile of wood on the corner at Butcher Row near Clement’s Inn (first image), and the complicated, much patched, side exterior wall of Old house on Little Tower Hill.

By: Shawdiane

Shawdiane — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 09:59:25 +0000

FANTASTIC ! Thank you for sharing these wonderful etchings of 1700’s London. What a shame we have none of those wonderful cranky buildings to view. The National Trust would be in their element ( I was a Custodian for a Trust Historic House – George Bernard Shaw where I lived for 8 years & we would have fought to conserve one of those, some of these buildings were still around when Shaw came to London at the age of 21) A fire risk they may have been but I am sure we could cope. The Victorians should have saved a few for posterity. No wonder there was a window Tax – some of those buldings were a Tax treat. London has lost SO much, what right have those sitting at their little council desks to obliterate ‘old London’, this is what real London is all about NOT Office Blocks! Please, share more of these they are wonderful. God Bless John Thomas Smith.

By: Roger Cocks

Roger Cocks — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 08:59:44 +0000

Love these beautiful drawings, squint your eyes and they are better than early photographs. Keep up your daily output GA, I look forward to my morning dose of Spitalfields Life, especially the history orientated posts.

By: Caroline Bottomley

Caroline Bottomley — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 07:18:48 +0000

Fantastically higgledy-piggledy. How lovely

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 06:55:22 +0000

So much of London has been destroyed in the course of time, and today the developers are trying to make short shrift of the London we know and love, too. I wonder how much will be left for the next generations, or will our London seem as far away to them as these pictures are for us today? Valerie