Comments on: John Thomas Smith’s Ancient Topography

By: Mark Byfield

Mark Byfield — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 11:57:22 +0000

Fantastic!
When I look at the new buildings I cant help but think…. Whats happening to our lovley old London.

Thanks so much for the best blog in town.,, London!

Mark

By: Ronald McKenzie

Ronald McKenzie — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 06:36:20 +0000

I particularly enjoyed the drawing of the Old House in Sweedon’s Passage, Grub St. I can’t imagine living in a house where the floor run uphill and down like it must have there…

By: Susan Martin

Susan Martin — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 21:14:17 +0000

Thank you so.much for this article. How amazing those drawings are. And how much we have lost.

By: sberris

sberris — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 16:41:48 +0000

These are wonderful and full of people doing just what people still do around towns today – shopping, digging holes in roads, putting up banners, having a sociable drink, and just going about their daily lives. I am surprised the Grub Street house lasted so much longer after this picture too. I think that one had reached the end of its useful life. Altogether they cast a new light on Facadeism. Many thanks indeed.

By: Gayle Thorsen

Gayle Thorsen — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 13:56:32 +0000

So many people maimed or on crutches in several of these wonderful etchings. A reminder of how precarious life was. Very tenderly done.

By: Paul Loften

Paul Loften — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 13:33:17 +0000

My mistake here ! Looking at the engraving more closely I can see it was a pick axe and not a walking stick so he was probably asking the workman when he thought the damned excavations were likely to be finsihed ! Never been quiet life for anybody living in Ludgate

By: Gregg

Gregg — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 12:31:20 +0000

Great article with super images. Thanks.

By: Paul Loften

Paul Loften — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 11:14:26 +0000

Absolutely beautiful engravings of how our city once was. My favourite is the Watchtower drawn in 1792 with the two old gentlemen having a chinwag, leaning on his walking stick over the garden fence. I hope the conversation was worth the precarious walk down the narrow path that led to nowhere. One lapse of concentration and he was forever into the abyss !

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 10:26:32 +0000

Personally, I am transported to one of the tiny uppermost windows here……I hear the kiddos playing below, I notice the shuffling feet of the vendors and tradesmen, I overhear some gossip between two neighbor ladies, and watch a cat sprawl on the low roof across the way. Without effort, I’ve passed an hour here…….just watching the human parade, enjoying this time travel, and marveling at the wobbly tilting architecture; a magnificent enduring city.

Thank you John Thomas Smith and GA.

By: Mathilde Grange

Mathilde Grange — Sat, 17 Aug 2019 08:41:24 +0000

Extremely detailed, beautiful engravings. The decorations on the façade of the mansion in Hart street are pure Renaissance. Magnificent. Love the cat on the roof.