Comments on: John Thomas Smith’s Antient Topography https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Tue, 14 Feb 2023 02:09:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Guillaume https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501529 Tue, 14 Feb 2023 02:09:49 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501529 Really, the clarity of this man’s lines seems to be contra mundum the linearity of his time. Somehow utterly different. Something about it that is… what, like our time? No? A linearity that supersedes time? Delineating what? Loss, horrible loss?

Ah, the loss that pierces my heart like a thousand swords!

]]> By: Eleanor https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501408 Mon, 13 Feb 2023 09:18:22 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501408 Thankyou so much Gentle Author for giving us the privilege of seeing these pictures.

The facility of being able to zoom in, allows us to appreciate these phenomenal drawings in great detail.

We are also now able to stand in the respective streets with a visual image of how they once looked and picture folk in Georgian dress.

]]> By: Lynne Perrella https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501227 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 15:50:45 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501227 One of the joys of subscribing to Spitalfields Life is forwarding some of the posts to various
friends and colleagues. I chuckled as I sent today’s array of crusty/tilting historic buildings to a dear friend who is an architect. He has a “veddy, veddy” refined aesthetic, and I think he feels most of my preferences in art and design are wildly chaotic (well, actually…………..) but we like to
compare notes. He will appreciate these amazing renderings — and ( who knows?) maybe we can convince him to come over to the cluttered side?

Thank you, GA.

]]> By: Jenny Moore https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501223 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 15:22:41 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501223 Fascinating pictures. The one in Crutched Friars is the mansion of Sir Richard (Dick) Whittington.

]]> By: Julie Cruickshank https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501199 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 11:14:08 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501199 These are so valuable – almost photographic images of London as it used to be.

]]> By: Marcia Howard https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501195 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 09:59:17 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501195 The street names add colour and meaning to its history; Grub Street, Cripplegate etc…

]]> By: Marcia Howard https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501193 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 09:55:10 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501193 Wonderful drawings, and I’ve just learned a new word ‘Antient’. Mind you, I had to look up what it meant haha!

]]> By: achim https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501190 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 09:12:49 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501190 Wonderful graphical documents of a disappearing age. They are indeed somewhat reminiscent of the German painter and draughtsman of the late Romantic and Biedermeier periods CARL SPITZWEG.

Love & Peace
ACHIM

]]> By: Christine Swan https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501180 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 08:25:26 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501180 There are still chunks of London Wall in the environs of St Giles Cripplegate and a walk to see all of the remaining sections. This is a fascinating set of images showing buildings very similar in style to the “best bits” of Worcester where I now reside. York and Chester are also two excellent places to find historic, timber-framed buildings intact. We only have a couple of streets but they are always the ones I walk through on my way home from the railway station. I imagine the noise, the smells and sights of the City as it was. Timber-framed buildings move over time so nothing is straight. You can walk both uphill and downhill across the oak floor of my favourite pub. Looking out of a window in the National Trust’s Greyfriars merchant’s house, to the buildings opposite and the precarious angle of the upper floor, one wonders how they are still standing at all. In the morning, sparrows quarrel with their neighbours nesting in the crevices of these ancient structures which cheer me on my walk back to the station.
Last summer I was fortunate enough to stand on a gallery of a house from which Queen Elizabeth I had addressed the people of Worcester. It is a great pity we have lost so many historic buildings but would urge those interested to seek out places where some remain.

]]> By: Gregg https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/02/12/john-thomas-smiths-antient-topography-i/#comment-1501163 Sun, 12 Feb 2023 06:22:00 +0000 https://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=194711#comment-1501163 Great collection of piccies. The striking thing is that chaos, dirt & squalor, which are usually how most people visualise ‘ancient’ streets, especially in London, are not depicted. Everything is neat & tidy. I wonder if this is a reality or artistic licence. JTS doesn’t seem to be an artist who would falsify a subject. Anyway a terrific collection of images.

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