Lost In Long Forgotten London
If you got lost in the six volumes of Walter Thornbury’s London Old & New you might never find your way out again. Published in the eighteen-seventies, they recall a London which had already vanished in atmospheric engravings that entice the viewer to visit the dirty, shabby, narrow labyrinthine streets leading to Thieving Lane, by way of Butcher’s Row and Bleeding Heart Yard.
Butcher’s Row, Fleet St, 1800
The Old Fish Shop by Temple Bar, 1846
Exeter Change Menagerie in the Strand, 1826
Hungerford Bridge with Hungerford Market, 1850
At the Panopticon in Leicester Sq, 1854
Holbein Gateway in Whitehall, 1739
Thieving Lane in Westminster, 1808
Old London Bridge, 1796
Black Bull Inn, Gray’s Inn Lane
Cold Harbour, Upper Thames St, City of London
Billingsgate, 1820
Bedford Head Tavern, Covent Garden
Coal Exchange, City of London, 1876
The Cock & Magpie, Drury Lane
Roman remains discovered at Bilingsgate
Hick’s Hall in Clerkenwell, 1730
Former church of St James Clerkenwell
Door of Newgate Prison
Fleet Market
Bleeding Heart Yard in Hatton Garden
Prince Henry’s House in the Barbican
Fortune Theatre, Whitecross St, 1811
Coldbath House in Clerkenwell, 1811
Milford Lane, off the Strand, 1820
St Martin’s-Le-Grand, 1760
Old Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam), Moorfields, in 1750
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
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Fascinating. I could spend hours trying to locate the same places on Google Street View and make comparisons. Can pin some to close enough but most are long gone with not even a similar reference to be found. As always, thanks for a great post.
Yes, you can get lost in these grand engravings! — May I ask something technical: How do you manage it to digitise? Do you have a mobile scanner? Thanks a lot!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
How appropriate that Thieving Lane was in Westminster….
The arch seen in the distance of the first picture of Butchers Row , Fleet Street , can now be seen in Paternoster Square near to St.Paul’s cathedral. It was once pulled down and placed farther afield and only in recent years returned to London and now graces the pedestrianized area next to the great church.I think it was taken down initially because the thoroughfare became too heavy with traffic and the archway became a problematic bottleneck and restricted flow.
I love your posts about long forgotten London. I wondered if it’d be possible to map the locations of the buildings? I’d find that so interesting…
Great images. For those trying to locate the places Greenwood’s map of 1827 is a good starting place (http://users.bathspa.ac.uk/greenwood/). It’s also available to purchase – fully searchable.
Lovely detailed engravings of times past. Your mention of Bleeding Heart Yard brings back to me memories from over fifty years ago, of visiting old Mr Lawrence who ran a business selling handmade Japanese and other exotic papers, boxwood blocks and wood-engraving tools. I remember climbing the rickety wooden stairs up to a locked door and, upon knocking, a small shutter slid open and Mr Lawrence demanded to know what you wanted. If your explanation wasn’t worthy enough the shutter slid back and that was the end of the conversation. Thankfully I was able to gain entry and managed to find a fine selection of Swedish papers suitable for the end papers of a prestige book on which I was working.
As a born and bred Londoner I found these fascinating and nostalgic. So enjoyable. I am glad I subscribed to Spitalfields Life.
My god what a treasure! My favorite is “Milford Lane, off the Strand, 1820”, being an avid serious amateur B&W photographer I can see a wonderful range and subtleness of tonality in this engraving almost like a fine B&W photograph.
Wonderful images. Thank you.
I have my own set of these books (well I am a bookseller) and can spend hours lost in the illustrations and the text, wonderful stuff. Some of my long ago Tiro, Tyroe family had property in Thieving Lane, I wonder how it got its name.
Nice to see Mr Lawrence mentioned, our wood engraving tools and blocks came from him.
Thank you for sharing these with your readers. I found them fascinating and could look at them for hours. Such fine detail of some fine landmarks.
It was a pity that you could not see the famous knocker on the picture of Newgate Prison.
When a I was a child, if you came in covered in dirt you would be said to be “Black as Newgate’s knocker”
Gary
Utterly fabulous! I wish there was a time machine where I could go back in time and see those wondorous buildings, but you can see these Tudor buildings littered around the Country. There are just a few of Tudor buildings in Coventry before it was bombed in 1944 and Stratford on Avon, Shropshire and perhaps elsewhere.
Wonderful post and illustrations and so evocative of past times. A tragedy to have lost so many fine buildings, replaced with so much ugliness.
Hello, I have long been searching for an old drawing of 401 Strand, circa 1780’s to 1839. If any one knows of one please contact my email address. Thanks Phil Stodart.