London

Eighteenth-century London was a wonder: the second largest city in the world by 1800, its relentless growth, fueled by Britain’s expanding empire, making it a site of constant transformation. And before the age of photography, the only means of creating a visual record of the capital amid that change was through engravings, drawings, and other illustrations, which today are invaluable for understanding what London was like in the period.

This book presents more than a hundred images of Greater London from before 1800, all from the Gough Collection of the Bodleian Library. We see prints of London before and after the Great Fire, images of the 1780 tornado, panoramas of the Thames, depictions of the building and destruction of landmark bridges, and much more. Making brilliant use of the most extensive collection of London images amassed by any private collector of the period, the book will be essential to anyone delving into the history of the city.