A scarce Elizabethan plan of Westminster

The First State of the earliest English map of Westminster, published in 'Speculum Britanniae: the First Parte: an Historicall, & Chorographicall Discription of Middlesex'. It shows the development between the City of London and Westminster, starting at Temple Stairs and continuing west to the beginning of Millbank. Away from the Thames are The Strand, 'Covent Garden', Charing Cross and the Mews (now Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery), Whitehall and St James's Park. It depicts the lost medieval palace of Westminster and the Eleanor cross at Charing Cross. John Norden (c.1547-1625) was attempting a series of county maps each with a history, anticipating John Speed's county atlas by nearly two decades. However only Middlesex (with plans of London and Westminster) and Hertfordshire were published before he gave up and moved on to other projects. John Speed was impressed by Norden's work and used his manuscripts in preference to Christopher Saxton's for Middlesex (with the plans of London and this Westminster in the top corners), as well as Essex, Sussex, Surrey and Cornwall.