Walworth from an important large-scale survey of London

HORWOOD, Richard.

[Walworth, with the Old Kent Road.]
London: 1799. Two sheets conjoined, total 570 x 1010mm. Some original outline colour.

Top corners repaired with some fill.

Walworth, in the Borough of Southwark, with Walworth Road, the Old Kent Road and Grange Road. At the time of publication Walworth Common was open land; now it is completely developed.

Howgego describes Horwood's map as the 'largest and most important London map of the eighteenth century', on a scale of 26 inches to a mile. Horwood's intention was to mark each house's number (a practice started in 1735), but this was abandoned as impractical. He started his scheme in 1790, expecting to be finished by 1792: by 1794 he was apologising to his subscribers (including George III); in 1798 he received a loan of £500 from the Phoenix Fire-Office, for whom Horwood worked as a surveyor, to finish the map. However this assistance was not enough to stop Horwood dying in poverty in 1803.

HOWGEGO: 200, and pp.21-22.
Stock ID : 12672