A Royalist’s view of the cities of London and Westminster

A rare London panorama taken from the south side of the Thames with Lambeth Palace in the foreground. Thus the royal city of Westminster is shown more prominently than the commercial city of London off in the distance. It is unknown when the plates were etched by Hollar: the British Museum gives a date of 1647, when he etched his 'Long View of London from Bankside' in Antwerp. As the original state showed pre-Fire London they must pre-date 1666. However this example has been updated by another engraver, probably about 1694, to show the post-Fire city. The original key of important buildings (numbered 1-40) has been supplemented by a second (a to az) listing the new spires of the churches rebuilt by Wren and his associates and added to the plate, along with the Monument. St Paul's Cathedral retains its original number of 25 but is an artist's impression of how the yet-to-be-completed building. Because of the viewpoint of the prospect, almost all of the additions occur in the right two sheets. The first state of the view is extremely rare: writing his book in 1902 A.M. Hind wrote he had never seen an impression. However the British Museum has acquired one since (BM 1926,0617.10.1-4), describing it as a 'unique impression of the first state showing St Paul's before the Great Fire', and as 'an uneven impression, with signs of damage to the plates before printing', suggesting they had to reworked before commercial use. By the 1750s the plates were owned by Robert Sayer who, judging by the paper, printed this example.