In the preface to the work Rocque sets out the urgent need for an accurate plan of London, in order to settle once and for all the argument of which was large Paris or London. Rocque goes on to discuss the surveying techniques used, and the encouragement they gained from the Mayor of London in his endeavour. The preface is followed by list of subscribers, an explanation to the index and and a forty-six page list of alleys, banks, barns, barracks, bars, bridges, buildings, buries, and butts; closes, commons, corners, courts, and crosses; lanes; markets, marshes, mewses, mounts, orchards, parks, passages, places, and posterns; rents, roads, rows, sides, and stairs; squares; walks, walls, ways, and wharfs; yards; miscellanies; alm's houses, hospitals, and workhouses; churches, chapels, meeting houses, church yards, and burying grounds; Company and Corporation halls and houses, and Inns of Court; inns; keys; publick and remarkable buildings and places.