Daniel Crouch Rare Books presents ‘Mapping London’ as part of the programme for Totally Thames

LONDON.- From the 4th – 14th September 2014 (preview 3rd September) the London-based dealer will host a pop-up selling exhibition at the Oxo Tower’s gallery@oxo, featuring some of the most important large-scale printed surveys of London ever produced – including ground-breaking maps of Georgian London, an exceptionally rare trade card map of Islington and a contemporary map of the bunkers and tunnels of subterranean London.

As well as featuring Braun and Hogenberg’s first ever printed map of London from 1574, the exhibition will also showcase an extremely rare map of London by Thomas Porter. Published in the 1650s during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, this map beautifully illustrates the role of the Thames as the backbone of a bustling and growing city; showing the grand houses, teeming wharves and traffic up and down the river. Only two other examples of this map are known: one in the British Library and one owned by the Society of Antiquaries.

The exhibition fittingly coincides with the 300th anniversary of George I’s coronation, and will include two iconic maps of Georgian London by master cartographer John Rocque. Rocque’s 8 and 16 sheet maps from 1750s are some of the earliest large scale maps of Georgian London ever produced. They were published after Rocque and his French Huguenot family painstakingly surveyed the city when they arrived in London in the 1730s.

From the largest to one of the smallest – the above trade card map will be of special interest to North Londoners as it shows the village of Islington as it was at the turn of the 19th century. Produced by the firm of Benjamin Baker, in Lower Street Islington, this card would have advertised the firm’s services as map and chart engravers. At the time, they were considered “the best topographical engravers in all of Europe” and this meticulously detailed card is testament to their skill.

As the exhibition charts the Thames’ history, it also features London maps from the present day. Contemporary cartographer artist Stephen Walter has painstakingly charted the buried rivers, Tube lines, bunkers, sewers, government tunnels and other subterranean secrets of London, including mysterious and underworld elements, such as unsolved murders, ley lines and pagan burial sites. This map was specially commissioned by the London Transport Museum to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the London Underground.

Mapping London will contribute to the diverse programme of events celebrating the river as part of Totally Thames, which runs from the 1st – 30th September 2014. This is London’s only river- focused, multi-arts festival and the largest of its kind in the world, promoting activities that reach up to the source of the Thames and down to its mouth. It is supported by Arts Council England, the Mayor of London, London First and many other sponsors and supporters.

Daniel Crouch stated “We are delighted to be taking part in Totally Thames and hope our ‘Mapping London’ exhibition will interest visitors and show them more of the history of London’s great waterway.”

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