Original antique copper plate map by John Stow, published in 1755.
Stow, John (1525 - 1605) was an Elizabethan historian, a retired sailor who devoted his retirement to gathering information from records and residents of Georgian London. He wrote a series of chronicles of English History published from 1565 onwards but Stow was best known for "A Survey of London" which detailed London's rich history and topography. The Survey contained detailed accounts of social conditions and customs, illustrations of buildings, and maps of the individual parishes or wards. The Survey was originally published in 1598 and was followed by several revisions. The Survey covered the City of London and Westminster (then separate from the City of London) in their entireties. The Survey proved very popular but Stow died in poverty at the age of 80, having been granted a licence to beg by King James 1st.
In the century following Stow’s death, many changes occurred in London and the capital was transformed from Stow's Tudor capital described in his "Survey". The huge growth of the metropolis, the devastation wrought by the Great Fire of 1666 and the subsequent rebuilding of the City made an updating of the Survey highly desirable. It was to answer this need that John Strype (1643-1737), the ecclesiastical historian and biographer, published a new, hugely expanded version of Stow’s Survey of London in 1720. Subsequent editions followed.
