PRINTS OF LONDON BEFORE THE GREAT FIRE.
In addition to the Tower, there was in Cromwell's time the fortification of Baynard's Castle, near Blackfriars, and the city gates were also fortifications on a small scale; they were rebuilt (St. John's, Clerkenwell, excepted, which was spared) after the Great Fire, and were taken down somewhere about 1760. Can any of your readers tell me whether there is any series of prints extant of the most remarkable buildings which were destroyed by the fire? There are some few maps, and a print or two interspersed here and there, in the British Museum; but is there any regular series of plates? We know that Inigo Jones built a Grecian portico on to the east end of the Gothic cathedral of old St. Paul's, surmounted with statues of Charles I., &c.; that the Puritans destroyed a beautiful conduit at the top of Cheapside; that Sir Thomas Gresham's Exchange was standing. But among the many city halls burnt down, were there any fine specimens of architecture, any churches worthy of note? And as Guildhall was not entirely consumed, what parts of the present edifice belong to the olden time?
You are doubtless aware that the fire did not extend to St. Giles's Cripplegate, and that at the back of the church are remains of the old city walls.
Ardelio.