| I. | [Old London Bridge.] | G. Yates. |
| No. 1. | Lent by Mr. T. Girtin. | |
| II. | [Bolingbroke House, Battersea.] | Artist Unknown. |
| No. 3. | Lent by Mr. P. Norman. | |
| III. | [Old Westminster Bridge.] | Canaletto. |
| No. 4. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| IV. | [View down River from Westminster.] | W. Hollar. |
| No. 6. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| V. | [Westminster Bridge and Abbey.] | Canaletto. |
| No. 8. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| VI. | [Westminster Abbey, South View from River.] | W. Hollar. |
| No. 9. | Lent by Mr. J. P. Heseltine. | |
| VII. | [View up River to Westminster.] | Canaletto. |
| No. 11. | Lent by Mr. J. P. Heseltine. | |
| VIII. | [Old Westminster Bridge.] | Canaletto. |
| No. 12. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| IX. | [Piazza, Covent Garden.] | T. Sandby, R.A. |
| No. 14. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| X. | [Old Somerset House and Garden.] | T. Sandby, R.A. |
| No. 16. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| XI. | [Old London Bridge from Billingsgate.] | G. Yates. |
| No. 19. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XII. | [Camp near Serpentine, Hyde park, 1780.] | P. Sandby, R.A. |
| No. 23. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| XIII. | [Interior of Second Royal Exchange.] | Artist Unknown. |
| No. 31. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XIV. | [Church of St. Peter Le Poor, Old Broad Street.] | Artist Unknown. |
| No. 33. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XV. | [View from the Churchyard of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields.] | W. Hunt. |
| No. 34. | Lent by Mr. T. Girtin. | |
| XVI. | [Encampment in the Grounds of Montague House.] | S. H. Grimm. |
| No. 35. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| XVII. | [Chantrey Chapel of Henry V, Westminster Abbey.] | John Carter. |
| No. 37. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XVIII. | [Abbot Islip’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey.] | J. M. W. Turner, R.A. |
| No. 38. | Lent by Mr. R. W. Lloyd. | |
| XIX. | [Hall of Brotherhood of Holy Trinity, Aldersgate.] | W. Capon. |
| No. 41. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XX. | [Site of Euston Square, 1809.] | T. Rowlandson. |
| No. 45. | Lent by Mr. H. C. Levis. | |
| XXI. | [Old Cheese-Cake House, Hyde Park, 1797.] | Artist Unknown. |
| No. 47. | Lent by H.M. the King. | |
| XXII. | [Fishmongers’ Hall, from the River.] | Unknown Artist. |
| No. 49. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XXIII. | [St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West, Fleet Street.] | T. Malton the Elder. |
| No. 59. | Lent by Lord Aldenham. | |
| XXIV. | [Westminster Abbey from Dean’s Yard.] | T. Malton the Elder. |
| No. 61. | Lent by the City of Birmingham Art Gallery. | |
| XXV. | [Wapping.] | T. Girtin. |
| No. 63. | Lent by the Leicester Art Gallery. | |
| XXVI. | [East India House from the West.] | T. Malton the Younger. |
| No. 64. | Lent by the Secretary of State for India. | |
| XXVII. | [Sadler’s Wells.] | R. C. Andrews. |
| No. 67. | Lent by the Hon. Lady Lyttelton. | |
| XXVIII. | [Green Park, 1670.] | W. Hogarth. |
| No. 68. | Lent by the Earl Spencer. | |
| XXIX. | [St. George’s Hospital.] | R. Wilson, R.A. |
| No. 71. | Lent by the Foundling Hospital. | |
| XXX. | [The Charterhouse.] | T. Gainsborough, R.A. |
| No. 72. | Lent by the Foundling Hospital. | |
| XXXI. | [Aldgate School and Watch-House and Tower of Church.] | R. B. Schnebbelie. |
| No. 73. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XXXII. | [East India House from the East.] | T. Malton the Younger. |
| No. 77. | Lent by the Secretary of State for India. | |
| XXXIII. | [A Water Pageant on the Thames.] | School of S. Scott. |
| No. 78. | Lent by the Earl Brownlow. | |
| XXXIV. | [Westminster Bridge and Westminster Abbey from the River.] | S. Scott. |
| No. 81. | Lent by the Marquess of Sligo. | |
| XXXV. | [Sir Richard Steele’s Cottage, Hampstead.] | J. Constable, R.A. |
| No. 82. | Lent by Mr. R. K. Hodgson. | |
| XXXVI. | [The Parade and Whitehall from St. James’s Park.] | S. Scott. |
| No. 87. | Lent by the Marquess of Sligo. | |
| XXXVII. | [Whitehall from the North.] | S. Scott. |
| No. 88. | Lent by the Marquess of Sligo. | |
| XXXVIII. | [Westminster from below York Water-Gate.] | Thomas Wijck. |
| No. 91. | Lent by Mr. E. C. Grenfell. | |
| XXXIX. | [Westminster from Lambeth.] | S. Scott. |
| No. 92. | Lent by Mr. P. Norman. | |
| XL. | [The Old Stocks Market.] | Josef van Aken. |
| No. 93. | Lent by the Bank of England. | |
| XLI. | [River View from Garden of Old Somerset House.] | Canaletto. |
| No. 94. | Lent by Mr. F. A. White. | |
| XLII. | [Old Westminster Bridge.] | J. C. Nattes. |
| No. 95. | Lent by the Rev. L. Gilbertson. | |
| XLIII. | [Whitehall from St. James’s Park.] | H. Danckerts. |
| No. 96. | Lent by the Earl of Berkeley. | |
| XLIV. | [Ely Place, Holborn.] | J. Carter. |
| No. 100b. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XLV. | [Ranelagh.] | Has been ascribed to Hogarth; perhaps by F. Hayman. |
| No. 104. | Lent by Mary, Countess of Ilchester. | |
| XLVI. | [Old London Bridge and New London Bridge from Southwark.] | G. B. Moore. |
| No. 107. | Lent by Sir E. Coates. | |
| XLVII. | [St. Paul’s Cathedral from St. Martin’s-le-Grand.] | T. Girtin. |
| No. 111. | Lent by Sir Walter Prideaux. | |
| XLVIII. | [Old Westminster.] | D. Cox. |
| No. 112. | Lent by the Birmingham Art Gallery. |
PREFACE
At this great time in the nation’s history, when changes moral and material are following each other with such speed that we “know not what a day may bring forth,” it seems all the more incumbent on us while we live in the present not to forget the past. Accordingly, the Committee felt that pictures and drawings of the London of our ancestors would have exceptional interest, and the present exhibition is the result.
The space at our command being limited, we can only show a tithe of the material still in existence, but, through the kindness of owners, many fine works are on our walls, with others which, although as regards craftsmanship they have only average merit, are valuable as showing noteworthy scenes and buildings of a former day. Among the number that have not been exhibited before we would mention the drawings from Windsor which His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to lend, also those belonging to Sir Edward Coates—but a trifling instalment of his unique collection.
By way of preface a few words on old London views may not be thought superfluous. In manuscripts and early printed books pictures or illustrations which purported to represent London were now and then produced, but the artists did not attempt to imitate nature with precision, their feeling for decorative effect being paramount. Indeed, in R. Pynson’s edition of the “Cronycle of Englonde” (1510), what is probably the earliest engraved view which has any claim to represent London, shows no pretence of accuracy. With an effort of faith we may believe that we are looking at representations of old St. Paul’s, the Tower, London Bridge, Ludgate, and the church of the Black Friars, but the design is symbolic rather than imitative.
Illuminations in manuscripts of the previous century in one or two instances give us clearer topographical hints. A volume of the English poems of Charles, Duke of Orleans, among the royal manuscripts at the British Museum, shows the duke, who was captured at the battle of Agincourt, as a prisoner in the Tower of London, where he was kept for many years. The river side of the keep has been opened, and he appears seated within. Portions of the Tower and old London Bridge with its chapel are well portrayed, while other buildings, although incorrectly placed, add a little to our knowledge. Another of the royal manuscripts in the British Museum shows Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims starting on their journey, with London in the background, the most interesting feature of this topographically being the old city wall, with its bastions at regular intervals. Something more may be learnt from the engraving (after a picture at Cowdray, destroyed by fire long ago) of the procession of Edward VI through London in 1547. The artist, however, is still not imitating nature directly, but introduces conventional renderings of the more important buildings with which he was familiar, without troubling himself much about their relative positions.