Tag: London Wall

London constantly reinvents itself; John Thomas Smith’s Antiquities of London goes back in time to the first invention and builds the city back up from its relics and ruins. Within the confines of Bridewell and the surrounding area, this guidebook is able to highlight just how critical this place has consistently been for the city at large.

The engraving depicting the oldest piece of history in this section of the map is about King Lud and his sons. In the caption to the engraving, it is mentioned that King Lud lived around the same time as Julius Caesar, and the phonetic degradation of Lud’s Town is what gave London its name. The king’s legacy is not just present in the name of the city, but Ludgate Hill and Street are also named after him. Importantly, Smith notes that the intended place for the statues was currently occupied by a statue of Elizabeth I, and since there is not enough space for three statues even if they replaced Queen Elizabeth’s statue with King Lud’s, Elizabeth’s statue would be staying where it was. There is a transition from the old to the new, from past monarchies to a more current one that follows the broader idea of reinvention. Nonetheless, there still remains a tradition of sorts within the reinvention. The monarchical family changes, but the area associated with the monarchy and the monarchy itself do not.

Smith’s engravings preserve previous versions of the city, but they also are a reminder that each reinvention of the city carries traces from past selves. At the end of the 18^th century when he is making these engravings, the ruins of the London Wall—which were a part of the ancient city wall—are still there. Despite a devastating fire that burnt down nearly the whole city in 1666, Mr. Holden’s family vault in St. Bride’s Churchyard is still there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a great attention to conveying the historical meaning of an engraved structure; therefore, when there is a certain engraving which misses this key trait, there are more questions raised by it than there are answered. One such engraving is the one of Mrs. Salmon’s Wax Work. The building appears to have been damaged given the fading, cracked paint on the top floor, and the fact that the building is not completely straight. Rather, it looks like certain components of the building that ought to be parallel are not because of some historical event or another. Smith’s guide, by documenting the remnants of the city’s past underlines the fragility and impermanence of the city at any one point in time as no moment in antiquity can be replicated entirely. This representation of the City of London, and Bridewell and the surrounding areas in particular shows the fleeting nature of a map of Bridewell.