The environs of Marble Arch from an important large-scale survey of London

HORWOOD, Richard.

[Marble Arch.] A. 2.
London: 1794-99. 570 x 525mm.

Repairs to margins and centre fold.

A sheet from what Howgego describes as the 'largest and most important London map of the eighteenth century', on a scale of 26 inches to a mile. It shows the junction of the parishes of Paddington, Marylebone and St George's Hanover Square, with Hyde Park bottom left. Portman Square, Manchester Square, half of Grosvenor Square and Park Lane down to South Street are shown in detail. As yet there is little development above Bayswater Road and there are still blank areas north of George Street.
Also marked is 'Tyburn' with a little tree symbol, marking the site of public executions (at the 'Tyburn Tree', until 1783, only eleven years before the engraving of this map.
Horwood's intention was to mark each house's number (a practice started in 1735), but this was abandoned as impractical. He started his scheme in 1790, expecting to be finished by 1792: by 1794 he was apologising to his subscribers (including George III); in 1798 he received a loan of £500 from the Phoenix Fire-Office, for whom Horwood worked as a surveyor, to finish the map. However this assistance was not enough to stop Horwood dying in poverty in 1803.

HOWGEGO: 200, and pp.21-22.
Stock ID : 24404