London (England) -- Antiquities; London (England) -- Maps; London (England) -- Maps -- Early works to 1800
"If we look into Ogilby's map, we see plainly that as regards the streets
and courts London after the Fire was very much the same as London before
the Fire; there were the same narrow streets, the same crowded alleys, the
same courts and yards. Take, for instance, the small area lying between
Bread Street Hill on the west and Garlick Hill on the east, between Trinity
Lane on the north and Thames Street on the south: is it possible to crowd
more courts and alleys into this area? Can we believe that after the Fire
London was relieved of its narrow courts with this map before us? Look at
the closely-shut-in places marked on the maps--'1 g., m. 46, m. 47, m. 48,
m. 40.' These are respectively Jack Alley, Newman's Rents, Sugar-Loaf
Court, Three Cranes Court, and Cowden's Rents. Some of these courts survive
to this day. They were formed, as the demand for land grew, by running
narrow lanes between the backs of houses and swallowing up the gardens.
There were 479 such courts in Ogilby's London of 1677, 472 alleys, and 172
yards, besides 128 inns, each of which, with its open courts for the
standing of vehicles and its galleries, stood retired from the street on a
spot which had once been the fair garden of a citizen's house" (_London in
the Time of the Stuarts_, p. 280).
THE FOLLOWING EXPLANATIONS ARE EXTRACTED FROM OGILBY'S KEY TO THE MAP IN
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
We Proceed to the Explanation of the Map, containing 25 Wards, 122 Parishes
and Liberties, and therein 189 Streets, 153 Lanes, 522 Alleys, 458 Courts,
and 210 Yards bearing Name.
The Broad Black Line is the City Wall. The Line of the Freedom is a Chain.
The Division of the Wards, thus oooo. The Parishes, Liberties, and
Precincts by a Prick-line, .... Each Ward and Parish is known by the
Letters and Figures Distributed within their Bounds, which are placed in
the Tables before their Names.... The Wards by Capitals without Figures.
The Parishes, &c., by Numbers without Letters. The Great Letters with
Numbers refer to Halls, Great Buildings, and Inns. The Small Letters to
Courts, Yards, and Alleys, every Letter being repeated 99 times, and
sprinkled in the Space of 5 Inches, running through the Map, from the Left
Hand to the Right, &c. Churches and Eminent Buildings are double Hatch'd,
Streets, Lanes, Alleys, Courts, and Yards, are left White. Gardens, &c.
faintly Prick'd. Where the Space admits the Name of the Place is in Words
at length, but where there is not room, a Letter and Figure refers you to
the Table in which the Streets are Alphabetically dispos'd, and in every
Street the Churches and Halls, Places of Note, and Inns, with the Courts,
Yards, and Alleys, are named; then the Lanes in that Street, and the
Churches, &c. as aforesaid, in each Lane.
THE SEVERAL MARKS AND NAMES OF THE WARDS, PARISHES, AND LIBERTIES
WARDS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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