Dave Obee drew my attention to a nicely annotated map of early modern London (MoEML) produced at the University of Victoria based on an original at the London Metropolitan Archives. I find old maps fascinating and this is no exception, even though to the best of my knowledge no family member was anywhere near London at the time (16th and 17th century.)
Check it out starting at http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/
Like you, John, I have no reason as yet to believe that I had ancestors living in London prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, but I do know that one of my great-great-great-great-grandfathers was a warden of St Botolph Aldgate and using a kind of triangulation by locating St Botolph's, Houndsditch, and Brick Lane, I believe I spy the country lane that later became Petticoat Lane, that later became Middlesex Street. I fancy I may be able to pinpoint the corner where the family public house stood, two centuries after this map was first drawn up. (But I may be fooling myself.)
ReplyDeleteI was able to locate the location of the pub my grandfather's younger brother ran during WWII, after which he was awarded the honourary Freedom of the City of London for being a Fire Guard Commander. The pub was at the corner of Fleet Street and Fetter Lane, and started out in the 16th and 17th centuries as a coffee house, where Samuel Johnson is said to have visited. Cheers, BT
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