Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster the Borough of Southwark and parts adjoining showing every house.

First edition of Richard Horwood’s magnificent map of London, the 32 sheets joined together to form one enormous plan. This was probably the most important London map of the eighteenth century and shows the extent of the metropolis from Limehouse in the east, Brompton in the west, Kennington in the south and Islington in the north. Interestingly, the Tower of London was not shown for security reasons, and is left blank. London Bridge and Westminster Bridge were the only Thames crossings. The map is extraordinarily detailed, showing not only every house, but individual house numbers as well. Horwood remarked that he personally 'took every angle, measured every line and plotted and compared the whole work' himself. The map took him nine years to complete. Little is known about Horwood other than that he worked for the Phoenix Assurance Company, and died in 1802, after completing a similarly detailed and spectacular map of Liverpool. Title in oval cartouche at top right.Howgego 200(1); Boyle, 29.

The 32 double page map sheets joined together and sturdily backed with linen. Light offsetting to some sheets, areas of darkening along edges of some sheets, a couple of small paper cracks at lower right, but overall clean crisp and fresh. A fine copy of