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Lot Essay
Richard Horwood was a surveyor for the Phoenix Assurance Company, or Phoenix Fire Office, a private fire insurance company and fire brigade founded in 1680 in the aftermath of the Great Fire. Horwood undertook the task of producing a highly-detailed survey of the metropolis, on a scale of about 26 inches to the mile, extending from Islington to Kennington, and from Brompton to Limehouse.
In contrast to maps of London which were issued before the Act of Parliament introducing copyright in 1734, which were merely re-issues and re-engraved plates of old maps, Horwood's plan achieved new levels of accuracy. Every house and building is marked, as are Inns of Court, warehouses, alleyways and empty plots of land, and local parish boundaries. Horwood's laborious task took him nine years - by his account he 'took every angle, measured almost every line, and after that plotted and compared the whole work'. Subscribers to Horwood's plan included George III, most London insurance companies and City companies. It was issued in loose form, as here, or in bound copies with an additional index and list of subscribers.
In his definitive carto-bibliography, James Howgego describes Horwood's maps as 'The largest and most important London map of the eighteenth century' (Printed Maps of London circa 1553-1850, 1982, p. 200).
In contrast to maps of London which were issued before the Act of Parliament introducing copyright in 1734, which were merely re-issues and re-engraved plates of old maps, Horwood's plan achieved new levels of accuracy. Every house and building is marked, as are Inns of Court, warehouses, alleyways and empty plots of land, and local parish boundaries. Horwood's laborious task took him nine years - by his account he 'took every angle, measured almost every line, and after that plotted and compared the whole work'. Subscribers to Horwood's plan included George III, most London insurance companies and City companies. It was issued in loose form, as here, or in bound copies with an additional index and list of subscribers.
In his definitive carto-bibliography, James Howgego describes Horwood's maps as 'The largest and most important London map of the eighteenth century' (Printed Maps of London circa 1553-1850, 1982, p. 200).