The view of the Charity children in the Strand

An inverterate sketcher, Hollar produced thousands of preparatory drawings for his designs, all but a few of which are now lost. Of those that do survive, several relate to his masterpiece, The Long View of London, from Bankside. Generally acknowledged to be one of the finest printed panoramas of London ever produced, the Long View was the result of many years gestation. Many of the preparatory sketches were made from the tower of St Mary Overy, in Southwark, and Hollar's great pains to ensure accuracy are evident. Errors in an undertaking of this magnitude are almost inevitable. The circular building at the left labelled 'The Globe' is in fact 'The Hope Theatre', and the larger circular building labelled 'beere baiting' is infact the second Globe Theatre of 1614, replacing Shakespeare's theatre which burned in 1613. His spelling of 'St Pauwls Church' is perhaps an echo of his still imperfect grasp of English pronunciation.
The result of Hollar's labours is tinged with sadness. The magnificent view he placed before us was destroyed in the Great Fire barely twenty years later. What began as a project to map the metropolis, ended as a record of a lost city.