Extent of the Metropolis of London
Robert Morden (1701):
Its length from Lime-house to Mill-bank, is 7500 Paces, about 7 Miles and a half; its breadth, from White-chappel to St. George's fields, about 3 Miles. It contains 600 Streets and Lanes, above 100000 Houses, upwards of 800000 Souls, besides the Multitude of Strangers, and Mariners of all Nations. It can bring into the Field above 150000 fighting Men.
John Strype (1720):
The City of London, taking in that also of Westminster, with the adjacent Parts which begirt them, may not improperly be divided into four Parts. The First is the City of London within the Walls and Freedom, which is inhabited by wealthy Merchants and Tradesmen, with a Mixture of Artificers, as depending on Trade and Manufacture. Secondly, The City or Liberty of Westminster, and the adjacent Parts, which are taken up by the Court and Gentry, yet not without a mixture of eminent Tradesmen and Artificers. Thirdly, That Part beyond the Tower, which compriseth St. Katharines, East Smithfield, Wapping, Shadwell, Ratcliff, Limehouse, and so Eastward to Blackwall. Which are chiefly inhabited by Seafaring Men, and those that by their Trades, or otherwise, have their Dependance thereon. And, Fourthly, Southwark, which taking in all the Borough almost as far as Newington Southwards, to Rotherhith in the East, and to Lambeth in the West, is generally inhabited and fitted with Tradesmen, Artificers, Mariners, Water-men, and such as have their Subsistence by and on the Water: Besides abundance of Porters and Labourers, useful in their kind to do the most servile Work in each of the four Parts.
All these four Parts taken together have a vast Extent: For from the farthest End beyond Petty-France Westward, unto Blackwall in the East, is reckoned above five Miles; and from the farthest End of Shoreditch Northwards, to the End of Blackmoore Street in Southwark Southwards, is about three Miles, making in Circumference above 15 Miles.
This great and populous City contains in the whole 6 or 7000 Streets, Lanes, Alleys, Courts, and Yards of Name, and generally very full of Inhabitants. Before the late dreadful Fire of London, the Houses within the Walls were computed to be about 13000; and that is accounted not above a sixth Part of the four Parts: And in these late Years whole Fields have been converted into Builded Streets, Alleys, and Courts; as the great Buildings about the Abby of Westminster, Tuthill Fields, and those Parts: Then the greatest Part of St. James's Parish, as St. James's Fields, Albemarle Buildings, St. James's Street, Piccadilly, Golden Square, all the Streets in the Soho Fields, wherein St. Ann's Parish; also all Bloomsbury, Kings Square, and the new Streets thereabouts: the several Streets by St Giles's Church, Red Lyon Square, and the several Streets abutting thereon; all Hatton Garden, and the Streets on the Back Part of Purple Lane towards the Fields, as Liquorpond Street, &c The Great and Little Lincoln Inn Fields, all Covent Garden, and the several Streets abutting thereon, the several Streets in Cock and Pye Fields; also York Buildings, Beauford Buildings, Salisbury Buildings, Durham Yard, Exeter Buildings, Arundel Buildings, all Norfolk Buildings, Essex Buildings; the several Streets by Clare Market: All which are very populous, and full of Courts and Alleys; and in the East and North Parts, the Spittle Fields, Goodman's Fields, with divers other Places too tedious to name. All which were only Fields and waste Grounds. Besides these, there hath been a very great Encrease of Buildings, in converting of Gardens and great Houses into Courts, Squares, and Alleys, throughout the whole City.
The City of London, a city and county within the larger metropolis of London, was divided into 26 wards:
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Beyond the City's 26 wards, Strype included the following parishes and liberty in his 1720 plan of the City of London, Westminster, and Southwark:
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John Noorthouck (1750):
In strict language, London is still confined to its walls, and the limits of the corporate jurisdiction of the City; but as a contiguity of buildings has connected it with Westminster and all the neighbouring villages and hamlets, the name in common usage has extended over them all, and rendered their respective proper names no more than subdivisions of one great metropolis. In this general view, therefore, London may now be said to include two cities, one borough, and forty-six ancient villages: viz. the City of London properly so called, the City of Westminster, borough of Southwark, the villages of Finsbury, Clerkenwell, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Norton-falgate, the Spital, Whitechapel, Mile End, New Town, Mile End, Old Town, Bethnal-Green, Stepney, Poplar, Limehouse, Blackwall, Ratcliff, Shadwell, Wapping, East Smithfield, the Hermitage, St. Catharine's, the Minories, St. Clements-Danes, the Strand, Charing-Cross, St. James's, Knights-Bridge, Soho, St. Martin's in the Fields, St. Giles's in the Fields, Bloomsbury, Marylebone, Portpool, Saffron-Hill, Holborn, Vauxhall, Lambeth, Lambeth-Marsh, Kennington, Newington-Butts, Bermondsey, the Grange, Horsleydown, and Rotherhithe. Beside which the villages of Chelsea, Paddington, Islington, Hackney, Bow, and Deptford, are so near being united, that they might, without any great impropriety, have been added to the list, and considered as appendages to this immense capital.
Length and breadth.
Mr. Maitland informs us that in the year 1732, he measured the length and breadth of this city and suburbs with a perambulator, and found the extent as under.
Miles. Yards. Length, from the upper end of Knightsbridge in the west, to Robin Hood-lane at the lower end of Poplar in the east. 7½ 176 Ditto, from Robin Hood-lane, back again, coasting the river westward, to Peterborough house, at the south end of Millbank row, above the Horse-ferry Westminster. 6¼ 352 Breadth, from Jeffrey's alms houses in Kingsland road to the upper end of Camberwell road Newington Butts. 3 170½
Number of streets and houses.
Within this extensive area there were computed to be 5,099 streets, lanes, squares, &c. composed of 95,968 houses. But so many of the old streets have been since altered, and so many new streets added, that if this computation was accepted as exact at that time, it is no longer so. With regard to the number of houses, it is a vain expectation to endeavour at any thing near the truth; the variations between different estimates are so great, and the alterations so continual, that little confidence can be reposed in them.
Samuel Lewis (1831):
London may be said to consist of several divisions, viz.:
"The City," properly so called, comprehends the most ancient and central part of London, and is almost exclusively occupied by shops, warehouses, and public offices devoted to business. The East End of the Town includes Wapping, Shadwell, Ratcliffe-highway, &c., extending from Tower hill, eastward, to the East India Docks; the inhabitants of this large district being in general connected with the shipping interests, and consisting of shipwrights, ship-owners, and captains of vessels, merchants, sailors, shop keepers, and others, who are supported by the business of the port. This division of London has, within the last thirty years, assumed an importance unknown to preceding ages, and vast commercial docks and warehouses have been here constructed. The West End is the most modern and elegant part of London: it is inhabited by the nobility and gentry, and is the seat of Government and of the Court, as well as the centre of fashion; and consists principally of handsome squares and streets: it may be said to extend westward from the meridian of Charing Cross. Southwark, which lies on the south bank of the Thames, comprehends five parishes, connected with others by extensive ranges of houses. Its population chiefly consists of merchants, traders, and manufacturers. It had formerly only one main street, called the Borough High-street, extending from London bridge towards Newington, but the increase of buildings has since added numerous others, stretching in various directions, and has formed it into a town, several miles in extent.
That part of the metropolis lying on the northwest, and which may be considered as the latest enlargement, and the most elegant, as well as the most systematic in its arrangement of squares and streets, comprehends an immense mass of new buildings between Holborn and Somers-town, and in the parishes of St. Mary-le-bone and Paddington. Besides which, the villages of Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Paddington, Camden-town, Pentonville, Islington, Mile-End, Lime-house, Rotherhithe, Bermondsey, Newington, Camberwell, Lambeth, &c., united, from the contiguity of their buildings, may be considered as appendages to this immense capital. Thus regarded, the extent of London, from west to east, along the banks of the Thames, or, from the upper end of Knightsbridge to the lower end of Poplar, is seven miles and a half, and its breadth from north to south, or from Islington to Kennington, is about five miles and a half; its circumference is full thirty miles, hence it may be fairly estimated, that the buildings of this metropolis cover at least twenty square miles, extending in length seven miles. This space contains between eight thousand and nine thousand streets and smaller avenues, more than seventy squares, and one hundred and seventy thousand houses, besides an immense number of public buildings.