London Revisited: The Monster

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Rosemary Hill (0:30)

Hello, and welcome back to London Revisited. I'm Rosemary Hill. Last time, we covered the Glorious Revolution, so-called, of 1688, and we watched London become a global financial capital and very quickly suffer the consequences with the South Sea Company crash, the bubble, as it was called, in which very sensible people, including Isaac Newton, lost a fortune.

In today's episode, the ramifications of both those things, the crash and the revolution, continued to reverberate. We will also see the country's first Prime Minister take up residence in Downing Street. We'll watch ever grander squares being laid out as London spreads further west and northwest. And alongside the conspicuous wealth, there is also conspicuous poverty, crime, disease, drunkenness, despair. And as the city grows inexorably, so does the anxiety about the monster it's becoming.

To grapple with the monster, I'm joined again by Markman Ellis, Professor of 18th Century Studies at Queen Mary University of London. Hello, Markman.

Markman Ellis (1:33)

Hello, Rosemary.

Rosemary Hill (1:34)

So we'll start by hearing from one of the great voices of the first half of the 18th Century, Henry Fielding, expressing some of those concerns.

SPEAKER_4 (1:43)

Whoever indeed considers the cities of London and Westminster, with the late vast addition of their suburbs, the great irregularity of their buildings, the immense number of lanes, alleys, courts and by-places, must think that, had they been intended for the very purpose of concealment, they could scarce have been better contrived. Upon such a view, the whole appears as a vast wood or forest, in which a thief may harbour with as great security as wild beasts do in the deserts of Africa or Arabia.

For by wandering from one post to another, and after shifting his quarters, he may almost avoid the possibility of being discovered.

Rosemary Hill (2:29)

We do have one guide through this monstrous, pollulating, ever-expanding city, and that is the next big, important map of London, which appears in 1739 by John Roque and engraved by John Pine. And that, Markman, is the sort of first map, we've talked about maps before in this series, but they are rare objects. This was the first one that would come within the range of admittedly a relatively prosperous person, but a private person was likely to have a copy.

Markman Ellis (3:02)

Yes, it's printed in separate sheets, and you could assemble it together into a huge ensemble map of London. And what's really distinctive about it is that it tries to map all of London as it was. It's not just to focus on a particular area or just the city. It's London and Westminster and all the new squares and the borough of Southwark all together. And it's the most, taken together, it's the most amazing spectacle of the growth of the city.

Rosemary Hill (3:30)

And the rather nice idea when he was selling it, that people should buy it and they should cut it out, put it on canvas, and then you would have it, you would attach a roller to the corners in your drawing room. You'd need a relatively big drawing room, but and then you could roll it down and point things out to your friends. And I think it is the first time that we've seen what we now think of as London, conceived of as a whole.

Markman Ellis (3:56)

Yes, it gives you the sense of the whole city from the furthest reaches of Chelsea or right across to beyond Myland, north to Islington, south to Newington.

Rosemary Hill (4:07)

Yes, I think it goes as far as Newington. And we're seeing that continuous development now along the north bank of the Thames, which had been a bit patchy up until now. And so, yes, it presents the whole picture. But of course, the reason that people are horrified by London is not anything that appears on that map. It's the fact that it's like a kind of bucket with a hole in it, that the population is going up, but through immigration, because the death rate is so high.

Markman Ellis (4:35)

Yes, so the population is increasing, and the growth is from migration, primarily from the provinces, from rural England, but also from the wider world, from Europe and the wider globe. And the number of London is this enormous monster, as you say, sucking these people in, because it offers opportunity, it offers employment, housing up to a point, and the chance of becoming wealthy.