Forget A-Z - try ye olde mappe of London

Forget A-Z - try ye olde mappe of London

15.11.2007

It is the online map of London with a difference - instead of up-to-the-minute satellite images, it lets you zoom in and see your street as it was more than 500 years ago.

The map reveals exactly what life in 16th century London was like - from cattle roaming around Holborn to archers firing their arrows in Finsbury Fields.

The map is based on the Agas map, the earliest printed map of London in existence.

The online version was created by Dr Janelle Jenstad of the University of Victoria. Researchers worked with the Guildhall Library, which holds one of only three known impressions of the map.

"This is a fascinating insight into London life in the 1550s and it the first known map," said John Fisher of the Guildhall Library. "It's unique because it gives a human face to London at the time - you can see people in the fields working with cattle, for instance.

"It also goes to show just how different London was. In those days it was just what we now refer to as the City of London, with a small annex tagged on at Westminster."

The Agas map was printed from eight woodblocks and measures about two metres in length.

Experts say it is unique for its three-dimensional detail which reveals many facets of life in Tudor London and the huge number of areas given over to farmland.

Mr Fisher said: "I think the interesting thing is that you can still recognise a lot of the streets - while London has expanded, virtually all the streets do still exist in some form or another. For anyone who lives in London today, it is absolutely fascinating and shows just how the capital has evolved."