John Rocque's maps of London

John Rocque's 24-sheet map

In 1746, the French-born British surveyor and cartographer John Rocque produced two maps of London and the surrounding area. The better known of these has the full name A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark: it is a map of Georgian London to a scale of 26 inches to a mile (i.e. 1:2437), surveyed by John Rocque, engraved by John Pine, and published in 1746.[1] It consists of 24 sheets and measures 3.84 m × 2.01 m (12 ft 7 in × 6 ft 7 in). Taking nearly ten years to survey, engrave and publish, it has been described as "a magnificent example of cartography ... one of the greatest and most handsome plans of any city".[2]

Also in 1746, Rocque published another, smaller-scale, map of London, Westminster, Southwark, and their environs in sixteen sheets: its full name is An Exact Survey of the city's of London Westminster ye Borough of Southwark and the Country near ten miles round / begun in 1741 & ended in 1745 by John Rocque Land Surveyor; & Engrav'd by Richard Parr. Although it lacks the high definition of its better-known counterpart, it covers a much larger area.

  1. ^ Map Forum 1999, Works of John Rocque, item 25.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference chetham was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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