Oct 8, 2026 · 25 min · 6 segments
In 1737, Samuel Johnson and his student David Garrick decided to walk to London from Lichfield in search of opportunity. It worked out well for both of them, but for many of the large number who made…
Rosemary HillHost
Markman EllisGuest"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 byplaces, 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 harbor 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."
We do have one guide through this monstrous, pullulating, ever-expanding city, and that is the next big important map of London, which appears in 1739, um, by John Rocque and enga- and engraved by John Pine.
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.
It, it's printed in, in, um, in separate sheets, and you could assemble it together into a, into a huge ensemble map of London.
And, and what's really distinctive about it is that it tries to map all of London as it was.
It's London and Westminster and all the new squares and, and the, and the Borough of Southwark, um, all, all together, and it's the most...
T- taken together, it's the most amazing, uh, spectacle of, um, the growth of the city.
And the rather nice idea when he was selling it that, um, people should buy it, and they should sort of cut it out, put it on canvas, and then you would have it...
You'd need a relatively big drawing room, but, um, 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.
So it gives you the sense of the, the whole city from the furthest reaches of Chelsea or right across to beyond Mile End, north to Islington, south to Newington.
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, but through immigration because the death rate is so high.
"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 byplaces, 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 harbor 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."
We do have one guide through this monstrous, pullulating, ever-expanding city, and that is the next big important map of London, which appears in 1739, um, by John Rocque and enga- and engraved by John Pine.
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.
It, it's printed in, in, um, in separate sheets, and you could assemble it together into a, into a huge ensemble map of London.
And, and what's really distinctive about it is that it tries to map all of London as it was.
It's London and Westminster and all the new squares and, and the, and the Borough of Southwark, um, all, all together, and it's the most...
T- taken together, it's the most amazing, uh, spectacle of, um, the growth of the city.
And the rather nice idea when he was selling it that, um, people should buy it, and they should sort of cut it out, put it on canvas, and then you would have it...
You'd need a relatively big drawing room, but, um, 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.
So it gives you the sense of the, the whole city from the furthest reaches of Chelsea or right across to beyond Mile End, north to Islington, south to Newington.
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, but through immigration because the death rate is so high.
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