Blome’s Ward Plan of Wapping & Shadwell

The Parish of St Johns Wapping; The Parish of St. Paul Shadwell

This detailed ward plan of Wapping and Shadwell includes Execution Dock, where sentence was carried out on pirates and mutineers; and historic riverside pubs the Prospect and Whitby and the Town of Ramsgate.

John Stow's A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster was originally published in 1598 and 1603, but revised and expanded works under his name appeared over the following two centuries.

This ward plan was commissioned towards the end of his life by Richard Blome (1635-1705) for a proposed Survey or description of the citties of London and Westm[inste].r (entered in the Registers of the Stationers' Company in 1695) which never materialised.

The plates were sold and Blome's name erased after his death and they were included in John Strype's edition of Stow's Survey printed in 1720 (which itself took over a decade to see through the press, despite the backing of a large consortium of booksellers), and in the edition of 1754-55.

Condition & Materials

Copper engraving, 28.5 x 37 cm, black and white, blank verso