Thomson’s Chronicles of London Bridge

Chronicles of London Bridge: by an antiquary. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1827.

Richard Thomson (1794-1865) wrote extensively on London history (including ‘Tales of an Antiquary’ and ‘Secrets of Old St Paul’s’). His father was a wealthy seed merchant and he was probably educated privately.

ODNB notes that he never attended university, and there is no evidence that he entered any profession before the age of forty, when he was elected librarian to the London Institution through the influence of his lifelong friend, the architect William Tite. ODNB suggests that this is ‘a useful, if not entirely accurate (cf. Gordon Home, Old London Bridge, 1931) compilation of historical sources’, which reached a second edition in 1839. Work began on ‘new’ London Bridge in 1824, and ‘old’ London Bridge was demolished after it opened in 1831.

Condition & Materials

8vo. pp. xv, [i], 687, [i]. With 56 wood-engraved illustrations (many on India paper, pasted in) engraved by George Wilmot Bonner, William Hughes and Abraham John Mason after William Harvey. Contemporary red half morocco over marbled boards, rubbed, top edge gilt; late 19th century armorial bookplate of Ernest Hamilton Sharp to front pastedown (probably the Hong Kong-based barrister, 1861-1922), with book label of GH Wyatt below, and Wyatt’s ink ownership stamp to free endpaper.

References

OCLC: 1008391731