The engraving comprises four separate plates creating a continuous panorama over long. It provides one of the best views of London before the Great Fire in 1666. From a viewpoint on the south bank of the River Thames, it shows (from west to east, left to right) mansions on the north bank of the river: Whitehall Palace, York House, Durham House, old Somerset House, Burley House, Arundel House and Essex House, then Old St Paul's Cathedral without the spire which was lost after it was struck by lightning in 1561, the low-rise medieval City of London dominated by the spires and steeples of its , Old London Bridge covered by shops and houses, and the Tower of London and St Katharine Docks, with distant views of Harrow on the Hill, windmills at Hampstead, and the spires of Hackney and Stepney. Prominent buildings depicted on the south bank are three theatres, The Swan, The Globe and the Beargarden, and the churches of St Mary Overie (rebuilt after a fire in 1212, later to become Southwark Cathedral), and St Olave's. There are many ships in the river. In the sky above the city, to the right of St Paul's, are angels holding a banderole with the title "London", to either side appear angels bearing trumpets decorated with the royal coat of arms and the arms of the City of London and then in the upper corners cartouches framed with cherubs.