page_title: Copperplate map of London
section_title: Eastern City
hierarchical_section_title: Copperplate map of London / Surviving plates / Eastern City
caption_attribution_description: English: Plate from the "Copperplate" map of London, 1550s, showing the western City area
context_page_description: The "Copperplate" map of London is an early large-scale printed map of the City of London and its immediate environs, surveyed between 1553 and 1559, which survives only in part. It is the earliest true map of London. The original map was probably designed for hanging on a wall, and is believed to have measured approximately 3 feet 8 inches high by 7 feet 5 inches wide. No copies of the printed map itself are known to have survived; but between 1962 and 1997 three of the original engraved copper printing-plates – from a probable total of 15 – were identified. Although only a fragmentary portion of the map is known, the three plates cover the greater part of the built-up heart of the City of London.
  The map takes the form of a "bird's-flight view": that is to say, the street layout and other ground features are shown in plan, as if viewed directly from above; while buildings, people and other standing features are shown as if viewed from a great height to the south of the City, but without the foreshortening of more distant features that would be necessary for a true perspective view.
context_section_description: The second plate was identified shortly afterwards in private ownership. The map section shows much of the eastern part of the City (immediately to the south of the area covered by the first plate, and extending south to the banks of the Thames), including Guildhall and the northern end of London Bridge. The reverse of the plate had been used for a painting of the Coronation and Assumption of the Virgin, painted in c.1600 and attributed to Hieronymus Francken I. This plate was also purchased by the Museum of London in 1985.
caption: The western City plate
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