London Cityscape (L)

London is one of the world’s oldest great cities. It grew from three centres: the Roman settlement in the 1st century on the northern banks of the Thames, now known as “the City”; Southwark on the southern banks; and Westminster upstream. London expanded rapidly. The Great Fire of 1666 led to the proposal of many radical rebuilding schemes but these came to little. Instead London was rebuilt piecemeal driven by capitalism and housing demands. London’s population passed one million by 1800 and had reached 6.5 million a century later. Its structure is immensely complicated and there is little discernible form. Unsurprisingly it is not characterised by any particular architectural style with its buildings having been amassed over such a long period of time.

This cityscape, at a scale of 1:2500, is of “the City” – London’s hub of trade, commerce, and banking.

We also have a couple of alternative London cityscapes: London Cityscape covers the same extent but at a scale of 1:5000; London Cityscape (XL) covers a much larger extent at a scale of 1:2500.