Bacon’s New Map of London and Suburbs – c.1870 – Folding Map

Published by George Washington Bacon, London, c.1870

Original folding lithographed map with contemporary hand-colouring, dissected into sections and preserved in the original cloth covers with printed publisher’s label. The accompanying 22-page index and guide notes that “350 streets have been added for 1870”, allowing the present example to be dated with unusual precision to the opening years of G.W. Bacon’s independent publishing enterprise at 127 Strand.

Sheet size: 73.4cm x 69.1cm.

An attractive and highly detailed pocket map of Victorian London issued at the very beginning of George Washington Bacon’s independent publishing career and possibly the firm’s first separately issued London map. Bacon had only established G.W. Bacon & Co. in 1870, following earlier commercial ventures and the acquisition of Edward Weller’s map plates, making this map an especially important survival from the formative period of one of Britain’s best-known later nineteenth-century cartographic publishers.

Extending from Richmond and Wimbledon in the south-west to Tottenham and Walthamstow in the north-east, the map captures London immediately before the great late Victorian suburban expansion transformed the metropolitan fringe. Railways are prominently emphasised in red, illustrating the rapidly developing transport infrastructure which drove the outward growth of the city. Cab-fare radius circles centred on Charing Cross provide an intriguing insight into Victorian urban navigation and transport economics.

The map is exceptionally rich in period detail, depicting parks, commons, railway termini, cemeteries, reservoirs, suburban villages and newly laid-out roads. Areas such as Notting Hill, Brixton, Leytonstone and Hammersmith appear in transitional form between semi-rural settlement and fully urbanised district. The River Thames is boldly highlighted with original wash colour, while postal districts and suburban boundaries are carefully delineated throughout.

The accompanying printed guide contains concise notes on public buildings, galleries and institutions of interest to visitors, demonstrating the map’s intended dual role as both navigational aid and practical traveller’s companion. Such ephemeral guides were heavily used and are frequently missing or defective.

Condition: Very good overall. Original hand-colouring remains bright and attractive. A little worn at several fold intersections with very minor loss, as often encountered with frequently consulted folding maps of the period. The original cloth covers remain sound and entirely functional. A highly appealing and increasingly uncommon survival of an early Bacon London map in complete original format. Examples of this specific early issue appear highly infrequently on the market.

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