Microcosm of London – Plates from Volume III

The slideshow above shows the forty plates from the third volume of Ackermann’s Microcosm of London (1808-10).  The titles of the plates are listed below.  All bar one of these images are taken from a copy of the Microcosm owned by the Lewis Walpole Library and are used with permission. The second image from the volume, of the Royal Circus, was kindly provided by the Bishopsgate Institute, who have their own display of Microcosm images from their copy available here.

If you want to examine one of the images in more detail, right-click on that image and select ‘Open image in new tab’. Hovering over the slideshow will bring up the pause button and buttons to skip to a particular image.

The Microcosm is introduced here and the plates can be seen mapped onto Horwood’s Plan here.

  1. Queen’s Palace, St James’s Park
  2. Royal Circus
  3. Royal Exchange
  4. Royal Institution, Albermarle Street
  5. Sadler’s Wells Theatre
  6. Session House, Clerkenwell
  7. Society for the Encouragement of Arts &c., Adelphi
  8. Society of Agriculture, [32 Sackville Street]
  9. Somerset House, Strand
  10. Stamp Office, Somerset House
  11. New Stock Exchange
  12. Drawing Room, St James’s
  13. St Luke’s Hospital
  14. St Margaret’s, Westminster
  15. St Martin-in-the-Fields
  16. St Paul’s Cathedral
  17. Surrey Institution
  18. Synagogue, Duke’s Place, Houndsditch
  19. Tattersall’s Horse Repository
  20. Temple Church
  21. View of the Tower
  22. Horse Armoury, Tower
  23. Board of Trade
  24. Trinity House
  25. Vauxhall Gardens
  26. St Stephen’s, Walbrook
  27. Watch House, St Mary Le Bone
  28. West India Docks
  29. Westminster Abbey
  30. Westminster Hall
  31. Whitehall
  32. Workhouse, St James’s Parish
  33. Greenwich Hospital, The Painted Hall
  34. Chelsea Hospital
  35. Military College, Chelsea
  36. New Covent Garden Theatre
  37. South Sea House, Dividend Hall
  38. Excise Office, Broad Street
  39. View of Westminster Hall and Bridge
  40. A View of London from the Thames, taken opposite the Adelphi