London-Whitbread's New Plan 1853 Shaded Relief Map

This map of London was published in 1853, a decade before the city got its first underground railway and five years before the "Great Stink" of 1858 forced Parliament to fund the sewer system that finally cleaned up the Thames. At the time, London was the largest city in the world, with a population above two million, still relying on horse-drawn omnibuses and a patchwork of private water companies that would soon prove inadequate for a city its size.

We georeferenced the original 1853 survey and applied modern digital elevation data to add true shaded relief to London's cityscape and the Thames river valley. The shading is printed flat on the paper — not raised or textured — so it frames and hangs like any fine art print.

Available unframed, or framed in black or walnut.

Note on legibility: text on the original map is small and can be difficult to read given the map's age. In areas where the relief shading is darkest, the underlying labels are not legible. We recommend the largest available size for the best detail.