markk

I love maps, and this book is underscoring why. In it Simon Foxell uses historic maps of London to chart the history of the city and also the history of mapping it. I didn't think the latter would be an interesting subject, yet I'm finding it an engrossing way of thinking about how Londoners viewed themselves at various points in their past.

Foxell has also provided me with an important nugget of information that I hadn't appreciated until now, which was the role the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century played in the geographic growth of London. For some reason, I didn't know that the monasteries owned much of the land outside of the City's walls, but it certainly explains the physical expansion of the metropolis in the early modern era. I definitely want to read more about it, though, as Foxell just touches on this point before moving on.