A Fascinating Map Of Tudor London

I love a good map. Old maps, I find, are one of the most amazing resources for getting in touch with London’s history and the lives of past Londoners. 

In the Guildhall Art Gallery you can find a bright, enlarged version of one of the earliest maps of London.

It is known as the Agas map and depicts Tudor London in 1561. It was once wrongly attributed to cartographer Ralph Agas and the name stuck. Printed using 8 wood blocks, it measures about 2 metres in length. 

Depicting London in 3D with archers, laundresses and farm animals, it gives an incredible insight into Tudor London, specifically early Elizabethan London. It was of course a very different city to the London of today so I thought I would go through below some of the main differences and similarities. 

As well as the Guildhall Art Gallery, you can also see a zoomable online version here and lay it over a modern map here.

The Wall and Gates

One of the biggest differences of course is that Tudor London is a city still pretty much confined by its wall. The defensive wall was originally constructed by the Romans in around 200AD and enhanced over the medieval period. 

On the map above you can see Houndsditch, still a road today. A ditch ran all the way around the outside of the city wall and it was on the stretch where Houndsditch can now be found that past Londoners are thought to have disposed of their dead dogs.

There were seven gates in the wall in this period, working from East to West you have: Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, Newgate and Ludgate. These were demolished in the 18th century to ease congestion and the only real reminders today are in the road names or areas.

Bear/Bull Baiting pits

South of the river you can see the bull and bear baiting pits. This was a popular and very violent sport in which bulls/bears were often chained up and pitted against other animals such as dogs.

Bankside was outside the jurisdiction of the City of London so was, of course, where lots of the otherwise illicit activities took place. It was therefore a hotspot for brothels, blood sports and later theatres. 

The bear baiting pit is remembered in the street Bear Gardens today, just along from the Globe. 

Winchester Palace

You can also see Winchester Palace on the South bank of the river. This was the home of the Bishops of Winchester, who were powerful and influential figures in medieval England.

Their London palace was built here in the early 13th century and burnt down in 1814. The remains of the magnificent Great Hall can still be seen today. 

The Tower of London and Tower Hill

The Tower of London is depicted with its defensive moat around the outside. Tower Hill is also shown, a high-profile execution site where the likes of Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell met their fate.

I love that you can see cows and people laying out laundry literally just to the North of the Tower- so different to today! 

London Bridge

London Bridge is shown with its 19 arches, buildings lining each side and the gatehouse on which the heads of executed traitors were displayed. You can read more about the old London Bridge and a brilliant model of it here. 

It was the only physical crossing over the Thames in central London and so was pretty constantly rammed with people, carts and animals trying to make the crossing.

Moorfields 

The Moor ‘Fyelds’ shown to the North of the city walls was a marshy area or moor. It is thought that this was created by the city wall damming the now lost Walbrook River.

The Walbrook, that once flowed through the centre of Roman London, was built over gradually in the medieval period. It is remembered in the road name ‘Walbrook’ today. The Moorfields are of course remembered most notably in the name of the famous eye hospital based here now. 

The Moorfields were used for all sorts of purposes from markets, laundry and protest gatherings. It was also here that many of the displaced set up camp after the Great Fire of London. 

Shoreditch

Shoreditch is depicted here as a small collection of hamlets around Shoreditch church. It is very much still a rural suburb of London in this period.

In the next couple of decades Shoreditch became a centre of theatre in London. In 1574 playhouses were banned inside the city walls and so in 1576 the first of these, called ‘the Theatre’, was built by James Burbage out in Shoreditch. 

Smithfield

Smithfield, named after the ‘smooth fields’ here just outside the city walls, was a large open space where a livestock market was located from at least the 12th century. In 1852 the livestock market moved into Islington but the meat market still remains to this day.

The Museum of London will be moving into the General Market Building, to open in 2026.

It was also used for public spectacles such as executions, including those of William Wallace and Protestant martyrs under Mary I.

St Paul’s Cathedral

We can see the pre-Great Fire St Paul’s Cathedral. Built from 1087 until the early 14th century, it was one of the largest buildings in Europe and originally had a tower and spire that measured around 500ft or 152 metres. This is 30 metres higher than the current dome of St Pauls. 

You may however notice that here it is depicted without the spire. On the 4th June 1561 the spire set on fire and collapsed, possibly from a lightning strike.

The Fleet River

At the Western edge of the city you can see the Fleet River. It flowed from the heights of Hampstead Heath, down what is now Farringdon Road and into the Thames where Blackfriars Bridge now sits. 

The Fleet was covered over in stages from the 18th century. You can see the Holborn Bridge, pretty much where the Holborn viaduct sits today. 

Find out more about the Fleet and how to walk its old route here.

Queenhithe

Along the riverside you will see many ports, docks and wharves, crowded with shipping arriving from around the world. 

Pretty much all of these inlets have been removed over the centuries, bar one: Queenhithe. It is a dock with possible Roman origins and was named in the early 12th century after Queen Matilda, the wife of Henry I, who received the duties from the goods that were landed here. 

Below you can see Queenhithe today. This rare survivor is protected as a scheduled ancient monument.

The Cheapside Cross

Cheapside was the main market street in medieval London. The name comes from the old English word ‘chepe’ or ‘ceapan’ for market or to buy. You can also see Wood Street, Bread Street and Milk Street, all relating to what you could buy there.

In the middle of the street above is the Cheapside Cross.

When Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, died in 1290 in Nottinghamshire, her body was brought back to London. As a romantic gesture, Edward put up a monument to her, called an Eleanor Cross, at each point that her body stopped on the journey. Before her final stop at Charing, later known as Charing Cross because of the Eleanor Cross erected there, she stopped at Cheapside. 

The Cheapside cross was one of the more elaborate. You can see below an image of the coronation procession of Edward VI in 1547, passing the Cheapside Cross.

The cross was taken down by Parliament in 1643 and destroyed during the civil war. Most of them were dismantled in this period as they were seen as symbols of royalty. 

There is a Victorian replica of the Charing cross outside Charing Cross station today, dating from 1864.

The Charterhouse

Near to Smithfield you can find the Charterhouse. The area became a plague burial ground during the Black Death of 1343 and a chapel was set up on the site for the victims. Subsequently, in 1371 a Carthusian Monastery was established here. 

In 1545, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was turned into a grand Tudor abode with a new great hall and chamber added by Sir Edward North. 

It is a fascinating site that can be visited today, click here for my blog post on it. 

Pudding Lane

Finally, look out for Pudding Lane, the point from which much of the London we see on the map was lost. This is where the Great Fire of London started on Sunday 2nd September 1666 in the bakery of Thomas Farriner.

That fire went on to burn down, over the course of a few days, 13,200 homes, 87 churches, many of the city gates, the Royal Exchange and St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Guildhall Art Gallery is open Mon-Sun 10am-4pm and is free of charge. Find out more about visiting here.

Thank you for reading, more of London’s incredible history below!