Old Map of Tudor London – The Agas Map

Name: Old Map of Tudor London – The Agas Map
SKU: 6121143140520
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The Agas Map of London – a remarkable view of Tudor London

Commonly known as the Agas Map, this celebrated bird’s-eye plan is one of the most important early images of London. It shows the capital before the Great Fire of 1666, when the medieval street pattern, the old city walls and gates, riverside wharves, churches and open ground beyond the built-up centre still defined the shape of London.

The traditional name comes from Ralph Agas, the Elizabethan surveyor and mapmaker to whom the work was once attributed. Modern scholarship is much more cautious: the surviving woodcut map is generally treated as an early seventeenth-century edition derived from a lost Tudor survey, probably connected with the same mid-sixteenth-century mapping tradition as the Copperplate map. That uncertainty is part of what makes the image historically fascinating.

The view stretches from Westminster in the west through the City of London and eastwards towards the Tower, while Southwark occupies the south bank of the Thames. Old St Paul’s Cathedral dominates the skyline, London Bridge is packed with buildings, and the city’s walls remain clearly legible around the historic core.

Outside the dense streets are fields, gardens and roads leading into the countryside. The contrast is striking: places now completely absorbed into central London appear close to the urban edge. The map therefore gives an unusually vivid impression of London before the explosive growth of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

For anyone interested in Tudor London, Shakespeare’s city or the earliest detailed mapping of the capital, the Agas Map is one of the defining historical images of London.

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Description

The so-called Agas Map, often titled Civitas Londinum, is among the most celebrated early plans of London. Although traditionally attributed to Ralph Agas and often described as a sixteenth-century map, the surviving woodcut edition is generally understood to derive from an earlier Tudor survey and to have been issued in the early seventeenth century.

Map Details

Traditional name: The Agas Map of London
Traditional attribution: Ralph Agas
Date: Derived from a Tudor survey; surviving woodcut edition usually dated to the early 1600s
Map type: Large bird’s-eye plan of London
Coverage: Westminster, the City of London, the Tower and Southwark

London Before the Great Fire

The map preserves the capital before the rebuilding that followed the Great Fire of 1666. The medieval street pattern is still dominant, with the old walls and gates enclosing the historic City and numerous churches packed into the dense urban fabric.

Old St Paul’s Cathedral rises above the centre, while the Tower of London marks the eastern edge. London Bridge remains the principal fixed crossing of the Thames and is shown lined with buildings.

Fields, Gardens and the Edge of the City

One of the most revealing aspects is the abrupt transition from dense streets to open land. Fields, gardens and lanes lie immediately beyond the built-up area, showing just how compact London still was compared with the modern metropolis.

A Key Source for Tudor London

The map is closely related to the great mid-sixteenth-century survey tradition represented by the surviving Copperplate fragments and the Braun and Hogenberg view. Together these images form the foundation of our visual understanding of Tudor London.

The Agas Attribution

The familiar attribution to Ralph Agas has been questioned by modern researchers. The name remains useful because it is how the map has long been known, but the uncertainty surrounding its authorship and publication history should be treated as part of the map’s story rather than hidden.

Supplied unframed as a fine art print.