The most famous view of London is by Wenceslaus Hollar, titled “Long View of London From Bankside”, which shows the dense tapestry of buildings on either side of the Thames. The view stretches from the Globe Theatre, at the left (west) to the Tower of London on the right (east). I made good use of a huge print of this engraving when I was writing my novel Conceit, which is set in London during the 17th century.
On September 28, 2019, The Globe and Mail published an enchanting version of Hollar’s view by Nick Craine, called “A Long View of Shakespeare’s London”. One of the highlights is a lively rendition of the chaos of buildings surrounding old Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The first Globe Theatre burnt down in June 1613, so Hollar’s map actually shows the second one, built a year later but closed by the Puritans in September 1642. Hollar mislabelled the theatre Bear bayting and labelled the bear-baiting house The Globe. Craine has happily corrected this error, and shows the bear “theatre” as another circular building with a flagpole to the right of the Globe.
In fact, Hollar’s work was printed in 1647, thirty years after Shakespeare died, but fortunately predates the Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed over 70% of the City. The Saint Paul’s Cathedral engraved by Hollar is the pre-fire and spire-less building. (The spire had been destroyed by lightning in 1561.) The medieval cathedral and its most famous Dean, the poet John Donne, are central to Conceit, as is the fire that took it down in 1666. The novel opens with his daughter, Pegge, attempting to rescue her father’s marble effigy from the flames engulfing the cathedral:
“St Paul’s cathedral stands like a cornered beast on Ludgate hill, taking deep breaths above the smoke. The fire has made terrifying progress in the night and is closing in on the ancient monument from three directions. Built of massive stones, the cathedral is held to be invincible, but suddenly Pegge sees what the flames covet: the two hundred and fifty feet of scaffolding erected around the broken tower. Once the flames have a foothold on the wooden scaffolds, they can jump to the lead roof, and once the timbers burn and the vaulting cracks, the cathedral will be toppled by its own mass, a royal bear brought down by common dogs.” (Conceit, page 9)
After the Great Fire, Christopher Wren was tasked with the rebuilding, and the cathedral we know today, with the iconic dome, was finished in 1711 and has withstood even the enemy incendiaries dropped on it during WWII.