Title:

The Custom House

Description:

This engraving depicts The Custom House. Until 1814 the Custom House stood in the parish of All Hallows Barking, immediately to the east of the present site. The site was long known as "Wool Quay", and, from the medieval period, a custom house was necessary there to levy the duty payable on exported wool. Such a building is recorded as early as 1377. The quay and the buildings on it were privately owned. Around 1380, one John Churchman built a custom house there to collect dues for the City of London, and in 1382 the crown came to an agreement to use its facilities. Churchman’s custom house remained in use until 1559, the freehold passing through various hands. Its replacement was erected under the direction of William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester, the Lord High Treasurer. A print from 1663 shows it as a three-storey building, with octagonal staircase towers. This structure was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The post-fire replacement was on a rather larger scale, to the designs of Christopher Wren. The new building was short- lived: in January 1715 a fire, which began in a nearby house, damaged it beyond repair, and a new, larger structure was built to the designs of Thomas Ripley, “Master-Carpenter” to the board of Customs. This necessitated the acquisition of ground to the north, fronting onto Thames Street, and the east. The main body of the new building, however, had the same plan as Wren’s, and may have re-used its foundations, but was of three, rather than two storeys.

John Stow's "Survey" appeared first in 1598 and remained the major reference source on the city's history for decades. However, it was not until around 1700 that steps were taken to produce an up-dated edition with maps illustrating the areas described. Richard Blome (1641-1705) was charged with preparing a series of ward plans, copied from the detail of the recently published large-scale map of London by John Ogilby and William Morgan, frequently at a larger scale, thus with more clarity, and with major buildings shown pictorially in profile as "uprights". The plans were finally published in John Strype's "Survey Of The Cities Of London And Westminster ... ", being the first ward maps to be published.

Blank verso.

Publication: A Survey of the Cities of
London and Westminster: containing the original, antiquity, increase, modern estate and government of those Cities.
Written at first in the Year MDXCVIII.
By John Stow, citizen and native of London.
Since Reprinted and Augmented by the author now lastly corrected, improved, and very much enlarged: And the survey and
history brought down from the Year 1633, (being near Fourscore Years
since it was last printed) to the present time;
By John Strype, M.A. a native also of the said City.

Condition: Good. Mildly age toned. The sheet has been washed and pressed by a professional conservator. Bottom margin extended to facilitate mounting. The attached photo is part of the item description, please examine carefully.

Color: Uncoloured.

Size (h x w): approx. 20.7 x 32.5 cm, (neat line)

Technique: Copperplate

Engraver: Unknown

Date: 1720

Ref:JJB2875