24 November 2006 - 4 March 2007
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Opening hours
Panorama of London, William Smith, 1588; Sloane MS 2596, f.52
Copyright © The British Library Board
See London as you have never seen it before. Maps, views, letters, and ephemera from the British Library collections, bring to life the city's transformation from a Roman outpost to the huge, heaving metropolis of today, and look to the Olympic and post-Olympic future.
See how London has developed over nearly 2,000 years to become Europe's largest city - 300 languages, all major religions and 7,000,000 people of many nationalities, a city that never stops and perpetually reinvents itself.
Highlights include:
- the earliest view of London, from a Roman medal of 296 AD
- real history of the A-Z from 1652 onwards
- original hand-drawn map for the reconstruction of London drawn
within months of the Great Fire of 1666
- surviving fragment of the most beautiful map of London, by Wenceslas
Hollar
- psychedelic panorama of Carnaby Street in 1970
- extensive events
programme
View and download a complete list of all
items on display (PDF format, 81KB).
With thanks to British Library Patrons, Friends of the British
Library and the Cadogan Charity for their generous support of London:
A Life in Maps and to the Goldsmiths' Company for supporting the
exhibition's education and outreach programme.
