Whilst researching Whitechapel in my causes of death thread, I found the engraving below, dated from about 1650, on the London Picture Archive website, which I think deserves its own thread
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https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=32161It quite possibly is the only view existing, that shows pre Great Fire Whitechapel in some detail, showing what is now Whitechapel Road, and the old medieval St. Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel church on the left, with a windmill, which I think may have been moved to the other side of the church as artistic licence just to get it in the picture
. You have several horse riders in the street, a grand coach, smaller carts and pedestrians. On most of the street, you can see tall pointed roofed timber framed and plaster houses with jettied fronts. Nearest on the right, you can see grander houses with perhaps some elaborate plasterwork (pargetting) or woodwork on the front of the second one down the street perhaps as on Sir Paul Pindar's house from Bishopsgate, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O39115/sir-paul-pindars-house-house-front-and-unknown/an example of pargetting in a house in Clare, Suffolk
https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/news-and-events/maintenance-diary/ancient-house-may-2018/At the end of the street, is the original Aldgate, by the London Wall, all the gates were demolished in the 1760s. On the far left in the distance, you can see the Tower of London, the pointed roofs of many streets, and little churches dotted about. The very tall spire just left of centre may be the old St. Paul's Cathedral. Just to the right of the Aldgate, is the old church of St. Botolph, Aldgate. And not far behind inside the city walls just to the right, is what seems a large church, possibly the original 1622 built St. James, Duke's Place, notorious for its clandestine marriages
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And rather amazingly, what I originally thought were the walls of London depicted close by, I have realised are sketches of fortifications made during the civil war, possibly the only surviving contemporarily made illustrations of them, and the map below shows a 'Hornwork' was built very close to Whitechapel church
'hornwork
Fortification. A single-fronted outwork, the head of which consists of two demi-bastions connected by a curtain and joined to the main body of the work by two parallel wings. It is thrown out to occupy advantageous ground which it would have been inconvenient to include in the original enceinte.'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitechapel_Mount#/media/File:London_as_fortified_(1738).pngYou can explore from above using the 1658 Faithorne and Newcourt map with points marked in the link below, select use this overlay on the left, you will need to zoom in, as it only covers the old city, Westminster, Southwark and close outskirts. Each church has a number which is indexed in a box under the Thames
https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/overlays/great-fire-of-london-testingA new church was built after the fire so this may be the only detailed view of the old church existing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_Matfelona watercolour of the 1670s church from 1811 by John Coney
https://www.meisterdrucke.us/fine-art-prints/John-Coney/1149839/Church-of-St-Mary%2C-Whitechapel%2C-London%2C-1811.htmlThe church's up to date entries from the 'Survey of London' project on UCL blogs
https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/survey-of-london/2016/06/10/the-church-of-st-mary-matfelon-whitechapel-part-one/https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/survey-of-london/2016/07/01/the-church-of-st-mary-matfelon-whitechapel-part-two/