Comments on The Greenwich Phantom: 1790 Roadmap

Will see if I can get a higher resolution on the m...

2008-08-15T13:52:00.000+01:00

Will see if I can get a higher resolution on the map. I've been away on business and about to depart again so will look into it when I get back.

Not just a bit nouveau. He was involved in the sl...

2008-08-14T23:58:00.000+01:00

Not just a bit nouveau. He was involved in the slave trade. I wrote a thing about him recently, and there is a creepy portrait of him.

Nice map indeed. The name Angerstein leapt out am...

2008-08-14T13:15:00.000+01:00

Nice map indeed. The name Angerstein leapt out among the private houses shown: this was John Julius Angerstein (1732-1823), a pretty big fish in insurance who amassed an enviable art collection and mixed in impressive circles: Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Joshua Reynolds... His house in Blackheath, Woodlands, was built in 1774. He was apparently a bit 'nouveau', according to the more sniffy commentators, but his collection formed the basis of the National Gallery. But maybe you've already posted something on him, TGP?

tidbit: in the year this map was printed a prowler by the name of Renwick Williams, known as the 'Monster', had been attacking women on the streets of London - Angerstein offered a reward for his capture...

According to the indispensable "Blackheath Village...

2008-08-13T17:26:00.000+01:00

According to the indispensable "Blackheath Village & Environs Volume 2" by Neil Rhind p399-400, The Sun in Sands pub was definitely built by 1790, as the earliest mention of it on a map was in 1745 (by a map maker named John Rocque).

But it's not as simple as that! The earliest license transfer request was made in 1812, but it was referred to as the "Sun Ale House".

Even more confusingly, there was another Sun tavern on Blackheath Hill in the early 1800s which has been muddled with the one on Shooters Hill in the past.

That map is great by the way - can you ask them to do a really high resolution scan of it? They always look really nice!

By the way, I've got some photos of Severndroog castle here, that I took on a little sight seeing expedition.