William Parrott's London from the Thames

parrott london8.jpg

William Parrott (1813 - 1869), London from the Thames (London: Henry Brooks, 87, New Bond Street, printed by C. Hullmandel [1841]). Graphic Arts Collection GAX oversize 2012- in process.

Parrott’s lithographic title page vignette shows the Tower of London at the time of the Lord Mayor’s embarkation, with ceremonial barges at the wharf. An 1843 journalist noted, “Since the first mayoralty procession, in the year 1215, probably there have been few finer pageants than that of Thursday last, when the November sun even gilded with his beams the somewhat tarnished splendour of the City state.”


parrott london6.jpg
parrott london7.jpg
parrott london 3.jpg

“…The next day the various officials assembled at the Guildhall, and, the procession being formed, proceeded … to Southwark Bridge, where his lordship embarked at the Floating Pier for Westminster. This somewhat unusual arrangement arose from the new lord mayor being the alderman of Vintry Ward, wherein the bridge is situated, and his lordship being desirous that his constituents should witness the progress of the civic procession. The embarkation was a picturesque affair; the lord mayor’s state barge, the watermen in their characteristic costume, and the lord mayor and his party were, in civic phrase, ‘taking water.’” —recorded by Francis Miltoun in Dickens’ London (2010)

parrott london4.jpg
parrott london 2.jpg
Copies of this very rare portfolio differ and so, I’m listing our copy’s plates for comparison with others:
1. [Title] London from the Thames, Undated
2. Chelsea with Part of the Old Church & Sir Hans Sloane’s Tomb, November 1841

3.Lambeth & Westminster From Millbank, November 1841
4. Waterloo Bridge from the West with Boat Race, June 1841
5. Somerset House, St Paul’s & Blackfriars from Waterloo Bridge, Undated
6. Southwark Bridge from London Bridge, April 1841
7. The Pool. From London Bridge. Morning., April 1841
8. London Bridge from the Pool-, November 1841
9. The Pool looking towards London Bridge, May 1841
10. West India Docks from the South East, October 1840
11. Westminster & Hungerford from Waterloo Bridge, Undated
12. Ship Building at Limehouse, the President on the Stocks, March 1840
13. Greenwich and the Dreadnought, Undated.


parrott London 1.jpg

Only three copies of the complete volume are listed in OCLC including Princeton, Yale, and the Corporation of London Libraries.

parrott london 8.jpg