Mapping the metropolis in an age of reform: John Britton's London topography, 1820-1840

John Britton (1771-1857) built a career as a prolific producer of illustrated works on the topography of Britain. This article focusses on a display map Britton produced: Topographical Survey of the Borough of St Marylebone, a work commemorating the Reform Act of 1832. The article addresses the making, meaning and marketing of the map. It does so as part of wider ways of picturing the movement for Reform and Britton's concern with the problems of portraying London and its development in a period of such rapid change. One of the new metropolitan boroughs, Marylebone represented many of the issues of reformist ideology, beyond the franchise, in matters of building, education, publishing, religious affiliation, local government and railway development. The map was personal as well as political, charting reformist concerns close to Britton's home in a period when his financial fortunes declined.