Vanessa Harding

But the panorama is a real insight into what London looked like at that moment.

Yes, I think that's very true.

So, the maps.

Well, this is also the first moment at which we start to get attempts to depict London in maps.

There's obviously a big continental backstory to this, attempts to

depict Italian cities from the 15th century, more map making, again in continental Europe, of other cities.

But the first well-known depiction of London in a map appears to be a map engraved, probably in the Low Countries, on copper plates of which only three, as far as we know, survive, though they happen to be of the middle of the city.

They date from the mid to late 1550s because they show St.

Paul's with its steeple, which was destroyed by lightning in 1561.

We can get an idea of how much more there was from some of the derivatives or the expansions on the copper plate map, of which the most familiar image is the one published in Brown and Hogenberg's

cities of the world in 1572, which shows us, again, a very compact city defined by its walls, a few suburbs, a little bit of ribbon development.

Yes, it's spreading beyond the Tower so that riverside villages, and Greenwich is obviously very important, Deptford is becoming a place where ships are built and things like that.

But the idea of London linking up along the river is, I think, some way in the future.

So it's still the city.

And Westminster?

Yes, Westminster is, again, a definite little locus by itself, joined to the river, joined to the London, obviously by the river where a lot of traffic goes, but also by the Strand as far as down to Charing Cross.

And then Southwark on the other side of London Bridge, the only bridge at this date.

Southwark gains a closer relationship with the city at this time.

It's granted by the crown to the city and becomes the 26th ward of the city, though it's never fully integrated into city government or city structures.

I think we're beginning to see a much more comprehensive view of world history, both world history, but also a broader history of Britain and the British Isles, trying to make sense of them, trying to bring them into a larger narrative.