The city of London appears as one of the marvels featured in Wonderful Things, an English 1852 publication collecting the “the most remarkable Wonders of the Ancient and Modern World”. Created by journalist and chartist Robert Kemp Philp, the piece is a curated text which combines the author’s reflections with extracts taken from Thomas De Quincey and American writer, William Ware. From the anonymity imposed on the individual by the city scale, to the perceived splendour of wealthy neighbourhoods, The Great Metropolis gives us a glimpse of how vividly the Victorian mind may have experienced the then-largest capital in the world. To launch this second part of our new section “Past Present Archive”, we have chosen another drawing by William Turner, showing the York House Water-Gate area next to the river Thames.
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