The Thames Embankment, Victorian London, Antique Tinted Lithograph, circa 1880

About this sheet

This antique tinted lithograph of the Thames Embankment shows the Victoria Embankment curving toward Westminster, with the Houses of Parliament, the Clock Tower and Westminster Abbey in the distance and paddle steamers on the river. The plate is lettered "The Thames Embankment", "Maclure and Macdonald del et lith" and "Cassell's Old and New London, Plate 10".

The Victoria Embankment, built between 1865 and 1870 under the direction of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, was one of the great engineering achievements of Victorian London. It reclaimed land from the muddy foreshore of the Thames, carried the new main intercepting sewer and the District Railway beneath its roadway, and created a broad riverside avenue lined with plane trees and ornamental lamps. This view of the Thames Embankment shows the new promenade with its granite river wall and the busy river steamers that were then an everyday form of transport for Londoners.

The plate comes from Cassell's Old and New London, the celebrated illustrated history of the capital begun by Walter Thornbury and completed by Edward Walford, first issued in parts by Cassell, Petter and Galpin in the 1870s and reissued in several editions. The separate full page plates, lettered with their plate numbers, were published with the work from circa 1879 to 1885, and this impression belongs to that series. Unlike most plates in the series, this one was drawn on stone and printed by Maclure and Macdonald, the Glasgow and London firm of lithographers, who used a tint stone to give the sky and water a soft, even tone.

The print is an uncoloured tinted lithograph with a pleasing sense of space and atmosphere. It will appeal to collectors of Thames views, of Victorian engineering and of Westminster, and would look well framed in a study, office or hallway, where the long view toward Parliament and Big Ben makes a strong focal point.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a small nick at one corner and a single small spot in the lower image; otherwise clean.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.