Lowndes's Directory Of London 1786

Lowndes's Directory of London 1786 - Digital Download or CD-ROM

Product Description

Step back into the bustling streets of Georgian London with Lowndes's Directory of 1786.

For family historians, the late 18th century presents a notorious "census gap." With the first official census not taking place until 1801, tracing ancestors in the 1780s can be incredibly difficult. Lowndes's Directory acts as a vital bridge across this gap, providing a fascinating snapshot of the working and professional residents of the capital just before the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution.

Format & Navigability This product is available as an instant digital download or on a CD-ROM. Please note that this directory consists of high-quality scanned images of the original book and is not natively text-searchable. However, because the directory is meticulously arranged alphabetically—both by street name and by surname—locating your ancestors is highly intuitive and straightforward. Tip: Most modern PDF readers (like Adobe Acrobat) feature "On-the-Fly" OCR technology, meaning you can often use the search bar to highlight text directly on the scanned pages!

What’s Inside: A Breakdown of the Sections

• Alphabetical List of Streets, Squares, Courts, and Alleys: Discover exactly who lived next door to your ancestors. This section lists the principal inhabitants and tradespeople street-by-street.
• Alphabetical List of Merchants, Traders, and Gentlemen: The core of the directory for genealogists, allowing you to pinpoint an ancestor's name, their specific trade (e.g., apothecary, stay-maker, coal merchant), and their exact address.
• Trades and Professions: A classified section grouping individuals by their occupation—perfect if you only know what your ancestor did, but not exactly where they lived.
• Coaches, Carriages, and Watermen: Essential for understanding how Londoners traveled. Find the names of coach masters, stagecoach routes leaving the city, and watermen plying the Thames.
• Public Offices, Banks, and Societies: A fascinating look at the civic infrastructure of the city, listing officials, committee members, and bankers.

The World of London in 1786: Context & Color To help you understand the world your ancestors inhabited, here is a glimpse of what was happening in London in 1786:

• Famous Residents: If your ancestor lived in a fashionable parish, they may have shared a street with William Pitt the Younger (who became Britain's youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24), the charismatic preacher John Wesley, or the famed potter Josiah Wedgwood, who had a prominent showroom in Great Newport Street.
• Sport & Leisure: London was a hotbed of sporting excitement. Bare-knuckle boxing was sweeping the nation, led by the legendary Jewish-English boxer Daniel Mendoza, who was fighting in London around this time. Cricket was massively popular, dominated by the Hambledon Club, and just a year later (1787), Thomas Lord would open his very first cricket ground.
• Music & Arts: Though George Frideric Handel had passed away in 1759, his music was the absolute soundtrack of London. His protégé, Johann Christian Bach (the "London Bach"), had recently died (1782), but his influence on the capital's concert halls remained profound.
• Industry & Commerce: This was the eve of the Industrial Revolution. London’s skyline was dominated by the spires of churches and the smoke of industry. The East End was humming with the Spitalfields silk weavers (many of them French Huguenot refugees), while the banks of the Thames echoed with the sounds of shipbuilding in Deptford, massive breweries churning out Porter (dark beer), and the bustling West India Docks handling the lucrative, and deeply controversial, sugar and rum trades.

Important Disclaimer Regarding Maps Please Note: Original 18th-century directories frequently had their pull-out maps removed by previous owners to be framed and displayed separately. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the map section is present in this specific scanned copy. However, if the original map is still bound within this edition, we consider it a fantastic bonus!

Unlock the secrets of your Georgian ancestors today. Whether you are looking for a specific surname or simply want to wander the virtual streets of 18th-century London, Lowndes's 1786 Directory is an indispensable addition to your digital genealogy library.

Choose your preferred format at checkout: Instant Digital Download or CD-ROM mailed to your door.