An interior decorator with royal patronage, Frederick Crace had an intense interest in maps of London. He amassed some 1200 printed and hand-drawn maps charting the development of the city and its immediate vicinity from around 1570 to 1860.

One of these maps was produced by William Hyett.

Hyett produced an amazingly accurate map of the London countryside to the north and west of the capital in 1807, using just pen and paper.

The individual settlements that make up this area of London are shown by red blocks, with boundary lines indicating the fields separating them. Shading and soft interlining indicate relief, neatly illustrated at Primrose Hill, the summit of which is left bare. The barracks at the edge of Hyde Park are illustrated at the very bottom of the map.

The map comes from the Crace Collection at the British Library.