Peter Whetman’s Catalogue 12 is entitled London, Topography and History.  Priced at £450 is George Cooke’s book Views in London and Its Vicinity.  This was, apparently, Cooke’s ‘pet project’ on which he was engaged for many years before his death.  Especially effective are the scenes of the Thames with which Cooke was obsessed.  The title page lists forty-eight plates but there are, in fact, fifty.

Several documents relating to the Chelsea Water-Works Company from 1840 – 1856 are valued at £150.  The company was required by the 1852 Metropolitan Water Act to take water upstream of Teddington and bought land at Seething Wells near Thames Ditton for this purpose.  There is a prospectus, 1852, and a ‘Financial Scheme’ and a Report of the Committee of Proprietors on the Affairs of the Company and statement of the Directors in Reply relating to this.  The shareholders complained of mismanagement and the directors responded.

Another title involving the river is David Hughson’s London: being an Accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and Its Neighbourhood, to Thirty Miles Extent, From an Actual Perambulation.  The six volumes contain many wood engravings of churches and other buildings, by W. Stratford.  The set is valued at £350.

A large and finely executed folding hand-coloured plan of the ‘Bermondsey Estate’ showing a group of seven tanning yards is for sale at £275.  The document was “Prepared on behalf of the Trustees of the Estate of the Late William Alexander Frampton.  Frampton was a grocer and dealer of 34 Leadenhall Street who died in 1828 aged 54 but this plan must have been executed after 1857 as the lawyer’s address is shown as London EC.  The postal district system was only introduced in 1857.  The map shows the tanneries all along Long Lane.  This document shows not only the tanneries but other forms of industrial processes and the degree of detail is uncommon.

In 1758 Robert Dingley proposed setting up a home for penitent prostitutes.  Money was soon raised and the home opened in Prescot St. Whitechapel the same year with Dingley as treasurer.  The building proved too small and in the 1770s the institution moved to new premises in St. George’s Fields, Southwick.  The Reverend William Dodd, a well-known and popular preacher became chaplain until his execution for forgery in 1777.  The account is priced at £380.