London Going Out of Town or the March of Bricks and Mortar

In 1829 if George Cruikshank looked out of the windows of his house in Myddelton Terrace Islington he would have seen the extensive building work taking place in the Camden/Islington area. In this print he satirises the extensive building work taking place at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It represents a geographical amalgam encompassing St Paul’s Cathedral in the far left (actually over a mile away) and in the other direction the green fields of Hampstead. The latter was in danger of losing its country feel as the Lord of the Manor was trying to push through a bill to enclose it.

Across a devastated landscape march an army of bricks and mortar led by one with a sign saying 'Mr Goth brickmaker in Brixton'. Chimneys are seen smoking in the distance and kilns also emit thick dark smoke while haystacks run away, fences are broken and trees uprooted.

The print illustrates one of Cruikshank’s favourite devices which was to animate inanimate objects and give them human characteristics and actions.