Winchester House, Austin Friars

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538 much of the priory precinct of Austin Friars came into the hands of Sir William Paulet, the First Marquess of Winchester, who built himself a substantial town-house there. Although it survived the Great Fire of 1666, it had by the time Thomas Hosmer Shepherd drew it in about 1830, fallen into disrepair and was occupied by H.W. Mills, a packing firm. Shepherd has included a cart making a delivery, and has also inscribed his own name and the title of the publication that this drawing was made for ‘London in the Nineteenth Century’ at the bottom left.