Map

The overlays that highlight 17th century London features are approximate and derived from Wenceslaus Hollar’s maps:

Open location in Google Maps: 51.277381, 1.338959

3 Annotations

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Downs is a roadstead in the southern North Sea near the English Channel off the east Kent coast, between the North and the South Foreland in southern England.
...
The Downs.
Latitude 51.213° or 51° 12' 46.8" north Longitude 1.4654° or 1° 27' 55.5" east
Open Location Code 9F336F78+65 GeoNames ID 2651022

Cities serving The Downs include Dover/South Foreland at the south end, Folkstone, Deal, Walmer, Ramsgate, Sandwich, Kingsdown, and Ramsgate/Broadstairs/North Foreland at the north end.

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Goodwin Sands like this:
Goodwin Sands, an extensive and dangerous shoal, off the E. coast of Kent, opposite Sandwich and Deal, about 5 miles from the mainland. N. to S. it is about 10 miles long; its breadth ranges from 1½ to 3 miles, and it forms a natural breakwater for the well-known roadstead called the Downs."

For more info., see
https://mapcarta.com/17647722
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

To the King's ... Majesty, the humble Petition and Remonstrance of the Knights and Gentlemen living in East Kent; together with the Mayor, Aldermen, & Inhabitants of the Town of Sandwich
Date: Undated [1661?]
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 74, fol(s). 485-486
Document type: Copy?

Recite that by the growth of a great sand-bank between the Goodwin and the Isle of Thanet the currents of the ancient river of Sandwich have been altered and in great measure choked up;
Allege that a new River & Haven might be formed between Sandwich and the great Downs;
that Andrews Burrell, a person well experienced in such works, and under whose direction the sum of £136,000 was expended by Francis, Earl of Bedford in the drainage of the Great Level of the Fens, estimates that such new River and Haven might be formed at the cost of about £100,000; and pray relief ...

FROM: Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…

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