St Mary Overy church, now known as Southwark Cathedral, as viewed from the south.
The church which would become St. Marie Overie, also known as Southwark cathedral, was consecrated in 604 by a Bishop of Rochester known as Paulinus. On July 10th 1212 the cathedral burned down in a fire which also damaged the first London Bridge. It was rebuilt and it is this Church which was depicted by Hollar in 1661 as no major renovations which would change the view of the cathedral building as seen in this etching.
This view of London appeared in the first volume of Civitates orbis terrarum, originally published in six parts in 1572 and 1617, and printed in Cologne, c. 1600-23, with 546 engraved views of cities around the world. Edited by Georg Braun, most of the engravings were done by Frans Hogenberg who relied on earlier drawings and engravings by other artists. This bird’s eye view of London depicts the city as it was around 1550 since it includes the tall spire of St Paul’s cathedral, which was destroyed in 1561. The people in the foreground are wearing English fasions from the first half of the sixteenth century.