Long before Google drove around in camera wielding cars, or Charles Booth’s poverty mapping, or Phyllis Pearsall (didn’t) walk the streets of London, there was John Tallis.

Tallis’s London Street Views were published in 88 parts between 1838 and 1840, and they show side elevations of major streets in central London. They are a fairly unique view of how the streets would have looked, when seen from the ground.

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Each street elevation was sandwiched between either a map of the area and a featured building, or between two buildings. A street directory was printed on the inside of the covering wrapper, and within the four pages of adverts was a central section giving historical information about the street.

Each part, “intended to assist strangers visiting the metropolis, through all its mazes without a guide”, was advertised on the title cover as being available for the bargain price of three half-pence from “all Booksellers and Toy shops, in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland”.

The Museum of London has 35 of the guides, and is seeking to “crowd source” some help in converting them into searchable data that can be published on its website.

There is a published list of businesses that came with each street view, and they want some help linking the two sets of data together.

You can have a play over here.

Or you can buy a reprint of the street views for your own collection here.

Although if you are of a certain age, the street view might remind you more of this?

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