Map

Route
Markers

Key

  • Members of the Good Humour Club
  • Places of interest in 18th century York
  • Places connected to Laurence Sterne

This map shows York as it was in 1750. Today, little is known about the publisher, eighteenth-century cartographer John Rocque, who was famous for his detailed surveys of London. Rocque published several maps of English counties in the 1750s, including this one of York. The survey of the city was carried out by Peter Chassereau, about whom even less is known.

The map itself would have been sold from Rocque’s shop in Whitehall, which burned down in November 1750 – an event which may explain the rarity of the map today. Rocque’s interest in publishing a map of York is an indication that the city was an important centre for polite society in this period, especially since Rocque himself was elite enough to claim the title of ‘Chorographer to His Majesty’, George III, in 1761.