"The London Printing and Publishing Company"
"The Illustrations by W. Floyd and Engraved by D. Pound"
"The Plan Drawn and Engraved by J. Rapkin"
John Rapkin was a prolific map maker from c. 1850 to c. 1870 but most of his work seems to have featured countries and continents rather than city plans. The artist behind the images on the map appears to be more obscure with nothing turning up on Google. A D. J. Pound, engraver, is listed by Google, however, with a span of work embracing the years 1840 to 1870. It would therefore appear that the print was produced sometime in the mid to late Nineteenth Century.
The content and street layout should help, of course, to date the map. Here are the various illustrations, scanned from the original. The title as given on the map is included in each box to the right, along with additional comments from my research.
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Bull Ring
The main features I recognize include St. Martin's Church (existing and newly restored) and the New Market Hall (built in 1835, bombed in WWII and removed in the 1960s). I think Nelson's Statue was standing in the same place in the post war days - it is now nearer to St. Martin's.
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King Edward's School
This building was built in 1838 and was located on the south side of New Street at the High Street end. The school moved to its present location in 1936.
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School of Design
The Birmingham School of Design was formed in 1843. The building shown here was located on the north side of New Street at the western end, that is, near today's Victoria Square.
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Town Hall
Birmingham's famous Town Hall was built between 1832 and 1834. It is currently undergoing a costly and lengthy restoration.
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Theatre Royal
The Theatre Royal pre-dated the Town Hall. It was located on the south side of New Street, opposite Bennetts Hill.
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St. Philip's Church
A fine 18th Century English Baroque church, St. Philip's became Birmingham's Cathedral in 1905. Designed by Thomas Archer, the cathedral sits in its own square off Colmore Row.
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LNWR Station
The original train shed at New Street. This was the northern half of New Street Station. The Midland Station, built in 1885, is not on the map. See more discussion below.
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Birmingham from Highgate
This is a view from the south of the city with St. Martin's on the right and the Soho factories on the left center skyline.
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The map gives a lot of clues as to its age. The railways provide good dating information. The LNWR station at New Street was built in 1854 and the trains shown in the print are from around that time - note the carriages that look like horse drawn coaches. The Midland Railway did not appear until 1885 which puts the map at somewhere between 1854 and 1885 but I believe it to be at the older end of this scale.
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