ABSTRACT
John Gwynn is best known as the designer of the handsome bridges over the River Severn at Shrewsbury and Worcester, and of Magdalen Bridge over the River Cherwell at Oxford. In his London and Westminster Improved, he argued for the adoption of a ‘general plan’ for future street improvements in the rapidly expanding capital, anticipating some of the changes that took place in the years after his death. The plan of London in its present state will upon inspection appear, to very moderate judges, to be as injudicious a disposition as can possibly be conceived for a city of trade and commerce situated on the borders of so noble a river as the Thames; the wharfs and quays on its banks are despicable and inconvenient beyond conception, and it is utterly impossible that a worse use could have been made of so beneficial as well as ornamental a part of this city.
