Here is another print from our Joseph Kinsey collection, but again with a bit of a story: the print was published in 1818 by William Herbert, in a folio called 'London before the Great Fire'. 1818 marks the very dawn of London's golden age: Napoleon has been defeated, trade is booming, new docks have been dug, and the railways are just around the corner.

And a folio of prints is published to record how much quainter, more spacious and generally more agreeable the city was 180 years previosuly.

I particularly like the row of shopkeepers' signs:

And the Olympics connection? Well the marathon route passes right along Cornhill, between the Bank of England and Leadenhall Market.