Entrance from Mile End or White Chapel Turnpike

This print, entitled, Entrance from Mile End or White Chapel Turnpike, is number 5 in a series of six ‘Views of London’, first published by Rudolph Ackermann at his shop, 104 Strand. The first two plates of the series were drawn and engraved by an artist and printmaker called Dagaty (perhaps Edouard Dagaty), with the other four being drawn by Rowlandson and engraved by H. J. Schütz. The series focuses on the entrances to the metropolis, including several turnpike gates, with the different modes of transport and members of society that could be found entering and leaving the city, or inhabiting its borders.

Turnpikes were privately constructed and managed roads operated by Turnpike Trusts. Their employees, stationed at toll houses either side of a barrier, collected a fee from travellers passing through the gate. These funds were reinvested to maintain the roads and expand the network.

The building of turnpikes during the eighteenth century improved travel and trade across the country. They also, however, caused local traffic jams and road accidents, and attracted street traders and beggars who hoped to make some money from the many travellers waiting to pass through the gate. Rowlandson included many such incidents and individuals in his satirical prints of turnpikes. This print includes a convoy of soldiers wheeling a canon and a heavily laden wagon accompanied by horses. At the left are a man selling coals and an antisemitic caricature of a Jewish clothes seller. The other turnpikes depicted in the Views of London were at (1) Hyde Park Corner, (2) St George’s Road, Southwark, (3) Tottenham Court Road, (4) Oxford Street, and (6) Hackney.