ABSTRACT
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the city of London underwent significant changes in infrastructure and the creation of space. From a historical perspective, it is fortuitous that photography had been invented only a couple of decades earlier to capture the changes in an ‘objective’ medium. Photographs, along with colour lithographs and popular press illustrations, portrayed the construction and transformation of the great city. Many of the century’s fine artists were also drawn to portray the city of London during this period of transformation. The works of these artists provide additional information and perspective on both the changes that were occurring and society’s responses to those changes. These artists did not focus on the construction of new infrastructure but rather on the urban environment as it became modernised. The Thames Embankments was a multi-phase construction project which, after it was completed, drew the attention of artists and, as such, it provides an excellent example of artists’ presentation of the unfolding history. The three structures involved in this engineering project, the Albert Embankment, the Victoria Embankment and the Chelsea Embankment, offered Londoners new avenues for leisure walking and commuting to and from work and more efficient means of transportation.
