Sources: London trade directories
Some lists of London residents and tradesmen were prepared in one form or another before the eighteenth century (often in manuscript form, and surviving in the Public Record Office or the British Library) and one early directory was published in 1677. However, it was not until the 1730s that directories were regularly produced for the capital. Henry Kent began the practice in 1732, being joined by J. Osborn in 1740. By 1770, directories were being prepared in most years and by 1820 several different works were published each year.Most of the early directories were simply alphabetical lists of tradesmen. In 1763, the Universal Director, published by Mortimer, was the first to include a section dividing up individuals into different trades, but this practice was not repeated until The London Directory of 1790 (Andrews & Son). P. Boyle produced the first street directory (in other words, listing each street with its occupants) with his Fashionable Court Guide of 1792. However, the first directory to combine an alphabetical list of names, trades section and a street directory only appeared as late as 1817 with Andrew Johnstone's work of that year. Johnstone published a second version in 1818, but publication then ceased. Similar directories only began to appear in print again in the 1830's, with the work of W. Robson and Pigot & Co. The first Post Office directory appeared in 1800, but at that point it was, once more, just an alphabetical list of names.
The London directories are an important source for identifying members of the London book trades and members of other trades established in premises close to important areas of book production. However, the directories have serious limitations. First, the directories list only a proportion of those in business. This might be expected of the early directories (Henry Kent's directory of 1738 lists just 1,925 names for the whole of London) but directories as late as the second decade of the nineteenth century were certainly incomplete. Andrew Johnstone's London Commercial Guide of 1817 (which as noted above is a substantial piece of work) has approximately a third more names than other contemporary directories. Second, the description of the profession of individuals in the directories is limited and discrepancies exist between directories produced by different individuals. Third, some book trades are more generously covered by directories than others. For instance, booksellers are often listed, printers less frequently but bookbinders rarely.
For more information on London directories see: Charles W. F. Goss, The London Directories 1677-1855. (London, 1932).
The largest collection of surviving London directories from the eighteenth century can be found in the Guildhall Library, London.
