2-693-016 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'An Antient View of part of Cheapside, with the Cross Etc.', late 18th century. The Cheapside Cross in London was one of the Eleanor crosses, a series of twelve stone monuments topped with tall crosses, erected between 1291 and 1294 by King Edward I in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile, marking the nightly resting-places along the route taken when her body was transported to London. The Cheapside Cross was demolished in May 1643 under an ordinance from the 'Parliamentary Committee for the Demolition of Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry'. The downfall of the Cheapside Cross is an important example of iconoclasm in English history. Published by Alexander Hogg.