Title: The Mint, Tower Hill 
Date: 20 February 1830 
Published by Jones & Co. in London and its Environs in the Nineteenth Century, 1829-31 illustrated by a Series of Views from Original Drawings, by Thomas H. Shepherd. With Historical, Topographical, and Critical Notices by James Elmes.  
Line Engraving on Steel 
Artist: Thomas Hosmer Shepherd (1793-1864)
Engraved by James Tingle (fl.1824-50) 
 
 
 
The Royal Mint.  
 
The Royal Mint was originally housed between the inner and outer walls of the Tower of London. During the Napoleonic wars the size of the garrison along with the need to accommodate new steam-powered machinery, led to a decision to construct a new building outside the confines of the Tower. leave the confines of the Tower. The site chosen was on Little Tower Hill, in an area recently occupied by tobacco warehouses and much earlier by the great Cistercian abbey of St Mary of Graces and the work took nearly five years between 1805-09. In August 1812 Preliminary work began in 1805, the buildings were finished by the end of 1809, and in August 1812 the keys of the old mint were finally delivered to the Constable of the Tower. 
The  building was designed by James Johnson and completed by Robert Smirke, (architect of the British Museum) and the main building  was flanked by two gatehouses while behind it, and separated from it by an open quadrangle, were the buildings housing the machinery. There were dwelling houses for officers and staff, and the site was surrounded by a boundary wall, along the inside of which ran a narrow alley. Patrolled by soldiers from the Royal Mint’s military guard, this alley became known as the Military Way.