Board Room of the Admiralty

Britain’s navy was the source of much of its power, and here is the room where the Admiralty met to decide the best ways to use that power. As the text that accompanied this image in The Microcosm of London put it: "The lords commissioners are represented as sitting at the table, and may be naturally supposed engaged in some business relative to the naval interest of Great Britain and considered in that point of view, may be fairly said to be transacting business of more real importance to this country, than any other subject that could be debated and if taken in all its nautical relations, the acknowledged pre-eminence of our navy, and the various appertaining et-ceteras, it is also matter of infinite importance to all Europe."