A vital missing section of London's oldest map has been discovered and is on display at the Museum of London until 10 May 1998. Until recently it was thought that the Museum of London had the only two surviving sections of the first known map of London. A crucial third section, featuring Old St Paul's Cathedral with its immense spire, was discovered in Germany and has been flown in especially for this exhibition.

Each section of the map is engraved on copper plate, and date from the 1550s. It is thought that there would originally have been fifteen sections. The map gives critical information on the early topography of the city and the section found in Germany features the missing half of London's oldest quarter - the Tudor City. It includes an excellent early view of St Paul's Cathedral, which allows a closer look at the architecture of this famous building which lost its spire in 1561 and was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666.

The copper plates are well used which suggests that many copies of the map were printed, although none is known to survive. After their use for printing purposes, the copper plates were re-used by painters, and the reverse of all three of the map sections have been painted.

One of the Museum of London's copper plate sections has a painting of the Tower of Babel on the back, and the newly discovered plate from Germany has an image which is very similar and obviously from the same school. Could Tower of Babel paintings on copper be significant? The Museum of London hopes that owners of similar pictures will check the backs of their paintings. There are still twelve missing sections from this unique map.