Edward William Cooke, R.A., F.R.S. (1811-80) was born in Pentonville, London into a family of engravers. He began to work on their commercial projects from about the age of nine and later studied under Augustus Pugin and the marine artist Clarkson Stansfield. Cooke worked in pencil, watercolour, etching and oils during his career and exhibited several works at the Royal Academy.

Cooke was interested in capturing the man-made world as well as the natural world and was fascinated by the project to replace the medieval London Bridge. From about 1826 until 1833 he produced 69 pencil drawings showing aspects of building the new state of the art bridge and the demolition of the old structure alongside. Etchings of 12 of these were published in 1833 as 'Views of the Old and New London Bridges'.