The Rookeries of London


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Dodger's Guide to London


Book Description

This digital edition includes the original artwork, has been specially adapted for ebook platforms and is optimized for tablet devices. The hardback edition of Dodger's Guide to London has fully integrated images and text. ROLL UP! ROLL UP! READ ALL ABOUT IT! Ladies and Gents, Sir Jack Dodger brings you a most excellent Guide to London! Did you know . . . ? If a Victorian couldn’t afford a sweep, they might drop a goose down their chimney to clean it! A nobby lady’s unmentionables could weigh up to 40lbs! Parliament had to be suspended during the Great Stink of 1858! From the wretches of the rookeries to the fancy coves at Buckingham Palace, Dodger will show you every dirty inch of London. Warning: Includes ’orrible murders, naughty ladies and plenty of geezers!




Lost London 2


Book Description

Vic Keegan's Lost London (2) is the second of two books that together have taken over six years of research and are still yielding surprises Vic had no idea that the mundane Highbury and Islington station used to look like an Italian Palazzo before being shamefully pull down, nor that there was an extraordinary cricket match in Walworth between a team from Greenwich with only one leg and the other from Chelsea with only one arm, nor that in 1810, a black bare knuckle fighter was swindled out of being world champion by white subterfuge. There are dozens of similar tales which he hopes you will enjoy. The author spent most of his working life at the Guardian writing among other things a fortnightly economics column for nearly 25 years before finishing off with a weekly column on consumer technology ranging from mobile phones to virtual worlds. He has written six poetry books including London My London with over 80 poems about the capital and the Thames. He is married to Rosie with two children Dan and Chris. David Aaronovitch's review of the first book is here: https: //www.onlondon.co.uk/book-review-vic-keegans-lost-london/




Dirty Old London


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In Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with "night soil," graveyards teemed with rotting corpses, the air itself was choked with smoke. In this intimately visceral book, Lee Jackson guides us through the underbelly of the Victorian metropolis, introducing us to the men and women who struggled to stem a rising tide of pollution and dirt, and the forces that opposed them. Through thematic chapters, Jackson describes how Victorian reformers met with both triumph and disaster. Full of individual stories and overlooked details--from the dustmen who grew rich from recycling, to the peculiar history of the public toilet--this riveting book gives us a fresh insight into the minutiae of daily life and the wider challenges posed by the unprecedented growth of the Victorian capital.




Nights Out


Book Description

London's Soho district underwent a spectacular transformation between the late Victorian era and the end of the Second World War: its fin-de-siècle buildings and dark streets infamous for sex, crime, political disloyalty, and ethnic diversity became a center of culinary and cultural tourism servicing patrons of nearby shops and theaters. Indulgences for the privileged and the upwardly mobile edged a dangerous, transgressive space imagined to be "outside" the nation. Treating Soho as exceptional, but also representative of London's urban transformation, Judith Walkowitz shows how the area's foreignness, liminality, and porousness were key to the explosion of culture and development of modernity in the first half of the twentieth century. She draws on a vast and unusual range of sources to stitch together a rich patchwork quilt of vivid stories and unforgettable characters, revealing how Soho became a showcase for a new cosmopolitan identity.




Kiss of Steel


Book Description

"darkly atmospheric and delectably sexy."—Booklist, starred review Honoria Todd has more secrets than most people and she's hiding them in Whitechapel. Blade is the master of the rookeries and agrees to protect her, but at what price? Most people avoid the dreaded Whitechapel district. For Honoria Todd, it's the last safe haven as she hides from the Blue Blood aristocracy that rules London through power and fear. Blade rules the rookeries—no one dares cross him. It's been said he faced down the Echelon's army single–handedly, that ever since being infected by the blood–craving he's been quicker, stronger, and almost immortal. When Honoria shows up at his door, his tenuous control comes close to snapping. She's so...innocent. He doesn't see her backbone of steel—or that she could be the very salvation he's been seeking. A unique, sexy paranormal romance, Bec McMaster's London Steampunk novels will appeal to fans of Gail Carriger, Kristen Callihan's Darkest London series, and the Blud series by Delilah Dawson. What everyone is saying about Bec McMaster: "a must read for paranormal fans and steampunk fans alike. 5/5 Stars, Reviewer Top Pick"—Night Owl Reviews "richly imagined, gritty and dark, and full of hot heroes and hot sex... utterly delicious."—Smart Bitches, Trashy Books "Action, adventure, steampunk, and blazing hot seduction...Bec McMaster offers it all."—Eve Silver, author of Sins of the Flesh




A Short History of London


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'Fascinating and timely. Required reading for every developer, planner or councillor who holds London in trust today' Griff Rhys Jones 'Accessible, clear and readable' Rowan Moore, The Observer ________________________ LONDON: a settlement founded by the Romans, occupied by the Saxons, conquered by the Danes and ruled by the Normans. This unremarkable place - not even included in the Domesday Book - became a medieval maze of alleys and courtyards, later to be chequered with grand estates of Georgian splendour. It swelled with industry and became the centre of the largest empire in history. And rising from the rubble of the Blitz, it is now one of the greatest cities in the world. From the prehistoric occupants of the Thames valley to the preoccupied commuters of today, Simon Jenkins brings together the key events, individuals and trends in London's history to create a matchless portrait of the capital. ________________________ 'A vivid and deeply well-informed account of London's history' Charles Saumarez Smith, Professor of Cultural History, Queen Mary University of London 'Extremely informative and witty' Roy Porter, author of London: A Social History on Landlords to London 'A short, invigorating gallop over two and a half thousand years' Scotsman on A Short History of Europe




Ragged London


Book Description

Ragged London describes life in the rookeries of London, where forty people would live together in one room. Although life was a constant struggle against famine, disease and violence, the people enjoyed a closeness that was moer than the result of overcrowding. Their lives were lived entirely within the 'mean streets' of their little corner of London. They were born and raised within the rookeries, earned their meagre living there, enjoyed life as best they could, dressed in the latest fashion, got married, had children, died and were buried there. The lack of cooking facilities led to them inventing the takeaway, and there was absolutely no sanitation. In the poorest district of all, St Giles, only a single water pump serviced the entire population. It was a closed world, although the population explosion of nineteenth-century London led to millions of new arrivals in the already-congested rookery districts. The areas were lawless to a degree that dwarfs contemporary concerns about crime. Though life as cheap in the rookeries, they produced some of the best soldiers and sailors in the British armed forces.




Historic London


Book Description

There is hardly a city in the world with richer historical and cultural assocations than London. It is a place where history has been made for thousands of years, and where it is still being made today. It is not a city frozen in time, preserved in its ancient medieval pomp but a place that has been at or near the centre of national life for a thousand years and at the forefront of international political, cultural and economic history for each of the past five centuries. Here Stephen Inwood, bestselling author of A History of London, and a lifelong student of the city's rich and vibrant history, offers an explorer's guide to London's past. As you walk the streets of the capital, whether you live in the city or are just visiting it, Inwood will show you London's history all around you: stretches of Roman wall; medieval churches and Tudor houses that survived the Great Fire; monastic buildings that survived the Reformation; street markets first established centuries ago that survive today; Georgian streets and squares that were spared the wreckers' ball; Wren churches; Victorian terraces and Inns of Court that survived the Blitz. He takes you to the London of Chaucer and Shakespeare, Samuels Pepys and Johnson; Dickens and Darwin, T.S Eliot and George Orwell. It is the perfect book to have in your pocket or your bag as you go about your business in this most fascinating of cities.