Books - The Rough Guide to London - page 460

station and produces juicy anecdotes every time. The same
author's East End Chronicles: 300 Years of Mystery and
Mayhem is a readable revelation of all the nefarious doings
of the East End, sorting myth from fact, and hoping the
spirit will somehow survive in spite of Docklands.
Rahila Gupta From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers: Southall
Black Sisters. The story of a radical Asian women's group
which, against all the odds, was founded in London in 1979
and became internationally famous for campaigning for all
disempowered black women.
Sarah Hartley Mrs P's Journey: The Remarkable Story of
the Woman Who Created the A-Z Map . The tale of Phyllis
Pearsall, the indomitable woman who survived a horrific
childhood and went on to found London's most famous
mapmaking company - you won't feel the same about the
A-Z again.
Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair Rodinsky's
Room . A fascinating search into the Jewish past of the East
End, centred on the nebulous figure of David Rodinsky.
Peter Linebaugh The London Hanged . Superb, Marxist
analysis of crime and punishment in the eighteenth
century, drawing on the history of those hanged at Tyburn.
Jack London The People of the Abyss . The author went
undercover in 1902 to uncover the grim reality of East End
poverty.
Henry Mayhew London Labour and the London Poor .
Mayhew's pioneering study of Victorian London, based on
research carried out in the 1840s and 1850s.
Roy Porter London: A Social History . This immensely
readable history is one of the best books on London
published since the war, particularly strong on the saga of
the capital's local government.

Stephen Porter The Great Plague of London. Drawing on
various contemporary sources, Porter paints a vivid picture
of what it was like to live with a horror which killed seventy
thousand Londoners.
Maude Pember Reeves & Polly Toynbee Round About
a Pound a Week . From 1909 to 1913, the Fabian Women's
Group, part of the British Labour Party, recorded the daily
budget of thirty families in Lambeth living in extreme
poverty. This is the accompanying comment, which is both
enlightening and enlightened.
John Stow A Survey of London . Stow, a retired tailor, set
himself the unenviable task of writing the first-ever account
of the city in 1598, for which he is now rightly revered,
though at the time the task forced him into penury.
Judith R. Walkowitz City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives
of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London . Weighty feminist
tract on issues such as child prostitution and the Ripper
murders, giving a powerful overview of the image of
women in the fiction and media of the day.
Ì Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert The London
Encyclopaedia . More than a thousand pages of concisely
presented information on London past and present,
accompanied by the odd illustration. The most fascinating
book on the capital.
Jerry White London in the Eighteenth Century; London in
the Nineteenth Century ; London in the Twentieth Century.
Comprehensive history of the most momentous centuries
in the city's history.
Sarah Wise The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a
Victorian Slum . A meticulously researched work which
reveals the depths of poverty in the area north of Bethnal
Green Road.

ART, ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHEOLOGY
T.M.M. Baker London: Rebuilding the City after the Great
Fire . In 1666 the heart of the City of London was destroyed;
this topic covers not only Wren churches but other less
well-known public and private buildings and is beautifully
illustrated.
Felix Barker & Peter Jackson The History of London in
Maps . A beautiful volume of maps, from the earliest
surviving chart of 1558 to the new Docklands, with
accompanying text explaining the history of the city and its
cartography.
Bill Brandt London in the Thirties . Brandt's superb black-
and-white photos bear witness to a London lost in the Blitz.
Reuel Golden London: Portrait of a City . A treasure trove
of photographs sourced from archives worldwide as well as
from such famous names as Bailey, Beaton and Cartier
Bresson, this topic captures London from Victorian times
through the Swinging Sixties, from the Festival of Britain to
the 2012 Olympics.
Elaine Harwood & Andrew Saint London . Part of the
excellent Exploring England's Heritage series, sponsored by

English Heritage. It's highly selective, though each building
is discussed at some length and is well illustrated.
Leo Hollis The Stones of London . An illuminating social
history of London illustrated by studying twelve of the
city's buildings ranging from the iconic (Westminster
Abbey) to the obscure (a tower block in the East End).
Derek Kendall The City of London Churches . A beautifully
illustrated book, comprised mostly of colour photos,
covering the remarkable City churches, many of them
designed by Wren after the Great Fire.
Andrew Richard Kershman London's Monuments . A
stroll around some of the well-known and the more
obscure monuments of the city.
Nikolaus Pevsner and others The Buildings of England .
Magisterial series, started by Pevsner, to which others have
added, inserting newer buildings but generally respecting
the founder's personal tone. London comes in six volumes,
plus a special volume on the City churches.
Arnold Schwartzman London Art Deco: A Celebration of
the Architectural Style of the Metropolis During the Twenties