London has a history of being one of the most interesting and culturally rich cities in the world, though sadly it is not the place it once was, and my interest in it lies in its past. Along with the numerous museums, it still has a goodly amount of history to be seen, despite the incessant destruction of the past by so many "progressive" types, who would love to demolish the handsome buildings still mercifully left standing and turn this great city into a place of ghastly skyscrapers and car parks. This is something I've thought about quite a bit recently, after reading the fight against such a thing on the excellent 'Spitalfields Life' blog and elsewhere. It seemed a coincidence when recently going into the nearby secondhand bookshop (that had nothing of interest on the previous visit) that there were some books on London that seemed to be waiting just for me, and I left with these four:
These are excellent books with superb photography (and they were a great deal, as I traded in some unwanted ones as well) and fine additions to other London books already had. Here are a few of them:
There are also fiction books set in London, including some recent British Library Crime Classics and other vintage mysteries.
