2007-04-30
Seven London Books
There’s a discussion going on over at Flickr’s Guess Where London? group about London books, which prompted me to look through my collection and pick out some of my favourites.
So, here’s the six (well, eight really, but I’ll pair some of them) I’d recommend most. Iain Sinclair’s Lights Out for the Territory is difficult to slog through, but worth dipping into, and unlike London Orbital, is actually set largely in the centre (albeit with an East End bias). His collaboration with Marc Atkins, Liquid City, has more pictures to break up the flow. For members of london-alt and Humming Giants.
Chris Robert’s Cross River Traffic is an eccentrically-organised look at London’s river crossings; the obvious group is London Bridges. Similarly, London Tube members should seek out Ken Garland’s book, Mr Beck’s Underground Map, covering the history of the diagram from 1933 to 1964 and beyond (although those deeply interested in the modern map are recommended to seek out the sequel, Underground Maps After Beck.)
For a snapshot in time, Stephen Inwood’s City of Cities documents one of London’s periods of most rapid change, 1880-1914; as the subtitle says, it is “The Birth Of Modern London”. Recommended for aspiring Edwardians- and I’ll have to think about the Flickr group. For the architecture specific choice, and showing my own predelicitions, Kenneth Powell’s 30 St Mary Axe documents the building of that now-iconic tower. London - The Square Mile, perhaps?
Finally, the cover-all book is Ed Glinert’s The London Compendium, which covers the centre of the city in bite-sized chunks. For Guess Where London, perhaps?
(via more chaff)