Part of an occasional series of London book recommendations, we have been very impressed in our research with Ed Glinert’s “The London Compendium”. It is a street-by-street guide to London – painstakingly researched and thorough.
We have provided a link direct to Amazon should you wish to buy the paperback version.
As it says in the sleeve notes: “Organised by London postal district and containing an entry on every significant building, place and street in London, this is a surprising and compelling look at the hidden city. Packed with stories on every conceivable subject from East End criminals to espionage, music to murder, politics to partying, settings for films and books, this is an entertaining book on England’s capital city. Covering the whole span of London’s social and political history, it brings the reader up to date with stories on the arts, immigration and architecture.
The streets of London resonate with secret stories, from East End lore to Cold War espionage, from tales of riots, rakes, anarchy and grisly murders, to Rolling Stones gigs, gangland drinking dens, Orwell’s Fitzrovia and Lenin’s haunts. Ed Glinert has walked the length and breadth of the city to unravel its mysteries, travelling through time from the Romans’ London wall to the new Olympic site at Stratford. This is London as you have never seen it before.”
