The Making of London explores the rich history of the Metropolis from the Roman settlement established 2,000 years ago in the area that came to be known as the 'Square Mile' and traces the process whereby it eventually emerged as the world's greatest city. London became the capital and seat of government of Britain, a center of culture, entertainment and retailing, a major port and industrial center and world leader in international trade, commerce and finance. The focus is largely on cent...

This unique social history examines 200 years of controversy surrounding British Railways—from the dawn of industrialization to contemporary light rail.During the Industrial Revolution, the power of landowning aristocrats was challenged by the emergent wealth and influence of the urban middle class. There was no greater symbol of this seismic shift in society than the British Railways Companies. Railways, with their powers of compulsory purchase, intruded brutally ...

Excavating at ancient Corinth in Greece, American archaeologist Zack Devlin and his team discover a dead Italian soldier from World War II. This discovery leads to the unraveling of a plot that was conceived decades ago and if realized would alter the balance of power in Europe and throw the world into a perilous state of danger and instability. As the impending coup launches, a team of criminals set out to hunt Devlin down and kill him. Devlin, determined to stop the plotters, flees from ...

London's Underground is associated with a multitude of ghostly stories and sightings, particular stations and abandoned lines, many of which are in close proximity to burial sites from centuries ago. This chilling book reveals well-known and hitherto unpublished tales of spirits, spectres and other spooky occurrences on one of the oldest railway networks in the world. The stories of sightings include the ghost of an actress regularly witnessed on Aldywch Station a...

Between 1835 and the 1850s, railway mania blossomed around Britain. Crime emerged as the railways developed, at first opportunistic crimes such as fare evasion and robberies, but gradually more inventive forms evolved, notably the minor clerk Redpath in the 1850s, whose shameless cooking of the books to live the high life exposed the lack of any kind of accountancy across the railway industry. The first train murder was not until the 1840s, and sparked great fear of foreig...

Tyburn Fields is the best known site of execution in London, but London may be aptly named the executioner's city, so many were the places where executions could and did occur.London:The Executioner's City reveals the capital as a place where the bodies of criminals defined the boundaries of the city and heads on poles greeted patrons on London Bridge. The ubiquity of crime and punishment was taken for granted by countless generations of the capital's inha...

London: City of the Dead is a groundbreaking account of London's dealing with death, covering the afterlife, execution, bodysnatching, murder, fatal disease, spiritualism, bizarre deaths and cemeteries. Taking the reader from Roman London to the 'glorious dead' of the First World War, this is the first systematic look at London's culture of death, with analysis of its customs and superstitions, rituals and representations.The authors of the celebrated ...

A look at the dark side of life, Victorian-style, when nothing was quite as it seemed and a public execution could be an entertaining family day out. Murderers, poachers, thieves, pickpockets and vagabonds all went about their business with impunity. Crime took place on the streets, on public transport, in homes, pubs, prisons, asylums, workhouses and brothels - it was all part of everyday life. Naturally the punishments awarded varied considerably, depending upon the crimes committed. Mur...

Edinburgh is a city rightly famed world-wide. It is perhaps the only large British city which can be described as beautiful. It always seems to have been at the centre of major events, many of them turbulent. The innumerable murky legends of murder, misdemeanour and mayhem have perhaps taken root because of the topography and architecture of the Old Town with its maze of ill-lit and menacing wynds, closes and courts. Leading off the High Street and the Cowgate there are still places redole...

Why don't people take more notice of bollards? How often do they stop to look at a coal-hole cover? Why are pub signs largely ignored and Royal Warrants on shops scarcely noticed? Such a grievous situation is about to change with the publication of this, the first book dealing specifically with London Street Furniture. It examines the unconsidered trifles which can be found in bewildering diversity around the streets particularly of the older parts of central London but also elsewhere in t...

Mention Fleet Street and people will think of newspapers. However this masks an equally rich history. It was one of the most important thoroughfares in London, linking the city with Westminster. For centuries Fleet Street has been famous for its association with newspapers, printers, stationers, booksellers, taverns, coffee houses, banking houses, the legal profession, places of worship, exhibitions and processions. The history of Fleet Street is diverse, fascinating, turbulent and full of...

Curious Walks Around London provides an informative and entertaining selection of walks around well-known and some less-visited parts of London. The guide includes Bloomsbury with its literary connections and garden squares; the historic Borough; Whitechapel and Stepney in the East End; Clerkenwell and its associations with monastic orders, prisons and radicalism; parts of the historic and ancient City of London; the stylish area of St James's and Mayfair; Fleet Street, once synonymous wit...