For a glorious ten-year period from 1995 to 2005, hip-hop music received a much-needed shot in the arm from a generation of determined and wildly creative rappers and producers. They rallied against the increasingly formulaic and shallow world of mainstream rap, as well as a music industry unwilling to listen. By releasing music on their own terms as independent artists-many adopting the mantra of being 'independent as fuck' as a mission statement-these hungry creatives reclaimed their art...

Many of London's original power stations have either been demolished, converted for other use, or stand derelict awaiting redevelopment that is seemingly always just out of reach. However, in their prime these mighty 'cathedrals of power' played a vital role in London's journey towards becoming the world's most important city. Gasworks also played a key role, built in the Victorian era to manufacture gas for industry and the people, before later falling out of favour once ...

Used extensively and somewhat taken for granted by millions of commuters and tourists every day, the London Underground has long been a part of our national heritage and way of life. It was the first underground railway in the world, and is now central to lives of millions of Londoners. Here Ben Pedroche explores the realities of building the railway from the beginning, 150 years ago, exploring this dangerous, back-breaking job and how it culminated in the rail system we s...

For a glorious ten-year period from 1995 to 2005, hip-hop music received a much-needed shot in the arm from a generation of determined and wildly creative rappers and producers. They rallied against the increasingly formulaic and shallow world of mainstream rap, as well as a music industry unwilling to listen.By releasing music on their own terms as independent artists-many adopting the mantra of being 'independent as fuck' as a mission statement-these hungry creatives reclaimed th...

As Britain moved from austerity to prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, it became clear that British Railways needed to modernise its equipment and rationalise its network if it was to hold its own in the face of growing competition from road and air transport.After attempting to maintain pre-war networks and technology in the 1950s, a reversal of policy in the 1960s brought line closures, new liveries and the last breath of steam, as Dr Beeching and his successors s...

Railways played a key role in Britain's social, economic and industrial history. These companies have long since gone, but all over the country relics remain to remind us of that pioneering age. David Wragg's Historical Dictionary of Railways in the British Isles is a comprehensive, single-volume reference guide to the old railway companies and their heritage. He provides brief histories of the companies and their many-sided activities, and he gives biographies of the men who created the r...

For British Rail, the 1970s was a time of contrasts, when bad jokes about sandwiches and pork pies often belied real achievements, like increasing computerisation and the arrival of the high-speed Inter-City 125s.But while television advertisements told of an 'Age of the Train', Monday morning misery continued for many, the commuter experience steadily worsening as rolling stock aged and grew ever more uncomfortable. Even when BR launched new electrification scheme...

The Great Western Railway – quickly coming to be known as 'God's Wonderful Railway' – was once regarded as the most advanced in the world. Engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel it was initially designed to connect Bristol to London and came to develop a distinct character all of its own, one of the many reasons why it remains a much-loved and popular area of interest. This book traces its history covering topics such as the company, its engines and carriages, its engineers – including Gooc...

The railway came to Oxfordshire during the 1840s, the core of the present-day local railway network being completed by 1853. Other lines were subsequently constructed and, despite some branch line closures during the 1960s, these Victorian railways are still serving the public during the first decades of the twenty-first century. Their longevity is a tribute to the energy and vision of the nineteenth-century entrepreneurs who brought the railway system into existence over 160 years ago. Th...

Incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835 and completed just six years later, the Great Western Railway became one of the great icons of the Age of Steam, and perhaps the world’s most famous railway company. Spanning Southern England from the Thames to the Bristol Channel, the history of Brunel’s greatest achievement, and the surprising offshoots of the company as an industry, are represented here for the first time in full colour from the Amberley Archive.

The city of Glasgow, formerly one of the largest industrial centres in the world, was once responsible for building about one-quarter of the world's railway locomotives. This was complemented by a massive urban railway network: the second largest in the UK. However, the Beeching Report of 1963 inevitably took its toll on Glasgow. This book examines the changing face of Glasgow's railways ever since that infamous report, starting with the period of rationalisation and indus...

Liverpool has many railway ‘firsts’ in the world: an inter-city service, an electrified overhead railway, a large-scale marshalling yard, a deep-level suburban tunnel and one under a tidal estuary. In Britain it can boast of other firsts: an escalator in a railway station, conversion from steam to electricity and the first main-line electrification, a widely reported death in a railway accident, a proper train shed constructed of iron and glass and automatic signalling and electric signal ...