London: An Illustrated History

'London: An Illustrated History' is a short pocket-book version of the history of London, a subject upon which many more massive tomes have been written. While the subject is broad and can encompass many aspects, the task of the historians here has been to distill this array into a manageable size - a task they have performed reasonably well. After a brief introduction, authors Chester and Awde follow a fairly standard pattern of looking at London in a chronological manner by period - Roman London (43-410), Saxon London (410-1066), Medieval London (1066-1536), Tudor London (1536-1603), Stuart London (1603-1688), the eighteenth century (1688-1837), Victorian London (1837-1901), Modern London (the twentieth century), and a chapter on the future. Within these chapters, the authors discuss art, architecture, city development, population shifts, industry, royal history, church connections, international connections, and more. Each page is illustrated - there are graphics, woodcuts, maps, photographs and more. The layout of the pages is sometimes a bit cluttered, but all of the images add to the story, and it is the nature of London to be a bit cluttered (one has but to glance at the London street-map and see the absences of grid patterns and other organised elements to recognise this). London's fortunes have risen and fallen, sometimes in ways that didn't tend to make it into the larger histories of the nation, and sometimes the greater happenings of the nation and world had little impact on London. An example of the former might be the Orphan's Act - passed at a time when the city was running out of money to pay obligations to orphans of Freemen of London; an example of the latter might be the consolidation of Scotland and Ireland into the United Kingdom According to the authors, these expansions of the kingdom had little impact on London itself, perhaps because London was already cosmopolitan enough to be trading and dealing with these places already. The history is presented in a narrative form, without footnotes or source materials. There is an index, but it is a spotty one - most of what I tested trying to find in the index was not to be found. There is no bibliography or recommended readings list, either. On the positive side, there is a two-page chronology of the history of the city, and several photograph montages that show street signs, blue plaque/famous residence signs, and a discussion of the currency (particularly confusion in the pre-decimal days). This is a nice little book, and one I am glad to have as part of my collection. This will be particularly handy for those who are traveling to London, and want to learn a bit more about the place. Elements from different historical periods can be seen side by side all over London, and a handy reference such as this can be helpful for establishing context and a sense of place.