London: The Biography

It is perhaps appropriate that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, there should also be a concentration of books on the occluded or darker aspects of the city. London in Shadow by B. Kennedy (London, 1902) is complemented by London’s Underworld by T. Holmes (London, 1912), one of the many studies devoted to the vagrant and the dispossessed at the turn of the century. The atmosphere is deepened by S. Graham’s London Nights (London, 1925), a highly evocative study, and rendered poignant by P. Norman’s London Vanished and Vanishing (London, 1905). C.H. Rolph’s London Particulars (London, 1980) provides a detailed and not at all nostalgic memoir of the early decades, while J. Schneer’s London 1900 (New Haven, 1999) offers an “over-view” of social and cultural developments at that time of transition. A more optimistic version of urban commentary emerged in The Face of London by H.P. Clunn (London, 1932), The Wonderful Story of London edited by H. Wheeler (London, 1949), and A. Bush’s Portrait of London (London, 1950). One of the greatest of twentieth-century accounts, however, remains London: The Unique City by S.E. Rasmussen (London, 1934) which seems to prove the familiar adage that foreign observers view London matters with a clear eye. A Guide to the Structure of London by M. Ash (Bath, 1972) is good on the intricacies of post-War planning. Docklands in the Making by A. Cox (London, 1995) is a lively introduction to the phenomenon of the resurgent banks of the Thames, and takes its rightful place as part of the great Survey of London which has been compiled over a period of one hundred years. In a similar spirit Focus on London 97 (London, 1996), published by the Office of National Statistics, is a source of reliable information. The Making of Modern London by S. Humphries and J. Taylor (London, 1986) is required reading, and is particularly good on the growth of the suburbs. London by S. Harding (London, 1993) can be recommended together with London: a New Metropolitan Geography edited by K. Hoggart and D.R. Green (London, 1991). H. Marshall’s Twilight London (Plymouth, 1971) is one of a number of studies devoted to the problems of contemporary poverty and homelessness; others include B. Mahony’s A Capital Offence (London, 1988) and No Way Home by G. Randall (London, 1988). The London Nobody Knows by G. Fletcher (London, 1962) is a highly readable account of the more arcane aspects of London life, and P. Wright’s A Journey Through Ruins: The Last Days of London (London, 1991) opens up the purlieus of Dalston and Hackney to public gaze. V.S. Pritchett’s urban memoir, London Perceived (London, 1974) is recommended, together with J. Raban’s Soft City (London, 1974).