Diamond Street

Product Description

Diamond Street is Rachel Lichtenstein's fascinating account of London's Hatton Garden. Enter Hatton Garden one of London's most mysterious streets. Home to ancient burial sites diamond workshops underground vaults monastic dynasties subterranean rivers & forgotten palaces. Here you'll meet sewer flushers artists goldsmiths geologists & visionaries as Rachel Lichtenstein uncovers the history secrets & stories that bring this vibrant Clerkenwell street & its environs to life. Praise for Diamond Street: Diamond Street is a brilliant & moving book intricate in its form & fabulous in its curiosity. It is poised somewhere between deep history archaeological dig archive-quest & contemporary documentary & it is suffused throughout with Rachel Lichtenstein's fascination with people & place
- a fascination which approaches a moral quality really in its tenderness diligence & cultural openness". (Robert Macfarlane author of The Old Ways). " Fascinating. The great joy of Lichtenstein's books is that she encourages us to look again at the places we take for granted". (Daily Telegraph). " Vivid & amusing containing so many sparkling things elegantly organized. Lichtenstein consulted a whole gang of glorious characters collecting tales history & lore on her way. An overwhelming trove of stories with a multiplicity of facets to intrigue". (Observer). " Engrossing a superb oral historian. Lichtenstein proves to be an indefatigable explorer". (Sunday Times). " Lichtenstein is an artist writer local historian & archivist & her multi-faceted approach makes fascinating reading. She makes us look with a fresh eye at familiar urban spaces". (Independent on Sunday). " Lichtenstein has brought alive something of London.. .how one street can be a kind of Tardis a portal to another world of parallel commerce codes rituals history. A heartfelt book full of curiosity & love". (The Times). "A lively & rewarding addition to the capital's rich history". (Independent). Rachel Lichtenstein is an artist & writer. She is the co-author with Iain Sinclair of Rodinsky's Room & the author most recently of On Brick Lane."