London - A Life In Maps (PAPERBACK EDITION)

Product Description

Like all the great historic cities of Europe, London appears to us solid & unchanging. We feel that we can still explore the London of Dickens, Dr. Johnson, Defoe, Wren & even Shakespeare. The very names St Paul's, Smithfield, Charing Cross, St James's, seem to link us with those past eras. But this solidity is an illusion, for throughout its long history London has been changing & evolving. It has been renewing or replacing the streets & buildings at its heart & has been spreading inexorably outwards. This process is vividly illustrated by maps of London that have been drawn & published over the past 500 years; & this book offers a magnificent panorama of London's history by focusing on its maps. The link between London & Westminster; the devastation of the Great Fire; the emergence of the West End as a place of fashion; the opening of the Royal Parks; the building of the docks; the coming of the railway age; the impact of World Wars
- all these processes & many more are evident in these historic maps. Approx. 200 important maps from the mid-sixteenth century to the present day are illustrated & discussed. For all those who know London, but who wish to look behind the modern facade, London, A Life in Maps should prove irresistible, highlighting the challenge of predicting London's future development & character.