This book presents an original & easily accessible approach to understanding & exploring London's immensely diverse architecture. Because of its size & the number complexity & sheer variety of structures in the city not unplanned but without an overall plan it is more difficult to gain an understanding of London's development as a whole than it is with many other world cities such as Rome Paris or New York. It can no longer be encapsulated in a single view or narrated as a single story so this book approaches it selectively & thematically looking at elements of the architecture & services: domestic commercial religious & institutional. There are chapters on houses & on apartments as well as on offices & churches & on government buildings. There are sections for example on schools & on railway stations on shops & on pubs on parks & on buildings for sport. Extensively illustrated & richly informed the book treats of both the masterpieces & of the ordinary & ranges from the middle ages to the immediate present. It culminates in 12 architectural walks each carefully planned to explore a diversity of buildings & architectural heritage & ranging from the central City & Westminster to the inner & outer suburbs.