London's suburbs may stretch for well over 600 square miles but in historical accounts of the capital they tend to take something of a back seat. In Greater London" historian Nick Barratt places them firmly centre stage tracing their journey from hamlets & villages far out in the open countryside to fully fledged urban enclaves simultaneously demonstrating the crucial role they have played in the creation of today's metropolis. Starting in the first century AD he shows how the tiny settlements that grew up in the Thames Valley gradually developed & how they were shaped by their proximity to the city. He describes the spread of the first suburbs beyond the city walls & traces the ebb & flow of population as people moved in to find jobs or away to escape London's noise & bustle. He charts the transformation wrought by the coming of the railways the fight to preserve Hampstead Heath Epping Forest & other green spaces & the struggle to create a London-wide form of government. He gives an account of wartime destruction & peacetime reconstruction & then brings the story to the present with a description of the very varied nature of today's suburbs & their inhabitants. In the process he evokes Tudor Hackney & Georgian Hampton explains why Victorian Battersea & Finchley were so different from one another & follows Islington's fall from grace & subsequent recovery. Magnificently illustrated throughout with contemporary engravings & photographs this is the essential history for anyone who has ever lived in London."