"When a man is tired of London," Samuel Johnson noted in 1777, "he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." Indeed, for almost two thousand years, London has been the political, cultural, and economic heart of Britain, and one of the great hubs of world affairs. Now, in this fascinating volume, the doyen of London historians, Francis Sheppard, provides the definitive account of London's diverse past, from its origins as a Roman settlement (founded at the lowest bridgeable point across the Thames) to the world-class metropolis it is today. It providesa vivid account of a city which was the `deere sweete' place which Chaucer loved more than any other city on earth, which was for Dickens his `magic lantern', and to Keats `a great sea', howling for more wrecks. It is also a story of much contrast and remarkable resilience; through great fires andpestilence, civil war, and the Blitz, London has rebuilt and reinvented itself for each generation. "Sheppard is the great authority to whom we all look up," Roy Porter has written. "He has made the history of London his life's work, and I suspect there's no one in the world with so full a knowledge and so rich a grasp as he of sources, physical fabric, and all manner of details." In thiscolorful new history, Sheppard takes us on a fascinating voyage through London's past. It is the definitive account of the rise to power of one of the world's great metropolitan centers.
Popular Passages:
conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say that there is more learning and science within the circumference often miles from where we now sit than in all the rest of the kingdom. - Page xvii
led him; Earth enrich'd him, heaven carest him, Taunton blest him, London blest him. This thankful town, that mindful city, Share his piety and his pity. What he gave, and how he gave it, Ask the poor, and you shall have it. - Page 1
Among the noble cities of the world that are celebrated by Fame, the City of London, seat of the Monarchy of England, is one that spreads its fame wider, sends its wealth further, and lifts its head higher than all - Page xvii
populous places at a distance from one another, and the inhabitants of any one of them know- nothing, or next to nothing, of the proceedings in any other, and not much indeed of those of their own. - Page 296
takes a lot of understanding. It's a great place. Immense. The richest town in the world, the biggest port, the greatest manufacturing town, the Imperial city—the centre of civilisation, the heart of the world. - Page xvii
it is no exaggeration to say that, but for the hostility of the City, Charles the First would never have been - Page 161
will be one vast raving bedlam, the hospitals will be stormed, traffic will cease, the homeless will shriek for help, the city will be a pandemonium'. - Page 334
and squalid cottages, no longer exist. There are wide gradations of income, but it is the same kind of life that is being lived at different - Page 333
are scene very poore. . heaped up together, and in a sort smothered with many families of children and servantes in - Page 174
plenteous, and very easie to be had at low and small rents, and by reason of the late dissolution of Religious houses many houses in London stood vacant, and not any man desirous to take them'. - Page 174
Cover:
+ By Francis Sheppard
+ Published 2000 Oxford University Press
+ 496 pages
+ ISBN 0192853694
Why did slums and suburbs develop simultaneously? Were class antagonisms to blame? Why did the Victorians believe there was a housing problem? The history of housing between 1780 and 1914 encapsulates many problems associated with the transition from a largely rural to an overwhelmingly urban nation, whose unprecedented pace imposed immense tensions within society. This book reviews the recent arguments and guides the student of social history to further reading, making it an ideal introduction to a central issue in nineteenth-century history.
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Steel frame architecture versus the London Building Regulations: Selfridges, the Ritz and American technology', Construction History, 6, 1990, 23-46, - Page 88
all the space within the external and party walls of a building'. - Page 94
The land question: a Liberal theory of communal property', History Workshop Journal, 27, 1989, 106-35 - Page 91
of their possibilities and most adept at turning them into shapes on the ground'. - Page 42
were the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes (1841) - Page 45
the rate of mortality depends upon the efficiency of the ventilation (and - Page 32
in his Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain (1842), - Page 2
feuing, which increased land costs and ground burdens, a method of building finance for small builders based on the technicalities of feuing which intensified building industry instability, and average real wages approximately 20-30 per cent below comparable English trades in the 1850s - Page 36
by A. Mayne, The Imagined Slum: Newspaper Representation in Three Cities 1870-1914 (Leicester 1993), - Page 88
such as Christian teaching regarding family life and sobriety, the sanctity of property rights, prevailing laissez-faire orthodoxy in economic and social affairs, and ratepayers' insistence on economism in government. - Page 44
Cover:
+ By Richard Rodger
+ Contributor Maurice Kirby
+ Published 1995 Cambridge University Press
+ 113 pages
+ ISBN 0521557860
This volume is a compact and authoritative historical survey of the way English urban environments have developed since the Roman period, viewed chronologically and thematically, focusing particularly on the last two centuries. The text covers types of urban development (e.g., industrialtowns, commercial cities, slums, and suburbs), plus important topics such as transport, recreation, civil and ecclesiastical functions, and images of the town and city in literature, art, and film. The chapters are supplemented by cameos that focus in detail on specific towns and subjects.
Cover:
+ By Philip J. Waller
+ Contributor P. J. Waller
+ Published 2000 Oxford University Press
+ 352 pages
+ ISBN 0198601174