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Review
..this endlessly absorbing book that is at once a record of destruction, a haunting collection of relics and a door into the past. --John Carey - The Sunday Times
Stuffed with beautiful images ... this satisfyingly heavy book depicts a grimy, muddy city with spots of aristocratic grandeur, a city on the verge of transformation --Edwin Heathcote Financial Times
An extraordinary and sometimes upsetting record of the capital s architectural richness --Philippa Stockley - Sunday Telegraph
Stuffed with beautiful images ... this satisfyingly heavy book depicts a grimy, muddy city with spots of aristocratic grandeur, a city on the verge of transformation --Edwin Heathcote Financial Times
An extraordinary and sometimes upsetting record of the capital s architectural richness --Philippa Stockley - Sunday Telegraph
Stuffed with beautiful images ... this satisfyingly heavy book depicts a grimy, muddy city with spots of aristocratic grandeur, a city on the verge of transformation --Edwin Heathcote Financial Times
An extraordinary and sometimes upsetting record of the capital s architectural richness --Philippa Stockley - Sunday Telegraph
Stuffed with beautiful images ... this satisfyingly heavy book depicts a grimy, muddy city with spots of aristocratic grandeur, a city on the verge of transformation --Edwin Heathcote Financial Times
An extraordinary and sometimes upsetting record of the capital s architectural richness --Philippa Stockley - Sunday Telegraph
Product Description
More than 500 spectacular unseen photographs of London, taken between 1875 and 1945, from the Archives of English Heritage. This unique archive shows Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian London before the major 20th century redevolopment. Athoritative text by Philip Davies from English Heritage.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
74 of 74 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Despite Philip Davies's claim in his wonderful introduction to this sumptuous book that we should not mourn too deeply for some of the lost buildings and streets of London - they were unarguably homes to grinding poverty and nascent social breakdown - it is hard not to feel horrified by the sheer scale of loss and wanton destruction. What comes out strongly is that despite the efforts of the Luftwaffe, much of the loss was self-inflicted long before the German bombers took to the skies. Ruthless Victorian and Edwardian developers and planners swept away vast tracts of London's Georgian, Shakespearean and medieval heritage in the cause of improved transport connections and a desire to replace the ordered elegance of Regency terraces with statement-making stone edifices more in keeping with Britain's new imperial status. Buildings that escaped the Great Fire and the Blitz succumbed ultimately to the joint wills of commerce and progress.
Modest though some of the lost buildings clearly were, they represented a link to a historical past that has now entirely disappeared in some areas. Their human scale guaranteed them no protection whatsoever in the days before planning controls, but larger public buildings were also swept away with an insouciance almost unthinkable today.
This is a superb book, filled with beautifully reproduced black and white photographs of a capital city that looks hauntingly familiar, but that most of us have never seen. Endlessly informative and fascinating both visually and textually, it offers a profoundly moving evocation of a lost age. Many of the photographs were taken as a last record of buildings already condemned to die. Others are in traffic-free streets bustling with humanity. While wondering pensively about the fate of these people who stare with curiosity into the camera, Philip Davies also mourns our modern inability to plan cities with the innate sense of order, elegance and farsightedness that our forebears brought to even the humblest corners of our once beautiful capital. This book stands as a testament to their skills.
Modest though some of the lost buildings clearly were, they represented a link to a historical past that has now entirely disappeared in some areas. Their human scale guaranteed them no protection whatsoever in the days before planning controls, but larger public buildings were also swept away with an insouciance almost unthinkable today.
This is a superb book, filled with beautifully reproduced black and white photographs of a capital city that looks hauntingly familiar, but that most of us have never seen. Endlessly informative and fascinating both visually and textually, it offers a profoundly moving evocation of a lost age. Many of the photographs were taken as a last record of buildings already condemned to die. Others are in traffic-free streets bustling with humanity. While wondering pensively about the fate of these people who stare with curiosity into the camera, Philip Davies also mourns our modern inability to plan cities with the innate sense of order, elegance and farsightedness that our forebears brought to even the humblest corners of our once beautiful capital. This book stands as a testament to their skills.
119 of 122 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Finally, a book of old photographs that we (mostly) haven't seen before.
This is a splendid publication, beautifully produced, with an intelligent and informative text, crammed full of pictures that speak volumes to lovers of London and its vanished past. It's the forerunner and companion to the same author's later and physically larger work 'Panoramas of lost London' - which has taken some of the same material (though by no means all of it) and given it a different treatment.
'Lost London' is a good and hefty volume, well worth having - and the price tag (especially if you order from Amazon) is fantastic value.
Be warned - the book is heavy, so likely to bust any mailbag, shopping bag - or Christmas stocking!
This is a splendid publication, beautifully produced, with an intelligent and informative text, crammed full of pictures that speak volumes to lovers of London and its vanished past. It's the forerunner and companion to the same author's later and physically larger work 'Panoramas of lost London' - which has taken some of the same material (though by no means all of it) and given it a different treatment.
'Lost London' is a good and hefty volume, well worth having - and the price tag (especially if you order from Amazon) is fantastic value.
Be warned - the book is heavy, so likely to bust any mailbag, shopping bag - or Christmas stocking!
54 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A fabulous and generous book of wonderful photographs of a London that has been lost in time due to neglect, crass planning desisions or wartime bombs.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in history, photography or London. a great coffee table gift that will be much admired.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in history, photography or London. a great coffee table gift that will be much admired.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amazing book
A friend of mine has shown me his copy of the book and I simply couldn't stop looking through it. It amazed me with the amount of period photos. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Sunny Girl
Lost London
Lost London is a great buy, fantastic pics and a great insight into how it was before we made it overly modern. Would recommend it as a present to anyone interested in the subject.
Published 1 month ago by Mark P.
Lost London
A most interesting book with excellent photographs. It brings old London to life, bringing back memories of the London I knew in the fifties.
Published 4 months ago by BillC
Beyond Fantastic!
I bought both this book and "Panoramas of Lost London" to explore my London ancestral roots - it has been invaluable. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Scooby Doo
Remarkable "Dickensian" London.
Several of the reviewer comments on the back cover of this book have used the word 'heartbreaking' when describing the images inside. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Close Range.
delightful
I thought this was delightful and has encouraged its recipient to investivate further. It will be very interesting to find some of these sites.
Published 4 months ago by joybelle
I have wanted this book for ages!
Being born and bred in East London, I have always had a fascination with it's vast history. This book gives a wonderful insight to how life really was back then, not just by the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by B. E. Fernandes
Excellent publication
In my opinion, this is easily the finest and most fascinating publication that I have ever had the pleasure of owning. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr R.Martin
Fascinating
Got this book as a gift last Christmas and what a treasure it is. Forgotton photographs of buildings mainly before their demolition, not just in the city and the west end but in... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Rossi
The character of a lost London is captivating.
Lost London 1870-1945 is a wonderful collection of black and white photos, and unique, this collection shows Elizabethan, Georgian and Victorian London before the major 20th... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Andrea Bowhill
Listmania!
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