Lost London

London is a city steeped in history, a place where the past lingers in every shadow. More than 2,000 years in the making and covering 600 square miles, like any modern capital it reinvents itself on an almost perpetual basis, yet it’s almost impossible to walk its streets without finding a survivor from one of its previous incarnations. Besides fragments of Roman wall, intact Norman churches and even traces of the odd Saxon fish trap in the Thames, London still boasts working medieval markets, a handful of ancient timber-framed survivors of the Great Fire, and scores of streets and squares that grew out of early experiments in town planning. Many of these treasures are enjoyed by visitors, but an awful lot has been lost over the intervening years. Often there are tantalizing clues to what has gone, in old documents, fading photographs, or a curious street name. This book provides the perfect place to begin a search for the lost history of London.