“Eloquent and visceral.”
—Kirkus Reviews
London Under is a wonderful, atmospheric, imaginative, oozing short study of everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheaters to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts, and modern tube stations. The depths below are hot, warmer than the surface, and this book tunnels down through the geological layers, meeting the creatures, real and fictional, that dwell in darkness—rats and eels, monsters and ghosts. When the Underground’s Metropolitan Line was opened in 1864, the guards asked for permission to grow beards to protect themselves against the sulfurous fumes, and named their engines after tyrants—Czar, Kaiser, Mogul—and even Pluto, god of the underworld.
To go under London is to penetrate history, to enter a hidden world. As Ackroyd puts it, “The vastness of the space, a second earth, elicits sensations of wonder and of terror. It partakes of myth and dream in equal measure.”
Purchase a copy from one of these online retailers:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
IndieBound
Powell’s
Random House
A remarkable writer, Peter Ackroyd: http://210.8.75.29/~johntran/2012/01/cathedrals/
In “London The Biography” appears a photo (caption: Billingsgate Porters, Hats…etc.) attributed to “Covent Garden Porters” by John Thomson, courtesy Museum of London.
After contacting the photographic curator I learned this is incorrect. I am interested in the image because my grandfather is standing behind the porters wearing a trilby hat and scarf.
This picture is truly heartwarming to my family as he died during the Blitz, December 1940.
After extensive research neither the Museum of London, nor myself have been able to discover the location of the photo.
Any information you could provide would be most appreciated!