Underground London

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What is visible to the naked eye has been exhaustively raked over in UNDERGROUND LONDON, acclaimed travel writer Stephen Smith provides an alternative guide and history of the capital It s a journey through the passages and tunnels of the city, the bunkers and tunnels, crypts and shadows As well as being a contemporary tour of underground London, it s also an exploration through time Queen Boudicca lies beneath Platform 10 at King s Cross legend has it Dick Turpin fled the Bow Street Runners along secret passages leading from the cellar of the Spaniards pub in North London the remains of a pre Christian Mithraic temple have been found near the Bank of England on the platforms of the now defunct King William Street Underground, posters still warn that Careless talk costs lives Stephen Smith uncovers the secrets of the city by walking through sewers, tunnels under such places as Hampton Court, ghost tube stations, and long lost rivers such as the Fleet and the Tyburn This is alternative history at its best. Free Download Underground London By Stephen Smith For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Lights the dark placesI was worried about reading a Travel book It s not a genre I ve ever read, beyond stilted guide books in an effort to find that there s no vegan restaurants in Vienna, Montreux, Copenhagen etc But, this time, I needn t have worried Stephen Smith s trawls, wades, duckings, crawlings through the land beneath the streets of the capital is fascinating.He divides the book into historical periods and takes the reader on appropriate journeys in each Thus, after introductory ch Lights the dark placesI was worried about reading a Travel book It s not a genre I ve ever read, beyond stilted guide books in an effort to find that there s no vegan restaurants in Vienna, Montreux, Copenhagen etc But, this time, I needn t have worried Stephen Smith s trawls, wades, duckings, crawlings through the land beneath the streets of the capital is fascinating.He divides the book into historical periods and takes the reader on appropriate journeys in each Thus, after introductory chapters looking at The Vertical City and Monster Soup the rivers of London , he guides us through the city of the Romans, the Anglo Saxons, Mediaeval folk, the Tudors, Guy and his Gunpowder plot, the Plague year...This should have been such an excellent book combining history, london, and the dark places underneath, it s such a perfect match to my tastes But unfortunately the writer was so dry that it was a slog to finish Every time it got interesting, the author immediately veered away into dull pop culture references, or dull explanations of why he found this all so interesting.I did discover one thing, however next time I go to London I am definitely NOT taking the sewer tour, which I might have This should have been such an excellent book combining history, london, and the dark places underneath, it s such a perfect match to my tastes But unfortunately the writer was so dry that it was a slog to finish Every time it got interesting, the author immediately veered away into dull pop culture references, or dull explanations of why he found this all so interesting.I did discover one thing, however next time I go to London I am defini...An occasionally rewarding read, but one that doesn t quite live up to either its title or the blurb on the back The narrative is supposed to be a thorough exploration of all things subterranean in London, but many of the chapters are to do with other extraneous things London s waterways, politics and most jarringly a trip up the A1 at one point.When it does get to the London parts, it becomes a thoroughly fascinating read, particularly when the author visits some of the old disused Underground An occasionally rewarding read, but one that doesn t quite live up to either its title or the blurb on the back The narrative is supposed to be a thorough exploration of all things subterranean in London, but many of the chapters are to do with other extraneous things London s waterways, politics and most jarringly a trip up the A1 at one point.When it does get to the London parts, it becomes a thoroughly fascinating read, particularly when the author visits some of the old disused Underground stations and explores catacombs beneath Kensal Green These chapters are engrossing and atmospheric, allowing the reader to picture the locations in places and ...I bought this on my last trip to London years ago, sadly and didn t finish it on the plane ride home and somehow it got set aside Suddenly now seems the time to remedy that I left my bookmark in the book too I was using a ticket stub from the Tower Bridge Exhibition, dated 8 May 2007 I m now on the part about London s hidden rivers and remembering how much learning about them delighted me Multiple, entire rivers vanished from sight, but still flowing under the city and other built I bought this on my last trip to London years ago, sadly and didn t finish it on the plane ride home and somehow it got set aside Suddenly now seems the time to remedy that I left my bookmark in the book too I was using a ticket stub from the Tower Bridge Exhibition, dated 8 May 2007 I m now on the part about London s hidden rivers and remembering how much learning about them delighted me Multiple, entire rivers vanished from sight, but still flowing under the city and other built over areas It sounds completely unrealchokengtitiktitikchokeng 31 But shipping still preferred to steer clear and the river continued to fill with waste As London has grown, so the Fleet has disappeared It has been landscaped out of si...Low 2 This evokes the subterranean regions of the capital from the murky depths of the sewage system to the buried treasures of the centuries of inhabitation of this stretch of the Thames Smith manages to overcme his anxiety of being below the surface to uncover an illuminating history of London s dark and distant past He charts the fetid and pestilent nature of this city s past, from the horrific demise of Richard the Raker who fell into a cesspit in 1326 and drowned in excrement, to the Gr Low 2 This evokes the subterranean regions of the capital from the murky depths of the sewage system to the buried treasures of the centuries of inhabitation of this stretch of the Thames Smith manages to overcme his anxiety of being below the surface to uncover an illuminating history of London s dark and distant past He charts the fetid and pestilent nature of this city s past, from the horrific demise of Richard the Raker who fell into a cesspit in 1326 and drowned in excrement, to the Great Stink of 1858 which drove Disraeli from the Houses of Parliament in pure disgust Just a year earlier, Dr John Snow had claimed that contaminated water supplies lay behind the scourge of cholera, but before such a connection could be directly confirmed, 40,000 perished in a cholera outbreak during the Great Stink This loss of life sparked much needed change, with the Metropolitan Board of Wor...This is written like a series of columns for a London newspaper It tells the stories of Stephen Smith s explorations of what is beneath London s surface He has organized it from the oldest the rivers to recent underground construction projects The book assumes a working knowledge of the layout of London I read it with my tourist map of London at hand because, even though I have visited London a number of times, I do not always have the relationship of bridges, buildings and roads in my min This is written like a series of columns for a London newspaper It tells the stories of Stephen Smith s explorations of what is beneath London s surface He has organized it from th...A wealth of information here there are many times where I felt and methinks rightfully so that I was being treated to some deeply buried gems, secrets of which only a select few could know the true nature Some chapters are as surprisingly naughty and funny as what Smith is unearthing for readers in a particular strata One or two are extremely dry an agonizingly detailed and technical chapter on a dam system is a violent break in pace and interest It seemed a well meaning tribute not to re A wealth of information here there are many times where I felt and methinks rightfully so that I was being treated to some deeply buried gems, secrets of which only a select few could know the true nature Some chapters are as surprisingly naughty and funny as what Smith is unearthing for readers in a particular strata One or two are extremely dry an agonizingly detailed and technical chapter on a dam system is a violent break in pace and interest It seemed a well meaning tribute not to readers or the subject matter but to a guide who had done Smith a big favor in l...Well, this was fascinating It s equal parts London has lots of cool history and London has lots of weird shit under it , and it s pretty damned great It s really readable, often entertaining, and well written Each chapter focuses on a different element of London s underground train tunnels, the Thames Barrier, bunkers, catacombs, wine cellars, sewers, underground rivers etc etc I loved that it divided things up by type rather than looking at London s underground chronologically Sure, t Well, this was fascinating It s equal parts London has lots of cool history and London has lots of weird shit under it , and it s pretty damned gr...Having been to London, I was familiar with some of the names so I could visualize while reading Being American, some of the verbiage and history was lost to me, but the book was pleasurable and informative I had to sometimes fight to keep ...Interesting book for spending a quiet afternoon.If you already read a lot about London there will not be many new facts.I liked the writing style.It is a bit like the underground series on history channel I was a fan

Underground London
  • English
  • 22 August 2017
  • Paperback
  • 393 pages
  • 0349115656
  • Stephen Smith
  • Underground London