Review of Walks in Old London – Peter Jackson

London is a city of endless attraction and fascination and more so if you are a visitor, who sets out to explore and claim your London. Over forty years I have visited London intermittently and stay in different parts of London depending on where accommodation is available. One never tires of London to paraphrase Dr Johnson - if you never tire of life. A two week stay in 2008 saw us being privileged in our accommodation - a pent house apartment in the heart of Piccadilly, above the neon signs we were able to look down on Eros and watch the changing scene over 24 hours. The sight, smells, colour and sounds of the heart of London was ours , just off the Haymarket. There was never darkness and we found ourselves Londoners for a fortnight.

It was with delight and pleasure to discover that the history of Piccadilly indeed features in Jackson's book about London. This is an attractive book, super to have in any London book collection. It is a collector's item and happily mixes over 500 classic historical photographs with an informed , knowledgeable text. It is a large book, (34cms x 26cms) not suitable for a walking guide and my copy is a hard cover version ( there is also a paperback) and quite weighty.

Although entitled "Walks in Old London" it is not a very practical book to use us a guide book for active walkers in London today . The idea of a walk is a device around which the photographs have been organized to give the book focus and a geographical spine. The emphasis is on the evolution of OLD London , rather than on contemporary London . It is a book for the armchair London enthusiast . It presents a marvelous collection of black and white old photographs (carefully dated ) from the 19th and early 20th century and illustrations of prints that date back even earlier - This is a book about the centre of London from West End to East End. Attractive line drawings of street frontages and facades show past facades . The author is an authority on London history and architecture and he collected London photographs, and ephemera all his life . It shows an impressive lifetime passion and great dedication. Seven walks or areas for walking are described with maps for all of the walks plus meticulous maps showing the precise vantage point where thr photograph was taken. Each section of the book is a superb compilation of old photographs of what you would have seen in days gone by in different areas and along the famous streets of Central London. It takes a while for any visitor to realize how each part of London retains a distinctive character and in many old parts there is still a village feel with small shops and local markets encountered. For many visitors one's first encounter with London is via the underground system so that one has sporadic and separated snapshot views of areas around tube stations as you emerge from subterranean travel. This book helps link the dots of the tube stations . The text also explains the buildings that survive today, despite the bombing of World War II and the redesign of vast swaths of the city by developers and city government. Ancient churches, apartment blocks, offices, museums , shops that were built in the 18th and 19th century that can be found and are given a well researched history. The parks of London are not covered, and yet the great parks - Hyde Park, Green Park, Regent Park are the green lungs of the city and provide a release and relief from the hard streets.

This book is a meticulous documentation of the changing face of London over 200 or 300 years . What is missing are photographs of what these locations and sites looked like in 1993 (the date of publication) . The black and white photographs gives a impressions of a grey to black , foggy , austere dark, concrete city . The streets are built over. The people in the photos are of another age and are clad in black - men in sombre suits and women in long dresses - everyone wears a hat. None of the photographs show today's auto traffic or buses or even the underground stations or contemporary London city swingers..

The routes suggested are well chosen but you would need at least a week to follow the walks armed with your own camera . The routes suggested run from Knightsbridge to Covent Garden, Marble Arch to Tottenham court Road, Holborn to the Bank, Millbank to St James's St, Trafalgar Square to St Paul's Cathedral, The Embankment to London bridge, and the area of Kensington and Chelsea. The emphasis is on the built environment and cityscapes. You would then need to go home to compare your own images to this collection of grand old photos . London remains a great city with a rich extraordinary history ... In these photographic views the ubiquity of horse transport , horse dung , the large wheeled cabs, private carriages and omnibuses gives the feel of London of old, a city of imperial eminence , business solidity , dark recesses, great museums, gracious parks dominated by the Thames and the well engineered bridges over the river. London of a hundred years ago must have had an enormous horse population - today its cars and new forms of public transport.

In sum this is a book to page through onc you are home and transport yourself mentally to Trafalgar Square or Covent Gardens to remember the time you fed the pigeons or found a thrilling building. It repays at home armchair reading and gives a context to the London of old . But find a new guidebook if you wish to walk London this week. I can't recommend this book as an on-foot guide to 21st C London, My own view is that the best of London is discovered on foot, walking the streets and reading the blue plaques with a map ( the A to Z is invaluable) in hand and having the time to stray off the main thoroughfares, drop in on a pub, talk to authentic Londoners ( they are still there) or have a coffee to give you the energy to keep on walking and find your own London. ( )