The city in all its infinite variety

Chris Blackhurst on some capital titles
A policeman holds back the traffic for a boy pulling a toy London bus, 1960s, from Retro London: The Way We Were, a collection of evocative photographs edited by Linda Gosling in association with the Mary Evans Picture Library (New Holland Publishers, £19
Chris Blackhurst27 November 2014

Books on London tend to be sold by the metre. Entire sections of bookshops and other stores that serve tourists are given over to works about this wonderfully broad, eclectic, inclusive city of ours.

Not that many, I suspect, are bought by people who live and work here. We like to think we know our London; we don’t need another guide telling us where we can find a farmers’ market or an open-air swimming pool.

It would be a pity, though, if that meant we ignored the genre completely. Take this recent crop. There are titles that only cause Londoners to think they know better, such as Quiet London: Quiet Corners by Siobhan Wall (Frances Lincoln, £9.99) and Mindful London — How to Find Calm and Contentment in the Chaos of the City by Tessa Watt (Virgin, £12.99). Oddly, both those cover the same ground, the result possibly of the feeling that the capital gets ever more frenzied and demanding. Most Londoners have their favourite peaceful spots to recharge and preserve their sanity. The last thing they would want as well would be having their reverie broken by incomers waving manuals and maps.

Then there are the photo books. While Brick Lane People by Syl Ojalla (Osborne, £14.95) and Unseen London (Frances Lincoln, £30) contain arresting images (the latter especially is a joy), locals may feel an easy familiarity with much of their content. Similarly, the photographs in Lost London in Colour by Brian Girling (Amberley, £15.99) don’t really advance the Londoner’s knowledge.

That Mighty Heart: Visions of London (Signal Books, £14.99) is a lovely work, a collection of seven walks illustrated with poetry by John Elinger and watercolours by Katherine Shock. Stephen Porter’s London — A History in Paintings & Illustrations (Amberley, £30) also has much to commend it.

As someone who lives in the ‘burbs, Greater London: The Story of the Suburbs by Nick Barratt (Random House, £13.99) is packed with fascinating detail. Make no mistake, it is a weighty tome, and there is only so much even a diehard Metroland-dweller can take.

The two standout titles that would appeal to inhabitant, visitor, expert and amateur alike are very different — from the rest and from each other.

In London: The Information Capital (Particular Books, £25), James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti use maps and graphics to paint a picture of London that is both brilliantly compelling and disturbing. As they make vividly clear, London is home to enormous wealth. But it’s also the location for desperate poverty — five of Britain’s poorest boroughs are in London.

To some extent, where the social charts in the book are concerned, there are few surprises: poor folk have less healthy lifestyles and do not live as long as rich ones. Petty crime is more rampant in the less well-off neighbourhoods; university graduates are not so prevalent; the inhabitants are not as connected on the internet; and they’re not as happy with their lot.

Where the graphics really excel is with their humour and quirkiness. The map showing how it is possible to visit all 270 Tube stations in a single day is a sheer delight. Likewise, the table of items left on trains, buses and black cabs at Heathrow Airport is mind-boggling. They include: 5,090 computers, tablets and pieces of electronic equipment; 2,580 mobile phones; 2,380 pairs of glasses and sunglasses; 330 works of art; 100 walking sticks, and 20 torches.

The Information Capital is a tour de force in the modern use of graphics to make a point.

Nairn’s London (Penguin Classics, £9.99) could not be more opposite. Where the former is all about colourful charts and graphs, and the arrangement of facts and numbers in imaginative, visual ways, Nairn’s London relies entirely on words (there are some grainy black and white photographs of London landmarks but they do not add anything). But what words. Reissued 48 years after it was first published in 1966, and 31 years after Nairn’s death in 1983, it is as brilliantly idiosyncratic, un-PC and masterfully written as it was then.

It’s a meander through London, in the genius architectural author’s own description, “a record of what has moved me between Uxbridge and Dagenham”. It’s not up to date. This is a London without towers, when the docks were still working; Covent Garden was still a fruit and vegetable market; and Canary Wharf had not even been conceived of, let alone built.

Of the private Coombe Hill estate in south-west London, now the preserve of rich bankers and the ilk, Nairn writes: “The casual visitor need not feel uncomfortable, even though a new house here might cost £16,000.” Today, houses in that area can command £9 million.

But Nairn’s writing is as fresh and as powerful as ever. It is an absolute joy. Where other guide books gush and stray into hagiography, he is able to denigrate thus: “Chelsea is only relatively remarkable”; the elephant on the Albert Memorial “has a backside just like a businessman scrambling under a restaurant table for his cheque-book”; and after walking along Kensington Palace Gardens, surrounded by power, “it is quite a relief to go downhill to Kensington Palace where ordinary people like Princess Margaret live”.

The perfect combination for anyone interested in London is The Information Capital and Nairn’s London. Both, in their own way, do full justice to the greatest city in the world.

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