Looking for a book/books about London

[Neil]

Ok a bit of a broad topic so I'll try to narrow it down a touch, I may ramble a bit, please bear with me.

For many years I disliked London, my occasional trips from York as a child, teenager and young adult did nothing to inspire me. Recently my viewpoint has been modified, and though I still wouldn't want to live there, I find it terrifically exciting. I'm sure that it's in no small part due to London meaning St Pancras, St Pancras meaning Eurostar and Eurostar meaning holidays. I'm also sure that nostalgia, Ealing Comedies and repeats of the Sweeny are in the mix too.

Now that Morfa has gone, thoughts have turned to what I might replace it with. I find myself increasingly drawn to central London in the sixties/early seventies. Earlier this year I picked up this book, a fantastic colour album featuring the railways around Northamptonshire.

I'm hoping that someone could recommend something of similar quality, but featuring the railways of central London.

Many thanks.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

London Memories by Ian Whitmarsh and Kevin Robertson pub. 2007 Ian Allan ISBN 978-0-7110-3232-3.

It contains colour photographs from 1960's-1980's of all forms of transport. But like all photographs it's worth looking at the background beyond the subject of the photograph.

 

[Tappa]

Neil,
I went down this road a few years back and ended up building a couple of London based layouts! If you have an idea of what you want to model (I went for the Widened Lines) then the London Railway Record is a fantastic read if you can get hold of back issues. I recall that there is an index on the net of back issues. The London books by Connor & Butler are also a good read.

Jeff

 

[Neil]

Many thanks Dave and Jeff for your suggestions. At the moment I've still to hone down the rather general concept of central London into something more specific. I've plenty of time to do this as it looks like the move from the chapel won't be happening any time soon. I foresee me concentrating on stock and structures in the near future.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Hi Neil

Other books to look out for are:
London Transport in Colour 1950 - 1969 by Kevin McCormack - pub. Ian Allan 2005
London Transport Buses in Colour 1955 - 1969 by Kevin McCormack - pub. Ian Allan 2002 and 2006
London Transport from the.... series of books by Michael H C Baker - pub. Ian Allan 2009

Although they concentrate on London Transport they are (as I've alluded to earlier) interesting from the detail in the photograph backgrounds.

If you haven't seen it already I also recommend volume ten of The British Transport Films Collection DVD - London on the Move.

I've often thought if I had the space I would be modelling the widened lines from the Ray Street Gridiron to Holborn Viaduct Low Level i.e. all of Farringdon in the 1920's (assuming the rolling stock is available).

 

[geoff_nicholls]

My first suggestion would be the widened lines booklets by J E Connor (or anything else by him, including his magazine, the London Railway Record)
How about London's Local Railways, by Alan A Jackson? That's a survey of all the local lines round London.

 

[Neil]

Thanks for the further suggestions Dave and for yours too Geoff. I've already found and ordered London Memories and will see about some of the others later on.

 

[farnetti]

I remember a Wild Swan (I think) book from around 25 years ago about London suburbia, but can't recollect the title and out of print now. It had loads of information and photos of houses etc. from old tunnelbacks to new estates built for the further reaches of the Underground system.

Ken

 

[Neil]

Thanks for the suggestion Ken, much appreciated.

 

[PMP]

There are a good number of books about London's Railways,
Brad Barton Diesels in London and the Home Counties, typical BB album, and would fit in your interest era perfectly.
OPC Diesels in the Capital, typical OPC album biased around 1980's but some earlier stuff.
Past and Present series are worth a look, they have good coverage but widely varied era's
IA Kings Cross from the Lineside 1958-84 Does what it says on the tin pretty good coverage and the Author David Percival knows his stuff
IA Diesels out of Kings Cross Excellent album pre electrification in the main 70's to 80's is the core era's covered. These two are typical IA fare, well captioned, good illustrations.

WSP Semi Detached London The seminal book on London suburban development, primarily based on housing development, it does cover some infrastructure in its case studies. Long out of print and highly sought after, originally printed in the early 70's WSP gave it a reprint and makeover with full WSP bells and whistles production values. Prices vary considerably if you find one of the WSP ones for less than £50 just buy it! Sometimes it seems the price of a London semi might actually be cheaper than the book!

D&C Londons Railways Today Seem to recall this one being a typical D&C text/image mix and that it was ok, not got one in my collection yet, covers 70's into 80's so could be worth a punt.

If youve got a good library of the typical IA/OPC/BB books from that era there's quite a good selection of London images in the general books, eg BB's 'Diesels in Action', IA Diesels on the MR/WR/Southern series, but clearly the books aren't London Centric. If you need anything specific, ask and I'll see if I've got anything. And before you ask, no, I'm not a cockney, I'm from sahf ov ve riva ...

 

[Tappa]

I read Semi Detached London a few months back as it turned up in the library of a house that we had rented. Quite simply one of the finest books I have ever read. It was the WSP reprint. I was sorely tempted to make the owners an offer for it!

Jeff

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I think you've opened the floodgates here Neil.

If you have time it's worth taking a trip to the bookshop in the London Transport Museum. I could have spent a small fortune there .

Some more books; London's Lost Railways by Charles Klapper (Routledge & Kegan Paul 1976) and London's Railways Then and Now by Edwin Course (Batsford 1987). The latter probably being the forerunner of the Past and Present series mentioned by PMP earlier.

 

[Neil]

Good grief, even more suggestions, many thanks for them, I may have to buy more bookshelves.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I may have to buy more bookshelves.

You can never have too many of these.......

 

[Neil]

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[PMP]

For history context, what developed where and why, London's Termini by Pan Books. Covers all of the termini all regions, a good little read