London A Short History Book

The last time I was actually in London was 1994 and this book was written in 2004. I was however, curious to know how the author could fit 2000 years of history into less than 200 pages. Thus, this was a highly readable summary which is divided into periods, highlighting the most significant achievements of that epoch, especially in terms of architecture.

Beginning with a description of the Fleet River which coursed through open countryside in Roman tiimes, and is now covered over by the street of the same name, the author makes clear that London, unlike other capitols was never centrally planned. What today are merely neighborhoods like Camden, etc.; began as autonomous villages along the river in which all was chaos until 1666.

However, like Chicago in 1871, 70% of the city was burned to the ground and allowed to start over. Thus, the best parts of the city were designed by Wren, and later Inigo Jones who imposed a cohesive style on everything they did.

While the author believes the much of the Victorian architecture to be ugly, at least they initiated great infrastructure projects still in use like the Embankment and the sewer system which kept the Thames from flooding residential areas with smelly sewage.

But he is also scathing when discussing more recent post-war creations which he likens to communist slabs. And he is unsparing with what he calls the "Americanization and moronization" of Britain, the apotheosis of which is The Millennium Dome.

And responding to the Lord Mayor's plan for 2002, he certainly pulls no punches, calling it "a masterpiece of ill-advised euphemisms and cliches. 'In the emerging information society London will need to become increasingly a learning city,' [where have I heard that one before?] is a piece of gobbledegook trying to hide from itself the fact that half of the population of London will in the future, be illiterate."

Thus on the whole I found it to be amusing. I just wish there hadbeen more photos. The good news is I probably thwarted the Google algorithm by searching for photos of every ugly building in London (not my usual thing). I wonder what he thinks nearly twenty years later?