Necropolis
- 320 pages
- 12 hours of reading
A vivid historical narrative of how London has dealt with its dead from pagan burial rites through the Black Death to the Blitz and the death of Diana.
Catherine Arnold's London Series
This series delves into the peculiar and often overlooked histories of London. It uncovers hidden chapters of the city's past, populated by eccentric characters and surprising events. It's a compelling read for those who enjoy discovering the lesser-known but fascinating facets of urban history.
Recommended Reading Order
- 1
- 2
Bedlam
- 306 pages
- 11 hours of reading
An informative and entertaining study of London's lunatic fringe, and how we have dealt with the mad among us from pre-history to the present day.
- 3
For over a thousand years, England’s capital has been associated with desire, avarice, and the sins of the flesh. This is the author’s book on vice through the ages. From bath houses and brothels of Roman Londinium, to the stews and Molly houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. London has always traded in the currency of sex. The author takes the reader on a journey through the fleshpots of London from earliest times to present day. The book includes chapters looking at Victorian London and the sexual underground of the 20th century and beyond. Raw and ribald. Fascinating.
- 4
Beginning with an atmospheric account of Tyburn, we are set up for a grisly excursion through London as a city of ne'er do wells, taking in beheadings and brutality at the Tower, Elizabethan street crime, cutpurses and con-men, through to the Gordon Riots and Highway robbery of the 18th century and the rise of prisons, the police and the Victorian era of incarceration. As well as the crimes, Arnold also looks at the grotesque punishments meted out to those who transgressed the law throughout London's history - from the hangings, drawings and quarterings at Tyburn over 500 years to being boiled in oil at Smithfield. This popular historian also investigates the influence of London's criminal classes on the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, and ends up with our old favourites, the Krays and Soho gangs of the 50s and 60s. London's crimes have changed over the centuries, both in method and execution. Underworld London traces these developments, from the highway robberies of the eighteenth century, made possible by the constant traffic of wealthy merchants in and out of the city, to the beatings, slashings and poisonings of the Victorian era. An interesting read full of gory facts and details about London. This paperback book has 340 pages and measures: 19.7 x 12.9 x 2.2cm.
- 5
Globe
- 312 pages
- 11 hours of reading
The life of William Shakespeare, Britain's greatest dramatist, was inextricably linked with the history of London. Together, the great writer and the great city came of age and confronted triumph and tragedy. Triumph came when Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men, opened the Globe playhouse on Bankside in 1599, under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I. Tragedy touched the lives of many of his contemporaries, from fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe to the disgraced Earl of Essex, while London struggled against the ever-present threat of riots, rebellions and outbreaks of plague.
