Panoramas of Lost London

Product Description Nearly 300 spectacular photographs of Londons lost buildings from the London Metropolitan Archive in Panoramic format. Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buidings, some of them historic masterpieces, captured in location just before their destruction between 1870-1945 Review Well, the photographs are so stunningly reproduced that you can almost smell the street life in this amazing collection of photographs. Yes, there are plenty of books on Victorian this and Victorian that and Edwardian this and Edwardian that - and London of course features loud and clear in most of them - but somehow this one has the edge. It's revealing, it's honest, and it's magnificent. The book is BIG - very - and the pages are BIG; the photographs are BIG - and that's one of the lovely things about it. It's a pleasure to look at. The details are as clear as crystal. No need for the magnifying glass here. This is more than nostalgia. This is an important work of social history, because there are all too few volumes that manage to place the reader at the very heart of the subject in quite the way that this one does. Historian Philip Davies is to be congratulated on this handsome book, and it deserves to be popular with both libraries and schools and punters alike, and the price tag is astonishingly modest for the wonders to be found between the covers. It's a splendid companion to the same author's other feast of the past: LOST LONDON. One word of warning: PANORAMAS OF LOST LONDON is backbreakingly heavy: a coffee-table book that weighs more than the coffee table. BUT DON'T LET THAT PUT YOU OFF. It's worth a few visits to the gym and the physio to be able to revel in it again and again. --Green Knight A glorious and monumental piece of work --Bill Bryson What a truly magnificent book - a triumph! Great exposition of history, photography and the wonders of London --Sir Terry Farrell About the Author As a chartered town planner, historian and international expert in heritage conservation, Philip Davies has been in the forefront of managing change to London's most important historic buildings and places for over 35 years, most recently as the Planning and Development Director for London and South - East England at English Heritage. Some of Britain's most important historic buildings and places have benefited from Philip's watchful eye, including Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Hyde Park Corner, Kings Cross/St Pancras, the British Museum, Woolwich Arsenal and Bletchley Park, as well as across the government estate and occupied royal palaces. He has prepared national policy and guidance on a whole range of topics from tall buildings to conservation-led regeneration. Philip devised and set up English Heritage's Buildings at Risk programme in London and as a result over 2,000 listed buildings have been saved from dereliction. He also conceived and led the Campaign for London's Squares, which has seen over 20 of London's most important squares restored to their original splendour. English Heritage's Streets for All project was pioneered by Philip to transform the public realm across the country. He was also responsible for developing English Heritage's Heritage Economic Regeneration Schemes and War Memorials grant schemes. In addition to his status as an expert on London's heritage, history and development, Philip is an internationally-renowned authority on British Imperial history and has provided advice and guidance to the governments of India, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Philip's other books include Splendours of the Raj - British Architecture in India - 1660-1947, which was selected by The Times critics as a book of the year, and The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India - Islamic, Rajput and European, the most comprehensive guide to India's architecture and buildings ever written.