London Under is an atmospheric, imaginative introduction to everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and … More
Tag: London
Spike the Gypsy is a man for all seasons, that is, except for August Bank Holiday weekends. He arrives in London from Kingston, Jamaica at the beginning of the 1950’s & lives in a slum tenement owned by the infamous landlord Peter Rachman at St Stephens Gardens in Ladbroke Grove. The Gypsy knows people from all over London: musicians from jazz clubs, high class society women, politicians for whom he performs small services, drug dealers and whores. He scrapes a living by selling marijuana, shoplifting, cat burglary and intermittent bouts of gambling.
Other prominent characters are the journalist Betty Hayes, who works on the Tottenham & Wood Green Journal; an ingenuous adolescent named Frank … More
Another new release due tomorrow. ” The impact of global capital & foreign investment on local communities is being felt in major cities across the world. Since the 2012 Olympics was awarded to the British capital, East London has been at the heart of the largest & most all-encompassing top-down urban regeneration strategy in civic history. At the centre of this has been the local government, Newham Council, & their daring proposal: an “Arc of Opportunity” for developers to transform 1,412 hectares of Newham.”
This proposal was outlined in a short film, London’s Regeneration Supernova, and shown to foreign developers and businesses at the … More
Born OTD in 1948, Kenney Jones. As drummer with the Small Faces, Faces & later The Who, Kenney Jones’ unique sense of rhythm was the heartbeat that powered three of the most influential rock bands of all time. Beginning in London’s post-war East End, Kenney’s story takes us through the birth of the Mod revolution, the mind-bending days of the late-1960s and the raucous excesses of the 70s & 80s.
In a career spanning six decades, Kenney was at the epicentre of many of the most exciting moments in music … More
No London neighbourhood more resembles the restless downstream tide of the Thames than the ragged square mile of Soho. Ask the people who live there, like Christine Yardley, drag queen by night & grey-suited accountant by day; or Len Gates, self-appointed Soho historian & bore; or Jenny Wise, former starlet & now resident lush in the New Kismet club…
Down into this human rabbit warren one evening slips Alex Singer, a student from Leeds in pursuit of his … More
London Under is an atmospheric, imaginative introduction to everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheatres to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts and modern Underground stations.
This book tunnels down through the geological layers, meeting the creatures, both real and fictional, that dwell in the darkness … More
When London is lost beneath the rising tides, unconscious desires rush to the surface in this apocalyptic tale. Fluctuations in solar radiation have melted the ice caps, sending the planet into a new Triassic Age of unendurable heat. London is a swamp; lush tropical vegetation grows up the walls of the Ritz & primeval reptiles are sighted, swimming through the newly-formed lagoons.
Some flee the capital; others remain to pursue reckless schemes, either in the name of science or profit. While the … More
Preorder Iain Sinclair’s new book due out 20th September 2018. Buildings affect how we sleep, work, socialise & even breathe. They can isolate and endanger us but they can also heal us. We project our hopes & fears onto buildings, while they absorb our histories. In Living With Buildings, Sinclair embarks on a series of expeditions – through London, Marseille, Mexico & the Outer Hebrides.
He explores the relationship between sickness and structure, and between art, architecture, social planning and health, taking plenty of detours … More
This is London’s East End in the 1940s – polyglot, violent, poor. We visit ‘the local’, the blitz & an all-day wedding feast. A vibrant area, but for Jimmy despair awaits when even his father steals from him. And how will Pinkie get on in these changing times? London E1 is introduced by Rachel Lichtenstien.
On the back cover of the first edition of Robert Poole’s long-forgotten first, and only, published novel, London E1 (Secker … More
Spanning generations of characters across a variety of boroughs from the Blitz to the mid-80s, this is a book about the real London that tourists will never find, a London which is being erased by the spread of high-rise flats & shining skyscrapers.
Following a group of released mental patients across the years and streets of London, Moorcock creates a vivid impressionistic portrait … More
