London

A fascinating illustrated six-volume account, published 1841–4, of what was then the greatest city in the world.

Charles Knight (Author)

9781108073981, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 May 2014

430 pages, 94 b/w illus.
25.4 x 17.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.74 kg

The publisher and writer Charles Knight (1791–1873) was apprenticed to his printer father, but later became a journalist and then proprietor of various periodicals and magazines, many of which were driven by his concern for the education of the poor. As an author, he published a variety of works, including The Old Printer and the Modern Press (also reissued in this series). He claimed that this six-volume work on the architecture and history of London, published between 1841 and 1844, was neither a history nor a survey of London, but looked 'at the Present through the Past, and at the Past through the Present'. It relies on the skills of eminent artists to bring both the present and the past of London to life, and is arranged thematically rather than chronologically or geographically. This is a fascinating account of what was then the greatest city in the world.

101. Doctors' Commons
102. The Temple Church
103. Advertisements
104. The East India House
105. Historical recollections of Guildhall
106. Civic government
107. The Excise Office
108. The companies of London
109. Covent Garden
110. The Admiralty and the Trinity House
111. The churches of London
112. The churches of London (cont.)
113. The churches of London (cont.)
114. The Horse Guards
115. The old London booksellers
116. Exeter Hall
117. The gardens of the Zoological Society
118. The theatres of London
119. The Treasury
120. The Horticultural and Royal Botanic Societies
121. Prisons and penitentiaries
122. London newspapers
123. The Society of Arts, etc., in the Adelphi
124. Medical and surgical hospitals and lunatic asylums
125. London shops and bazaars.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]