Bøker av Brian Girling

Belgravia and Knightsbridge represent the wealthy face of modern London, but it was not always that way. Belgravia did not exist before the 1820s, its site a bleak expanse of open countryside. Knightsbridge was a straggling settlement along the main highway from the west. Proximity to London and the Royal Parks was the key. Grand mansions arose in Knightsbridge and on the 'Five Fields' a classical townscape took shape from the 1820s - they called it 'Belgravia'. The Victorians welded both districts firmly to the capital, and with the photographs in this book we can follow the story through the Edwardian era and compare what the Edwardians saw and what we see today. Along the way are carriage-filled streets, grand hotels and an array of traders and shopkeepers, the lifeblood of Edwardian London. This unique portrayal of two iconic localities will delight and intrigue Londoners and visitors alike.

The wealthy riverside neighbourhood of Chelsea, situated in the centre of the capital, began as a Saxon village outside of London town. Although its population had grown to 3,000 by 1694, Chelsea was still considered rural, which was part of its attraction as a fashionable destination for the rich. With the development boom of the nineteenth century, however, the 'village of palaces' was fully absorbed into the metropolis, yet retained its charm and identity separate from the surrounding city. Chelsea Bridge opened in 1858, Albert Bridge in 1873, and the Chelsea Embankment in 1874. During the nineteenth century, the district's Victorian artists' colony gave it a reputation for bohemian creativity, and this re-emerged in the 1960s when Chelsea became identified with 'Swinging London', a centre of creativity and expression. The story of the district, home of the famous Chelsea bun, the Chelsea Porcelain Factory and Chelsea FC is chronicled in this unique collection of old and new images.

This book takes a photographic tour of one of the City of Westminster's more distinctive areas, and with a wealth of archive images set alongside comparison photographs from the present day shows how old neighbourhoods have evolved through the decades. Along the way are the carefully preserved Victorian streets of Pimlico's early development and some of the grittier byways which have yielded to war damage and great modern housing estates. The pages are filled with pubs and local traders together with canal and Thames side industry. The local transportation is represented by images of vintage buses and antiquated trams alongside the great transport interchanges which characterise northern Pimlico. Pimlico Through Time offers a fresh look at a much loved London area and will delight and intrigue local residents and visitors alike.

East End Neighbourhoods draws on both private and public pictorial archives to offer a fascinating glimpse into the past of one of the most individual and facinating quarters of London.

Marylebone in old photographs