London Under - The Secret History Beneath the Streets
Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese (2011)
In Collection
#1633
0*
History
London (England) - Historical Geography, London (England) - History
Hardcover 9780385531504
English
London Under is a wonderful, atmospheric, imagina­tive, oozing short study of everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheaters to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts, and modern tube stations. The depths below are hot, warmer than the surface, and this book tunnels down through the geological layers, meeting the creatures, real and fictional, that dwell in darkness—rats and eels, mon­sters and ghosts. When the Underground's Metropolitan Line was opened in 1864, the guards asked for permission to grow beards to protect themselves against the sulfurous fumes, and named their engines after tyrants—Czar, Kaiser, Mogul—and even Pluto, god of the underworld. To go under London is to penetrate history, to enter a hid­den world. As Ackroyd puts it, “The vastness of the space, a second earth, elicits sensations of wonder and of terror. It partakes of myth and dream in equal measure.”
Product Details
LoC Classification DA689.U5 .A25 2011
LoC Control Number 2011005301
Dewey 914.2104/86
No. of Pages 208
Height x Width 7.3 x 5.2  inch
Personal Details
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Links Library of Congress