The Groundwater Diaries: Trials, Tributaries and Tall Stories from Beneath the Streets of London

by TimBradford (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $3.25

  A flight of imagination back to a time when London was green meadows and rolling hills, dotted with babbling brooks. Join Tim Bradford as he explores the lost rivers of London. Over the last hundred and fifty years, most of the tributaries of the Thames have been buried under concrete and brick. Now Tim Bradford takes us on a series of walks along the routes of these forgotten rivers and shows us the oddities and delights that can be found along the way. He finds the chi in the Ching, explores the links between London's football ground and freemasons, rediscovers the unbearable shiteness of being (in South London), enjoys the punk heritage of the Westbourne, and, of course, learns how to special-brew dowse. Here, then, is all of London life, but from a very different point of view. With a cast that includes the Viking superhero Hammer Smith, a jellied-eel fixated William Morris, a coprophiliac Samuel Johnson, Deep Purple and the Glaswegian deer of Richmond Park, and hundreds of cartoons, drawings and maps, 'The Groundwater Diaries' is a vastly entertaining (and sometimes frankly odd) tour through not-so-familiar terrain.

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $4.49

  A surreal view of London's hidden waterways. Since the mid 19th century, most of the tributaries of the River Thames have been buried beneath concrete and brick. Tim Bradford invites you to take a walk with him along the routes of these forgotten rivers. Join him on a flight of imagination back to a time when London was green meadows and rolling hills, dotted with babbling brooks infested with pigs' intestines, dead dogs and floating corpses. Yet this is more than a historical view of London. For it is London seen through the disarmingly left-of-centre world view of Tim Bradford, a man deeply in love with this capital, who sees just as much fascination and culture in a modern-day group of Albanian Patrick Swayze lookalike ladyboys of Haringay as he does in the historical derivation of the area's name. The journey is interspersed with the author's philosophy on such life and death matters as jazz, football, Dickens and jellied eels and some trivial concerns such as capitalism, politics, death and dreams. The Groundwater Diaries is a book for lovers of London who are also endlessly frustrated by the city, an alternative travel guide focussing on those aspects of London you didn't know you knew about and on those quirks you thought only you knew of. Thus we have ruminations on the Raynes Park model railway shop or the legendary late night police bar in Smithfield. Complete with the cartoons and maps that are Tim Bradford's trademark, this book should prove an entertaining tour through a not so familiar terrain.

• New

  Paperback
  2004

  $17.57

  A flight of imagination back to a time when London was green meadows and rolling hills, dotted with babbling brooks. Join Tim Bradford as he explores the lost rivers of London. Over the last hundred and fifty years, most of the tributaries of the Thames have been buried under concrete and brick. Now Tim Bradford takes us on a series of walks along the routes of these forgotten rivers and shows us the oddities and delights that can be found along the way. He finds the chi in the Ching, explores the links between London's football ground and freemasons, rediscovers the unbearable shiteness of being (in South London), enjoys the punk heritage of the Westbourne, and, of course, learns how to special-brew dowse. Here, then, is all of London life, but from a very different point of view. With a cast that includes the Viking superhero Hammer Smith, a jellied-eel fixated William Morris, a coprophiliac Samuel Johnson, Deep Purple and the Glaswegian deer of Richmond Park, and hundreds of cartoons, drawings and maps, 'The Groundwater Diaries' is a vastly entertaining (and sometimes frankly odd) tour through not-so-familiar terrain.