Streets of London

by KevinMcCormack (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $4.19

  London - capital city redolent of the age of Empire, fashion centre, financial heart, tourist magnet and allegedly 'coolest' city in the world- is, whatever one's perception of it, one of the greatest cities in the world. Few people worldwide are not familiar with the city's greatest structures - Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, to name but five - and every year many millions travel to London, either for leisure or for business. But the London that is visited by these countless millions today is a radically different city to that which would have greeted visitors 40 or 50 years ago. True, the major tourist sights are largely unchanged but many aspects of Metropolitan life are wholly different. Redevelopment postwar, either replacing bombed out sites or old buildings, has radically altered many streetscapes, whilst shop fascia boards, the level of traffic, fashion and much else are greatly changed. Drawing upon colour photographs taken in London's streets during the late 1940s and 1950s Kevin McCormack recreates the lost London streetscape of the immediate postwar era - the years of austerity and reconstruction. Taking London's public transport as its cornerstone and recording the long lost and much mourned trams and trolleybuses, as well as the replacing of diesel buses, the book is also an exploration into the atmosphere and character of London during the period.