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  • Published: 1 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9781409022541
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 608

Greater London

The Story of the Suburbs



A major new history of London's suburbs

London's suburbs may stretch for well over 600 square miles, but in historical accounts of the capital they tend to take something of a back seat. In Greater London, historian Nick Barratt places them firmly centre stage, tracing their journey from hamlets and villages far out in the open countryside to fully fledged urban enclaves, simultaneously demonstrating the crucial role they have played in the creation of today's metropolis.

Starting in the first century AD, he shows how the tiny settlements that grew up in the Thames Valley gradually developed, and how they were shaped by their proximity to the city. He describes the spread of the first suburbs beyond the city walls, and traces the ebb and flow of population as people moved in to find jobs or away to escape London's noise and bustle. He charts the transformation wrought by the coming of the railways, the fight to preserve Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest and other green spaces and the struggle to create a London-wide form of government. He gives an account of wartime destruction and peacetime reconstruction, and then brings the story to the present with a description of the very varied nature of today's suburbs and their inhabitants. In the process, he evokes Tudor Hackney and Georgian Hampton, explains why Victorian Battersea and Finchley were so different from one another, and follows Islington's fall from grace and subsequent recovery.

Magnificently illustrated throughout with contemporary engravings and photographs, this is the essential history for anyone who has ever lived in London.

  • Published: 1 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9781409022541
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 608

About the author

Nick Barratt

Dr Nick Barratt is a medieval historian by trade, gaining a PhD from Kings College London. He worked at the Public Record Office - now the National Archives - for several years, before moving to the BBC as a specialist researcher, and established Sticks Research Agency. His research credits include House Detectives, Seven Wonders of the Industrial World and Who Do You Think You Are? which he also presented. He is currently a director of Firebird Media and is on the National Executive of the Federation of Family History Societies. He works as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph and has published several books on house and family history.

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Praise for Greater London

A superb work of research and is clearly and entertainingly written, sometimes intimidating in its attention to detail, but rarely dry

Daily Telegraph

A far-reaching, in-depth yet broadly-based history of London ... You don't have to be a Londoner to enjoy this heroic tale of people - and bricks and train-tracks triumphing to the detriment of green space

Independent

A masterful social history of London’s suburbs

Your Family Tree magazine

Enjoyable and fact-packed book

Kensington and Chelsea Today

Barratt brilliantly tells the stories of the capital’s historical communities.

PD Smith, Guardian

Packed with fascinating detail.

Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard