Battersea has grown to be a fashionable and vibrant district of south-west London. Referred to as Patricesy in the Domesday Book, Battersea was historically best known for market gardening, providing fruit, vegetables and flowers for the City of London. However, the area moved from rural to urban with the coming of the railways, industry and large-scale housing from the 1840s, provoking a population growth from 4,000 to 120,000 by the beginning of the twentieth century. Glimpses of the pas...

The district of Wimbledon has become synonymous with its world-famous tennis tournament held here since 1922. This part of south-west London has been inhabited since the Iron Age and has developed over the centuries into two distinct parts: the ‘village’ and the ‘town’. The village developed first as it began to attract wealthy merchants from the city but the arrival of the London & South West Railway in 1838 saw the focus of subsequent developments shift away from the original village tow...

This attractive London suburb is known from many references in popular culture, frequent appearances on film and television and, of course, as the starting point of the Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race. Recorded as Putelei in the Domesday Book, it has many historic associations, not least as the birthplace of Thomas Cromwell and post-war Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Putney’s very first bridge, a toll bridge opened in 1729, was once the only Thames bridge between London and Kingston and led t...

Belfast (Irish: Beal Feirste ‘mouth of the sandbank ford’) is the capital city of Northern Ireland. The site of Belfast has been described as ‘not built on a perfect site’ given that the original settlement was located on low-lying land on the Co. Antrim side of the River Lagan. It was during the Victorian period that wealthy business owners moved out of the old town and built grand villas on the hills surrounding the city. There are views of big houses, grand public buildings and churches...

London Then and Now – People and Places takes an amazing cross-section of vintage photographs of London from the 1850s through to the 1960s, and pairs them up with the same view as it looks today. The great tourist destinations are all included: Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Houses of Parliament, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, the British Museum, St. Pauls Cathedral and Hyde Park, along with classic London pubs, famous theatres, the grand stations, and Carnaby S...

Stevenage Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the country. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of Stevenage, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set and through the author's factual captions for every picture...

This compilation of photographs explores two of west central London's historic areas through rare images, many unseen in over a century, alongside modern photographs for comparison. Bloomsbury is renowned for its fine architecture, rich cultural heritage, universities and specialist hospitals while Bohemian Fitzrovia is a colourful restaurant centre set in busy streets dating from the 1700s. Our pictorial tour takes us through gas-lit streets, grand squares and flavourful byways and includ...

Both the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme and its name almost certainly owe their existence to the building of a 'new' castle there in the mid-twelfth century. The town's importance gradually grew from the twelfth to the eighteenth century by which time Newcastle was the place to go for markets, fairs, doctors, banks and lawyers and it has been referred to elsewhere as the 'Capital of North Staffordshire' during that period.Throughout the last century, 'progress' has wrought huge changes on th...

Wednesbury Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the West Midlands. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of the well-known streets and famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set, and through the author's factual captions for every picture, a...

A refreshing guide to discovering the hidden details of London with 10 fully guided walking routes from London's leading tour guide Look Up London.Have you ever noticed London's tiniest public sculpture? Or wondered why there are strange cone-shaped structures on the fanciest historic homes? Did you know that the Tower of London used to be a zoo, or about the now defunct London railway that transported over 200,000 people to their final resting place?These ...

This walk is one of twelve walks in John Wilks' Walks Through History - Birmingham series which contains twelve walks within the city. The whole book is available as an ebook or physical book or you could try this one out first. The book is a celebration of the beauty and poetry of the county. Each walk in this book has been chosen not only because it is a pleasant walk in its own right, but also because it goes past sites which reveal the rich and varied history of the county. Each walk i...

Sunderland Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the country. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of Sunderland, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set. Through the author's factual captions for every picture,...