Here is some of the reading I have done for this blog, which I shall keep up to date. I might even edit old posts to add extra clarification as I go along.
PUBS
Brandwood, Geoff, Andrew Davison and Michael Slaughter. (2004) Licensed to Sell: The History and Heritage of the Public House (London: English Heritage). I’ve started reading this and so far it’s a fascinating and well-illustrated history.
Brandwood, Geoff, and Jane Jephcote. (2008) London Heritage Pubs: An Inside Story (Historic Pub Interiors in the Capital) (St Albans: Campaign for Real Ale). An exceptionally well-illustrated and clearly laid-out guide, which looks inside all manner of pubs and doesn’t lavish undue attention on central London, covering all areas of Greater London, even if as one might expect it does rather tend towards a certain kind of wood-panelled interior. There are useful side-bars on pub architecture and the history of London brewing.
Brown, Pete. (2003) Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer (London: Pan, reprinted 2004). A chatty observational history, which as the author points out is rather the book equivalent of a talkative bloke down the end of a bar. Even so it manages to fit in lots of interesting observations and historical detail.
Bruning, Ted. (1998) Historic Pubs of London (London: Prion). Features copious colour photos and write-ups of historic pubs all over London. It’s interesting to note how many of them look different even now.
Jennings, Paul. (2007) The Local: A History of the English Pub (Stroud: Tempus Publishing). A good overview of the development of the pub from around the 17th century onwards, with chapters on social history and recent developments.
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LONDON
i. Overviews
Glinert, Ed. (2000) Literary London: A Street-by-Street Exploration of the Capital’s Literary Heritage (London: Penguin, reprinted 2007), originally published as A Literary Guide to London. Goes through by street and picks out the landmarks of literary interest.
— (2003) The London Compendium: A Street-by-Street Exploration of the Hidden Metropolis (London: Penguin, reprinted 2004). More of the same, does just as it says, and highlights really interesting sites and buildings, and tells the sometimes idiosyncratic stories behind them.
Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert (editors). (1983) The London Encyclopaedia, 1st edition (London: Macmillan). An exhaustive history of various places, institutions and buildings within London. I can’t pretend to have it read it all, of course, but I dip in here and there. There’s now a third edition available.
White, Jerry. (2001) London in the 20th Century: A City and Its People (London: Vintage, reprinted 2008). A very fine history of a rather tumultuous century.
–. (2007) London in the 19th Century: A Human Awful Wonder of God (London: Vintage, reprinted 2008). Another fine overview of a decade in the nation’s capital.
Willey, Russ. (2006) Chambers London Gazetteer (Edinburgh: Chambers). A rather marvellous guide to all the significant areas within the Greater London boundaries.
ii. Local History
Blanch, William Harnett. (1877) Ye Parish of Camberwell: A Brief Account of the Parish of Camberwell, Its History and Antiquities (London: E.W. Allen). A large and chunky book. It even has a few pages about ‘hostelries’.
Kemp, Richard. (1904) Some Notes on the Ward of Aldgate, Its Neighbourhood and Its Ancient & Modern History (London: Eden Fisher, reprinted 1935). Some nice old photos and plans of the street, with a full appendix
Woollacott, Ron. (1995) A Historical Tour of Nunhead and Peckham Rye (London: Magdala Terrace). A walking tour pamphlet, unattractively presented, but with plenty of historical information.
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OTHER
Hanley, Lynsey. (2007) Estates: An Intimate History (London: Granta). Once you get past the introduction and into the book, it starts to accrue all kinds of historical and social detail which becomes really fascinating. As well as exploring the rise of the council housing estate, it also dissects its place in society and its many failures, building up a sustained critique on the failure of housing in the 20th century.
