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The London Compendium: A Street-by-street Exploration of the Hidden Metropolis

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Author: Ed Glinert
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

6 reviews
Sales Rank: 13060

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.9

ISBN: 0141012137
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780141012131
ASIN: 0141012137

Publication Date: July 1, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.

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Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

A review of the London Compendium March 23, 2008
It's got lot's of detail and comes with some interesting anecedotes, but why no decent index? It has a pretty useless subject index, put no people or place names index & it that seems a bit bizarre. This is not a book to be read in the bath, but one to read on the move - when you're actually out there walking the streets of London. You want to be able to hone in on where you are, but thanks to the tricky navigation of this book - that can take a bit of time.

4 out of 5 stars

Essential Reading - guidebook to Iain Sinclair's London January 20, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book. I've taken it on many a London adventure and it never fails to shed light on forgotten corners of the city. If you like Iain Sincliar, Stewart Home, Peter Ackroyd et al and decide to go and see it for yourself Glinert will show you the way. This book is at its strongest when describing areas of London that you feel you may already know, like Clerkenwell, Fleet Street, Bloomsbury, Temple.
The only downside is the ommission of the outer suburbs, so areas such as the Lea Valley, Epping Forest, Harrow, Stonebridge Park, Crouch End etc. don't get a look in. But this is the nearest you're going to get to the great London books of the 1920's-1950's (Clunn, Maxwell, Kent, Fletcher).

3 out of 5 stars

Capital understatement December 17, 2006
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

It would be an ambitious writer who would claim to give a "street-by-street exploration" of London. Whilst Ed Glinert gives a valiant attempt, he must by definition fail to live up to everyone's expectations.

I lived there once and return now and then, so I have a reasonable grasp of the place. And yes I did learn some things about some people in some places. But Glinert's London is not my London. The People Index at the end shows the usual suspects - kings and queens - having the greatest number of references, but there is also a large number of references to 1960s culture. And indeed, the subject index gives away Mr Glinert's true interests, where art and rock music vie for prime position with gangsters and murders. He seems to have a fascination for his (misspent?) youth where the Kray twins regularly pop up alongside fashion and rock venues. So, although the book, does have merit, it's not my chosen guide to "the hidden metropolis".

PS. The section on the river Thames does not really work. In any future edition the features described should be absorbed into the geographical area sections.

1 out of 5 stars

sadly out of date July 28, 2006
10 out of 14 found this review helpful

London changes and so all books like this are doomed to date. However, this one seems out of date already (after only 2 years?) and is further marred by too many broad generalisations. Ask any Londoner, and they will say that it is the small specific detail that charms and delights. An over-broad, out of date travel guide. Sorry.

2 out of 5 stars

Did the author really walk the streets? June 1, 2006
12 out of 17 found this review helpful

Based only on the section on Southwark and London Bridge, I do wonder whether the author really did walk those streets, and if he did was it about 20 years ago? He seems almost to have lifted a hackneyed impression of the area from a book published long before this one, when the area really was "run down and blight ridden" - it doesn't reflect the buzzing, aspirational and fashionable area of today.