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Published in conjunction with TFL, this is a comprehensive guide to the London Underground, combining a historical overview, illustrations and newly commissioned photography.
Travel under the streets of London with this lavishly illustrated exploration of abandoned, modified, and reused Underground tunnels, stations, and architecture.
Since its establishment 150 years ago as the world's first urban subway, the London Underground has continuously set a benchmark for design that many transit systems around the world - from New York to Tokyo to Moscow and beyond - have followed. London Underground by Design is the first meticulous study of every aspect of that feat. Beginning in the pioneering Victorian age, Mark Ovenden charts the evolution of architecture, branding, typeface, map design, interior and textile styles, posters, signage and graphic design and how all these came together to shape not just the identity of the Underground, but the character of London itself. This is the story of some of the most celebrated figures in design history - from Frank Pick, the guru who conceptualised the design of the modern Tube with his idea of 'design fit for purpose', to Harry Beck, the creator of the Tube map, and from Marion Dorn, one of the leading textile designers of the 20th Century, to Edward Johnston, creator of the distinctive font that bears his name. Rich with stunning illustrations, London Underground by Design shows that design is about more than aesthetic pleasure, but is crucial to how we get around.
Did You Know? In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as ‘a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it.’ According to one psychologist, Tube commuters can experience greater levels of stress than a police officer facing a rioting mob or even a fighter pilot going into a dogfight. Underground trains have only twice been used to transport deceased people in coffins: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo. Some of the most bizarre items handed in to lost property include 250lb of sultanas, a 14ft canoe, a child’s garden slide, a harpoon gun, a pith helmet, an artificial leg, someone’s brother’s ashes and a sealed box containing three dead bats. WITH well over a billion passengers a year, more than 250 miles of track, literally hundreds of different stations and a history stretching back at least 160 years, the world’s oldest underground railway might seem familiar, but how well do you actually know it? This book offers a feast of Tube-based trivia for travellers and lovers of London alike.
Since the Victorian era, London's Underground has had played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the 19th-century pioneers who made the world's first, and still the largest, underground passenger railway: one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the Underground's contribution to 20th-century industrial design and its role during two world wars, the story comes right up to the present with its sleek, driverless trains, and the wrangles over the future of the system. This book reveals London's hidden wonder in all its glory, and shows how the railway beneath the streets helped create the city we know today.
An expanded edition of the classic exploration of the English esoteric musical underground—with the first biography of Coil, Current 93, and Nurse With Wound. This newly expanded edition of England's Hidden Reverse, the classic exploration of the English esoteric musical underground that includes the first, and only, biographies of Coil, Current 93, and Nurse With Wound, is based on exclusive interviews and unprecedented access to all three bands’ personal archives. Together, these genre-defying bands and their circles represent the English underground in all its cultural, artistic, and sexual variety. Over four decades, the three intertwined groups have maintained a symbiotic, yet uneasy, relationship with the mainstream of popular culture, even as their music, beliefs, and practices have repelled them from it. Theirs was a clandestine scene whose work accents the many occulted peculiarities of Englishness that flow through generations of outsiders, channeling personalities as diverse as Aleister Crowley, Arthur Machen, Joe Orton, Shirley Collins, Björk, and Marc Almond. The story of this Hidden Reverse has, necessarily, remained a secret. Until now. This new volume contains almost 100 pages of extra material culled from Furfur, a collection of interviews with musicians and artists whose careers intersected with the bands’, initially published alongside Strange Attractor's first limited edition of the book.
With a supporting text detailing the rich architectural and design heritage of the London Underground, this unique photographic collection provides a striking record of the subterranean city before financial pressures, a lack of planning and investment and new safety legislation began to take their toll. Exploring the fascinating history and important nostalgia value of the network--both aspects which are rarely appreciated by the average strap-hanging commuter--the book celebrates what remains a magnificent engineering and aesthetic achievement while providing an affectionate if slightly elegiac portrait of a London which is now gone for good.
From Tower Bridge to Battersea Power Station, Big Ben to the Old Bailey, embark on a thrilling tour of the hidden interiors of some of London's most iconic buildings. Unseen London takes you deep into the boiler room of the city's infrastructure, into the changing rooms of our greatest temples of sport, into the heart of the Establishment, and behind the scenes at the most opulent buildings in the Square Mile. Photographs of these extraordinary buildings – taken by celebrated photographer Peter Dazeley – are accompanied by Mark Daly’s thoughtful text, which tells the story of how each of these places was created, how they are used, and what they reveal about the currents of power flowing through the city. Revised and updated to include the royal palaces of Hampton Court; the Tower of London; the Inigo Jones Banqueting Hall at Palace of Whitehall and the Royal Courts of Justice, Supreme Court and Bow Street Magistrates Court. See a glimpse of London behind closed doors with this unique guide to the city's buildings, The Buildings: Battersea Power Station; Tower Bridge; Thames Barrier; Crossness and Abbey Mills Pumping Station; BT Tower; Aldwych Underground Station; Kidderpore Reservoir; County Hall; Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Big Ben; Whitechapel Bell Foundry; Harrow School; 10 Downing Street; The Supreme Courts and Royal Courts of Justice; Bow Street Magistrates’ Court; Old Bailey; HM Prison Wandsworth; Honourable Artillery Company; Old Royal Naval College; Horse Guards and Hyde Park Barracks; Royal Hospital Chelsea; Secret Military Bunker, Codenamed ‘Paddock’; In and Out Club; The Old War Office; Abbey Road Studios; Television Centre, White City; BBC Broadcasting House; Angels Costumes; Daily Express Building, Fleet Street; Hampton Court Palace; Tower of London; King Henry VIII’s Wine Cellar; The Banqueting House; 33 Portland Place; New West Synagogue; Lambeth Palace; St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street; St Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral; St Christopher’s Chapel; Freemason’s Hall; Queen’s Club; Lord’s Cricket Ground; Repton Boxing Club; Midland Bank; Bank of England; Mansion House; Guildhall; City of London School; Billingsgate Roman House and Bath.
The London Underground Electric Train tells the story of the development of electric traction on the London Underground system. It combines technical knowledge, historical context and practical experiences, and covers the history of underground lines since the opening of the first deep-level underground rail system in the world in 1890: the City & South London Railway. The evolution of train design, including power, lighting, heating and design of the Underground cars is also covered along with the development of operational, engineering and safety devices on trains. Highly illustrated with period and new photography and technical diagrams, this book is a reference work for electric traction and underground rail enthusiasts.
