ISBN: 0 300 09624 0
Pevsner dedicated his original volume, on the Cities of London & Westminster, to the nights
spent fire watching from Birkbeck College. Simon Bradley's revised volume, on the City alone,
examines in detail the legacy of destruction and the subsequent reconstructions, in the aftermath
of the War and in more recent memory, during the "boom" period from 1985-1993, when half
of the City office space was rebuilt. Reconstruction on such a scale can only be compared with
the rebuilding after the Great Fire when the City churches were designed by Sir Christopher
Wren. His ingenuity is displayed in his masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral; one amongst the many
buildings which make up the City's rich architectural heritage. The guide describes a city both
ancient and modern, ranging from Georgian masterpieces by Soane and Hawksmoor to lavish
Victorian market buildings, from the iconoclastic Lloyd's building to the lesser known Livery
Halls of the City Guilds.
