ISBN: 0 300 09595 3
This essential guide opens up the treasures of London's most alluring quarter. At its core are Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and the palatial Government buildings of Whitehall, together with the great band of Royal Parks stretching westwards towards Kensington. To the north lies London's West End: the legal enclave along the Strand, bustling Covent Garden, raffish Soho, and the splendidly reserved districts of Mayfair and St James's. Regent Street and Oxford Street, the grandest parades of retail buildings in Britain, form some of the internal boundaries. South of the parks lie the mixed district around Victoria and the amazingly intact nineteenth-century developments of Belgravia and Pimlico, all less well-known but marvellously rewarding to explore.
No other volume in the Buildings of England series can boast so many world-famous buildings. The architectural glories of Westminster Abbey are supplemented by its astonishing monuments, perhaps the greatest such collection in Europe. Buckingham Palace and its elder sister at St James's, the gorgeous riches of Theatreland and the stately parade of gentlemen's clubs in Pall Mall are all described in depth. Georgian houses large and small, the wonderfully varied Victorian mansion blocks and workers, dwellings and some brilliant post-war housing schemes are also comprehensively surveyed. Architectural descriptions are punctuated by Westminster's many statues and monuments, from Nelson's Column to Oscar Wilde.
