London 1900

Service, Alastair 1933- (Author).

Summary: When Londoners celebrated the Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the city the royal carriage rode through did not look like the capital of the largest empire in the world. London was still the "foggy, dark, complex and huge city which so impressed and frightened Frenchmen", in the words of British architect Gavin Stamp. Its medieval street plan and unassuming town houses contrasted sharply with Paris or Berlin. In less than fifteen years, however, London was transformed. Londoners put aside their puritanical restraint and distaste for novelties to turn their city into an imperial metropolis, with a baffling variety of styles inspired by all periods from Imperial Rome and ancient Greece to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Alastair Service explores the relationship between London's architectural transformation and contemporary changes in British society and politics.--From publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 0847802140
ISBN: 9780847802142
Physical Description: print
xiii, 274 pages, 4 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations ; 29 cm
Publisher: New York : Rizzoli, 1979.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-258) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Imperial capital 1900 -- Architects, styles and building materials -- Housing for the working class -- The house and the suburb -- Mansion blocks and mansions -- Getting to work : public transport -- At work : factories and offices -- Shops and department stores -- West End theatreland -- Publand -- Eating out : restaurants, hotels and clubs -- The churches -- Charitable institutions -- Education, libraries and museums -- Services for the public -- The new town halls -- State buildings : Whitehall and Buckingham Palace -- Pointers for the future.