Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections

Books on London

Urban Planning & Descriptions of Urban Spaces

 

The books listed here focus on the planning and improvement of the city and description of its physical spaces, including particular streets, wards and neighborhoods, as well as parks and gardens. Books considering bridges from an urban planning perspective rather than as structures (found in the Architecture & Building category) are also included here.

London's circumstances--physical, social, economic and more--have often resulted in large-scale rebuilding and improvement projects and the need to address issues of urban planning. One obvious example is the Great Fire of 1666; however, in Bryn Mawr's collection that event is covered in works listed under General History and Disasters. The strength of this category is instead works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the city was reacting to the profound impact of the Industrial Revolution and two world wars. On the subject of general improvement these books include: Bowles's Two-Sheet Plan for the Cities of London and Westminster (1802), showing new buildings and other alterations, Thomas Shepherd's Metropolitan Improvements: or, London in the Nineteenth Century (1827), Sydney Smirke's Suggestions for the Architectural Improvement of the Western Part of London (1834), Essays on the Street Re-alignment, Reconstruction, and Sanitation of Central London (1886), and London Marches on (1947), Harold Clunn's work on the changes to the city between the two world wars and scheduled reconstruction after the second.

There are several books considering wards, neighborhoods, squares and streets, including Henry Benjamin Wheatley's Round about Piccadilly and Pall Mall (1870), John Hollingshead's Story of Leicester Square (1892), and Cripplegate: One of the Twenty-Six Wards of the City of London (1921) by Sir John James Baddeley, former Lord Mayor of London.

A number of books on the city's parks and gardens can also be found in the collection: The Story of the London Parks (1876) by Jacob Larwood, The Royal Parks and Gardens of London (1877) by Nathan Cole, The Municipal Parks, Gardens, and Open Spaces of London (1898) by John James Sexby, as well as Mrs. Ethel Alec-Tweedie's Hyde Park, Its History and Romance (1908) and Jessie Macgregor's Gardens of Celebrities and Celebrated Gardens in and around London (1918).

Finally, the city's port and its bridges are two topics that are well represented. On the first, the collection owns The Several Plans and Drawings Referred to in the Third Report from the Select Committee upon the Improvement of the Port of London (1800) and Report from the Select Committee on the Port of London (1836), both published by the House of Commons, in addition to, Port of London: Parliamentary Schemes for 1905 (1905) and The Port of London and the Thames Barrage: A Series of Expert Studies (1907). The second topic is considered in an eighteenth-century work titled Reasons against Building a Bridge from Lambeth to Westminster (1722) and Joseph Sills's Observations Concerning London Bridge (1813), in which the author discusses the advantages of rebuilding the current structure.

 

Bibliography

Alec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel), d. 1940
Hyde Park, its history and romance, by Mrs. Alec Tweedie (nee Harley) With illustrations and maps
London, E. Nash, 1908
I3606841x

Baddeley, John James, Sir, 1842-1926
Cripplegate : one of the twenty-six wards of the city of London / by Sir John James Baddeley ..
[London] : Printed for private circulation, 1921
Uncat f1349

Blunt, Reginald, 1857-1944
Paradise row; or, A broken piece of old Chelsea, being the curious and diverting annals of a famous village street newly destroyed, together with particulars of sundry noble and notable persons who in former times dwelt there; to which are added likenesses of the principal of them and of their several houses, the whole collected and presented, by Reginald Blunt
London, Macmillan, 1906
I3606838x

Bowles & Carver
Bowles's two-sheet plan fo the cities of London and Westminster with the borough of Southwark : comprehending the new buildings and other alterations
London : Printed for the proprietors, Bowles & Carver, 1802
I36204912

Clunn, Harold Philip
London marches on, a record of the changes which have taken place in the metropolis of the British Empire between the two world wars and much that is scheduled for reconstruction
London, Caen Press [1947]
DA684 .C548 1947

Cole, Nathan
The royal parks and gardens of London : their history and mode of embellishment, with hints on the propagation and culture of the plants employed ... / by Nathan Cole ... with numerous wood engravings and geometrical designs
London : Journal of Horticulture Office, 1877
Uncat 12,144

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee Appointed to Consider Evidence Taken on Bills for the Improvement of the Port of London
The several plans and drawings referred to in the third report from the select committee upon the improvement of the port of London
London : L. Hansard, 1800
Uncat ff292

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Port of London
Report from the select committee on the Port of London : together with the minutes of evidence, and appendix
London : House of Commons, 1836
Uncat f1207

Hollingshead, John
The story of Leicester Square, by John Hollingshead ... With numerous illustrations by M. Faustin [et al] and facsimile reproductions of rare engravings, original water-colour drawings, etc. in the British Museum, and various private collections. Art Editor -- Mons. Charles Alias
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., 1892
I36068391

Holmes, Basil, Mrs
The London burial grounds : notes on their history from the earliest times to the present day / by Mrs. Basil Holmes
New York : Macmillan, 1896
DA689.C3 H65 1896

Hunt, Leigh, 1784-1859
The old court suburb, or, Memorials of Kensington : regal, critical, and anecdotical / by Leigh Hunt
London : Hurst and Blackett, 1855
DA685.K5 H9 1855

Langdon, Claude
Earls court. With a foreword by the Marquess of Milford Haven
London, New York Stanley Paul and Co. [1953]
GV75 .L3 1953

Larwood, Jacob, 1827-1918
The story of the London parks / by Jacob Larwood
London : Chatto & Windus, [1876?]
DA689.P2 S3 1876

Macgregor, Jessie
Gardens of celebrities and celebrated gardens in and around London
London : Hutchinson & Co., [1918]
Uncat 10,981

McCarthy, Justin, 1830-1912
Charing Cross to St. Paul's; notes by Justin McCarthy, and plates and vignettes from drawings by Joseph Pennell
London, Seeley; New York, Macmillan, 1891
I32600872

Park, John James, 1795-1833
The topography and natural history of Hampstead, in the county of Middlesex. With an appendix of original records. By John James Park
London, Nichols, son, and Bentley, 1818
DA685.H23 P2 1818

Sexby, J. J. (John James)
The municipal parks, gardens, and open spaces of London: their history and associations. By Lieut. Col. J. J. Sexby
London, E. Stock, 1898
I36427469

Shepherd, Thomas H. (Thomas Hosmer)
London and its environs in the nineteenth century : illustrated by a series of views from original drawings / by Thomas H. Shepherd ; with historical, topographical and critical notices ; series the first, comprising the earlier edifices, antiquities, &c
London : Jones, 1829
DA683 .S54 1829

Shepherd, Thomas H. (Thomas Hosmer)
Metropolitan improvements : or, London in the nineteenth century, displayed in a series of engravings of the new buildings, improvements, &c. by the most eminent artists from original drawings, taken from the objects themselves expressly for this work / by Thos. H. Shepherd...with historical, topographical, and critical illustrations by James Elmes
London : Jones, 1827
DA683 .S54 1827

Shepherd, Thomas H. (Thomas Hosmer)
Metropolitan improvements; or London in the nineteenth century : displayed in a series of engravings ... / By Thos. H. Shepherd ... with historical, topographical, and critical illustrations, by James Elmes
London : Published by Jones and Co., 1828
fDA683 .S54 1828

Sills, Joseph
Observations concerning London Bridge: with extracts from various authors and reports, proving the advantages that may be derived ... by rebuilding the same .
London, Printed by Evans and Ruffy, 1813
DA689.B8 S5 1813

Smirke, Sydney, 1798-1877
Suggestions for the architectural improvement of the western part of London, by Sydney Smirke
London, Priestley and Weale, 1834
NA9188.L7 S6 1834

Stapleton, Alan
London alleys, byways & courts, drawn and described by Alan Stapleton
London : John Lane the Bodley Head Ltd.,1924
I36068433

Stapleton, Alan
London lanes / by Alan Stapleton. Illustrated with forty pencil drawings by the author
London : John Lane ; New York : Dodd, Mead & Co., 1930
Uncat 10,480

Thames Barrage Committee, London
The Port of London and the Thames barrage : a series of expert studies and reports on the conditions prevailing in the tidal River ..
Bloomsbury : Swan Sonnenschein, 1907
Uncat 9128

Wheatley, Henry Benjamin, 1838-1917
Round about Piccadilly and Pall Mall / by Henry B. Wheatley
London : Smith, Elder, 1870
DA685.P5 W5 1870

Essays on the street re-alignment, reconstruction, and sanitation of Central London, and on the re-housing of the poorer classes : to which prizes offered by William Westgarth were awarded by the Society of Arts, 1885
London : G. Bell, 1886
TD64.L8 E7 1886

Port of London : Parliamentary schemes for 1905
[London, 1905]
Uncat f943

Reasons against building a bridge from Lambeth to Westminster : Shewing the inconveniences of the same to the city of London and the borough of Southwark ..
London : J. Roberts, 1722
Uncat 10,097


Historical / Physical / Natural
Social / Cultural / Political