Curiosity is the desire to know or learn, inquisitiveness about trifles or other people`s affairs, a curious matter or investigation, a vanity, a curious detail or feature. This book will introduce readers to a London so full of curiosities of all those definitions that they will in future `watch where they go`. There must be many items that are passed every day without a second glance that would interest both the visitor & the Londoner
- `if I had known it was there & what it was`. For example, the statue of Charles I at Charing Cross & Aldgate Pump have history to tell, & they are only two of the hundreds of curiosities in London. After Charles` execution his statue was bought by a blacksmith & melted down
- or was it? The water from the pump tasted different, so where did it come from originally? The chapters are arranged so that they make up interesting walks for exploring certain parts of London.

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London is the supreme railway city. In 1900 it had fourteen railway termini, more than any other city in the world. A century later only one of them has disappeared completely, & just three have undergone comprehensive reconstruction. All the others are recognisable products of the Victorian railway age that continue to function daily as busy stations for the travellers of the twenty-first century. This book provides the railway enthusiast with a brief history of the principal termini, featuring key aspects of architectural design & engineering but also highlighting anecdotes, myths, personal stories & curiosities about the stations` social & cultural history. ...

Piccadilly, Pall Mall, Old Bailey, Houndsditch & Crutched Friars are some of the unusual London street names that must puzzle those who use them daily as much as they puzzle the tourist. How did they arise, & what do they mean? This book explains these & over seven hundred & fifty other sin London. The origin of a stret name often reveals unsuspected facts about the history of the area. Many names date back to Saxon times. Sraightforward-looking names are not always what they seem. ...

This book presents an original & easily accessible approach to understanding & exploring London`s immensely diverse architecture. Because of its size & the number, complexity, & sheer variety of structures in the city, not unplanned, but without an overall plan, it is more difficult to gain an understanding of London`s development as a whole than it is with many other world cities such as Rome, Paris or New York. It can no longer be encapsulated in a single view or narrated as a single story, so this book approaches it selectively & thematically, looking at elements of the architecture & services: domestic, commercial, religious & institutional. There are chapters on houses & on apartments as well as on offices & churches, & on government buildings. There are sections for example on schools & on railway stations, on shops & on pubs, on parks & on buildings for sport. Extensively illustrated & richly informed the book treats of both the masterpieces & of the ordinary, & ranges from the middle ages to the immediate present. It culminates in 12 architectural walks, each carefully planned to explore a diversity of buildings & architectural heritage, & ranging from the central City & Westminster to the inner & outer suburbs. ...

The City of London has one of the strongest unbroken traditions of livery companies in the world. Over one hundred companies, some six centuries old, maintain strong, colourful, beneficial, traditional & independent lives, & many of them have beautiful halls. This book traces the history of the guilds & liveries in various countries & shows their influence on the government of the City, on which the Westminster model is based, on the actual trades, on royalty & on the history of Britain & other lands. The author compares the guilds of Britain with those of Europe & describes each of the City guilds, their history, traditions, work & influence. ...

The busy streets of London have been traversed for centuries & many a Londoner or tourist may feel that they are familiar with all the capital has to offer. Yet the eight walks described in this volume reveal more than even the most seasoned commuter or visitor may be aware of. John Wittich & Ron Phillips lead the reader through the most historic parts of London, down city byways, past unsuspected treasures, to exciting discoveries that are omitted from the standard tours or are inaccessible from an open-topped bus. With detailed instructions, clear maps & photographs of points of interest en route make this seventh edition a tried & trustworthy companion through the streets of London. ...

Recorded only by dotted lines on an Ordnance Survey map, sometimes marked by a half-forgotten mossy boundary stones, parish boundaries are a fascinating part of our landscape heritage, often preserving the memory of events which happened centuries ago. Local historians, geographers & archaeologists now believe that many are of great antiquity & that the network of parish boundaries has been one of the most enduring elements in the landscape. This book is conceived as a practical handbook: a guide to where to start a study of local territorial boundaries, what questions to ask & how to assess the significance of a particular boundary pattern in historical & archaeological terms. It provides for the first time an introduction to a subject which is attracting the attention of increasingly large numbers of local historians & landscape archaeologists throughout Britain. ...

Do you know where ` The George & Dragon` derives from? Probably. How about ` The Gloucester Flying Machine`? Probably not. Some pub names pop up time & again, others have a unique story to tell. This book untangles the meanings behind Britain`s extraordinary variety of often strange pub names & signs. Providing enlightenment for the local historian & pub enthusiast, ” Discovering Pub Names & Signs” explores a unique aspect if a classic British pastime & all its quirks. ...

Discovering Qatar evolved from a series of features on the archaeology, natural history & traditional life of Qatar that Frances Gillespie began publishing in a national newspaper in the late 1990s. There was little available on these subjects for the general reader, & many people, especially those involved in education, asked for them to be compiled into a book. The author had no idea at that time what the demand would be, & hoped that, perhaps, a few hundred copies might find a market. Two reprints & 12, 000 copies later, the time has come for a thoroughly updated edition of the book, with new & enhanced illustrations, & including the latest information on such fascinating topics as the whale sharks which congregate in large numbers in an off-shore oil field, the presence of which had not been noted by scientists when Discovering Qatar was first published in 2006. Research into Qatar s past by teams of archaeologists has made huge progress in the last decade, culminating in the old pearling & trading settlement of Zubara being inscribed as a Word Heritage Site in 2013. During the 30 years Frances Gillespie lived in Qatar, the country made a gigantic leap forward in development, with a modern capital to rival any in the region. As a freelance journalist & writer she has the freedom to concentrate on subjects that interest her. Discovering Qatar reflects this, & the author & publisher hope that readers will share her enthusiasm & enjoy learning more about the real Qatar the Qatar that was there all the time.” ...

A comprehensive visitors' guide to Roman sites in Engl&, Scotland & Wales. The English sites are arranged by counties in alphabetical order, with a special section on Hadrian's Wall. Then follow the sites in Wales, arranged regionally, the Scottish sites, including a section on the Antoninen Wall, & finally two Roman sites in the Channel Islands. Major sites include towns, fortresses, temples & villas. Rural settlements & landscape features such as Celtic fields & roads are noted where the remains repay a visit. Less familiar items like Roman barrows, mausolea, practice camps & canals are included, as well as hillforts that were occupied during the Roman period. ...