City Secrets: London [Turtleback]

Robert Kahn (Editor), Tim Adams (Editor)

Book Description

Series: City Secrets | Publication Date: January 1, 2001

The travel advice in City Secrets London comes directly from the personal recommendations of those who know the city most intimately: writers, critics, artists, and producers. By following these in-the-know recommendations, any traveler will extend well beyond the normal tourist experience to discover a private city rich in personal history. The secret energy of London is discovered not only through details on new, hip locations, but also by exploring the favorite hidden hangouts of historical personalities. Read this book and take an unsuspecting friend along for the trip, they'll be impressed by your cool and by your insider knowledge.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Little Bookroom (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892145073
• ISBN-13: 978-1892145079
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.6 x 7.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #402,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's no secret. This is a little gem., November 5, 2002

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: City Secrets: London (Turtleback)

LONDON, of the City Secrets series of travel guides, is a little gem that will easily fit into a pocket of your travel vest as you set out to explore what is arguably the world's greatest city.

This volume, small in size but rich in information, divides Britain's capital into thirteen areas according to a scheme that escapes me. However, no matter. Each area, e.g. Hyde Park & Chelsea, The City, Oxford Street & Mayfair, or The East End & Beyond, is preceded by a map on which is marked each point of interest included in that section. And what you will find are both famous and little-known museums, historic buildings, art galleries, libraries, shops, pubs, churches, eateries, parks, squares, streets, memorials, and gardens. Each includes, at least, an address or location and the name of the nearest Underground or rail station. If relevant, there's also a phone number and/or the date the place was founded or constructed. The core of each listing is a short descriptive commentary by a contributing journalist, architect, philosopher, playwright, professor, author, historian, poet, curator, or some other professional of similar dignity. At the end of the book are an Index of Recommended Reading and an Index of Contributors. What you won't find are budget hotels, American fast-food franchises, newsagents, or 24-hour chemists (pharmacies) reviewed by backpacking college students, traveling salesmen, lorry drivers, or tourists from the Midwest. This is a genteel publication.

LONDON is a delightful and uncommonly intelligent sightseeing resource for those of us who've been to the city often enough to have exhausted the usual tourist activities and are left with making silly faces at the Buckingham Palace guard to try and crack his reserve. And besides the information that might be considered usual for each of the listings, the contributors also provide tidbits of arcane information that the casual visitor would likely not know or learn, as in the following example.

Regarding Oxford Street: "Plans drawn up in 1972 to transform Oxford Street into 'a tree-lined paradise' must have fallen down the back of somebody's sofa, because the busiest street in Britain can still ... make you lose the will to live - mainly at Christmas, when bright-eyed shoppers ... spill out of the ground at Oxford Circus and congeal in a fog of bus fumes and freshly roasted caramel nuts ... Nick Leonidas, blinded by yellow fever as a child, has busked here since 1981: five days a week, 52 weeks a year, 11am to 7pm with a half-hour break at three."

LONDON in hand, I'm ready to return to my favorite city - now.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, February 28, 2002

By 

Mick H (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: City Secrets: London (Turtleback)

I've lived in London for 30 years and enjoy cycling around the place (an excellent way to get around, incidentally, but it would be irresponsible of me to recommend it to visitors), so I was intrigued by this book and pleasantly surprised at the selection, which contains most of my favourite places and pointed me in the direction of some I wasn't aware of. London is ideally suited to this kind of approach; there's a dislocation between tourist London, mostly centered around Westminster with maybe a trip downriver to St Pauls or the Tower, and the vast city where people live, most of which is unknown territory to tourists. Partly it's that old self-deprecatory British thing....why on earth would anyone want to come to this dump?....so all these marvellous places remain obscure and largely unloved. Take Hawksmoor's churches for instance. If they were in Paris or Rome they'd be set in squares lined with expensive cafes, with postcard stands dotted all over and coachloads of Japanese tourists milling around trying to get the best camera angle. As it's London they're stuck next to busy main roads, or buried away in the middle of nowhere - like St George's-in-the-East, mentioned in passing here, on a desolate stretch of main road somewhere on the way to Limehouse. Which actually suits them as there's something dark and lonely about them anyway, and they really couldn't be anywhere else but London. And that's somehow typical of the place...it's not often beautiful but it's endlessly fascinating. So let me do my bit for the London tourist trade and encourage y'all to come on over. Forget those silly guide books with pictures of beefeaters or the changing of the guard on the cover, and try this instead for a glimpse into a far more interesting and rewarding city.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hot tips from old hands...., November 27, 2002

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: City Secrets: London (Turtleback)

LONDON CITY SECRETS is a little book of good places to visit the next time you're in England. The authors describe their book as a "highly subjective" collection of recommendations, not an all-inclusive list of places to eat, sleep, visit in London. The folks making the recommendations are artists, writers, historians, and others who live and work in London. They share favorite spots to eat; favorite paintings, sculptures or museums; favorite walks, historical houses and other spots discovered over the years.

LONDON CITY SECRETS is divided into 13 areas: 1/ Trafalgar Square, Soho and Covent Garden; 2/ St James, Westminster, & the Embankment; 3/ Hyde Park & Chelsea; 4/ Oxford Street and Mayfair; 5/ Regent's Park & Camden Town; 6/ Bloomsbury & King's Cross; 7/ Islington & Clerkenwell; 8/ The City (of London); 9/ The South Bank; 10/ Notting Hill & The West; 11/ Hampstead & The North; 12/ The East End & Beyond; and 13/ South of the River.

Because the selections are subjective, the National Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum are mentioned, whereas the National Maritime Museum is not. Fortnum and Mason is included, Mark's & Spencer is not. Scrubb's prison is listed, the Tower of London is not. Plenty of good places to eat are listed, no good places to sleep are included. Never thought you'd visit Islington? You might find yourself eating at the Smithfield Market, Moro's, or the Quality Chop House. Think the East End is a dump? You might discover a science fiction ride on the nighttime tube.

Symbols are placed next to sites with London Underground stops and places to eat. Plenty of bars, pubs, and other assorted oddball watering holes are included. The various authors, artists, etc. also recommend plenty of additional reading material about favorite spots. LONDON CITY SECRETS is eccentric, esoteric, and entertaining.