Eccentric London: The Bradt Guide to Britain's Crazy and Curious Capital [Paperback]

Benedict le Vay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002 | Series: Eccentric Series

A guide to the eccentric people, places and events of London for travelers looking for a different kind of guide to touring the greatest city in the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Those who read it are unlikely ever to look at London, or Londoners the same way again.' Britain Calling 'One of the best (guides to London).' The Mayfair Times 'Beautifully illustrated with lavish colour photography and black and white drawings. Worth buying for the front cover alone.' Essex Courier 'An endlessly fascinating book, written with huge charm, that explores the eclectic curiosities of London past and present.' The Good Book Guide --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Meet a man who listens to Tube trains from the road above with a large hearing-trumpet, the inventor who made giant ships out of ice, a chap who rides down the river in an Edwardian bath chair, the guy with the world's biggest collection of pillar boxes...These are just a few of the colorful characters to be found in Eccentric London, the fascinating follow-up to Benedict le Vay's sell-out book, Eccentric Britain. Here the London-born author revisits his childhood stomping grounds and devises district-by-district guides to everything compelling, curious, bizarre, absurd or hilarious. Plus the oddest shops, museums, jobs, pubs and people you could possibly imagine. (5 1/4 x 8 1/2, 384 pages, illustrations, maps)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides; 1st edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841620416
• ISBN-13: 978-1841620411
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,388,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great starting point., December 5, 2005

By 

T. Hodges (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eccentric London: The Bradt Guide to Britain's Crazy and Curious Capital (Paperback)

This book I found was really good for inspiring searches for different things in London. I used it quite extensively for a trip a few years ago. I did have some difficulty locating a few things which I originally attributed to inaccuracies on the part of the writer, but upon further investigation discovered that they did exist as he described them but that I was simply unable to find them (viz. Richard Burton's Tomb in Mortlake, the mysterious Hill Garden in Hampstead Heath). I would advise the reader to research some of the items that he wishes to find on the internet before heading on a wild goose chase. A good supplement to this book is Andrew Duncan's Walking London.

edit: On a second trip to London I found both the tomb using better descriptions of it's location on the interweb and by asking an old woman to help me find a particular street, and the Pagola (hill garden) after many hours of wandering Hampstead Heath and seeing other lovely sites (hint: if you find the Spaniard Inn you are getting closer, and to get in to the garden it looks like you are walking rather close to somebody's house (private property) but if you forge ahead you will be happily rewarded).

5.0 out of 5 stars just fantastic, December 30, 2010

By 

C. W. Johnston (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eccentric London, 2nd (Bradt Travel Guide) (Paperback)

This is a cracker of a book, when I travel I love to know the ins and outs, quirky stories and astonishing history which is just around the corner, i made myself a bit of a google maps around this when i went to London, one of the best travel books i have ever purchased

5.0 out of 5 stars Things I would never know about, September 12, 2009

By 

rainforest "rainforest" (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Eccentric London, 2nd (Bradt Travel Guide) (Paperback)

I love this book. It has many eccentric things about London. I always thought London only had old historical things, but there are very unexpected modern things too. For example, thanks to this book, we found platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter books and have great pictures at it. It gives you excellent directions to the various sites. There are so many things in the book that there was no way to cover them in one trip, but at least we got to see few. It has a shiny cover and makes it a good book to have in the bookshelf to glance it once in a while!