London As It Might Have Been [Paperback]

Felix Barker (Author), Ralph Hyde (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996

This book presents a picture of London as it might have been, in architectural terms. For example, there could have been a 68-foot pineapple on top of St Paul's, Robert Peel rising from the Thames, and an Eiffel Tower at Wembley, instead of the more familiar edifices and places we know.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: John Murray (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0719555574
• ISBN-13: 978-0719555572
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,876,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Eiffel Tower in Wembley Park?, May 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: London As It Might Have Been (Paperback)

A book for a rather specific audience. If you are very interested in London (living there would count) and architectural/city planning oddities, this is the book for you. There are whole chapters about how best to rebuild the city after the Great Fire of 1666, alternative monuments to Nelson and other famous British heroes, and (my favorite) an ambitious man's attempt to outdo Paris with a tower better than Eiffel's. The book is full of architect's drawings and sketches (black and white only), all by the original planner or others from the period. This book is very hard to rate on a 1-10 scale because it's either something you are really interested in, or it's incredible boring. I gave it a seven, because the authors came up with a unique subject and cover it with as much interest and detail as is possible. However, you have to be VERY interested in the subject. As an non-architect American who is fascinated with the U.K. and has done my fair share of reading about Victorian (and before) design, but has only visited London once, I was lost at many points. The book has endless references to various concepts of how St. Paul's cathedral might have been or how it could have been improved, but it makes the assumption that the reader is intimately familiar with its current appearance. There are no comparisons with its present form, just the alternatives. And the architectural drawings and discussions about the placements of buildings were sometimes too much for me. I bought it hoping for a leisurely read about grand schemes for London filled with humorous stories about the failed plans for a "railway down the middle of the Thames" (as indicated on the back cover), and got more detail and specifics than I expected. However, if you are a Londoner (and I would welcome your second, much more authoritative, opinion), historical architect, or other interested someone who isn't put off by the above warnings, this is the best (if not only) book on the topic.

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable read about the London that wasn't, August 9, 2008

By 

Mark Klobas (Tempe, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: London As It Might Have Been (Paperback)

London is a city filled with iconic buildings, monuments, and locales, all accumulated over the centuries of its existence. Yet for each of these there are dozens of unrealized designs, alternatives that were considered and, for one reason or another, then discarded. In this book, Felix Barker and Ralph Hyde examine some of the alternatives that were offered over the past four centuries, presenting the different plans and proposals that would have made for a much different city than the one that exists today.

The various ideas described in this book make for fascinating reading. Some of them consisted of palaces intended to rival their greatest counterparts on the Continent, while others, such as a mid-eighteenth century plan for a Palladian-style Parliament, might have created a different city architecturally than the one that exists today. Many of them, such as the proposal for a massive pyramid designed to house five million dead Londoners or some of Wren's designs for St. Paul's Cathedral, thankfully never progressed beyond the drawing board. All of them, however, reveal a great deal about the ideas that went into shaping London, and the desire of their proponents to create the grandeur that the city and its people deserve.

In describing the different concepts and why they never became reality, Barker and Hyde shed light on an often-overlooked part of London's history. Well-written, it is supplemented with dozens of images of the various designs, which help readers visualize how the city might look today had the schemes of their originators come to pass. Yet what makes this book such a pleasure is the sense of fun that permeates its pages, both in the speculation it inspires and in the humor with which they address some of the more ludicrous ideas. This is a book for anyone who is interested in the history and architecture of London, one that sparks the imagination of its readers for the city that "might have been."