Customer Reviews

London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is plenty to see in London, and the prolific Peter Ackroyd has written about the city itself, the river that runs through it, its Great Fire, and much more. In his most recent work, however, he takes us down to underground parts that we don't get to see (except for the famous Underground itself). _London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets_ (Nan A. Talese) is an appreciation of the wonderful and the appalling that supports or slithers within the foundation of the great city. There is throughout a dual emphasis here. We think of the ground beneath us as the realm of the devil, for instance, but also it is where there is buried treasure, if we only knew where to dig. It is the region of sewers, and also of sacred wells. Historian Ackroyd obviously loves the subterranean theme, though, because, as he repeatedly shows, each age is built on the one before, and so the levels of history are written within the soil. This is a beautiful little book, brightly organized into chapters, each of which has a vital story full of intriguing detail. Ackroyd writes with his usual enthusiastic flair, and entertains us with the chthonic demons and treasures.

Workmen in 1865 were digging beneath Oxford Street, and found a flight of steps. They descended, and found an arched brick structure, probably a Roman baptistery with the spring bubbling up in it still. Was it rescued and renovated and put on the long list of London's important sights for visitors? No, it was obliterated to make a foundation for a new building. The new constantly covers up the old. Plenty of springs and wells and streams have been buried. There still are streams, but they no longer run down the hills and meander through the fields. They have been redirected underground, conducted through pipes and tunnels and emptying into the Thames, just as they used to do without our help. The underground rivers and sewers were not uninhabited. Official workers had to go in from time to time to clear things out, and they risked getting into a region of no oxygen or being present when the gasses around them exploded. Unofficial workers were also present, the "toshers" who scavenged in the sewers for anything of value. After the horror of "The Great Stink" of 1858, London installed a sewer system that is still working today. You know of Christopher Wren's masterpieces aboveground, but Ackroyd cites Joseph Bazalgette as an engineer of genius who devised the comparable masterpiece of the sewers below. Of course the Tube gets its chapters. The first escalator was installed in 1911, and it was a sensation. Some people were frightened of the machines, but the management hired a man with a wooden leg to ride up and down to demonstrate that there was nothing to fear.

Ackroyd's style is solidly literary, with plenty of erudite references to classical and biblical legends of the underworld. He conveys with eagerness the gloom and danger but also the fascination and historical richness of the unseen depths. He takes in a large amount of history, gathered into chapter themes that are more-or-less chronological. It is not always a pretty or hygienic picture, but it is fascinating on every page.

I learned about this book via an NPR radio interview with the author. It sounded fascinating, and Mr. Ackroyd sounded like he could elaborate well and tell a good story, in addition to listing facts about the historical and rare glimpse into the subterranean world under this great city.

Unfortunately, this book read like a long list of facts. Facts, facts, facts. Under this building is x. Beneath that grate is y. Etc, etc etc. A single paragraph could tell you about a dozen different underground "things," yet apart from rattling them off, one or two per sentence, there was usually very little or no context, interesting tidbits about the fact, or story to make it truly an interesting read. The content of this book could have been formatted as a very long bulleted list of all the underground places of interest and it would have been no less interesting. Where the author does once in a while depart into a story or anecdote, it's short, too infrequent, and fails to hold enough of my interest.

Not to mention, on my Kindle, the book abruptly ended with a short chapter about aliens forcing our future human generations into the sewers, at just 61% of the way through! (the remaining 39% was bibliography, glossary, etc.).

This is my first book review, and I read a lot, so this book obviously had enough of an impact on me to go out of my way to write this. I thought the price was a little steep but expected a very interesting read. Yes, some parts were interesting, and I learned a lot of FACTS, such that if I was to go to London and want to explore hidden places I probably couldn't get access to, I'd make a list from this book, but it wasn't fascinating, nor did I feel it was a good value.

How can a book by Peter Ackroyd be disappointing? He is among the most erudite of contemporary historians. His works are the perfect balance of historical fact and engaging writing. He is a gifted writer of fiction and non-fiction. Any reader familiar with his work would expect 'London Under' to be another example of his considerable skill.

Instead, as other reviewers agree, this little book is a disappointment. Perhaps readers should be grateful that it is so short, because it is a clumsy collection of facts hastily flung together and coupled with vague gestures towards historical analysis. Here and there a few shining sentences show Ackroyd's brilliant touch. The rest of the book reads as if a junior researcher had arranged a series of notecards for the author to glance at in his spare time. Chronological hiccups and non sequiturs litter the pages. Glaring omissions will disturb readers with even the slightest interest in the subject; how is it possible, for example, for a study of underground London to make no mention of Churchill and the Cabinet War Rooms, other than in a caption for a photograph? Dull lists of dreary facts bore even the most avid reader; compare Chapter 12: The War Below with the Wikipedia page 'Air-raid shelter'.

Only die-hard Ackroyd fans need read this and prepare, my friends, to be disappointed.

I agree with beachbrian's 2-star review that London Under, particularly in the beginning, reads like a bullet point list in paragraph form. When describing the things you can find in the dirt from ancient times, that's pretty much all we get - a list of things you can find in the dirt, if you dig deep enough. The Daily Beast's take on this, "[Ackroyd] is not just interested in London's hidden relics; he's interested in what they - and the idea of an underground - mean to a culture," does not apply, at least to the first quarter of London Under.

I'll be a little more generous than beachbrian, though, in that I thought the anecdotes that give the list of things in the dirt a little more life and context improved as Mr Ackroyd moved into more modern eras. This is particularly true when he writes of the Tubes. Similarly, I often wondered - when I worked in London - where certain names (streets, city wards, etc) came from. Throughout London Under, Mr Ackroyd connects the dots between today's names and yesterday's reality. I found this to be very enjoyable, but I suspect one needs to have spent considerable time in the city, and to have wondered why something was called XYZ, in order to appreciate this aspect of the book.

Conversely, I was disappointed that the 1854 Cholera Outbreak wasn't given any space in the segment on the water system. Stephen Johnson's "The Ghost Map," while not terribly well written, gives good treatment to the investigation of this outbreak's origins. I felt this story, even at anecdote length, could have been told better in Mr Ackroyd's pen.

If the list of things in the first portion of the book was unsatisfying, the last segment on the shadow city built for senior members of government, etc., was downright wasteful. Either there was no story to be told here, or Mr Ackroyd didn't take the time to find one - he says little more than it's there. Again, not meeting the "what the idea of an underground means to a culture" bar.

Mr Ackroyd writes in a pleasing, lyrical style, and is the primary reason I bumped what I felt was a 2-star book to 3 stars. He turns lists of things into something more than just a list, but his opinion of this work is a little too elevated. On the last page he writes, "May this book be considered a votive offering to the gods who lie beneath London." I suspect the gods would demand more than a nicely-written list. Afterall, they already know what's down there...

I'm not often disappointed in a book that delves into archeology and old cities, but London Under proved the exception. Ackroyd skittles about with a mention of this and then on to a mention of that, and never develops any systematic look at any aspect of what lies beneath present day London. The old cartoons have charm, but I'd rather find out more about the process of discovery, and what was learned as further excavations (or bombs) exposed other parts. The paucity of pictures in material that cries out for them is also surprising.

It would be interesting to see what David Macaulay might have done with this same material. Or National Geographic. Or even a decent editor.

Ackroyd is clearly smart, but this seems to have been a book dashed out with a concept but no coherent approach. Tough to make such interesting material inaccessible, but that's just what he did.

By my own lights, I'm still reading Peter Ackroyd's gigantic mosaic history London -- I have a bookmark in it and everything -- although I haven't touched that book for several years, so my "reading" it is mostly theoretical at this point. But his companion book, LONDON UNDER, was so short -- and, even more importantly, compact, so it could easily ride with me on the train to and from work -- that I was done with it almost before I started.

LONDON UNDER is as broad and as loosely organized as the larger LONDON is, but the breadth that is an advantage in a big, sprawling book doesn't work as well in a shorter book, which should be more focused and precise. Ackroyd shovels in all of the anecdotes and references he can find into LONDON UNDER's thirteen chapters, but they don't always flow all that well, and the book itself has no obvious organizing principle. Even the chapters of LONDON UNDER have a tendency to wander from archaeology to geology to various types of engineering (water, sewer, railroad, electrical) to spelunking to the biology of various pests, with lots of patented Ackroyd Deep Thinking and conspicuously fine writing as mortar to stick it all together.

So LONDON UNDER is much more "Ackroyd meditates on the stuff beneath the ground of a great city" and much less "here's what's actually there, and how it interacts with the surface world and the other systems". To be blunt, LONDON UNDER will greatly disappoint and frustrate any reader wanting a more Henry Petroski-style look at what undergirds London. But, if you find sewers, underground trains, and hidden caverns romantic and poetic, Ackroyd is exactly your man.

I found this book interesting on a number of levels. Peter Ackroyd tells the story of what goes on under the city of London. The information is presented in a disorganized fashion which actually works because it focuses on telling a story more so than telling a history. This type of book could be written about almost any city but Ackroyd uses this tale to show how his metropolis of choice has used, and sometimes abused, its under ground locals.

The story is well told and good fun to read. It's not going to tell you anything new under the sun but is fun to read none the less. It is light and easy and that is why I recommend it so.

London Under reveals the hidden world beneath the streets of London. Ackroyd has written several books about London and the UK, this book comes from a different angle from some of his others. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have been to London twice and was able to add my experiences to the material from the book. Ackroyd has chapters on the history of the London area, drawing from archeological evidence which shows the religious and cultural significance of waterways. He has a chapter on the Fleet and a chapter on the Thames. He then moves through history to show how the use of the underground has been changed over time. He covers the original city sewers and attempts at piping clean water in to the city. The covering over of some waterways in attempts to clean up a neighborhood (ie. the Fleet). The building of bridges, and the burial of the dead are mentioned, as are the first tunnel projects to travel under the Thames.

Several chapters are given to the Tube (the London subway system): to it's first stations, the race to build more and the creation of the now iconic colourful Tube map. He closes the book with chapters on trenches, bunkers and other steps taken during the World Wars to provide shelter and safety to the people of London. Ackroyd recounts stories and eyewitness accounts, both historical and contemporary. He includes many photographs and drawings to illustrate his points.

I would warn readers that this is not an in-depth, comprehensive history of London. It is very focused, and the chapters are pretty short. Those who are unfamiliar with a general sense of London history may feel lost if they read this book. If you are not interested in the dirt and grime beneath the streets then this book probably isn't for you.

I bought this book to read in London, I found it enriched my experience immensely. Every time I rode the tube it felt like an archeological experience. I wish the photos were bigger, the graphics were too faded to be fully appreciated. Do get it and read before you go or while you are there.

Peter Ackroyd's massive, energetic LONDON: A BIOGRAPHY was a huge hit when it was published a decade ago, outlining the strange and fascinating history of this sprawling, ancient city. It was also a huge book, weighing in at over 800 pages. Now Ackroyd follows up that blockbuster with a slim but no less fascinating volume on "the secret history beneath the streets."

As Ackroyd notes, London, whose civilized roots stretch back to the Roman settlers and beyond, is built on anything but a firm foundation; in fact, the city has been sinking for centuries. In some places, floors that are now at street level would have been second-story rooms when their structures were first built. What's more, in an attempt to maximize living space --- or, in many cases, to ward off evil spirits or very real diseases --- the several small and large rivers that used to course through the city's neighborhoods have, over the course of centuries, been rerouted underground.

London's remarkable Underground subway system is profiled here, along with the men who built its tunnels --- often at their own great peril. So are less glamorous underground city workings, including water pipes and sewers, as well as glimpses of the subterranean monsters and ghosts of Londoners' imaginations.

While Ackroyd takes readers on this unexpected layer (or many layers) of London that few think about and even fewer see, he also ranges back and forth freely through history, offering glimpses of London's pagan origins and early Christian shrines as well as its more recent history. He also peppers his own quite evocative prose with quotes from Dickens, H.G. Wells, and other authors.

At times, Ackroyd's rapidly shifting focus can seem disorienting, especially for those who have not internalized a map of the city's streets and neighborhoods (since the book doesn't include a map, a copy of London A to Z at one's elbow can be very helpful when trying to follow the routes Ackroyd traces of subway lines or underground streams). Certainly, those who will take most away from the book will be those who are already intimately familiar with London above ground. For the rest of us, it's also possible just to sit back and enjoy, watching his robust vision of the city flow by like a rapidly churning underground stream.

Ackroyd can get downright poetic when he's writing of these hidden worlds. About the Underground he writes: "like the escaped prisoner yearning for his dungeon, I often dream of the Underground. I dream of lines going to improbable destinations all over the world. I dream of strange encounters on platforms with people I seem to know. I dream of coming up for air and being confronted by a transformed cityscape." Perhaps the city transforms itself so quickly only in Ackroyd's dreams, but the fact of the matter remains: Anyone who reads LONDON UNDER will come away from the book with their own vision of this historic city both deepened and transformed.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl