For most enthusiasts the Midland Region in the London area at the end of the steam era probably conjures up images of passenger services operating on the former London & North Western Railway line into and out of Euston. Hauled by glamorous express locomotives designed for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the Princess Coronations, Princess Royals, Royal Scots, Patriots and Jubilees all epitomise this golden era. Covering British Railway's Midland Region from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, this exciting new title explores a time when steam in the London area was slowly being eliminated. Thus, although most of the pictures are of steam locomotives, some beautiful shots of diesel and electric traction from that period are also included. The important former Midland Railway line serving St Pancras is also covered in depth, as are some of the more prosaic services. Examples of the latter include inter-regional passenger and good trains, suburban electric services, branch line trains and other services for which the Midland Region provided motive power. These included those on the former Great Central main line out of Marylebone, the North London line to Richmond, the former London, Tilbury & Southend Railway from Fenchurch Street and London Transport services beyond Rickmansworth on the former Metropolitan Railway. Consequently, there are many stunning photographs of Midland Region engines in various "foreign" locations around London.This brilliant new colour portfolio has been designed as a companion volume to The Southern Around London and The Western Around London, published by Ian Allan in 2003 and 2004 respectively. It is certain to be very popular with railway enthusiasts and modellers around the country, as well as those wishing to complete the collection.
The Worst Street in London: Foreword by Peter Ackroyd
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life and Times of the 'Most Evil Street' in London!,
By
This review is from: Worst Street in London (Hardcover)
Though largely now plowed under and fogotten, London's Dorset Street, for hundreds of years, was known far and wide. Unfortunately that fame was based on the fact that it was a cesspool of grinding poverty and lawlessness, an area so vile it was nicknamed the 'Most evil street in London. Fiona Rule charts the sordid but fascinating history of Doreste Street in this 2008 volume from Ian Allan Publishing.
Located in the Spitalfields area in London's East End, Dorset Street was a prosperous area with a thriving silk weaving industry in the 1700s. With the decline of the silk industry in the 1830s, Dorset Street began its downward spiral as poverty and crime replaced prosperity. Former businesses and homes were turned into boarding-houses that crammed people into filthy, tremendously overcrowded, structurally unsound hovels. City government made little or no effort to regulate the doss-houses - many of which were, in essence, brothels - nor to crack down on the rampant crime. Powerful landlords like Jack McCarthy, William Crossingham and Jimmy Smith reigned supreme. Crusading journalists and humanitarians worked for government intervention and regulation but the resulting legislation did little to stop Dorset Street's decline. In the late 1880s it gained more notoriety as Jack the Ripper plied his trade in the Dorset Street area. Finally, in the mid-1920s, redevelopment saw the demolition of much of this area and 'the worst street in London' was no more. Fiona Rule does a marvelous job of relating the rise and fall of Dorset Street. She brings to life the many - often admittedly criminal - personalities that transformed what was once a thriving thoroughfare into a pesthole. Reading THE WORST STREET IN LONDON you can't help but feel for those long-ago Londoners - usually the poorest of the poor - who struggled to exist in appalling conditions. Likewise you feel disgust at the rapacious landlords who were only interested profit. And finally, there were the city fathers who, for decades, basically left Dorset Street and other East Enders to fend for themselves..with truly horrifying results. In short, THE WORST STREET IN LONDON is a fascinating and insightful social history of life in 'the grand old city.' And it's a great read to boot. Recommended.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not terribly good,
By
This review is from: The Worst Street in London: Foreword by Peter Ackroyd (Paperback)
The fact that this book managed to present a few snippets of interesting information was all that prevented me from giving only two stars instead of three. It was not an enthralling read and ultimately left me inimpressed and unmoved.
The first criticism I have is a deficiency that I have found with several similar works. The deficiency, which is apparent very early on, is the complete absence of any decent maps. The glossy paged illustration section in the middle of the book contains 4 old maps from different periods but, while they are of some historical interest, they are of practically of no value for helping the reader visualize what is being described. There is, actually, a reasonably good, simple map at the end of the book which outlines a suggested walking tour of modern Spitalfields, so why on earth couldn't similar maps have been included at various places through the narrative to illustrate the successive developments of the area? As the book progresses, it becomes apparent to the reader, as it must have done to the author at some point, that there is only so much one can say about a single street that was only 400 odd feet long. Accordingly, Ms Rule has had to resort to considerable padding. We are introduced to two particular characters familiar to readers of 'Jack the Ripper' literature: Mary Kelly, who is popularly supposed to be the fifth and final victim of the Ripper, and John McCarthy, the landlord of the lodgings in Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, where her body was found. In one chapter, Rule briefly mentions that McCarthy's son became an entertainer and, from this bare fact we are launched into a gratuitous and, I would say, superfluous history of the English Music Hall. Likewise, when the author deals with Jack the Ripper (which she could hardly avoid, of course) she spends over 40 pages - almost a fifth of the book - giving a very detailed look at the investigation and the secondary players. Indeed, it becomes difficult to recall that the book is about Dorset street rather than the Ripper when she gives so much biographical detail on Kelly's boyfriend, for example, and then all but ignores a very fertile area of discussion she might well have exploited. Many writers have spent a good deal of ink advancing the thesis that the Ripper murders focused public attention on the squalor of the east-end in a way that scores of philanthropists and various social agencies had thus far failed to do. Rule, in contrast, only briefly touches on the subject and simply writes that it is surprising that the murders *failed* to have that effect. It is fair enough that she come to her own conclusions on the subject but one wonders why she did not address the contrary thesis and rebut it properly and at length. I have to say that I was also not terribly impressed with Ms Rule's research. It seemed very much, to me, that she has been rather indiscriminate in her choice of sources; cherry-picking this eclectic collection of works for whatever items she finds interesting and reproducing some questionable assertions as established fact. I find it somewhat telling, in consideration of this impression, that her bibliography actually contains a number of entries that are actually works of fiction. Some of the conclusions Rule draws from her 'research' are highly dubious to say the least. She has obviously read, for example that many of the 'slumlords' in the area derived a considerable portion of their income from the avails of prostitution. No doubt this happened frequently but Ms Rule effectively concludes that this was true of all landlords in Spitalfields. She then leaps from this sweeping generalization to the unsupported, and quite possible libelous suggestion that, as John McCarthy owned property on Dorset street, he too was a whore-master. In one section, she proposes that McCarthy inveigled Mary Kelly to resume prostitution on no other 'evidence' than the fact that she *did* apparently prostitute herself when her boyfriend lost her job. Elsewhere, she also puts forward, without any foundation whatsoever, the startling, not to mention bizarre idea that he may have 'seen Kelly as a potential educator in the ways of the world for his fourteen-year old son.' I am afraid I cannot personally have much respect for an writer who makes such nasty allegations without so much as a supporting footnote. Ultimately, I might have not been so critical of this book for being less than scholarly if it was a little more entertaining. Bill Bryson, the American writer who has written a number of non-fiction works such as The Mother Tongue and A Short History of Nearly Everything, has been roundly criticized for sloppy research and error-ridden material, but the man has always made me laugh and entertained me. For this, I am prepared to forgive a multitude of sins. Ms Rule's book, sadly, fails here too... I would not be confident using this book as a reliable research source and it did not entertain me enough to make me want to read it again. Readers who are looking for a decent overview of the history of London's east-end might like to have a look at Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History by Paul Begg. C.John Thompson
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By
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This review is from: The Worst Street in London: Foreword by Peter Ackroyd (Paperback)
Well written and thorough, this book gives a vivid glimpse into the underbelly of Victorian London.
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