Old And New London

In Victorian London, filth was everywhere: horse traffic filled the streets with dung, household rubbish went uncollected, cesspools brimmed with "night soil," graveyards teemed with rotting corpses, the air itself was choked with smoke. In this intimately visceral book, Lee Jackson guides us through the underbelly of the Victorian metropolis, introducing us to the men and women who struggled to stem a rising tide of pollution and dirt, and the forces that opposed them. Through thematic chapters, Jackson describes how Victorian reformers met with both triumph and disaster. Full of individual stories and overlooked details--from the dustmen who grew rich from recycling, to the peculiar history of the public toilet--this riveting book gives us a fresh insight into the minutiae of daily life and the wider challenges posed by the unprecedented growth of the Victorian capital.

Here is a peek into the private dwellings of London’s most exciting young talents from the worlds of music, fashion, design, and art. Their “new London style” takes many forms, but above all it expresses a creative sensibility against the backdrop of one of the world’s most exciting cities. The twenty-eight houses in the book are loosely arranged by neighborhood and reflect the cosmopolitan melting pot that influences the city’s design trends.