Secret London

This guide to London's most peculiar and under-the-radar bars and restaurants is for serious foodies, intrepid drinkers, urban explorers -- and anyone curious to discover the infinite possibilities to have fun in London.

Travel under the streets of London with this lavishly illustrated exploration of abandoned, modified, and reused Underground tunnels, stations, and architecture.

Despite her public profile, she led a surprisingly secret life away from the press. This practical guide allows you to follow her footsteps and is packed with hundreds of photographs showing a London you never knew existed, with such highlights as the school she worked in as a kindergarten teacher, her favorite shops, the pub in which she enjoyed playing the slot machine, and the lake where she dramatically saved a man's life. Everything her fans want to know about her real life in the British capital is revealed for the first time here, with maps and comprehensive directions that readers can follow to take the same routes that she did.

Where are the 5 best places to find street food? Which are the 5 best restaurants to grab your lunch at in Soho? Which pubs have the most amazing interiors? Where are the best places to discover vintage vinyl? Which are the most innovative theatre companies? Where will you find the most unusual museums? The best places for an outdoor swim? The 500 Hidden Secrets of London reveals these good-to-know places and many more. Discover a diverse range of under-the-radar yet outstanding addresses that will allow you to explore the best of the city away from the crowds. An affectionate and informed guide to London, written by a true local. This is a book for visitors who want to avoid the usual tourist spots and for residents who are keen to track down the city's best-kept secrets. Photography by Sam Mellish.

In this vividly descriptive short study, Peter Ackroyd tunnels down through the geological layers of London, meeting the creatures that dwell in darkness and excavating the lore and mythology beneath the surface. There is a Bronze Age trackway below the Isle of Dogs, Anglo-Saxon graves rest under St. Pauls, and the monastery of Whitefriars lies beneath Fleet Street. To go under London is to penetrate history, and Ackroyd's book is filled with the stories unique to this underworld: the hydraulic device used to lower bodies into the catacombs in Kensal Green cemetery; the door in the plinth of the statue of Boadicea on Westminster Bridge that leads to a huge tunnel packed with cables for gas, water, and telephone; the sulphurous fumes on the Underground's Metropolitan Line. Highly imaginative and delightfully entertaining, London Under is Ackroyd at his best.

Mingle with the most extravagant handlebar moustaches in Britain, pay your respects at the dog cemetery in Hyde Park, visit a Masonic temple, take trapeze lessons in a former power station, pray in a floating church, sail on a disused reservoir, discover the stone from which Arthur drew Excalibur, admire the sacred penis of a pharaoh, take aim on the City's last bowling green, go stargazing at Greenwich Observatory, examine a rare cucumber straightener, a stuffed mermaid or a cow's heart... Far from the crowds and the usual cliches, London still holds hidden treasures for those who know how to wander off the beaten track. An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew London well, or who would like to discover the hidden face of the city.