The Man Who Drew London

The seventeenth-century London Wenceslaus Hollar knew is now largely destroyed or buried. Yet its populous river, its timbered streets, fashionable ladies, old St Paul's, the devestation of the Fire, the palace of Whitehall and the meadows of Islington live on for us in his etchings. Drawing on numerous sources, Gillian Tindall creates a montage of Hollar's life and times and of the illustrious lives that touched his. It is a carefully researched factual account, but she has also employed her novelist's skill to form an intricate whole - a life's texture which is also an absorbing and occasionally tragic story.

"This new biography ... is the first to make full use of Evelyn's huge unpublished archive deposited at the British Library in 1995. This crucial source evokes a broader and richer picture of Evelyn, his life and his friendships, than permitted by his own celebrated diaries."--Dust jacket.

The first complete history of Southwark, London's stubbornly independent community over the Thames Southwark's fortunes have always been tied to those of the City of London across the river. But from its founding in Roman times through to flourishing in the medieval era, the Borough has always fiercely asserted its independence. A place of licence, largely free of the City's jurisdiction, Southwark became a constant thorn in London's side: an administrative anachronism, a commercial rival, and an asylum for undesirable industries and residents. In this remarkable history of London's liberty beyond the bridge, Margaret Willes narrates the life and times of the people of Southwark, capturing the Borough's anarchic spirit of revelry. Populated by a potent mix of talented immigrants, religious dissenters, theatrical folk, brewers, and sex workers, Southwark often escaped urban jurisdiction--giving it an atmosphere of danger, misrule, and artistic freedom. Tracing Southwark's history from its Roman foundation to its present popularity as a place to visit, through Chaucer, to Shakespeare, and on to Dickens, Willes offers an indispensable exploration of the City's unacknowledged mirror image.

Thomas Sutton's reputation as the wealthiest commoner in England at the time of his death in 1611 was matched by the scale of the charity which he founded at the Charterhouse in Clerkenwell. This work examines the Charterhouse's significance as England's leading charity and the support and opposition that it attracted.

Offers a narrative history of the Great Plague which struck England in 1665-66. This title is illustrated with over 80 contemporary images.

Printed images were ubiquitous in early modern Britain, and they often convey powerful messages which are all the more important for having circulated widely at the time. Yet, by comparison with printed texts, these images have been neglected, particularly by historians to whom they ought to be of the greatest interest. This volume helps remedy this state of affairs. Complementing the online digital library of British Printed Images to 1700 (www.bpi1700.org.uk), it offers a series of essays which exemplify the many ways in which such visual material can throw light on the history of the period. Ranging from religion to politics, polemic to satire, natural science to consumer culture, the collection explores how printed images need to be read in terms of the visual syntax understood by contemporaries, their full meaning often only becoming clear when they are located in the context in which they were produced and deployed. The result is not only to illustrate the sheer richness of material of this kind, but also to underline the importance of the messages which it conveys, which often come across more strongly in visual form than through textual commentaries. With contributions from many leading exponents of the cultural history of early modern Britain, including experts on religion, politics, science and art, the book's appeal will be equally wide, demonstrating how every facet of British culture in the period can be illuminated through the study of printed images.

Never before has the full history of Hatton Garden and its diamond and jewellery trade been revealed in such detail. Stories of individuals who made the community what it is today and events that are usually hidden from the public's eye have been compiled by one of the Garden's best-known jewellers, Vivian Watson FGA, who joined the family business in the 1960s, becoming the third generation of his family to work there. With a unique network of contacts, he has interviewed the great and the good. Richly illustrated from a private collection of hundreds of images and maps, this book will inform and entertain the reader on the secret world of diamonds and gems. Many will feel compelled to read it from cover to cover and others will enjoy dipping in and out.