The choice: R.M. Ballantyne, Fighting the flames (London, 1867). Chosen by: Graham Hogg, Curator (19th-Century Printed Collections and Photo-graphs), Rare Books, Maps and Music Collections Welcome to the latest of our fortnightly series where we introduce you to some favourites from our collections for you to enjoy reading, all freely available online. Read or download […]
Tag: london
The Ivy Now
If you would like a peek behind the scenes of one of London’s most famous restaurants, look no further than “The Ivy Now” for a highly entertaining culinary read.
Marriages are made in Bond Street
(Photo credit: Macmillan. Image above shows a woman in a long green coat and hat looking at a notice on a wall. The title of the book is written in gold text) Online dating is common nowadays with numerous dating sites competing to help set people up. But engaging an outside party to help find […]
Eccentric London
(Photo credit: Eccentric London by Ben le Vay. Published by Brandt Travel Guides, www.brandtguides.com) (Image above shows title and author of the book alongside drawings of a Pearly King and Queen, a red phone book, The Gherkin building and some smaller drawings representing the eccentricity of London) London by the 21st century had undergone […]
Putting disease on the map
Maps are ever so helpful when it comes to finding one’s way around the world. They are the obvious choice if you need to know how to get to Devon, for example, and they help to put the planet and its features into context. However, for some purposes, maps can have a much more profound […]
Chas. Baker & Co: the men and the map
Many Printing Record items are interesting maps, many items are interesting because they aren’t maps but very few are interesting because they are both. Happily though this apparent dichotomy is resolved in a very small handful of very rare examples. Chas. Baker & Co. Ltd. may neither trip off the tongue nor stir many memories […]
John Thomas Smith and “The Mendicant Wanderers”
In 1817, John Thomas Smith (1766-1883) published a collection of portraits called “Vagabondiana or Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the Streets of London; with Portraits of the Most Remarkable”.