Katie Wignall – författare

A refreshing guide to discovering the hidden details of London with 10 fully guided walking routes from London's leading tour guide Look Up London. Have you ever noticed London's tiniest public sculpture? Or wondered why there are strange cone-shaped structures on the fanciest historic homes? Did you know that the Tower of London used to be a zoo, or about the now defunct London railway that transported over 200,000 people to their final resting place? These are just some of the fascinating details that Blue Badge Tourist guide Katie Wignall reveals in this absorbing guide to the secrets of London hidden in plain sight. Take a journey through London's rich past with these 10 fully guided walking routes and discover a whole world of incredible history hiding above your eye-line, just waiting to be spotted. From the saucy scandals of Covent Garden to stories of power and intrigue from the City, atmospheric pubs to hidden Roman remains, London is a city bursting with captivating stories which are etched into its very architecture. So, Look Up and discover a London you have never seen before.

It seems bizarre that in a place as crowded, noisy and expensive as London there are still wasted unused spaces. The relentless drive for regeneration across Britain’s capital deceives us into thinking that every spare building and patch of ground is under development. But this vast metropolis of more than 10 million people hides many secrets and unexpected treasures from the city’s unique 2000-year history. In Abandoned London, read about the Abbey Mills Pumping Station, a facility created in 1858 to deal with ‘the Great Stink’, and now London’s Italian-Gothic cathedral of sewage; or the subterranean Finsbury Park underground reservoir, a space capable of holding five million gallons of water and today used as an occasional movie location; or the remnants of Highgate’s overground steam railway station, now a protected bat habitat; or the Clapham deep-level shelters, constructed in World War II and designed to provide protection for locals against aerial bombing raids; or the Haggerston public baths, part of an early 20th century building programme devised to improve London’s hygiene. These photographs of abandoned places capture a moment in time. Some of the buildings have since been demolished or refurbished, but many are still there, neglected and uncared for. These places have great value and a rich significance, offering us a glimpse of past worlds.