Have you ever walked down a London street and wondered what the history of the area could be? How did the street get its name? What is that building over there? Who lived there? What was here before? Then this is the book you need. Paved with gold, it covers eight central London neighborhoods and looks at each street carefully and with in-depth research.
The author
The author is David Long, who, and I always have to say this at the beginning of any review of one of his titles, is someone I admire. David Long is an incredibly prolific author who has written many books on London (see more book reviews below). Long brings the history of London to life with his detailed research and interesting anecdotes.
The neighborhoods
As Paved with Gold focuses on the West End (central London), the eight areas featured are: Mayfair, St James’s, Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury, Soho, Covent Garden and Strand, Westminster and Belgravia.
Each neighborhood section begins with a map and a few pages describing it that often remind us of the humble beginnings of these now wealthy areas.
Book format
Published in late 2015, this large format hardcover book is 376 pages long. The streets in each area are listed alphabetically and there is a complete index. Note that Paved with Gold covers a high percentage of London’s West End streets, but not all.
There are over 200 black-and-white photographs throughout the book, plus a 16-page full-color plaque section in the center.
Every now and then there are pages devoted to a topic like “The London Club” that explain in more detail the subject of gentlemen’s clubs in London. Or “The Siege of Grosvenor Square” featuring a historic event.
My book review
I sat down and read this page by page, while I hope that most readers will use it as a reference book and search the streets that interest them. I found it strange to read it in the chapters as the alphabetical order means that the streets are not listed in the way you find them geographically.
The book is large and heavy, so it is best to keep it at home and not carry it with you while you explore. But I think this would make a fabulous companion for many happy hours at home using Google Street View to look around the West End.
Long’s research is always extensive, and as you read it, it can feel like you’re walking the streets with a very knowledgeable friend.
There are interesting stories from former residents – those still known and stories from notable people who are mostly now forgotten. And there are references to blue plaques, as that is often all we can see now of important lives in one place.
Details include a house designed by William Kent that has been described as ‘the best townhouse in London’ and where you can see the oldest private monument in London.
I sometimes felt like features I enjoy on the streets (like the statues at Bourdon Place) were being overlooked, but above all there was something new to discover on every page, making this book ideal for Londoners and those who have never visited it.
There is a wonderful description of a large Georgian mansion in Mayfair, complete with carriages and inns, that I have passed but never stopped to admire. More famous births, deaths and crimes all over the place. I started to feel like I had been walking around with flashing lights on if I had missed everything that was happening, but of course it only comes to life when someone shares the information.
Sometimes he had something to add (like L. Ron Hubbard’s Fitzroy House on Fitzroy Street) but mostly he was taking notes of the places he wanted to return to so he could look at them again with new interest. He hadn’t paid attention to the Cleveland Street workhouse that was probably the inspiration for Charles Dickens’s workhouse in Oliver Twist , having lived nearby. Or the story behind London pub names like The Blue Posts. (Named after two posts / bollards on the sidewalk that would be the place to wait for a sedan chair, like a taxi rank).
And I loved that there were references to when this really was “all fields.”
Smart architectural recycling
It was fascinating to read how often parts of buildings were saved and reused elsewhere or kept and displayed in a museum like the V&A. The columns of Carlton House can now be seen in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, and the chimneys were reused at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Something I didn’t like?
Black and white photographs are not always the most flattering images and I wish the photographer had spent more time on each shot so there weren’t people with carry bags in the frame or pickup trucks passing by. But the words brought the location to life and the photos were simply accompaniments.
Conclution
Paved With Gold is another really nice book by David Long. If you think you know London well or are just starting to discover the delights of the city, you will learn a lot from this book.
