As the name of this book suggests this is not a history of London during the war but a guide to visiting various surviving buildings, monuments and locations of historical events. As such it has a focus on central London and Docklands. This large area is divided into ten geographical ‘zones’ and three later chapters discuss the underground during the war, monuments and memorials to visit and museums that may be of interest. There is a short section on travelling around London and three walking and two cycle routes provide tours of areas described in the volume.
The bulk of the book is an inventory of sites and monuments giving their title, wartime role, street address, nearest tube and cycle hire station. These basic details are followed by a summary of why the site is of interest. These sections provide clear information and backgrounds to the sites or biographies of the individuals, organisations or events linked to the site.
There will always be an element of disagreement about the selection of sites included in the text in a guidebook and the level of research for individual entries. The sources listed at the end of the volume indicate some obvious gaps and a focus upon military history; for example, the national inventory of war memorials is also not listed as a source. The role of Borough Tube Station during the war appears to be based upon the ‘Historic Southwark’ sign attached to the building rather than the extensive details included on the Subterranea Britannica web site.
The bombing and fire at the Surrey Commercial Docks is discussed, but the later role of the docks in D-Day as a production site for mulberry harbours is not. It must be questioned how anyone would get an idea of the historic docklands from a visit to modern Canary Wharf, whilst a trip to West India Quay would include surviving sugar warehouses, wharfs, cranes, basins and the Museum of London Docklands with its displays of the wartime docks. Directing people to visit Eros in Piccadilly Circus to illustrate the point that street sculpture was protected from air raid damage does not seem to be a good use of the space in this volume.
The maps in this volume are exceptionally poor and inconsistent in their reproduction; they have no scale or north arrow, or clear indication of the direction of north by the arrangement of text on the maps or the orientation of maps on the page. Whilst some maps only show ‘A’ roads, others, for example in the Lambeth area, show lesser roads so comparison between the maps is not easy at all. At the end of the introduction ‘Using the guidebook’ states that the locations of tube stations and cycle hire sites are shown on the maps. This information has not made it through to the finished product. For reasons that entirely escape your reviewer, maps do not accompany the walking and cycling routes.
In the final section of this volume are details of a number of museums in London. This section is entitled ‘military museums’ it also includes the London Transport Museum, due to the use of the tube as a shelter in wartime, but does not include the Museum of London or the Museum of London Docklands both of which have extensive displays on the City and docks in the war.
There are also a number of errors, for example the Druid Street Arch is located north of Druid Street, not to the south; the railway line is also missing from this map. It is stated that Canada Water has a stop on the Dockland Light Railway, rather than the Overground, and Tower Hill Tube is also located on the Docklands Light Railway, a fact omitted from the description.
The poor quality, inconsistent maps reduce the usefulness of this volume, however it does contain interesting information, especially the use of the central London hotels in wartime, and contains a good range of illustrations.