London Lore: The legends and traditions of the world's most vibrant city

by Steve Roud

In which part of North London were wild beasts once thought to roam the sewers?

Why did 1920s working-class Londoners wear necklaces of blue beads?

Who was the original inspiration for the "pearly king" costume?

And did Spring-Heeled Jack, scourge of Victorian London, ever really exist?

Exploring everything from local superstitions and ghost stories to annual customs, this is an enchanting guide to the ancient legends and deep-rooted beliefs that can be found the length and breadth of the city.

Genres: History, London, Nonfiction, Travel, Folklore, Mythology, Cities

Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

A pretty good overview of London lore, although not a lot massively new to me. Some very good stuff on newer myths like the Chelsea Smilers; I'd have loved a lot more of that.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good introduction to London folklore. It is divided up into sections, where different streets and landmarks are arranged alphabetically, so it’s easy to find a specific area you’re interested in, if you don’t want to read the whole thing. For the most part the book focuses on 19th and 20th century lore. There are only a few instances going back earlier, most of which are drawn from Stow’s Survey of London. The type of folklore includes ghost stories, hauntings, fairs, childhood practices, rumours and stories. It is a good mixture and contains a bibliography and index so it’s easy to track down additional sources for the bits that most interest you. The writer takes on the role of the educator, in addition to the telling of the stories of folklore he also tries to explain how folklorists think and work, and how folklore is studied. This is very interesting, but can come across at times as a little condescending. The only slight criticism of I have of this book is that it centres (with a brief exception of the mention of Chinese New Year festivities) purely on “white” London folklore. Which as London has been home to immigrant families and a multi-cultural city for so long now seems to be a bit of an oversight. It would have been very interesting I think to see the way that imported folklore has become part of the city’s folklore and mixed with native beliefs. Overall this book was highly enjoyable and I’d definitely recommend it to people interested in London and folklore. I found it particularly interesting to read about the areas where I work and live and learned quite a lot. After reading it cover to cover I feel like it will also make a great reference book.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy on the ghost stories, but a wonderful book that breaks down folklore in London by area.

I honestly like the idea of women sticking pins into Henry VIII's codpiece, though I think Roud gives the wrong reason.


For Harry Potter fans, you can also see connections to aspects of the novels.

[Daenerys · Rating 3 out of 5]

London lore explores the legends associated with different neighbourhoods of London and alphabetically by area, so it reads more like an encyclopedia than a book. It took me a long time to read it and it's definitely best read in bits and pieces over an extended period of time, but it is really interesting and well researched, with lots of interesting information. I particularly liked the comments about the development of folklore in the introduction and in some of the entries, and the stories referring to beliefs about witchcraft and those dealing with the origins of place names. It is really a shame that a lot of the book is spent reporting ghost stories, poltergeists etc.

[Thomas B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Billed as legends AND traditions it delivers. Few books on london's folk history deliver such a variety so accessibly

[Snicketts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing to say about this book is that it is not quite as billed on the cover. Yes, it is about London. Yes it is a collection on old stories that have become what one might term 'lore'. But what it doesn't mention is that the author seems to enjoy debunking or flat-out ridiculing the tales within its pages. I am not a head in the clouds type of person, but even I got bored of the 'there was a ghost... but it was really a hoax' format and the lack of... 'magic' is the wrong word but a sense of wonder about the antiquity and the life and the vibrancy of the people it relates to is definitely lacking in this. It spoiled it for me a little. I wanted to hear the old stories and make up my own mind, rather than have them laid out and snatched away each time.

This is not a book to sit down and read like a chapter book - hence it has taken me over a year to finish. This is a book to dip into or even use a reference tool, set out as it is by geographical location rather than any other criteria.

London has a tarnished and sometimes tawdry sheen to it, but this book sadly does not capture the essence of that.

[Krystelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked what this book was in concept, but I would have preferred something that felt less like a tourist guidebook with slightly dry writing. It was interesting, and I certainly got a lot of info, but at the same time, I found it was a bit tedious.

I feel like I would have enjoyed this one more if it were based a bit heavier in the folklore and telling the story rather than the regurgitation of information. It did definitely give me that bug to go to London though!

[Kt Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty dry and repetitive in parts. I agree with some other reviews that the pacing was odd. Some entries were a paragraph, and others multiple pages. I am aware this is likely due to the amount of information connected with the entry but it just didn't seem like there was a natural flow.

But I learned some cool things about London, and that's always going to bring the stars up a bit. 3 solid stars

[ReadsandThings]

Given that this is such an interesting topic, the book is surprisingly dull, with dry writing and bad pacing. At 80 %, it felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again and gave up. If the writing style doesn't bug you, there is much of interest here, and everything seems well-researched.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about the history and folk lore of London, particular the area that I am from, but I think there is an over reliance on ghosts stories, which I was not a fan of. Good book as a reference.

[Anjuna Harper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Couple of good stories. History of London. I got bored with it. Because its structured like a encyclopedia it's a bit disjointed. I was hoping for a cool story or two for film inspiration most of them were weird ghost stories, the plague, hangings and such. Nothing I havent heard before.

[Holly Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been dipping in and out of this book for a week now, sucking up all the little scraps of weird and wonderful stories held within and it has been... fascinating!
What I need to do now is make some notes from my favourite legends!

[Tom De Ville · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive but a bit bland and over-reliant on local ghost stories.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I enjoyed it but didn't learn much new.

[Chrissie · Rating 1 out of 5]

So boring, not interesting at all! :/

[Lyden Orbase · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many ghosts in London! 👻

[Anya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of London history and folklore. Although this book is informative and well organised, I am not a huge fan of the way it is written, pace and the language.

[Inky Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly interesting read, very interesting to learn more about the folklore of London

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one!

There are a lot of traditions, stories, paranormal events and legends worth reading about. The book is in sections (arranged by location) and it gives a map at the beginning of each one. Having such a friendly structure, if you have an event/story that you want to reread is quite easy to find it.

Most stories are presenting real events but there are a few pure fiction (the author will say so at the end of them).
I liked the number of ghost stories - a lot! I disliked their length - usually really short, somewhere at one paragraph or two.

Overall, it was exactly what I was expecting when I bought it. Many places are shown in a different light and I will probably never look at them the same. It is always interesting to see how many houses from London were said to be haunted.
I will probably have to reread it at one point as it had a lot of information and I already forgot names/locations/traditions that sounded really cool when I first read about them.

[Alex Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my other book reviews at booksibled.wordpress.com

I love history, I love facts and comparisons and mystery and somewhere deep down inside I even quite like “the truth is we may never know” because if that isn’t a challenge then I don’t know what is. Social history is the best history to me. I love hearing about how people lived, what their lives were like, their families, friends, travels (or not so much), and especially their beliefs. I love folk lore, myths, legends, religious tales. In the end, it all comes back to my love of a good story.

London is a great place to start when you’re looking at the lives and beliefs of people in the past. It has a long history that is fairly well documented in comparison to smaller towns and many people from different areas came to live there so you are sure to find elements of superstitions or beliefs from anywhere.

The first book of London stories I read was a few years back and comprised mainly of more modern stories from about the Georgian era to present day. The stories focused mainly on monuments, buildings and oddities in London, and their amusing tales to tell. It was fascinating and a very easy read. I wandered around London with it on a day off and used it as a walking tour of one.

I have to admit it would be very hard to do that with this book. London legend and Lore is a lot heavier and more broad than my previous books. It’s split roughly into boroughs of London and is clearly more of a reference text than something to dip in and out of. The tales vary in length and are well told with a hint of the authors amusement at some of the less believable tales.

In order to link certain tales together they end with the page numbers of other relevant pieces and certain motifs such as grottoes, Dick Turpin and Guy Fawkes all get a brief double page spread specifically dedicated to the background of the stories. You may surmise from this that this book of amazingly well researched. Honestly the amount of records that must have been combed through to get to all of this information is astonishing. Also included are some great little prints as well as some pages of colour pictures to illustrate specific stories.

I had a lot of fun with this book but there were some drawbacks. I sometimes found it a bit much to read all in one go. I think it’s more the sort of book you pick out the areas or places you are interested in and read them. I also didn’t quite understand why the stories within boroughs were sometimes quite so scattered, maybe to add variety as you read. My final issue was that it focused a lot on specific subjects. The major thing was ghosts and while I love a good ghost story I think maybe some of them were less interesting than others, but once again, I think that is designed so that the reader can flip through and find their area or a street they worked on and learn about it. Proven by my sitting on the stairs and the kitchen table to read out all of the Croydon, Hampton Court or Cheam based stories as we have ties to all three.

All in all this was a fascinating book and, while it was maybe a weird choice for a reading challenge, I’m glad I read it. I’ve learnt a lot about my wonderful home town and I’m sure I’ll be dipping back in again in no time the moment I want to remember yet another date I’ve forgotten!

P.S. The best compendium of London legends I’ve come across. Not a book to read all in one sitting but certainly something to amuse you as you flick through and discover more about the places you know and the people who called it home.

[Maria Felgueiras · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful and sometimes witty account about legends and folklore in London. Plenty of ghost stories among many other delightful supernatural and natural accounts. A must read if you want to learn more about London.

[Clémence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre de référence, plein d'anecdotes et d'histoires de fantômes. J'imagine qu'il complète très bien les guides touristiques de base pour qui aime des contacts un peu plus vivants avec l'histoire des villes.

[Kenny]

This is one of our current "toilet books".

[Amy Gilchrist Thorne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting. I would have liked it better if there were fewer ghost stories and more lore about customs and place names, but that's just me.

[Sarah]

Good snippets

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I doubt anyone would regret reading this.

[Beth (bibliobeth)]

A good collection of myths and superstitions divided up into londons key areas. A must for anybody interested in the history of London.

[Chrissi · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of myths, superstitions and ghosts in London. I particuarly enjoyed reading the ones that I had heard of before in more detail.

[Hung-ya · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is simply not what I had in mind... There are too many ghost stories.

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

God it made me YEARN for London.