Bizarre London: Discover the Capital's Secrets & Surprises

by David Long

A charming gift book of the strangest and most intriguing stories of London. A fascinating tour of London's strangest and most intriguing locations. Ranging from architectural evidence of past incidents and stories of life beneath the city, to anecdotes of magic, mystery, and murder, this is a perfect companion for anyone curious about London.It A Museum of Magical Curiosities; The City's Lost Tunnels and Citadels; The Ghost of a She-Wolf; The Bawdy House Riots; The Story of “Jack the Stripper”; The Atmospheric Railway; The Thames Ringway Bicycle Race; A Banker Hanged at Newgate; The Crossdressing Highwayman; Bluebottles, Rozzers and Woodentops; The Hidden Statue of a Beaver; The “Belgravia of Death”; Whitehall’s Licensed Brothel; Pin-Makers, Mole-Takers and Rat Catchers; Drinking in “The Bucket of Blood”; London's Most Haunted House.All of London is here!

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel, London, British Literature, Historical, Amazon

273 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 17, 2013

About the author

Winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2017, writer and journalist David Long has regularly appeared in The Times and the London Evening Standard, as well as on television and radio. He has written more than 30 books for children and adults and lives in Suffolk.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although a quick read, this was very hit and miss for me.

It covers a lot of ground, passing out facts on the more bizarre aspects of London history, but for the most part I found most of the facts only marginally interesting at best. I also found the writing style quite jarring, as it jumps around too quickly from topic to topic, never really lingering long enough to draw the reader in. The most interesting chapter was on drinking and pubs, but unfortunately it was too short to really hold my attention. Some chapters, like those on private clubs and the royal family I found uninteresting and unenlightening. Sometimes things are even just listed, without any greater level of detail.

Disappointing, this didn’t really uncover any secrets or surprises that I may have wanted to know.

[Rae Beeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of interesting little factoids and tidbits about London and its long history.

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful easy read all about my favorite world capital. Detailing obscure ghosts, gardens, and green spaces as well as myriad of other tales about London and it locales, buildings and hidden spaces.

This is just a delight.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Browsing the shelves of my local library, I came across an attractive hardback copy of Bizarre London - Discover the Capital's Secrets & Surprises by David Long. I was convinced to take it out on loan after browsing the contents page and spying enticing chapter headings like: Gruesome London, Ghostly London and Dead London alongside Shopping London, Working London and Parliamentary London.

The content was short and sharp with plenty of easily digestible facts from history one after the other. Bizarre London is easy to dip into although I chose to read it straight through.

I think I've mentioned my fascination with the freezing over of the Thames river before, but I enjoyed this tidbit:

"Overall, London's coldest ever year was almost certainly 1684, when the Thames froze in central London from bank to bank, to a depth of 11 in., and remained that way for nearly two months. (Albeit for shorter periods this happened a further fifteen times, the last being in 1814, which was the year of the final 'Frost Fair'. Page 121

The introduction of better bridges means this no longer happens in central London, and in fact the last time the Thames froze over was the year 1963 and it happened at Kingston-upon-Thames.

Continuing with the theme of London's weather and another of my favourite London facts, the period of intensely dense fog in December 1952:

"Since then [1873's record-breaking run of seventy-four foggy days], the worst pea-souper was in December 1952, which led to as many as 12,000 deaths - from respiratory illness as well as accidents involving people who couldn't see traffic - and some 100,000 cases of medical illness." Page 122

These kinds of conditions are hard to imagine, although viewers of Season 1 of The Crown might remember the scene.

Some interesting facts from this century included the chapter entitled Eating by Numbers, where we learn that during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games:

"...deliveries to the athletes' village included 25,000 loaves of bread, 232 tons of potatoes and 82 tons of seafood, more than 100 tons of meat, 19 tons of eggs and 21 tons of cheese. Fruit and veg accounted for another 360 tons of deliveries." Page 137

Wow, now that's impressive!

Published in 2013, much of the content within Bizarre London - Discover the Capital's Secrets & Surprises by David Long was dry and factual but doesn't date, however I'm sure an updated edition will be of interest to future readers.

[Tamara York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting facts scattered in amongst things I didn’t care about at all. This would be a fun book to browse when you’re bored, but not to read through.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of snippets of information in the book were more along the lines of 'huh, interesting', rather than 'wow! I must know more'. I feel like if the book had fewer chapters, which were more in-depth it would've been beneficial. The chapter about the Livery Companies I would happily have read 10 times more, whilst the one on Royals were really rather dull. Somewhat interesting, and uneven, but readable enough.

[Adelaide · Rating 4 out of 5]

full of facts, more of which I wish were committed to memory

[Elise Ravenclaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but no pictures

This book would have been 10 times better if it had had pictures that went with the stories. These would be specially useful for those of us who have never visited London but are interested in doing so. I would still recommend this book because it is well written, although sometimes it could benefit of longer explanations.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which was a present from my brother for Christmas.

Its bite size nature meant I could pick it up and put it down at will? Whilst its humour kept me coming back for more.

My only complaint is a tendency to list things too often and to recommend a few maps and/or pictures would be beneficial.

This book is 10 years old now and I think an update might be fun too 😊

[Lisa Sanders]

I loved this book from start to finish, kept borrowing it from library as i found it so intresting

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book felt like a collection of trivia knickknacks. A huge quantity of them, but usually very briefly covered - while reading it I felt like this would probability be a good basis for a geo-located app that could offer trivia while walking around London; it was underwhelming as a book.

Would be greatly improved if it had a map - so, if you are going to read it, I suggest having an online map nearby - and an index, so that anyone trying to put things into context could group them geographically or could find again what was said about a place / person / topic. I read a paper-version of the book; maybe an electronic version could balance that shortcoming by allowing the reader to search for keywords.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a grand example of don't judge a book by its cover. I wrongly assumed by the cover and title that this was going to be a quick easy read about quirky London. I quickly discovered the book was absolutely fascinating, jam packed full of well researched information. As someone who had lived in London for a couple of decades I have long been interested in the city's history and found this book dug deeper than most books I have read on the subject. Absolutely fascinating, I would highly recommend to other readers.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Ranging from architectural evidence of past incidents and stories of life beneath the city, to anecdotes of magic, mystery, and cold-blooded murder -- this is a perfect companion for anyone curious about London.

"So take a trip around one of the world's most beloved cities and discover the bizarre history of its pubs, graveyards, tube stations, parks and palaces -- it's London as you've never seen itr before.

"All of London is here!"
~~front flap

The book just didn't hold my interest. Maybe I didn't stick with it long enough, but ...

[Neil Denham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good book, was sending me off to google and Wikipedia every few pages to find out more about certain topics!

Got slightly hung up with certain topics, such as the private clubs, and the rather selective list of political scandals towards the end! (and throughout the book his politics leak out not so subtly!)

Overall a great book though, one i will be dipping back into to.

[ME · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the reviewers who complained that this was useless as a travel guide I would say, that's because it isn't, and doesn't purport to be! I thought it was really interesting, though, and did make note of a few things to see on our upcoming trip. Worth a read just for the fun of it and to try to get the flavor of the capitol city.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting collection of fun facts in a variety of categories - from crimes to pubs. I wish that for the Parliament section there had been more on pre-20th Century members. I found the strange laws on the books pretty interesting.

[Mac Daly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Planning a trip to London, or just want to know more about the city? This book will give you some fun facts about some of the odder places. For example, there's the eleven story townhouse that only has one room per floor. Don't worry, there's an elevator.

[MeltingPenguins · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 to maybe 3 stars. Interesting bits that provide a good base to do one's own research from, but it did feel rather stabled together at times, with an abrupt end that makes it feel as if the copy is faulty.

[Margie Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’d better be a true Londonophile to read this book. I had no idea there was this much trivia to be listed, especially since I got the book on kindle which gives you no idea of a book’s thickness. If I ever visit London again I’ll have to dip into it again for possible sights and locations.

[Neeuqdrazil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy little read, fun, and nice to be reading while I was in London.

[J.P. Willson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and well researched book. If you ever wanted to know some of the rather off-colour facts about London, well this is the book.
A curious read well worth the time.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good steady read,the sort of book you can dip into without breaking continuity.some moments of I didn't know that.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Appears like it would be an entertaining book, worth studying for a future trip to London. Nope. Chopped up micro-bits of information that, while interesting, are never enough to hold my attention.

[Nick Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but not especially so.

[Alex Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly just facts and figures thrown at you however some interesting tidbits thrown around

[Jeremy Gunderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little nuggets of information. Smartly categorized. Page-turner. Will definitely be reading more by David Long

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The very short snippets of facts made this uncomfortable reading. But it also gave me the opportunity to fact check via Google, and find out more.
Education and entertainment in one.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some maps would have been useful to those of us who do not live in London. I was looking things up on Google Maps and that is a distracting way to read a book. It covers a broad range of topics, some more interesting than others.

[Craig Hannington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great fascinating stories and facts about London really good read.

[Zoe Orchel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting facts, made some notes and flagged pages to do more reading