London: Memories of Times Past

by Mary Anne Evans, Rose Barton (Artist)

London wie es früher war

Tauchen Sie ein in das alte London, als noch Pferdedroschken die Straßen der damals größten Stadt der Welt beherrschten. Lustwandeln Sie durch den Hyde Park und schauen Sie den Blumenmädchen auf dem Piccadilly Circus zu.

Durch die stimmungsvollen Aquarelle von Rose Barton (1856-1929), historische Postkarten und Fotografien entdecken Sie die vergangenen Zeiten wieder und sehen Plätze, Straßenzüge, Gebäude und Grünanlagen, wie sie einst das Stadtbild prägten.

Genres: Art

176 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 2006

Reviews

[Chas Bayfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a bizarre, somewhat schizophrenic book. It begins so well, with printed ephemera from the first years of the twentieth century, backed up by information about the establishments that first arrived in London during that time. And then... 60 pages of slavish dedication to the often sentimental water colours of Rose Barton. She's an acquired taste, but that aside, where was the information about the other printed bits and bobs that was so forthcoming in the early pages? I have to go to a glossary at the back to find out. Also, I was desperate to learn about the 'other' London, beyond the picture postcards. The cover flap promises a social history, what we get is a social history of the moneyed classes. Not a shoeless east end urchin, no street walkers, no panhandlers in sight. This is clearly a book for tourists who never venture beyond Knightsbridge and Hyde Park rather than those wanting to see how all London looked a hundred years ago. The book is schizophrenic in that it wants to be an homage to Rose Barton, and to tell the story of London in the early 1900 through postcards and adverts. It feels like the author should have written two books, one purely Barton, the other (far more interesting) the story of London seen through the early colour prints available at the time. Instead we have a real mish-mash that ends with several pages describing in detail the history of colour printing! Absolutely barmy.

[Aricia Gavriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An much an art book as a history book .... not quite a 'social history,' as such (no matter what the blurb says!), but more a snapshot of the lives and times of a city and its privileged upper classes.

This is the London of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle; of Sherlock Holes and John Watson ... of Mel Keegan's 'vampyre,' Michael Flynn and Vince Bantry. To me, it's a 'companion volume' to all of the above. I do love the art of Rose Barton, which I saw for the first time many years ago, featured on postcards. Here, something like 50 of her works are reproduced at large size and high quality, so we can actually study the paintings. Lovely.

As a research work for writers working in the time and period, this will be invaluable; as a snapshot of history, it's an enormous pleasure, to be shelved along with books such as the The Golden Calm, which painted a similar portrait of India in the era of the British Raj.

Exquisite. Five stars, unreservedly.

(A note: I have no idea where Goodreads came by the byline of George Eliot on this. The text was written by Mary Anne Evans. How does one go about fixing this error in the database??)