Essential reading for London lovers: click on the title for more information, or to order a copy.
A City Full of People (Peter Earle) Terrific on the minutiae of everyday life from 1650-1750.
An Encyclopaedia of London (William Kent) Curiously assembled, but full of good stuff.
A Guide to the Architecture of London (Edward Jones) Still the best pocket guide on the subject, even though it’s a few years out of date.
A History of London (Stephen Inwood). Great read, packed full of facts, easy going too.
A New Description of Sir John Soane’s Museum (Peter Thornton) Short but excellent description of one of London’s best-kept secrets.
Behind the Facade: London House Plans 1660-1840 (Neil Burton & Peter Guillery) Absolutely fascinating.
Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763 (F.A. Pottle) Still a great read.
Buckingham Palace Redesigned (Terry Farrell) Thoughtful, thought--provoking, but a bit barmy.
Buildings of England: London. (Nikolas Pevsner) Essential, two volumes with multiple updates.
Chambers London Gazetteer (Russ Willey): Sensational, the best gazetteer yet. Covering everywhere you'd expect and more importantly about a thousand other places you've probably never heard of
Chequers: The Prime Minister's Country House And Its History (Norma Major): Beautiful photography, detailed history, a fascinating house
City At Risk: A Close Look At London's Streets (Simon Jenkins): Part guide, part call-to-arms, and 30-odd years after its publication a sobering epitaph for the city the developers strive hard to destroy
City Reborn (Kenneth Powell) Detailed examination of architecture and regeneration on the Southwark bank.
Crewe House (Quentin Crewe) Inside story of one of the last surviving Mayfair mansions
Cross River Traffic (Chris Roberts) All you ever needed to know about London's bridges
Do Not Pass Go (Tim Moore) Some good anecdotal stuff.
Dockland (S.K. Al Naib): Fantastically detailed guide to docklands past and present; the essential guide for anyone who goes strolling about out there
Dr Johnson’s London (Lisa Picard) Fascinating on the smaller details. Also Elizabeth's London, Restoration London and Victorian London
Eighteenth Century London (Nichola Johnson) Noisy, smelly, brash, dangerous - and that's just the fashionable parts.
England's Thousand Best Churches (Simon Jenkins): Clearly a labour of love, and church guides don't come better than this
England's Thousand Best Houses (Simon Jenkins): Not quite as good as his volume on English churches, but still a winner despite a few odd inclusions
Follies, Grottoes and Garden Buildings (Gwyn Headley): Essential reading for folly-hunters, with superb gazetteer and some witty writing
From Palace to Power: Illustrated History of Whitehall (Susan Foreman): Fascinating and beautifully illustrated history of a lost piece of old London, from the earliest days to the present
Georgian London (John Summerson) Still the definitive guide to the subject.
Goodbye London (Christopher Booker and Candida Lycett Green) Depressing, but fascinating
Heraldry in National Trust Houses (Thomas Woodcock): A new view of some old favourites, looking at the wealth of decoration that really brings these buildings to life
Historic London: An Explorer’s Companion (Stephen Inwood). Too big for your pocket, but great to take around on walks.
In Search of London (H.V.Morton) Irresistible, even 60 years on.
Inside London (Joe Friedman) Beautiful photography of some of the city’s finest interiors.
Lambeth Palace (Tim Tatton-Brown) HIstory and development of one of London's most fascinating but largely forgotten buildings.
Leather Armchairs (Charles Graves) Fond memories of clubland, and a detailed club-by-club guide from the early 1960s.
Len Deighton’s London Dossier (Len Deighton) Pure nostalgia.
Lights Out for the Territory (Iain Sinclair): London's unauthorised biography, by a man with a wild and original mind
London (Arthur Mee) Still so readable.
London (John Russell) An outsider’s view, and a great read.
London (Heather Reyes) Generous and well-chosen anthology of writing about the city.
London: A Life in Maps (Peter Whitfield) Tracing the capital’s development through 100 maps and 500 years
London: A Short History (A.N.Wilson) Not much new, but a good read for the beach.
London Architecture: Features and Facades (Ben Weinreb): Expensive, but buy it for the pictures
London as It Might Have Been (Felix Barker): Exactly what the title says it is: a look at all the great schemes which were never completed, and a few real howlers.
London Heritage (Michael Jenner) Excellent guide through the centuries
London High (Herbert Wright) All the skyscrapers: the good, the bad, and the very ugly.
London History Atlas (Hugh Clout) Colourful and comprehensive.
London Sight Unseen (Snowdon): The author knows London well, and clearly loves its hidden corners
London Suburbs (Andrew Saint): What to see in the suburbs, and how they came to be
London Under London: A Subterranean Guide (Richard Trench): Fascinating poke around down below: tunnels, trains, bunkers and bowels
London: 2000 Years of a City and Its People (Felix Barkerand Peter Jackson) Thirty years on it's still unrivalled for depth of coverage and quality of illustration. Fabulous.
London: Biography of a City (Christopher Hibbert) Wonderful, and so wide ranging
London: Places and Pleasures (Kate Simon) Quirky, but some good stuff.
London's Contemporary Architecture (Ken Allinson) Well laid-out pocket guide to the best of the new stuff. Maps too.
London’s Lost Riverscape (Chris Ellmers and Alex Werner) Fascinating photographic panorama, circa 1937
London's Lost Tube Schemes (Antony Badsey-Ellis) Dry but definitive
London’s Town Halls (English Heritage). Excellent guide to the wide diversity of styles and decoration.
London's Pride: Glorious History of the Capital's Gardens (Mireille Galinou): London's open spaces laid bare: the big, the small, and the sometimes overlooked
Lord Burlington’s Town Architecture (Pamela Kingsbury) Intriguing RIBA publication; some nice illustration
Making the Metropolis (Stephen Halliday): The creation of Victorian London, and the men who made it happen
Mapping London (Simon Foxell) Irresistable: 600 years of London maps, and what they tell you.
Necropolis: London & Its Dead (Catherine Arnold) Grisly, irresistable. A Baedeker of the dead, says Peter Ackroyd
New London Architecture (Kenneth Powell) Superb pictures, excellent narrative on the continuing process of change.
New London Architecture 2 (Kenneth Powell) The story continues.
Newgate: London’s Prototype of Hell (Stephen Halliday) Good and gruesome.
Number Ten Downing Street: The Story of a House (Christopher Jones): The story of what goes on behind the most famous front door in the world
Permanent Londoners (Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall) Who’s buried where?
Private Palaces: Life in the Great London Houses (Christopher Simon Sykes): A colourful history of the rise of the great town houses, and their eventual fate
Roman London (Gustav Milne) Excellent English Heritage guide.
Secret London (Andrew Duncan) Good little gallop through some of the city’s peculiarities
Ships and Shipwrecks (Peter Marsden) Plenty of detail on London's early mercantile history from English Heritage.
St James's Square: People, Houses, Happenings (Denys Forrest): The West End's best square described building by building; who built it, who lived there and who owns it now
St Paul’s (Ann Saunders) Fabulous single-volume history with really superb photography and illustration.
The Art and Architecture of London (Ann Saunders) Good, comprehensive guide taking the city borough by borough.
The Black Plaque Guide to London (Felix Barker and Denise Silvester-Carr) Who killed whom, and where
The Book of London (Iain Macmillan and Roger Baker) Still the best ‘day in the life’ of London
The Book of London (Michael Leapman and others). Huge range and full of fascinating detail.
The Books of London Lists (Nick Rennison) My Little Book of London's better, but some good stuff none the less.
The Chronicles of London (Andrew Saint and Gillian Darley)
The City (Sandy MacLachlan): Hard to find, but a colourful glimpse into the sometimes secretive world of the City
The Dreadful Judgement: The True Story of the Great Fire (Neil Hanson) A great read, despite the title.
The Face of London (Harold P Clunn) Politically unattractive author, fascinating street-by-street guide.
The Gentlemen’s Clubs of London (Anthony Lejeune). Nice photography, good history.
The Great Houses of London (David Pearce) Opinionated, but fascinating.
The Houses of Parliament (James Pope-Hennessy) Republished before his grisly death, and a fine description of its architecture and interior.
The London Encyclopaedia (Ben Weinreb): It could do with an update, but it’s still the one book on London which everyone should have
The London Nobody Knows (Geoffrey Fletcher) Nice text, superb sketches.
The London Rich: The Creation of a Great City from 1666 to the Present (Peter Thorold): How London developed, as seen through the lifestyles and homes of the very rich
The Londoner's Almanac: A Book of London Lists (Russell Ash): A dated but fascinating trivia round-up
The Microcosm of London (T Rowlandson and A.C. Pugin) Fascinating, if you can find a copy.
The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches (J. Mordaunt Crook) Great social history and one of the best guides yet to the private houses of London
The Story of Greenwich (Clive Aslet) Country Life editor comes to town.
The Tower of London: A 2000 Year History (Ivan Lapper and Geoffrey Parnell) Best pocket guide yet to London's famous fortress.
Tower of London (Christopher Hibbert) Super one-volume guide to its long, fascinating history
Trafalgar Square: Emblem of Empire (Rodney Mace) Very comprehensive, but occasionally dry.
Underground London (Stephen Smith) Anecdotal, but full of good things.
Underground to Everywhere (Stephen Halliday) The development and role of the Tube in the the life of the capital.
Village London: Story of Greater London (Edward Walford): An outstanding four-volume reprint of this detailed 1883 citywide history
Walks in Old London (Peter Jackson) Super itineraries, some nice detail too.
Westminster's Villages (Brian Girling) Archive photographs and revealing descriptions.
What's in a Name (Cyril M. Harris) Details every station on the London Underground.
Whitehall: The Street that Shaped a Nation (Colin Brown) People, places and politics – but the buildings most of all.
White’s 1693-1950 (Percy Colson) Definitive clubland history.
Who Owns Britain (Kevin Cahill) Very good on the old London estates