Search results for ""Author Stephen Halliday""

‘By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.’ - Samuel JohnsonFrom Chaucer’s pilgrims meeting in a Southwark inn to the Hogwarts Express leaving from King’s Cross, London has always been a popular place for writers to weave into their own work. With its bustling, multicultural population and unique localised weather, the city is almost a character in its own right. Fictional London explores the capital through the eyes of both the reader and the writer. Celebrated London historian Stephen Halliday traces the stories from one end of London to the other, digging into the history and character that has made it an unrivalled source of inspiration for authors and poets from the Middle Ages to the early 2000s and beyond.

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"Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: London at War" is a unique collection of surprising revelations, heroic deeds and other quirky pieces of trivia from the conflicts that have shaped London’s fascinating past. From British wartime commanders and other characters who called London their home, through the privations of war and their social impact, to the devastation caused by the Blitz in World War II and London’s subsequently resilience, an intriguing history is revealed. With stories of human endeavour in the face of adversity, the rich history of this great capital city at war is revealed.

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Victorian Britain was the world's industrial powerhouse. Its factories, mills and foundries supplied a global demand for manufactured goods. As Britain changed from an agricultural to an industrial ecomony, people swarmed into the towns and cities where the work was; by the end of Queen Victoria's reign, almost 80 per cent of the population was urban. Overcrowding and filthy living conditions, though, were a recipe for disaster, and diseases such as cholera, typhoid, scarlet fever, smallpox and puerperal (childbed) fever were a part of everyday life for (usually poor) town-and city-dwellers. However, thanks to a dedicated band of doctors, nurses, midwives, scientists, engineers and social reformers, by the time the Victorian era became the Edwardian, they were almost eradicated, and no longer a constant source of fear. Stephen Halliday tells the fascinating story of how these individuals fought opposition from politicians, taxpayers and often their own colleagues to overcome these diseases and make the country a safer place for everyone to live.

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For millennia the normal, natural and pleasurable activity of eating has been surrounded by fear and anxiety. Religious traditions have long decreed what foods are right for their followers to eat, but secularisation and scientific progress have not made the situation easier. Our present obsession with health, obesity, ethics and science has seemingly developed from a society that is over-supplied with the necessities of life. For the first time, social historian Stephen Halliday looks at the history of our fascinating relationship with food, from Galen in the first century AD declaring that fruit was the worst kind of food to eat, to John Kellogg's belief that eating wholegrain cereals would prevent masturbation and bring people closer to God. Through modern fears and food scares such as mad cow disease to our current fascination with superfoods, 'friendly' bacteria and organic farming, Our Troubles with Food is a thorough analysis of our changing attitudes towards food and a reminder that we are not so very different from our forbears after all.

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Cathedrals and abbeys are the most beautiful and iconic buildings of the British Isles, and have formed the bedrock of our nation for centuries. This absorbing collection of amazing and extraordinary facts opens the doors of these fascinating structures to reveal their rich historical and architectural heritage. From stories of English Popes, martyred archbishops and renegade bishops to iconoclastic kings, power-hungry nobles and architectural dynasties, as well as the role of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, we explore how the people and religion in Britain have shaped these buildings over the last 2,000 years. Also read about the architectural heritage of British cathedrals, from troublesome spires, stained glass wonders and buy-a-brick campaigns to abbeys in the sea, fortified castle-cathedrals and mass graves. Along with tales of famous memorials and artefacts, fascinating folklore and architectural feats, these intriguing and diverse facts will provide something for every enthusiast to dip into and relish.

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London is a city of markets: markets in meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, money, insurance, shipping and, occasionally, in stolen goods. As both a major port and the nation’s capital, it was almost inevitable that commerce became the bedrock on which the city has risen to be one of the world’s greatest modern marketplaces. Many of today’s street names remind the observant pedestrian of the commercial centres that were to be found in them in times past: Bread Street, Milk Street and Ironmonger Lane; London’s market history is all around us. Stephen Halliday’s book is a comprehensive account of the long, lurid and often controversial history of London’s markets, from Roman Londinium to the London of Boris Johnson, as well as a guide to visiting them (and emerging with a bargain). He explores the historic markets still in existence, and the sites of those that no longer exist, and recounts the fascinating stories of the famous, not-so-famous and sometimes infamous Londoners who have populated them, both as buyers and sellers, through the ages.

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Why did London have to wait so long for a main-line railway beneath its streets? For a few years in the mid-nineteenth century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s broad-gauge Great Western trains ran from Reading to Faringdon. Now, after many false starts, his vision is being realised as the Elizabeth Line prepares to carry passengers from Reading to the City once again, and beyond to Essex and Kent, using engineering that would have earned the admiration of the greatest Victorian engineers. London historian Stephen Halliday presents an engaging discussion of Crossrail’s fascinating origins and the heroic engineering that made it all possible.

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Over 200 underground railways are in service or under construction around the world. Many although of great importance to their cities and passengers are otherwise unremarkable, however others have fascinating stories to tell. With unique histories, unusual circumstances around their construction, unbelievable technical challenges to overcome, beautiful architecture and a whole host of colourful personalities this enthralling collection has it all. The first underground railway opened in London in 1863, with numerous major cities following, and since the year 2,000 an explosion in new systems with over 30 metros opening in China alone! From the Budapest World Heritage site, to the longest and busiest in Beijing; from the stunning architecture of Moscow to the mysterious Pyongyang Metro; from the Buenos Aires Subte the first in Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world to the forthcoming Crossrail in London and the City Rail Link, the first in New Zealand.

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There have been more prisons in London than in any other European city. Of these, Newgate was the largest, most notorious and worst. Built during the twelfth century, it became a legendary place - the inspiration of more poems, plays and novels than any other building in London. It was a place of cruelty and wretchedness, at various times holding Dick Turpin, Titus Oates, Daniel Defoe, Jack Sheppard and Casanova. Because prisons were privately run, any time spent in prison had to be paid for by the prisoner. Housing varied from a private cell with a cleaning woman and a visiting prostitute, to simply lying on the floor with no cover. Those who died inside - and only a quarter of prisoners survived until their execution day - had to stay in Newgate as a rotting corpse until relatives found the money for the body to be released. Stephen Halliday tells the story of Newgate's origins, the criminals it held, the punishments meted out and its rebuilding and reform. This is a compelling slice of London's social and criminal history.

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Whether you want to learn about the teenager's skeleton from 1550 BC found at Stonehenge, explore the history of Britain's favourite beverages, tea and coffee, or discover how taxation on windows coined the expression `daylight robbery', there is something for every enthusiast to dip into.

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London's Underground is one of the best-known and most distinctive aspects of the city. Since Victorian times, this remarkable feat of engineering has made an extraordinary contribution to the economy of the capital and played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. Stephen Halliday’s informative, entertaining, wide-ranging history of the Underground celebrates the vision and determination of the Victorian Pioneers who conceived this revolutionary transport system. His book records the scandal, disappointments, and disasters that have punctuated the story and the careers of the gifted, dedicated, sometimes corrupt individuals that have shaped its history. It also gives a fascinating insight into the neglected, often unseen aspects of this subterranean system - the dense network of tunnels, shafts and chambers that have been created beneath the city streets.

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‘An extraordinary history’ PETER ACKROYD, The Times‘A lively account of (Bazalgette’s) magnificent achievements. . . graphically illustrated’ HERMIONE HOBHOUSE‘Halliday is good on sanitary engineering and even better on cloaca, crud and putrefaction . . . (he) writes with the relish of one who savours his subject and has deeply researched it. . . splendidly illustrated’ RUTH RENDELLIn the sweltering summer of 1858, sewage generated by over two million Londoners was pouring into the Thames, producing a stink so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons.The Times called the crisis ‘The Great Stink’. Parliament had to act – drastic measures were required to clean the Thames and to improve London’s primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who rose to the challenge and built the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to this day. In the process, he cleansed the Thames and helped banish cholera.The Great Stink of London offers a vivid insight into Bazalgette’s achievements and the era in which he worked and lived, including his heroic battles with politicians and bureaucrats that would transform the face and health of the world’s then largest city.

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‘An extraordinary history’ PETER ACKROYD, The Times‘A lively account of (Bazalgette’s) magnificent achievements. . . graphically illustrated’ HERMIONE HOBHOUSE‘Halliday is good on sanitary engineering and even better on cloaca, crud and putrefaction . . . (he) writes with the relish of one who savours his subject and has deeply researched it. . . splendidly illustrated’ RUTH RENDELLIn the sweltering summer of 1858, sewage generated by over two million Londoners was pouring into the Thames, producing a stink so offensive that it drove Members of Parliament from the chamber of the House of Commons.The Times called the crisis ‘The Great Stink’. Parliament had to act – drastic measures were required to clean the Thames and to improve London’s primitive system of sanitation. The great engineer entrusted with this enormous task was Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who rose to the challenge and built the system of intercepting sewers, pumping stations and treatment works that serves London to this day. In the process, he cleansed the Thames and helped banish cholera.The Great Stink of London offers a vivid insight into Bazalgette’s achievements and the era in which he worked and lived, including his heroic battles with politicians and bureaucrats that would transform the face and health of the world’s then largest city.

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Lose yourself in the vast sewer networks that lie beneath the world’s great cities – past and present. Let detailed archival plans, maps and photographs guide you through these subterranean labyrinths – previously accessible only to their builders, engineers and, perhaps, the odd rogue explorer. This execrable exploration traces the evolution of waste management from the ingenious infra-structures of the ancient world to the seeping cesspits and festering open sewers of the medieval period. It investigates and celebrates the work of the civil engineers whose pioneering integrated sewer systems brought to a close the devastating cholera epidemics of the mid-19th century and continue to serve a vastly increased population today. And let’s not forget those giant fatbergs clogging our underground arteries, or the storm-surge super-structures of tomorrow.

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