24 Hours London - Marsha Moore

As a blogger who now gets asked to review books, a never ending source of amazement to me, one never knows what is going to turn up next.  Emails drop into my In box from publishers and authors I can safely say are strangers to me, not I hasten to add because they are unpublishable - far from it, but because we live in a publishing world where getting a book reviewed, unless you are Salman Rushdie or Antonia Byatt, is still a difficulty.

So when Marsha Moore asked if she could send me a copy of her guide book 24 Hours London, I thought why not?  It sounded slightly out of the norm and heaven knows there are enough Ten Best Sights and Ten Best Monument type guides around.  If you want to see the Houses of Parliament or Big Ben or Nelson's Column then you all know where to go and where to find them, but of course there are plenty of other intriguing and out of the way places to visit as well.  

This guide is based on the premise that London is now a 24 hour city, never used to be when I was a teenager unless you knew the back streets of Soho and like places very well, and Marsha Moore's neat little guide book (easy to pop in your bag) gives you an hour by hour choice of places to visit and things to do throughout the 24 hours. 

My initial thought when I started to look through this book was that I was never going to need to know what to do in London at 2 am.  At that time of night I am firmly tucked up under the duvet, fast asleep and probably snoring. Even when I lived in London in the so called Swinging Sixties, I was singularly lacking in get up and go and viewed an evening spent clubbing, dancing round my handbag and pretending to be 'cool', as a crashing bore.  I am now in my Sixties and even less 'cool' but in the interests of reviewing, I turned to the page headed up 02.00 and I can tell you now that if you are out and about at this time, you can visit Club Aquarium 'the only club in the UK with a pool, you can swim some lengths, get steamy in the Jacuzzi, or work it out on the dance floor'. You are warned that should you go there on a Saturday night the weekly back to the seventies Carwash event dictates glitter and spray on neon hair colour.  If you feel peckish after a few lengths then Somine in Dalston, is a Turkish restaurant open round the clock so you can fill up on kebabs or the special of the day.

I am a morning person so am more likely to find the first part of this book more helpful and I am delighted to see that the Bar Italia in Frith Street is still going.  I used to pop in there when I worked in Oxford Street as a teenager on a Saturday job, and it was great fun sitting there drinking a frothy coffee (that was what it was called in those days) and watching the world go by.  Marsha also mentions, again to my delight, the Route 11 London bus which starts from Liverpool Street and ends at Fulham Broadway.  I still use this route now when I come up to London and head for the West End and I agree with her that sitting on the top deck of the bus, front seat if possible, you will have a wonderful view as the bus trundles through the City, past the Bank of England and Mansion House, St Pauls, Fleet Street, Royal Courts of Justice.  I am up in London tomorrow and shall be hopping on the No 11 - I never tire of it so am very pleased that it is mentioned.   And if, as suggested here, you get on the bus between 5 and 6 am, you will see the City slowly come to life.

I keep dipping in and out of this snappy book and, though the 24 hour aspect of it will appeal more to others than I, it has some simply fascinating and interesting little snippets of information and places to visit which I have marked up.  Next time I am in London I am going to check some of them out.

One entry I must bring to your attention: "The largest cemetery in britain is at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. As 19th century graveyards filled up the search was on to find a place that could serve the capital's burial needs".

The only problem with the location of this graveyard is how to get the bodies out of London to Surrey. Now get this - the London Necropolis Railway (what a name!) was formed to take the coffins from Waterloo to Brookwood and 'depending on the dead's religious persuasion, trains would pull into either the conformist or non-conformist station at the cemetery'.  The trains continued running until the Second World War when the London station was bombed and the cemetery tracks were removed in the late 1940s.

This is why I delight in guide books such as this one.  I knew nothing about the Necropolis Railway so I nipped off and did a google and came up with all sorts of references to it, read one here and this, I know, is going to send me off on even more searching.

Well, I had better stop else I will be hurling facts at you from all sides.  I know I have a lot of overseas visitors, particularly in the USA, so if any of you are contemplating a visit to London in the future, I really recommend this quirky, fascinating guide which will tell you the best bookshops (of vital importance), where to get a good cup of tea, coffee, cakes (the Orangery in Kensington Park Gardens which I visited recently is mentioned and it is gorgeous), which markets to visit, which museums (Bank of England one sounds great where you can hold a gold bar in your hand and see its impressive collection of forgeries), Inflatable boat trips up the River and more and more and more.

Do check out this film on YouTube which links with the book and shows you just how much fun you can have in the 24 hour City -

Neat sized, easy to carry around, punchy writing with contact numbers, nearest Tube stations to all attractions mentioned, and totally fascinating, this is a guide that will add another layer of enjoyment to your visit. 

I love this book - great stuff.

Comments

[Verity]

Wow - I love the idea of a nightclub with a swimming pol!

[Virginia]

The London Necropolis Railway - I clicked on your link - there is just no end to human ingenuity! !

[Jan Jones]

Brilliant, Elaine!

[Simon S]

I do think that every Londoner (like me ha) should have copies of books like this as I know when one day I return to my Northern Routes or move to Brazil I will miss the city and look back and wonder at all the things I could have done but didnt.

[Veronica]

You must read The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin,the first in a very atmospheric historical crime series.