London's Secrets: Bizarre & Curious

2014 | Travel

London is a city with an abundance of bizarre and curious places and stories, being ancient, vast and in a constant state of regeneration. Newcomers have, of course, a wealth of world-famous attractions to keep them occupied for a month of Sundays, which are more than adequately covered in a plethora of standard guidebooks. What London's Secrets: Bizarre & Curious does is take you off the beaten path to seek out the more unusual places that often fail to register on the radar of both visitors and residents alike. It also highlights unexpected and often overlooked aspects and attractions of some of London's more famous tourist sites. London's Secrets: Bizarre & Curious includes some of the city's most unusual buildings, striking public artworks, outrageous museum and gallery exhibits, hauntings (including by animals), legends and much more. Entries range from Britain's oldest door to the beginning of body-snatching, from dummy house facades to London's unluckiest spot, from a legal brothel to the capital's most haunted theatre, and from the original skull and crossbones to what has a strong claim to be London's campest statue.

Although this book isn't intended as a walking guide, many of the places covered are close to each other in central London - notably in the hubs of Westminster and the City - where you can easily stroll between them, while others are further out in the suburbs. However, all are close to public transport links and relatively easy to get to. And, conveniently for a city with a (largely unfounded) reputation for rain - London actually enjoys a lower annual rainfall than New York, Rome or Sydney - many of the attractions are indoors, meaning you can visit them whatever the weather.

Graeme Chesters (Author)