London’s riverside in 1849

Old books. History. London.

Yes, these are things that make me curious and slightly giddy with delight when they all come along at once…

So I love Sydney Padua's post about her latest antique book purchase – a fold out panorama of London's riverside in 1849. Call it the Google Streetview of its time.

This is a section showing river traffic in Greenwich….

Have a look at the whole thing. It's gorgeous…

 

Typograhic history of the City of London

I’m posting a lot of videos recently. Maybe I should be setting up a Tumblr blog for this sort of thing. Maybe not.

Anyway, this is a gem: combining three of my interests: typography, London and history, it’s a short film by Michael Bokkowski at Linefeed:

A Typographic Survey of the City of London from Michael Bojkowski on Vimeo.

Definitely worth 15 minutes…

Via Peter Parkes

London to Brighton in four minutes

For all my friends and colleagues who do the Brighton to London yo-yo (a.k.a. the pain train, a.k.a the money train) here’s a treat from the BBC archives – spotted last night on iPlayer… 

Especially choice viewing for the shots of the passengers and the stations at the start and end of the journey. 

If only it were this fast. When I moved back to Brighton almost a decade ago there was a rumour pushed by estate agents that there would soon be a 30 minute express service.

But I quite like it as it is…