Books: London pride comes to life

By BARBARA HARRIS

London Dawn to Dusk
By Jenny Oulton and David Paterson
New Holland, $69.95


Churches and Cathedrals of London
Stephen Humphrey and James Morris
New Holland, $69.95


A life in the day of London is the idea behind this glossy coffee-table book. Its author, actor and tour guide Jenny Oulton, joined landscape photographer David Paterson to give us glimpses of the metropolis in all its guises.

But it's Paterson who sets the tone, with the buildings and landscape given star billing and people reduced to bit-parts: the glinting skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, a deserted Trafalgar Square, the quiet of early morning in the royal parks.

The people emerge from history in Oulton's anecdotes, such as the one about Lock & Co, the hat shop in St James' St where Nelson had a hat made with a built-in eyeshade and where the Iron Duke chose a little plumed number for his Waterloo campaign.

Then there is George III's footman, Charles Fortnum. While servant to the mad king, he was allowed to sell partly used candles from the palace.

This job perk led to the founding of one of London's most famous provisioners - Fortnum and Mason.

Out of the same stable is the lavish and authoritative Churches and Cathedrals of London. By the 1990s many of London's finest churches were locked outside service times. Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, who wrote the foreword, managed to get the doors open again by establishing the Open Churches Trust. Stephen Humphrey, an expert on ecclesiastical architecture, and photographer James Morris have picked up the gauntlet to record the impact of the church on the capital.

The crowning glory is Westminster Abbey where, for almost a millennium, monarchs have been enthroned.

Not as grand, but important nevertheless, is St Mary Le Bow in Cheapside, where those born within sound of the bells can call themselves Cockneys. The bells played a very important role in the Second World War when a BBC recording of their peal brought hope to millions in occupied Europe.

It was the Great Fire of 1666, when 86 churches were razed, that galvanised the city to action. A coal tax was introduced to pay for their rebuilding under Sir Christopher Wren's direction.

But this inheritance is at risk. In 1993 one of the seven medieval churches to survive the Great Fire and the Blitz - St Ethelburga's in Bishopsgate - was bombed by the IRA. It is still being restored.

Buy London Dawn to Dusk online @ FlyingPig