Books by Tom Bolton

Tracking eleven rivers beneath London that have been culverted, placed in tunnels, or diverted into the sewer system.Below the pavements, out of sight, a network of secret rivers pulses beneath the capital's busy pavements. The second volume of London's Lost Rivers explores eleven more rivers that have been buried, hidden or mislaid across the city—watercourses that have been culverted, placed in tunnels, or diverted into the sewer system. But while they may be hidden from view, clues remain, and this book will show you how to find them. These eleven walks trace the routes of buried rivers, tracking the impression they have left on the landscape and cityscape of London. Walks include the little-known Cock and Pye Ditch that shaped Covent Garden, Tottenham's Moselle River (not to be confused with the French version), the East End's unsavory-sounding Black Ditch, and the Ravensbourne, linking rural Bromley to the heart of the British Navy at Deptford. Accompanied by S. F. Said's haunting and evocative Polaroid photographs, this guidebook tracks routes that are recorded on no map, stripping back the layers to reveal London's veins and arteries.

Telling the stories of ten areas of London—some of the city's most famous, and infamous neighbourhoods—which have disappeared from the A-Z.London is in a state of constant transformation, layer upon layer built up over centuries of destruction and reconstruction. There is so much change all around us that we scarcely notice it, but among the areas now vanished and forgotten are some of the city's most famous, and infamous, neighbourhoods.Vanished City takes us to ten areas, well-known in their day, which have disappeared from the A-Z. Each chapter tells the stories of places once known to every Londoner, including the most feared neighbourhood in the Western world, London's first Olympic Park, its first port, the original Grub Street, a high society spa resort, an occult square, a landscape of ancient, mythical kings, a notorious slum, and the streets stalked by the first London serial killer.Lost London lies right under our noses, in places we think we know and places we never thought to visit. Vanished City peels back the layers to reveal London as it used to be.