The Face of London is an expansive illustrated history and topographical survey of London.
Harold P. Clunn examines London through its streets, neighbourhoods, public buildings, commercial districts, churches, monuments and institutions, tracing the transformation of the capital across the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Rather than presenting London solely as a sequence of dates and events, Clunn approaches the city as a changing physical landscape. He explores the history behind familiar streets and buildings, explains what previously occupied particular sites and records the disappearance, alteration or rebuilding of many important landmarks.
The book is especially valuable for its extensive visual record. More than 200 black-and-white illustrations bring together historic engravings, paintings and photographs, frequently allowing the reader to compare earlier London with its later appearance.
Among the locations represented are the Bank of England, Cornhill, Lombard Street, the Mansion House, the Stock Exchange, Temple Bar, Fleet Street, Cheapside and the former City of London School.
The revised edition updates Clunn’s original work and provides a broad portrait of London before and during the enormous changes of the twentieth century.
It will appeal to readers interested in London history, British architecture, historic streetscapes, urban development and the preservation of vanished buildings.
The book includes an attractive vintage personalised bookmark bearing a blind-embossed circular design with the surname “DENHAM” and a central capital “D.” It was presumably associated with a former owner of the book.
First published in 1932, the work became one of Clunn’s best-known topographical studies. The completely new and revised text was issued by Phoenix House in 1951, with this later Spring Books issue generally dated 1957.
