Oh, give me a good London history book any day of the week. There’s nothing like London history books for peeling back the layers of the city and taking a jaunt into its past sights, smells and sounds. The “magic lantern” has always fascinated writers, readers and historians, and for those of us who like to soak in the capital’s theatre of life, there is a wonderful selection to tantalise even the most seasoned time traveller. Here are 12 of my favourite London history books. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
You can buy these books direct from one of London’s fantastic independent bookshops, or you can buy them from my Amazon shopfront, where I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Happy reading and happy time-travelling!
The best London history books to dip in and out of
These two London history books are the ones I reach for again and again.
London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
Let’s start with the bible: Peter Ackroyd’s London, a tome which every self-respecting history lover needs to read at least once. It isn’t simply a history book about London, it’s a biography of the “fleshy and voracious” city, with all its grisly warts exposed. This juggernaut is one for dipping in and out of, with chapters dedicated to theatre, crime, radicals, violence, greed and fire. Ackroyd’s gritty, smelly, incandescent and cacophonous love letter to London will leave you hot under the collar.
Buy London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
If ever there was a record of real Restoration London, this is it. The most famous diary in the English language is filled with the mundane record of everyday seventeenth century London, together with some of the juiciest tidbits in London history. Pepys witnessed everything from the bubonic plague to the Great Fire of 1666, and he kept a close eye on the rise of Nell Gwyn.
Georgian and Regency London history books
Next, two London history books that bring the age of Hogarth and Austen to life.
Georgian London: Into the Streets by Lucy Inglis
Tuck into this delicious romp through Hanoverian London, a time when the capital left her medieval self behind and morphed into a vibrant, modern city, bursting at the seams. Inglis starts and ends with St Paul’s, sweeping over the metropolis in between and delivering bite-size morsels of each area and the streets within. You’ll meet the people who inhabited Spitalfields, Soho, Marylebone and Mayfair, including Peter the Wild Boy, the Hackney justice Henry Norris, the Huguenot silversmith Paul de Lamerie and the two Billys of Cavendish Square.
Buy Georgian London by Lucy Inglis
Jane Austen’s London by Louise Allen
This one is for all Regency, Jane Austen and Bridgerton fans. Through a series of separate walks, the reader follows in Jane Austen’s footsteps around the capital. It’s full of delicious Regency anecdotes and a must-have for all Janeites out there.
Buy Jane Austen’s London by Louise Allen
Victorian London history books
Then come the Victorian London history books, perfect for fans of Dickens and gaslight.
Dickens’s Dictionary of London 1888
This fascinating dictionary, written by Charles Dickens’s son in 1888, is actually more of a Victorian London guide book. It offers real insight into the city with some 700 detailed entries, including gentlemen’s clubs, theatres, banks, chop houses and railways.
The snippets of advice are most entertaining. You’ll learn how to detect a confidence trickster, avoid carriage thieves, and why American-style “loafing” in the streets should always be avoided. You will also learn that a trip to the zoo on Sunday must be carried out in full dress “with gloves, chimney-pot hat, orthodox morning coat”, and that evening dress at the theatre is only recommended in the stalls. “Do not wear a scarlet opera-cloak however, if you can help it.”
Buy Dickens’s Dictionary of London by Charles Dickens
The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London by Judith Flanders
It was the best of times and the worst of times in Victorian London, and no one captured it more masterfully than Charles Dickens. His pages bottled Victorian London’s DNA: the poor, the rich, the slums, the good, the bad and the very ugly. A voracious walker, Dickens would spend hours night-stalking Londoners, only to come home at dawn and start scribbling away.
Flanders’ excellent book takes us on a sensory journey through Dickens’s London: the slums, cemeteries, gin palaces, markets and teeming streets. Dickens would definitely recommend this one for your next book club. Another good one by the same author is The Victorian House. For more on the great man himself, see Charles Dickens London.
Buy The Victorian City by Judith Flanders
London history books to take on a walk
Finally, two London history books that double as guide books, so you can follow them street by street.
London: A Travel Guide Through Time by Matthew Green
Not for the faint-hearted, this is no ordinary guide. It will yank you by the hand and pummel you into the streets of yester-London. You’ll get a taste of what it’s like to live in medieval London with its dark, carnivorous churches. You won’t know whether to fight or take flight in Shakespearean London with its bull and bear fighting. Joseph Merrick’s Victorian London is also on the menu, with its cobbled, shadowy streets, as is London during the Blitz. It’s a corker of a London history book, and once you go down Dr Green’s rabbit hole, there’s no turning back.
Buy London: A Travel Guide Through Time by Matthew Green
Walking Literary London by Roger Tagholm
Love Dickens, Woolf, Barrie, Eliot, Johnson or Hardy? Get thee to a bookshop and buy this bookish walking guide. Twenty-five perambulations across the city will have you swooning for the pubs, restaurants, bookshops, libraries and gardens where your favourite authors of yesterday once stood. A must-buy for all lovers of London literature, and a lovely match for a visit to one of London’s best café bookshops.
Buy Walking Literary London by Roger Tagholm
If you only buy one of these London history books
Curiocity by Henry Eliot and Matt Lloyd-Rose
This is my go-to when I’m gifting a London guide book to someone who loves London and its history just about as much as I do. It’s a dip-in, dip-out book, and one where you’ll discover some of the most interesting, quirky and “I can’t believe” facts about London. You’ll find trivia about the erotic, rules of conduct, subterranean London and the occult. It’s the cat’s pyjamas when it comes to London history books and guide books.
Buy Curiocity by Henry Eliot and Matt Lloyd-Rose
Other notable London history books
- Hidden Treasures of London by Michael McNay
- London Lore by Steve Roud
- London Peculiars by Peter Ashley
Do you have a favourite among London history books? Please leave me a comment below! If you love time-travelling, you might also enjoy Midnight in London: Where Would Woody Allen Go?
First written in 2021 and updated since. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.