Book Review: Shit London by Patrick Dalton

M@
By M@ Last edited 151 months ago
Book Review: Shit London by Patrick Dalton

As a city, London isn't shit, it just has shitness in it...and in that shitness it excels.

Welcome to a short book of scrawled knobs, ill-advised business names, doctored posters and unfortunate headlines. Patrick Dalton's compendium of photographs shows London at its most turdsome.

The first three photos set the tone: a carriage-length graffito on Wimbledon railway sidings that shouts 'TRAIN WANKERS!' to passing commuters; a Hackney Gazette billboard that mixes headlines to reveal 'Man Dies In Human Fireball...Again'; and the mildly imaginative editing of the Haringey street sign for Winkfield Road.

The images in Shit London are drawn from Dalton's web site of the same name. Only a joyless grumpian or an officious public environment official would remain unamused by the collection.

It's short. You'll be tittering for no more than 10 minutes. But as a toilet book, it excels in class.

Shit London by Patrick Dalton is out now from Portico. Buy here.

Last Updated 23 August 2011