A new book tackles the darker side of London's history, with stories you won't have heard before.
It seems to be fashionable at the moment to slander London as a crime-ridden hell hole. A new book from Dr Drew Gray is an unintentional corrective, reminding us that the capital has always had its dark deeds and nefarious characters.
Dark London is presented a bit like one of those ubiquitous 'secret hidden off-the-beaten-track gems of London' books, which are now more numerous than straightforward guidebooks. Rather than build a narrative, the book provides dozens of standalone entries, which are short, snappy, richly illustrated and perfect for browse-reading.
But Dark London differs from these guides in two important ways. First, the subject matter. It's much darker, obviously, with sections on crime, death, vice and disaster. But it's also more original. Even keen London history fans won't have encountered half these stories, teased out of archives during years of research. We read about the sorry fate of Ann Marrow, blinded in the pillory for dressing up as a man and marrying three different women; the Tottenham Court Road gas explosion, which damaged 400 buildings and killed two people; and the female Jack the Ripper suspect whose bloody appurtenances were acquired by Madame Tussauds. The book is full of such stuff, all darkly fascinating.
Second, the author knows his onions. Dr Drew Gray of the University of Northampton is a social historian specialising in the history of crime and punishment. He's written several previous books on the subject and brings considerable expertise and authority to the project.
Dark London is not all-encompassing. It's sensibly limited to a period spanning from the mid-Georgian times up to the First World War. Anything older is less reliably recorded; anything newer and we're straying into living memory. This tightens the focus, further supplemented by short essays on aspects of social history, such as the Gin Craze, cholera epidemics and houses of correction.
All in all, Dark London is a gripping collection of "how have I never heard about that?" stories, which will make you question if you really know London's history at all.
Dark London by Drew Gray is out now from Frances Lincoln. Get it from Bookshop.org, which sources from independent bookshops, and helps support Londonist with a small commission.
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