Book Launch - London: The Great Transformation 1860 - 1920
This event will take place in person.
In Philip Davies’s first bestselling book Lost London: 1870–1945, readers were mesmerised by the wealth of information early photographs of London conveyed, yet these images were taken from just a single source and concentrated on a relatively small area of the city.
Aware that there was a much greater story to tell, London: The Great Transformation 1860-1920 has drawn together London’s architectural and social history into a seamless whole. Over 10 years of research in more than 25 archives at home and abroad has produced a unique visual record of the capital as it expanded into the world’s greatest city.
The book contains over 800 carefully restored historic photographs, the core of which is drawn from the rich collections of full-plate images preserved at Bishopsgate Institute. These have been painstakingly cleaned and restored to reveal staggering levels of detail of long-forgotten people and places.
Signed copies of the book will be available on the night for a discounted price of £40 (normal price £50).
How we’re keeping you safe
August 2022 update: Keeping you safe and healthy is our number one priority.
If you test positive for Covid-19 or are asked to isolate and are not able to attend your class or pre-booked event, please contact the Bishopsgate Box Office for further information (enquiries@bishopsgate.org.uk). Please do not come to the Institute in person if you have symptoms or have tested positive.
Bishopsgate Institute has a thorough cleaning schedule in place and we clean the most populated areas more often. You will find hand-sanitising stations throughout the building as well as touch-free drinking fountains.
Find out more about how we’re keeping you safe.
Sign up to our newsletter
Be the first to learn about our latest events, courses, and collections
Need to Know
Meet the Speakers
Philip Davies
Philip Davies is one of the country’s leading heritage experts, a historian and a planner, with his own international heritage consultancy. A former Planning and Development Director at English Heritage, he has been at the forefront of managing change to some of the most important and historic buildings and places in London, the UK and the Commonwealth for almost 50 years.
He is a Trustee of numerous conservation charities in the UK and overseas. A tireless global champion for heritage conservation, and an international authority on the architecture and monuments of the British Empire and Commonwealth, he is the founder and Chairman of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum which provides expert advice, guidance and training on heritage issues across the Commonwealth.
Philip is also the best-selling author of 13 books on London, India and Burma. Described as ‘a publishing phenomenon’, Lost London 1870-1945 was shortlisted for the prestigious Spears Book Prize, and it remains one of the best-selling books on London ever published.
Dan Cruickshank
Dan Cruickshank is an author, architectural historian and broadcaster. His books on London life and architecture include: London: the Art of Georgian Buildings; Life in the Georgian City; A History of the Royal Hospital Chelsea; The Secret History of Georgian London: how the sex industry shaped the capital; Spitalfields: a History of a Nation in a Handful of Streets; Cruickshank’s London; Soho: its history, architecture and people, and Built in Chelsea.
Cruickshank is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architecture; was a visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Sheffield; has served on the Executive Committee of the Georgian Group and on the Architecture Panel of the National Trust, and is a founding Trustee of the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust.
Dates and Times
Book Launch - London: The Great Transformation 1860 - 1920
, 5:35 - 7:35
