Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating reading
Review: "City Secrets London" is a fun read, compiled from writers, journalists, artists and architects take on what's the best of the London they know. Although I've got a house full of books on London and thought I knew most of the secrets, by reading if not by seeing, there were a lot of new things in this slim volume. The writing is so good, the sense of place so immediate, that it feels like a virtual tour of London, without a single photo. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: I've lived in London for 30 years and enjoy cycling around the place (an excellent way to get around, incidentally, but it would be irresponsible of me to recommend it to visitors), so I was intrigued by this book and pleasantly surprised at the selection, which contains most of my favourite places and pointed me in the direction of some I wasn't aware of. London is ideally suited to this kind of approach; there's a dislocation between tourist London, mostly centered around Westminster with maybe a trip downriver to St Pauls or the Tower, and the vast city where people live, most of which is unknown territory to tourists. Partly it's that old self-deprecatory British thing....why on earth would anyone want to come to this dump?....so all these marvellous places remain obscure and largely unloved. Take Hawksmoor's churches for instance. If they were in Paris or Rome they'd be set in squares lined with expensive cafes, with postcard stands dotted all over and coachloads of Japanese tourists milling around trying to get the best camera angle. As it's London they're stuck next to busy main roads, or buried away in the middle of nowhere - like St George's-in-the-East, mentioned in passing here, on a desolate stretch of main road somewhere on the way to Limehouse. Which actually suits them as there's something dark and lonely about them anyway, and they really couldn't be anywhere else but London. And that's somehow typical of the place...it's not often beautiful but it's endlessly fascinating. So let me do my bit for the London tourist trade and encourage y'all to come on over. Forget those silly guide books with pictures of beefeaters or the changing of the guard on the cover, and try this instead for a glimpse into a far more interesting and rewarding city.
Rating:
Summary: Fine guide for your second trip
Review: LONDON CITY SECRETS is a little book of good places to visit the next time you're in England. The authors describe their book as a "highly subjective" collection of recommendations, not an all-inclusive list of places to eat, sleep, visit in London. The folks making the recommendations are artists, writers, historians, and others who live and work in London. They share favorite spots to eat; favorite paintings, sculptures or museums; favorite walks, historical houses and other spots discovered over the years. LONDON CITY SECRETS is divided into 13 areas: 1/ Trafalgar Square, Soho and Covent Garden; 2/ St James, Westminster, & the Embankment; 3/ Hyde Park & Chelsea; 4/ Oxford Street and Mayfair; 5/ Regent's Park & Camden Town; 6/ Bloomsbury & King's Cross; 7/ Islington & Clerkenwell; 8/ The City (of London); 9/ The South Bank; 10/ Notting Hill & The West; 11/ Hampstead & The North; 12/ The East End & Beyond; and 13/ South of the River. Because the selections are subjective, the National Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum are mentioned, whereas the National Maritime Museum is not. Fortnum and Mason is included, Mark's & Spencer is not. Scrubb's prison is listed, the Tower of London is not. Plenty of good places to eat are listed, no good places to sleep are included. Never thought you'd visit Islington? You might find yourself eating at the Smithfield Market, Moro's, or the Quality Chop House. Think the East End is a dump? You might discover a science fiction ride on the nighttime tube. Symbols are placed next to sites with London Underground stops and places to eat. Plenty of bars, pubs, and other assorted oddball watering holes are included. The various authors, artists, etc. also recommend plenty of additional reading material about favorite spots. LONDON CITY SECRETS is eccentric, esoteric, and entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Hot tips from old hands....
Review: LONDON CITY SECRETS is a little book of good places to visit the next time you're in England. The authors describe their book as a "highly subjective" collection of recommendations, not an all-inclusive list of places to eat, sleep, visit in London. The folks making the recommendations are artists, writers, historians, and others who live and work in London. They share favorite spots to eat; favorite paintings, sculptures or museums; favorite walks, historical houses and other spots discovered over the years. LONDON CITY SECRETS is divided into 13 areas: 1/ Trafalgar Square, Soho and Covent Garden; 2/ St James, Westminster, & the Embankment; 3/ Hyde Park & Chelsea; 4/ Oxford Street and Mayfair; 5/ Regent's Park & Camden Town; 6/ Bloomsbury & King's Cross; 7/ Islington & Clerkenwell; 8/ The City (of London); 9/ The South Bank; 10/ Notting Hill & The West; 11/ Hampstead & The North; 12/ The East End & Beyond; and 13/ South of the River. Because the selections are subjective, the National Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum are mentioned, whereas the National Maritime Museum is not. Fortnum and Mason is included, Mark's & Spencer is not. Scrubb's prison is listed, the Tower of London is not. Plenty of good places to eat are listed, no good places to sleep are included. Never thought you'd visit Islington? You might find yourself eating at the Smithfield Market, Moro's, or the Quality Chop House. Think the East End is a dump? You might discover a science fiction ride on the nighttime tube. Symbols are placed next to sites with London Underground stops and places to eat. Plenty of bars, pubs, and other assorted oddball watering holes are included. The various authors, artists, etc. also recommend plenty of additional reading material about favorite spots. LONDON CITY SECRETS is eccentric, esoteric, and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: It's no secret. This is a little gem.
Review: LONDON, of the City Secrets series of travel guides, is a little gem that will easily fit into a pocket of your travel vest as you set out to explore what is arguably the world's greatest city. This volume, small in size but rich in information, divides Britain's capital into thirteen areas according to a scheme that escapes me. However, no matter. Each area, e.g. Hyde Park & Chelsea, The City, Oxford Street & Mayfair, or The East End & Beyond, is preceded by a map on which is marked each point of interest included in that section. And what you will find are both famous and little-known museums, historic buildings, art galleries, libraries, shops, pubs, churches, eateries, parks, squares, streets, memorials, and gardens. Each includes, at least, an address or location and the name of the nearest Underground or rail station. If relevant, there's also a phone number and/or the date the place was founded or constructed. The core of each listing is a short descriptive commentary by a contributing journalist, architect, philosopher, playwright, professor, author, historian, poet, curator, or some other professional of similar dignity. At the end of the book are an Index of Recommended Reading and an Index of Contributors. What you won't find are budget hotels, American fast-food franchises, newsagents, or 24-hour chemists (pharmacies) reviewed by backpacking college students, traveling salesmen, lorry drivers, or tourists from the Midwest. This is a genteel publication. LONDON is a delightful and uncommonly intelligent sightseeing resource for those of us who've been to the city often enough to have exhausted the usual tourist activities and are left with making silly faces at the Buckingham Palace guard to try and crack his reserve. And besides the information that might be considered usual for each of the listings, the contributors also provide tidbits of arcane information that the casual visitor would likely not know or learn, as in the following example. Regarding Oxford Street: "Plans drawn up in 1972 to transform Oxford Street into 'a tree-lined paradise' must have fallen down the back of somebody's sofa, because the busiest street in Britain can still ... make you lose the will to live - mainly at Christmas, when bright-eyed shoppers ... spill out of the ground at Oxford Circus and congeal in a fog of bus fumes and freshly roasted caramel nuts ... Nick Leonidas, blinded by yellow fever as a child, has busked here since 1981: five days a week, 52 weeks a year, 11am to 7pm with a half-hour break at three." LONDON in hand, I'm ready to return to my favorite city - now.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best city guidebook I own
Review: This book steered me safely and happily through London. Its recommendations are spot on, and made me wish I could spend months in London to track them all down. If you want to see the odd, off-beat London, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best city guidebook I own
Review: This book steered me safely and happily through London. Its recommendations are spot on, and made me wish I could spend months in London to track them all down. If you want to see the odd, off-beat London, buy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book was lucky to receive so many good reviews, I'm actually quite surprised. I've lived in London off and on for several years and as a hobby have purchased many "walking" books of London. Of all those purchased, I was most disappointed with this one. Unless you enjoy looking at the outside of ordinary homes once owned by mildly famous people from 150 years ago or visiting small parks (I mean "tranquil spaces") about the size of a postage stamp, you will be disappointed. There are far more interesting spots in London not visited by the average tourist that one will find more interesting due to it's colorful history or natural beauty. If you are on holiday here, there were many recommendations that would be a waste of time. Many of the city secrets I expected to see where not even mentioned, save Sir Soane's Museum, which is not often visited but which I highly recommend. I was especially amused by the recommedation of seeing some of the city's hospitals. The book also overly referenced obscure art galleries (I felt this way even though I am an art buff) . The pubs mentioned are certainly not city secrets and some I wouldn't walk across the street to visit. As a city insider who has lived here and is married to a Brit, I was disappointed. I recommend the Richard Jones books for truly entertaining and well researched walks around London.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite guide book for London
Review: This is the quintessential guide for anyone who wants to visit the rare and cool side of London. I found a lot of really wonderful ?off the beaten path? kind of places via this guide. It has great, quirky restaurant suggestions, and tips on getting into strange museums (like the type museum!). A must have for those of us who like to pretend we?re locals and know all the ?secrets? of the city.
Rating:
Summary: If you thought you knew London, wait until you read this
Review: This new series is indeed a revelation: I bought "City Secrets London" after being most impressed with "Rome" and "Venice, Florence and Italian Cities", and London edition did not disappoint. In the world where simplification is all the rage, these little books seem like a welcome greeting from a bygone era. "No nonsense" books they are not: some people may call these guides unashamedly elitist. Most of the contributors seem so knowleadgeable that many readers may feel the whole content is too high-brow for them. I would be disappointed if this impression were to scare readers off. However, author's decision not to dumb down anything has to come at a cost, and if that cost is losing readers who expect a dumbed-down quick cheap-and-cheerful guide to London of Beefeaters and "Buckin'-Ham" Palace, so be it. Please do not mistake this for a proper guide which will give you general getting-around, hotels, eating-out and tourist highlight guidance. For this, you'll be better off with Eyewitness London. City Secrets is for people who basically know the city but want to find out little quirky things that other people miss (quite predictably and justifiably, because not everyone has time for in-depth look). City Secrets is all about the stuff that all really good human guides use: nuggets of information, crafty access to places, best-view routes and other things which make all the difference between an average guided tour and a really memorable experience. Contrary to what many casual travellers believe, London - although not blessed with relaxed Parisian charm or haunting and menacing spell of Florence - can be very cosy, friendly and pleasing to the eye and to the soul. If you think you like London and if you are likely to visit the city more than once in your life, you'll definitely need this book.
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