Back by popular demand…

London. City of churches and markets, townhouses and terraces, two millennia of expansion, commerce and street life. The nation’s favourite architectural historian tells its story.

From Around the World in 80 Treasures to Marvels of the Modern Age, Adventures in Architecture to Towering Ambition, historian and broadcaster Dan Cruickshank has forged a reputation for erudition, wit and insight into the myriad ways that architects shape the human experience. Now he joins How To Academy for an illustrated tour of the architecture districts and people who made London, London.

From the mysterious Anglo-Saxon origins of Hampstead Heath, via Christopher Wren’s magisterial City churches, to the industrial bustle of Victorian Bermondsey, Dan will explore the crucial sites in our city’s history in a series of fascinating walks through London to try at your leisure – and reveal how the modern capital was forged.

Jumping between East Ham in the east and Kew in the west, encompassing both world-famous buildings to oft-overlooked local landmarks, Dan’s tales reveal not only the most important moments in London’s history, but also the forgotten characters who witnessed them: the Huguenot weavers who transformed Spitalfields into a vibrant enclave of Georgian London, the visionary architects behind the likes of Somerset House and the Houses of Parliament, and the streetwalkers who once thronged London’s great sexual highway.

Every street in the city contains a story. Dan Cruickshank is here with an invitation to hear them.

Praise for Dan Cruickshank:

‘Genial, erudite and companionable . . . this heroic and heartfelt book caps a career devoted to [Spitalfields’] heritage’ – Spectator

‘With beguiling erudition, TV historian and local resident Cruickshank tells the story of Spitalfields from Roman times to today . . . This is people’s history at its tastiest’ – Sunday Express

‘This is an elegy to a place changing beyond recognition . . . Cruickshank is an appealing, sympathetic writer.’ – The Times

‘Cruickshank brilliantly sketches the wild whirligig of drunkenness, debauchery, theft, exploitation, merriness, subversion, corruption, lust, fantasy, violence, disease, starvation and early death.’ – The Telegraph

‘This is a colossal melting pot of a book: ambitious, rigorously researched, vigorously narrated and marvellously illustrated. All of life is here, but not as we know it.’ – Sunday Times