The Bumper Book of London: Everything You Need to Know About London and More...

by Becky Jones, Clare Lewis

Overview

This entertaining and informative book includes every fact, figure, statistic and hidden secret of London that will be of interest to children. Mixing history with literature, listings with trivia, it opens windows on all areas of London's rich past and present. Here children will learn about London's art and architecture, landmarks, hidden places, ghosts, pearly kings and queens, festivals, street names, games, traditions, markets, football teams, and much, much more.
Discover the oldest, the tallest, the silliest, the scariest and the smallest things in London. Shop till you drop at the Queen's favourite stores. Delve into London's murky past, see where notorious criminals were hanged, drawn and quartered, pirates were strung out to rot, heads were mounted on spikes and prisoners were tortured. Peer down London's oldest loo, chant with the crowds at London's first football club, and walk under the River Thames without getting wet.
The Bumper Book of London will satisfy every child's appetite for facts and figures - as well as providing fodder for desperate parents who have run out of answers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781011034
Publisher:	Frances Lincoln
Publication date:	06/06/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	154 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 18 Years

About the Author

Becky Jones is a documentary film maker specialising in science, history and arts programmes at the BBC and Chanel 4. The skills of fact finding, research and travelling across the globe have been honed and brought closer to home with the series of guide books Adventure Walks for Families books she has created with journalist colleague Clare Lewis. The books inspire children and families to get out and about, exploring the stories and games of an old fashioned outdoors childhood through a good tramp in the countryside. Born and bred as Londoners, and following the success of Adventure Walks for Families, Becky and Clare have since produced London Adventure Walks, The Adventurer's Notebook and The Bumper Book of London. To find out more about Adventure Walks for Families, have a look at the website
www.adventurewalksforfamilies.co.uk

or sign up to their facebook page Adventure Walks for Families and tweet on @adventurewalks Both live with their families in London.

Clare Lewis is a journalist and former managing editor at Conde Nast, IPC and National Magazines, including Tatler, Brides, Country Living and Homes and Gardens specialising in articles on crafts, design and interiors. Her skills as a commissioning editor and writer have given her an eye for detail and putting words and pictures together in a clear format. Together with television producer Becky Jones, she created the Adventure Walks for Families series of guide books, inspiring children and families to get out and about, exploring the stories and games of an old fashioned outdoors childhood through a good tramp in the countryside. The success of the first book in the series, together with Clare's knowledge of London (as a true cockney, she was born and bred within the sound of Bow Bells) has led to the publication of London Adventure Walks, The Adventurer's Notebook and The Bumper Book of London. To find out more about Adventure Walks for Families, have a look at the website
www.adventurewalksforfamilies.co.uk

or sign up to their facebook page Adventure Walks for Families and tweet on @adventurewalks Both live with their families in London.
Clare Lewis is a journalist and former managing editor at Conde Nast, IPC and National Magazines, including Tatler, Brides, Country Living and Homes and Gardens specialising in articles on crafts, design and interiors. Her skills as a commissioning editor and writer have given her an eye for detail and putting words and pictures together in a clear format. Together with television producer Becky Jones, she created the Adventure Walks for Families series of guide books, inspiring children and families to get out and about, exploring the stories and games of an old fashioned outdoors childhood through a good tramp in the countryside. The success of the first book in the series, together with Clare's knowledge of London (as a true cockney, she was born and bred within the sound of Bow Bells) has led to the publication of London Adventure Walks, The Adventurer's Notebook and The Bumper Book of London. To find out more about Adventure Walks for Families, have a look at the website www.adventurewalksforfamilies.co.uk or sign up to their facebook page Adventure Walks for Families and tweet on @adventurewalksBoth live with their families in London.

Read an Excerpt

Tudor and Elizabethan London: 1485-1603



In 1485, London was two cities: one to the east around St Paul's and one to the west in Westminster. Open countryside lay in between, much of it owned by the monasteries. There was still only one bridge across the Thames, old London Bridge. Ferrymen taxied people across to the theatres in Southwark for a penny.

Coal boats from Newcastle and boats laden with trading goods sailed up the river all the way to Westminster, and up the Fleet River to Holborn. Shipbuilding yards opened in Deptford and Woolwich to build boats for the expanding navy.

London's merchants unloaded cargoes of fine cloth, silks, carpets, wines, spices, sugar, jewels, saltpetre for guns, potatoes and tobacco. Adventurers set sail from London to trade in the newly discovered Americas. Explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake, sailed off in search of Spanish gold.

Great Tudor mansions graced the banks of the Thames all the way from Hampton to Greenwich. Chelsea became known as 'the village of palaces'. Wealthy Elizabethan men would spend the morning sauntering in the aisles of St Paul's Cathedral, flirting with women and showing off their new clothes. There were big markets at Cheapside and Leadenhall, and City men drank at the Pope's Head Tavern on Cornhill for a penny a pint and hunk of bread. A man called William Lamb put up a new water pipe for Londoners in Lambs Conduit Street in 1577.

London was growing fast: in 1563, it had a population of 90,000 people. By the end of the Elizabeth I's reign in 1603, over 200,000 people lived in London. England was the richest and most powerful country in Europe, and London was its influential capital. It was called the Golden Age.



* There is a portrait of every Tudor king and queen at the National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square.

* Sutton House in Hackney is the oldest house in east London, dating back to 1535.

* The black-and-white half-timbered Staple Inn, on High Holborn, is the only Elizabethan shopfront left in London, dating back to 1586. It was once where wool was weighed and taxed.

* The seventeenth-century George Inn, off Borough High Street, is the only London pub that still has a galleried yard, where plays were once performed.

* Richmond Green was one of the most famous jousting spots of Tudor London, just next to Richmond Palace.

* Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge in Epping Forest is a very tall building where from the top floor she and her courtiers could watch the hunt in progress and fire their crossbows.

* There is a monument to the Elizabethan writer John Stow at St Andrews Undershaft Church. On 5 April each year in a special ceremony the Lord Mayor replaces the statue's feather quill pen with a fresh one. The old quill is given to a child who has written the best essay on London.



London's oldest schools

London's wealthy, including merchants and the guilds, opened new schools across the city throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries:

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL: founded in 1560 by Elizabeth I

CITY OF LONDON SCHOOL: set up in a bequest by the Town Clerk of London, John Carpenter, in 1442 to educate four boys from Guildhall Chapel

MERCHANT TAYLORS': established in 1561 by the Merchant Taylors' Company, one of London's livery companies

CHRIST'S HOSPITAL: set up by the Lord Mayor in 1552, for boys and girls

ST PAUL'S SCHOOL: founded in 1509 by the Mercers' Company at St Paul's Cathedral

DAME ALICE OWEN: founded in 1613 by the Brewers' Company for thirty Islington boys.



School rules

London schools had lots of rules: 'no running, no jumping, no chattering or playing, no carr

Table of Contents

Random Facts About London

Roman London

Saxon and Viking London: 802-1066

Medieval London: 1066-1485

Tudor and Elizabethan London: 1485-1603

Stuart London: 1603-1714

Georgian and Regency London: 1714-1837

Victorian London: 1837-1901

Edwardian and early Twentieth-century London

Post-war London: the rebirth of the City

Royal London

The City of London

Parliament, Power and Politics

The River Thames

Crime and Punishment

Plague, Pestilence and Disease

The Streets of London

The World in London

London's Animals

Sport in London

London Transport

London Food

Mixed Media

Show Time

London's Best

Places I've been to in London

Exciting things I've done in London

Secret facts I've uncovered in London

Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

All eyes are on London for the 2012 summer Olympics, but no matter when they visit, travelers always need a good guidebook. Jones and Lewis (coauthors, London Adventure Walks for Families) have written another kid-accessible guide to London that is a treat for the whole family. This small volume is packed with history, and the authors provide hints about little-known destinations, explanations of many of the mysteries and quirks of London, and even a recipe or two. Readers learn how the postcodes of London, devised to reduce the confusion caused by the number of streets with the same names, define the personality of each district. Biographies of medieval notables Chaucer and Caxton, the lost rivers of London, and football club fan chants are among the unusual topics covered. VERDICT With its colorful, fun look and appealing illustrations, this guidebook is thoroughly enjoyable, even for someone who knows London well. Highly recommended for all travelers, whether in an armchair or on the ground.

Library Journal

Gr 4 Up—With Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee in full swing, and the Summer Olympics fast approaching, London is the place to be in 2012. Most visitors will be familiar with red phone boxes, the Houses of Parliament, and Trafalgar Square, but may not know that the iconic phone booth design was the result of a competition, that Big Ben is the name of the bell, not the clock, and that the lions at the base of Nelson's Column were modeled on the King of Sardinia's lion. Nor will they necessarily be aware of the number of common expressions that have roots in the history or traditions of life in the city: "box office," "on the wagon," "big wigs," "exchequer." This volume is not so much a guidebook as it is a factoid head-rush. The authors have done an admirable job of organizing an astounding amount of trivia, history, and minutiae. After starting with a brief chapter of random facts, the book is arranged by historical periods, from Roman London up to postwar London. It's unfortunate that there isn't a chapter about millennial and 21st-century London (there is a huge difference between London of the 1950s and the Cool Britannia 1990s), but this is a minor quibble. The book is further divided by areas of interest: "Royal London," "Crime and Punishment," "Show Time," etc. The final chapter, "London's Best," is one last chance to itemize the absolute "must see" locations. The book is illustrated with childlike drawings that add to its eclectic charm. The index is useful but almost too scholarly for such an ephemeral title. A highly entertaining way to encounter a most extraordinary city.—Kara Schaff Dean, Walpole Public Library, MA

School Library Journal