Brian Girling: 9 books

South Kensington is located in the prosperous Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. It is home to some of the most significant museums in London, including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and Baden-Powell House. Neighbouring the equally affluent...

This compilation of photographs explores two of west central London's historic areas through rare images, many unseen in over a century, alongside modern photographs for comparison. Bloomsbury is renowned for its fine architecture, rich cultural heritage, universities and specialist hospitals while...

This fascinating compilation of early London photographs takes us on a tour of one of the world's greatest cities, but rather than picturing the historic scenes dating back to the 1850s in the traditional sepia and black and white monochrome, new realism is given here by reproducing the images in...

With its trendy bars, quirky shops and historic restaurants, Soho is an exciting cosmopolitan slice of London's entertainments district. It is also Theatreland with more cinemas and historic theatres than anywhere. Featuring rare photographs from the Victorian era to the 1960s with comparison images...

Belgravia and Knightsbridge represent the wealthy face of modern London, but it was not always that way. Belgravia did not exist before the 1820s, its site a bleak expanse of open countryside. Knightsbridge was a straggling settlement along the main highway from the west. Proximity to London and the...

This book takes a photographic tour of one of the City of Westminster's more distinctive areas, and with a wealth of archive images set alongside comparison photographs from the present day shows how old neighbourhoods have evolved through the decades. Along the way are the carefully preserved Victorian...

Featuring rare and historic photographs, this book takes a pictorial look at a lost world of Edwardian streets, shops, cinemas and canals in West London’s Paddington. Today the area is part of the City of Westminster and is a centre for transport, with the famous Paddington railway station, designed...

The wealthy riverside neighbourhood of Chelsea, situated in the centre of the capital, began as a Saxon village outside of London town. Although its population had grown to 3,000 by 1694, Chelsea was still considered rural, which was part of its attraction as a fashionable destination for the rich....

Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today. Until 1686, the May Fair was held in Haymarket, and after 1764, it moved to Fair Field in Bow because the well-to-do residents of the area felt the fair lowered the tone of the neighbourhood....