Amberley imprint: 2705 books

Before the emergence of the steam railway rocketed the likes of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson – the great Victorian engineers – into the limelight, there was a ‘Colossus’ who dominated the engineering scene and laid the foundations for what was to follow. Thomas Telford built...

This fourth volume of illustrated Bradshaw's Guides takes the traveller from the London Bridge and Victoria stations via the former South Eastern Railway to the 'watering places' of the coast of Kent. Along the way the train calls in at a number of locations including Greenwich, Woolwich, Gravesend,...

King's Cross station was the terminus of the Great Northern Railway and was opened in 1852. Designed by Lewis Cubitt, it replaced a temporary station at Maiden Lane. It established itself as the London terminus of what is now known as the East Coast Main Line to Edinburgh. From 1862, at 10 a.m. every...

1915, the second year of the Great War, was to see the failure of the Dardanelles landings and the sinking of the Lusitania, shown below, with the loss of 1,198 people, as well as the first bombing of mainland Britain by Zeppelin and the entry of Italy into the war. Huge battles would be fought at...

1941 At the beginning of the year, Britain stood alone against Germany and Italy. The war in Africa dominated the headlines, with huge swathes of the North African desert changing hands continually. At sea, Germany’s Bismarck sank HMS Hood, but was soon sunk herself, while Fortress Britain endured...

Famed for his railway hand-books - recently rediscovered through Michael Portillo's television series on the great railway journeys - George Bradshaw also produced this Hand Book to London, which was originally published in 1862. Presented as a series of walks within central London, as well as a trip...

With its famous hotel, St Pancras is now the London terminus of the Eurostar, with a high speed rail link to the Kent coast and the Channel Tunnel. But it was not always so. Once nearly redundant and threatened with demolition, the station was the London terminus of the Midland Railway, and could...

1944 saw the largest seaborne invasion ever staged in Operation Overlord. The Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, opened the way for the thrust into the occupied countries of northern Europe, in particular France, with the Allies liberating Paris in August. This was the...

Bournemouth Through Time is a wonderful collection of old and new photographs of Bournemouth. The older images are printed alongside a contemporary full colour photograph, which illustrates the same scene. The contrasting illustrations show how the area has changed and developed during the last 100...

1917, the fourth year of the Great War, saw another year in the trenches for millions of troops mobilised in Europe. Apart from short patrols in the North Sea, the ships of the Royal Navy and Germany’s imperial navy remained in port. However, the enemy submarines were in operation intensively. In...

Central London is encircled by some of the finest railway architecture in the world. The great termini were built to impress, they were bold exclamation marks at the end of the line, announcing the railway’s and the passenger’s arrival in the capital. As Sir John Betjeman once said, ‘If the...

Paddington is part of a hub of underground stations and is home to the world's most famous bear, named after the station. Revel in the selection of images of Paddington Through Time and see how Brunel's masterpiece has stood the test of time. 'I am going to design, in a great hurry, and I believe...

Cornwall marks the extreme south-western extent of Brunel’s kingdom and the county is surprisingly rich in his works. The Royal Albert Bridge, which crosses the River Tamar, connected the broad gauge network with the Cornwall and West Cornwall railways – both engineered by Brunel – to take the...

The first Waterloo Station opened in 1848 and the current building was completed in 1922, after a huge rebuilding programme started in 1899. Catering for suburban traffic, Waterloo is also the major station for trains to Southampton, Portsmouth and Bournemouth and once served the famous boat trains....