Black plaques London: memorials to misadventure

Black Plaques are not to be found proudly mounted on a wall - and for good reason.

What with their commemoration of a brutal execution outside Westminster Abbey, the selling of sex toys in St James's Park, and an intruder at Buckingham Palace with Royal undergarments stuffed down his trousers, this is not the sort of historical subject matter authorities choose to grace a building's façade or depict on a visitor information board.

In fact, many people might hope such indecorous and inconvenient episodes remain quietly overlooked.

But this book jogs such artful lapses of memory at 150 locations across London.