Murray's Modern London 1860 : A Visitor's Guide (Facsimile ed)

Although essentially a guide for visitors, this book is also a good read containing descriptions of pretty well everything a tourist might wish to know if they were visiting London a century and a half ago.

Containing researched facts and statistics, wander around the streets, markets and fine buildings being told who lived where, what treasures may be found within their homes, the volume of trade conducted in the markets, the number of patients in the hospitals and the courses available at universities and colleges.

Visit prisons, exhibitions, clubs and societies, residences of the famous, sites associated with remarkable events and witness the diverse commodities passing through the docks.

Much can also be learned about how daily life in 1860 differed from today.

Some things were much better such as the workings of the Post Office, "letters posted before six in the evening would be delivered the same evening within three miles".

But much was worse such as the appalling sewage arrange, "the daily discharge into the Thames would cover 36 acres to a depth of six foot" but already there was an understanding of pollution and sewage works were planned. This is a book for anyone wishing to explore London during the first half of Victoria's reign.