The London Rich: The Creation of a Great City, from 1666 to the Present

London was destroyed in September 1666 by the Great Fire, but out of the ashes rose a glittering new city. Thorold, a London businessman and amateur historian, tells the story of the new London from the perspective of the elite, who spread out geographically after the fire to escape the density and pollution of the city. At its best, this book details not only where the rich moved (Jews headed to Hampstead and court sycophants settled in Belgravia), but what life in the new houses was like. For instance, Thorold introduces readers to Mary Coke, a widow who lived in north Kensington in the late 1700s; she intended Notting Hill House to be a refuge from the cruel world, but it became instead an endless headache (her neighbor snubbed her, her gardener was a lush and her servants spent more time feasting than working). But these droll snapshots of the lives of London's rich and famous are few and far between. Too often this book is merely a list of who lived where: in only one paragraph on ""migration to the North,"" for example, we learn that, among others, The Holmes, a house built in 1818, was occupied by the Burton family, that St John's Lodge ""was tenanted"" by a Jewish banker, that vintner George Bishop owned South Villa and that MP and scientist George Bellas Greenough built Grove House. Die-hard Anglophiles will love learning about the development of particular streets and neighborhoods, but for others, Thorold never tells enough about either the residents or the houses to generate high interest. Reading this is more like studying a phone book than enjoying a society column. Still, color plates as well as b&w illustrations of interiors and exteriors of the houses discussed make this an attractive package for those interested in architecture or interior design. (Oct.)