Welcome to Guides and Tourism Books | Londons Secrets

The inspiration for this book was the advice of the great Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), who was something of an expert on London, to his friend and biographer James Boswell on the occasion of his trip to London in the 18th century, to ‘survey its innumerable little lane and courts’. In the 21st century these are less numerous than in Dr Johnson’s time, so we’ve extended his brief to include alleys, squares and yards, along with a number of mews, roads, streets and gardens.

              Entries range from ancient history-soaked alleys and lanes in the City – where you half expect to bump into one of Charles Dickens’s characters or even the author himself – to smart, pastel-painted mews in Chelsea originally built to house horses and carriages (now home to multi-millionaires); and from unexpected oases of Georgian elegance in traffi c-plagued central London to tranquil Kensington squares, where you can hear birdsong and almost smell the scent of money on the breeze.