Survey of London: Battersea

 “St Mary’s rightly figures on the cover of a marvellous new book. Or rather, two books, for these are volumes 49 and 50 of the monumental Survey of London, which began 113 years ago with the Parish of Bromley by Bow. To have reached Volume 50 is astonishing. The editors, Andrew Saint and Colin Thom, should be made dukes, at the least.”—Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph,

~Christopher Howse, The Daily Telegraph

“It is, perhaps, no coincidence that this magnificent achievement is not the work of an inchoate, overpaid bureaucracy (it would have expired years ago if it were), but of a clever, small, scholarly team of never more than six researcher-writers and a couple of draughtsmen, now under the inspired editorship of Andrew Saint. Long may they flourish!”—John Martin Robinson, Country Life ~John Martin Robinson, Country Life

‘The survey is an institution unique in the urban world. Nothing like it has ever been attempted elsewhere and perhaps could never be. It is both testimony to and commemoration of London’s patchwork complexity where the distinctive character of small neighbourhoods has defined in large part the living history of the city. . .These are beautiful books, a fit setting for the scholarship that has gone into them.’—Jerry White, Times Literary Supplement ~Jerry WHite, Times Literary Supplement