Muirhead's London guide, 1928

Eric sez, "This PDF contains the front cover and a transcription of the first thirty pages from 'Muirhead's Short Guide to London,' published 1928."

SUNDAY is longer so dull as it used to be for the stranger in London. The Sunday quiet affords an excellent opportunity for studying the buildings and topography of the City (p. 85), and the explorer may pay a morning visit to the animated Jews’ market in and about Middlesex St. (p. 140; beware of pickpockets). At the opposite end of the town takes place the ‘Church Parade’ in Hyde Park (p. 48). On Sun. afternoons many museums and galleries are open, bands play in several of the parks, offering a counter- attraction to the Sunday orators (comp. p. 48), and coaches and excursion brakes ply to resorts in the environs. The cinemas (p. xxxvi) are open from 6 p.m.; concerts are frequent; and many hotels and restaurants provide musical and other entertainments at dinner. Sunday is a favourite day for boating-excursions on the Upper Thames (p. 233), and, though the custom of ‘week-ending’ in the country draws off a number of Londoners, Sunday evening is popular for dinners and other social gatherings.

PDF Link (Thanks, Eric!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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FunGuyFromYuggoth

It was a pleasant surprise to see this on BoingBoing. The host site is http://www.yog-sothoth.com and is definitely worth a visit if you’re interested in exploring roleplaying games set in the 1920s and 1930s.
Dave Rattigan

Hmm, I have a similar volume from the same era. I shall have to dig it out.

Btw, the best place in London to go on a Sunday is Speakers Corner, at Hyde Park. Great fun to hear people both weird and wonderful, representing every conceivable religion and philosophy, in animated argument. One place I never miss if I’m down that way.
dave hutchinson

That’s rather charming, isn’t it? For anyone who’s interested in this sort of stuff I can recommend HV Morton’s books about London, written from about the mid-20s to the mid-30s, and which I’m staggered to discover after looking him up are back in print. (I found all mine in second-handd bookshops.) They’re like guidebooks to a lost world.
Anonymous

Very nice, but why not simply photocopy and scan it?
Dave Rattigan

Oh, I see the writer does actually allude to Speakers Corner as “the Sunday orators”.
Beschizza

Diligently and sincerely trying to explore London with ancient guides like that is a great game. It’s like going on a vacation in a Peter Ackroyd novel.
jfdonohoe

I know its boringly typical to compare prices from these guides to contemporary times but to call the United states was Â£15-Â£18 for 3 min. while the cost to rent “The most luxurious and expensive quarters are found in St. James and the streets of Piccadilly (from Â£2 or Â£3 per week upwards)”

Amazing.
Anonymous

One of the charms of books from 1928 is professional typesetting. This transcript, while interesting, could benefit from the eye of someone serious about book production.